diff --git a/anki_ocr/api.py b/anki_ocr/api.py
index 3f15a6a..920fa9f 100644
--- a/anki_ocr/api.py
+++ b/anki_ocr/api.py
@@ -218,12 +218,12 @@ def add_imgdata_to_note(self, method="tooltip"):
 class NotesQuery:
     """ Represents a collection of Notes from a query of the Collection db"""
     col: Collection
-    query: str = ""
+    note_ids: List[int]
     notes: List[OCRNote] = None
     notes_to_process: List[OCRNote] = None
 
     def __post_init__(self):
-        self.notes = [OCRNote(note_id=nid, col=self.col) for nid in self.col.findNotes(query=self.query)]
+        self.notes = [OCRNote(note_id=nid, col=self.col) for nid in self.note_ids]
 
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.notes)
diff --git a/anki_ocr/ocr.py b/anki_ocr/ocr.py
index 73eea43..724a3d6 100644
--- a/anki_ocr/ocr.py
+++ b/anki_ocr/ocr.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     from anki.storage import Collection
 
 from .api import OCRNote, NotesQuery, OCRImage
-from .utils import batch, format_note_id_query
+from .utils import batch
 
 ANKI_ENV = "python" not in Path(sys.executable).stem
 
@@ -260,12 +260,12 @@ def _ocr_img(img_pth: Union[Path, str, PathLike], num_threads: int, languages: L
         return pytesseract.image_to_string(str(img_pth), lang="+".join(languages or ["eng"]),
                                            config=tessdata_config)
 
-    def run_ocr_on_query(self, query: str) -> NotesQuery:
+    def run_ocr_on_query(self, note_ids: List[int]) -> NotesQuery:
         """ Main method for the ocr class. Runs OCR on a sequence of notes returned from a collection query.
 
-        :param query: Query to collection, see https://docs.ankiweb.net/#/searching for more info.
+        :param note_ids: Note id's to process
         """
-        notes_query = NotesQuery(col=self.col, query=query)
+        notes_query = NotesQuery(col=self.col, note_ids=note_ids)
         # self.col.modSchema(check=True)
         if self.use_batching:
             logger.info(f"Processing {len(notes_query)} notes with _ocr_batch_process() ...")
@@ -301,8 +301,7 @@ def run_ocr_on_notes(self, note_ids: List[int]) -> NotesQuery:
         :param note_ids: List of note ids
         """
         # self.col.modSchema(check=True)
-        query_str = format_note_id_query(note_ids=note_ids)
-        notes_query = self.run_ocr_on_query(query=query_str)
+        notes_query = self.run_ocr_on_query(note_ids=note_ids)
         return notes_query
 
     def remove_ocr_on_notes(self, note_ids: List[int]):
@@ -311,7 +310,7 @@ def remove_ocr_on_notes(self, note_ids: List[int]):
         :param note_ids: List of note ids
         """
         # self.col.modSchema(check=True)
-        query_notes = NotesQuery(col=self.col, query=format_note_id_query(note_ids))
+        query_notes = NotesQuery(col=self.col, note_ids=note_ids)
         for note in query_notes:
             note.remove_OCR_text()
         self.col.reset()
@@ -325,5 +324,3 @@ def path_to_tesseract() -> str:
 
         platform_name = platform.system()  # E.g. 'Windows'
         return exec_data[platform_name]
-
-
diff --git a/anki_ocr/utils.py b/anki_ocr/utils.py
index 779cb4d..033669e 100644
--- a/anki_ocr/utils.py
+++ b/anki_ocr/utils.py
@@ -32,11 +32,6 @@ def create_ocr_logger():
     return ocr_logger
 
 
-def format_note_id_query(note_ids: List[int]) -> str:
-    """Generates an anki db query string from a list of note ids"""
-    return f"{' OR '.join([f'nid:{nid}' for nid in note_ids])}"
-
-
 def batch(it: Iterable, batch_size: int):
     """Batches an Iterable into batches of at most batch_size in length"""
     it = iter(it)
diff --git a/tests/test_ocr.py b/tests/test_ocr.py
index b99d036..cce6835 100644
--- a/tests/test_ocr.py
+++ b/tests/test_ocr.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 from anki_ocr.api import NotesQuery
 from anki_ocr.ocr import OCR
-from anki_ocr.utils import format_note_id_query
 
 TESTDATA_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / "testdata"
 TEMPLATE_COLLECTION_PTH = TESTDATA_DIR / "test_collection_template" / "collection.anki2"
@@ -65,7 +64,8 @@ def test_gen_queryimages(self, tmpdir):
         col_dir = tmpdir.mkdir("collection")
         test_col = gen_test_collection(col_dir)
         ocr = OCR(col=test_col)
-        q_images = NotesQuery(col=test_col, query="")
+        all_note_ids = ocr.col.db.list("select * from notes")
+        q_images = NotesQuery(col=test_col, note_ids=all_note_ids)
         print(q_images)
 
     def test_query_noteids(self, tmpdir):
@@ -73,8 +73,7 @@ def test_query_noteids(self, tmpdir):
         test_col = gen_test_collection(col_dir)
         ocr = OCR(col=test_col)
         note_ids = [1601851621708, 1601851571572]
-        query = format_note_id_query(note_ids)
-        q_images = NotesQuery(col=test_col, query=query)
+        q_images = NotesQuery(col=test_col, note_ids=note_ids)
         assert len(q_images.notes) == 2
         for note in q_images.notes:
             assert note.note_id in note_ids
@@ -83,7 +82,8 @@ def test_run_ocr_on_collection(self, tmpdir):
         col_dir = tmpdir.mkdir("collection")
         test_col = gen_test_collection(col_dir)
         ocr = OCR(col=test_col)
-        ocr.run_ocr_on_query(query="")
+        all_note_ids = ocr.col.db.list("select * from notes")
+        ocr.run_ocr_on_query(note_ids=all_note_ids)
 
     def test_run_ocr_on_notes_batched_multithreaded(self, tmpdir):
         col_dir = tmpdir.mkdir("collection")
diff --git a/tests/test_util.py b/tests/test_util.py
index 61d6bd1..5871ed8 100644
--- a/tests/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/test_util.py
@@ -1,10 +1 @@
 import pytest
-from anki_ocr.utils import format_note_id_query
-NOTE_ID_QUERY_EXPECTED = [
-    ([1601851621708, 1601851571572], "nid:1601851621708 OR nid:1601851571572"),
-    ([1601851621708], "nid:1601851621708")
-]
-@pytest.mark.parametrize(["note_ids", "expected"], NOTE_ID_QUERY_EXPECTED)
-def test_format_note_id_query(note_ids, expected):
-    output = format_note_id_query(note_ids=note_ids)
-    assert output == expected