diff --git a/src/ankisyncd/sync_app.py b/src/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
index 1ecace3..2147232 100644
--- a/src/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
+++ b/src/ankisyncd/sync_app.py
@@ -62,11 +62,12 @@ class SyncCollectionHandler(Syncer):
         note = {"alpha": 0, "beta": 0, "rc": 0}
         client, version, platform = cv.split(',')
 
-        for name in note.keys():
-            if name in version:
-                vs = version.split(name)
-                version = vs[0]
-                note[name] = int(vs[-1])
+        if 'arch' not in version:
+            for name in note.keys():
+                if name in version:
+                    vs = version.split(name)
+                    version = vs[0]
+                    note[name] = int(vs[-1])
 
         # convert the version string, ignoring non-numeric suffixes like in beta versions of Anki
         version_nosuffix = re.sub(r'[^0-9.].*$', '', version)
diff --git a/tests/test_sync_app.py b/tests/test_sync_app.py
index d49adec..3147daf 100644
--- a/tests/test_sync_app.py
+++ b/tests/test_sync_app.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class SyncCollectionHandlerTest(CollectionTestBase):
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.0', 'lin::')),
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.6-beta2', 'lin::')),
             ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.9 (dev)', 'lin::')),
+            ','.join(('ankidesktop', '2.1.26 (arch-linux-2.1.26-1)', 'lin:arch:')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.2.3', '')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.3alpha4', '')),
             ','.join(('ankidroid', '2.3alpha5', '')),