diff --git a/ankisyncd/sync_app.py b/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
index fb1e435..043d7f7 100644
--- a/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
+++ b/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
@@ -61,11 +61,12 @@ class SyncCollectionHandler(anki.sync.Syncer):
         for name in note.keys():
             if name in version:
                 vs = version.split(name)
-                # remove potential suffix separators like "-" in "2.1.6-beta2"
-                version = re.sub("[^0-9]$", "", vs[0])
+                version = vs[0]
                 note[name] = int(vs[-1])
 
-        version_int = [int(x) for x in version.split('.')]
+        # convert the version string, ignoring non-numeric suffixes like in beta versions of Anki
+        version_nosuffix = re.sub(r'[^0-9.].*$', '', version)
+        version_int = [int(x) for x in version_nosuffix.split('.')]
 
         if client == 'ankidesktop':
             return version_int < [2, 0, 27]
diff --git a/tests/test_sync_app.py b/tests/test_sync_app.py
index 19e094c..1877863 100644
--- a/tests/test_sync_app.py
+++ b/tests/test_sync_app.py
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ class SyncCollectionHandlerTest(CollectionTestBase):
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.0.32', 'lin::')),
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.0', 'lin::')),
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.6-beta2', 'lin::')),
+            ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.9 (dev)', 'lin::')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.2.3', '')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.3alpha4', '')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.3alpha5', '')),