Before when I started studying a new word I would get it every day with a new study vector until it got to level 2. Lately I just get it once or twice and then it stops appearing. I have had hardly any words reach level 2 this week. When I look more closely at the words stuck in level 1, there will often be one study vector at 38% while the others are at 0%.
I've also noticed that first quizzes for all-but-one random vector of newly learned words tend to be scheduled further into the future (up to 30 days into the future for the text-based vectors, and 42 days for listening; maybe favoring the text-based vectors I have on enabled on the schedule I learn new terms from) than I'm used to. For me, the timing coincided with unchecking the "When setting custom mastery levels, don't add slight randomness to values" checkbox in account settings, so I assumed this is part of that randomization. If this setting is also unchecked for you, you might try checking what happens if you enable it again; it would only affect terms learned after that.
For example, I currently have 41 terms with Meaning→kanji at mastery level 1; previously, all 41 would become available for review the day after their word was first learned, but now they're spread out like this:
In principle, I'm ambivalent towards this: it might be nice to spread out vector reviews of the same term a bit, and the review load will eventually (like, after a month of this) balance out with enough old mastery 1 terms becoming eligible for review to compensate for the delayed new terms. On the other hand, this gives like a month of inertia to review load, so one might realize too late they're learning too many new terms for comfort; cutting back on new terms would then also take a month to have full effect on review load (vs about 4-8 days in the "vectors immediately available for review, stop learning new terms, review one vector daily, get things right" setting).
Thank you for your thorough answer. I have always kept that setting at its default of on, so it can't be that. I agree that an extra day or so between each vector could be good, but this is too much.
> I have always kept that setting at its default of on, so it can't be that.
Yeah, looks like a coincidence in timing. I still get the same jitter in vector scheduling for new terms when reenabling the option, so it's probably unrelated.
> Are you using the new holiday system?
No.
For me, here is how a few recently learned terms were scheduled, leading to the same pattern of favoring one vector and postponing the others for a while:
╭────────────┬─────┬─────────┬─────────────────┬───────────────────╮
│ next_quiz │ gap │ mastery │ vector │ term │
╞════════════╪═════╪═════════╪═════════════════╪═══════════════════╡
│ 2026-08-10 │ 4 │ 3 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 及ぼす / およぼす │
│ 2026-08-21 │ 15 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 及ぼす / およぼす │
│ 2026-08-29 │ 23 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 及ぼす / およぼす │
│ 2026-09-10 │ 35 │ 1 │ Listening │ 及ぼす / およぼす │
│ 2026-08-10 │ 1 │ 2 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 粗末 / そまつ │
│ 2026-08-13 │ 4 │ 1 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 粗末 / そまつ │
│ 2026-08-19 │ 10 │ 1 │ Listening │ 粗末 / そまつ │
│ 2026-09-02 │ 24 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 粗末 / そまつ │
│ 2026-08-12 │ 4 │ 3 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 行為 / こうい │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 6 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 行為 / こうい │
│ 2026-08-20 │ 12 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 行為 / こうい │
│ 2026-09-19 │ 42 │ 1 │ Listening │ 行為 / こうい │
│ 2026-08-27 │ 18 │ 4 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 金魚 / きんぎょ │
│ 2026-08-23 │ 14 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 金魚 / きんぎょ │
│ 2026-09-02 │ 24 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 金魚 / きんぎょ │
│ 2026-09-02 │ 24 │ 1 │ Listening │ 金魚 / きんぎょ │
╰────────────┴─────┴─────────┴─────────────────┴───────────────────╯
Thanks to both of you. I have no idea what is going on. I have a theory, but it's not backed up by the code. That makes me think that something is slipping by that I cannot see.
I added a bit of logging to both of your accounts in the area where I think the issue may be. This will only catch new issues, though.
In the meantime, with your permission, I will adjust each of your accounts so any level 1 (mastery 0%) vectors will be fixed to the near future. I can either drop them all tomorrow, or give you a spread of x days (say, spread out randomly across 3-4 days). Let me know.
> In the meantime, with your permission, I will adjust each of your accounts so any level 1 (mastery 0%) vectors will be fixed to the near future. I can either drop them all tomorrow, or give you a spread of x days (say, spread out randomly across 3-4 days). Let me know.
I'd prefer to leave it as-is until you find the cause and patch it (if appropriate) — otherwise, the symptoms will just repeat with any newly-learned terms between now and then. After that, rescheduling any level 1 vectors where the next review is more than 3 weeks away (just in case something got slung outrageously far into the future) to independent uniformly-distributed days within the next three weeks would be great. :)
In the meantime, here are some new terms learned on 2026-08-11 that you should hopefully have log data for (at spacing 0 for level 1, I'd expect them to be scheduled on 2026-08-11 or 2026-08-12):
╭────────────┬─────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────────╮
│ next_quiz │ lvl │ vector │ term │
╞════════════╪═════╪═════════════════╪═════════════════════╡
│ 2026-08-12 │ 2 │ Kanji > Kana │ 孫悟空 / そんごくう │
│ 2026-08-24 │ 1 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 孫悟空 / そんごくう │
│ 2026-09-09 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 孫悟空 / そんごくう │
│ 2026-08-12 │ 2 │ Kanji > Kana │ 悟る / さとる │
│ 2026-08-15 │ 1 │ Listening │ 悟る / さとる │
│ 2026-08-18 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 悟る / さとる │
│ 2026-08-24 │ 1 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 悟る / さとる │
╰────────────┴─────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────────╯
I found two things: one was a bug on new terms - this was probably in there from awhile ago, but due to the integration of the holiday system (even for those who do not use it), it became "active", if that makes sense.
I also found a very embarrassing mistake where I moved two lines of code from one spot to a spot a few lines up, but they broke up a multi-line assignment with =.
Combining those two, I am pretty sure we would see what we've been seeing.
I also added additional logging right along that problematic path so if it is still not working, I'll have more data to look at.
That did have an effect. For today's new terms, the scheduling looked like this:
╭────────────┬─────┬─────────────────┬───────────╮
│ next_quiz │ lvl │ vector │ term │
╞════════════╪═════╪═════════════════╪═══════════╡
│ 2026-08-13 │ 2 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 房 / ふさ │
│ 2026-08-16 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 房 / ふさ │
│ 2026-08-16 │ 1 │ Listening │ 房 / ふさ │
│ 2026-08-16 │ 1 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 房 / ふさ │
╰────────────┴─────┴─────────────────┴───────────╯
I'm showing one term because this pattern held for all terms learned today: all not-immediately-quizzed vectors were scheduled for 2026-08-16, i.e. exactly 4 days into the future. Coincidentally, there is no scheduling jitter at levels 2 and 3, so the pattern is relatively deterministic if you don't forget the term immediately: the same vector you got quizzed on while learning comes up tomorrow, then two days of rest with no reviews for the term, then a different vector, and then it's a random free-for-all.
I think this solves the long-stretch-of-no-reviews problem, but I'm not sure if the pattern is intended or a consequence of something not quite randomizing.
The debug data this time is fine-grained enough to see exactly what is happening. I have made one more change that I think should fit them in much closer (ideally, the next non-holiday day).
╭────────────┬─────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────╮
│ next_quiz │ lvl │ vector │ term │
╞════════════╪═════╪═════════════════╪═════════════════╡
│ 2026-08-14 │ 2 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 恨む / うらむ │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 恨む / うらむ │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 1 │ Listening │ 恨む / うらむ │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 1 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 恨む / うらむ │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 2 │ Meaning > Kanji │ 悔恨 / かいこん │
│ 2026-08-13 │ 1 │ Listening │ 悔恨 / かいこん │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 1 │ Kanji > Kana │ 悔恨 / かいこん │
│ 2026-08-14 │ 1 │ Kanji > Meaning │ 悔恨 / かいこん │
╰────────────┴─────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────╯
Everything got scheduled for tomorrow, except some Listening vectors that got scheduled for today (but weren't offered for review, which matches my Vector handling setting).
