Furigana missing in Anki? Start with one card

1. Display one Reading field with furigana

Add a Reading field to a separate test note type. On desktop, select a note in Browse, use Fields to manage its fields, and open Cards to edit the template. The labels vary with the interface language.

Put 学校[がっこう]で 日本語[にほんご]を 学[まな]びます。 into Reading. For an initial check, put only {{furigana:Reading}} on the front template and preview it. The readings should sit above 学校, 日本語 and 学. Prepare or check the bracketed readings yourself; the filter displays the readings already supplied.

2. Brackets still visible? Check the field and filter

{{Reading}} inserts the field’s contents directly. {{furigana:Reading}} interprets its word[reading] notation as above-word annotations. Put the filtered reference in the front or back template, and keep Japanese text with its bracketed readings in the field.

Reading is an example field name. Your deck might use Expression, Sentence or something else. Substitute its actual name, including the exact capitalization, and check that the selected note has content in that field. Use ordinary ASCII braces and a colon in the template reference.

3. Choose readings on the front or after Show Answer

For recall practice, use {{kanji:Reading}} on the front. On the back, place {{FrontSide}}, <hr id="answer"> and {{furigana:Reading}} in that order. You see the sentence without bracketed readings first and its furigana after revealing the answer. The example above supplies the full three-line back template.

For supported reading practice, put {{furigana:Reading}} on the front from the start. When adapting an existing deck, change the reference that displays its Japanese text rather than replacing the whole template. Keep audio, definitions and other working parts.

4. Keep each reading over its own word

Compare 学校[がっこう]で日本語[にほんご] with 学校[がっこう]で 日本語[にほんご]. The ordinary space before 日本語 marks where にほんご starts to apply. This boundary is easy to miss after a particle in a continuous Japanese sentence.

The complete example also uses を 学[まな]びます. Only 学 carries まな; びます stays in the sentence. Check the text segment before each bracket pair instead of putting a whole sentence’s readings into one final set of brackets.

5. Find the matching template on Android or iPhone

In AnkiDroid, open Cards at the bottom of the note editor, or use Manage note types from the deck picker. Select the type used by the affected note and inspect its front, back and styling. Save the existing contents before changing the field reference.

In AnkiMobile on iPhone or iPad, the study screen’s tools menu offers the Card Template action. You can also make the change on desktop and sync it to the phone. Preview both sides, then open a card in an actual review to check small-screen wrapping and the night theme.

6. Check reading size and hover-only display

Look for rt and ruby in Styling. As a starting point, try rt { font-size: 0.5em; } and adjust the preview. An existing rule may also set the size, so check which declaration applies. Long readings need horizontal room; increasing line height alone may leave the crowding unchanged.

Some templates hide rt and reveal it only on :hover. A mouse and a touchscreen do not provide the same interaction. For a readable baseline, use always-visible readings in the test template. If tapping a word also flips an iPhone card, inspect AnkiMobile’s Taps settings and turn off the action for that screen region before testing the template’s own touch control.

7. Confirm the note type, then sync both devices

Save and preview on the device you edited, sync it to AnkiWeb, and then sync the other device. Compare the same test note, including its contents, note type and both card sides. A deck can contain several note types with separate templates.

If sync asks for a full upload or download, stop to identify the device with the latest complete collection and back up both sides. A full download can overwrite local changes. Avoid repeated one-way sync attempts while you are still diagnosing a display issue.

8. Inspect pasted text and formatting in HTML view

Copying from a webpage or card preview can place ruby and rt HTML in a field, or leave kanji and readings mixed in one line. Inspect the field’s HTML view. The bracketed example here should remain text. When coloring 日本語[にほんご], avoid inserting formatting between 日本語 and [. Check the unformatted version before adding decoration.

An Anki forum report dated October 10, 2026 describes a specific Anki 26.09.3 issue on macOS: after pasting rendered ruby into another field, deleting a trailing character removed the whole word. A respondent reproduced it and edited the trailing content through HTML view. If the same thing happens, save the field contents and inspect a test note’s HTML, comparing the version and copying steps with the report.

Compare original text, parenthesized readings and copied ruby →

9. Once it displays, check the actual readings

Compare your card with 学校で日本語を学びます。 Keep its particles, okurigana and punctuation, then read がっこう, にほんご and まなびます in context. Verify names, place names and ambiguous words separately. The card displays the reading stored in its field.

For material taken from screenshots, check the recognized characters and reading order before preparing readings. Remove small printed furigana accidentally mixed into the extracted sentence. You can use NameFerry to view a short passage’s readings, check them, and manually prepare the bracketed text required by this Anki template.

Add furigana to Japanese passages →

Prepare Japanese text extracted from images →