I do love this app. I did like it when I could put large PDF’s in here. My favorite thing to do is have the book read to me via the read function (by dragging two fingers from the top of the screen, or by activating the read control via the Accessibility settings menu. Mainly because I have focus issues and I like following along, but also because I can listen and do other things as well. I like how the portion being read is highlighted and it scrolls as it’s reading. I would like to offer a suggestion that I think many will love, why not offer a book print and audio option so that it could do that via the app and I can listen on CarPlay. I know some authors read their own books for audio books and would love being able to buy a book that also offers the audio so I can follow along when I can and hear the author’s reading it to me. Recently using the read function has been glitchy and it’s been skipping parts, especially in the end of the chapters. I’m not sure if this is what other reviewers were talking about, but this is what I experience when using the read function.

9 months ago, River Mor

Scroll Reading Issues with iOS 16

Frustration with iOS 16 disfunction leaves me wondering if the upgrade was tested before being released. I agree with the previous reviewer and won’t re-address those same concerns. However, I will address the book mark and scroll reading issues. The slightest touch while scroll reading activates the red book mark which (because I’m reading) needs to be cleared. Sometimes touching the red bookmark is enough to clear it, but other times you have to open the Themes and Settings menu and remove the bookmark there as well. This seems to be more sensitive with iOS 16 than previous versions. Even more frustrating, though; when using the scroll reading feature near the end of a chapter the (scroll) screen jumps ahead - sometimes paragraphs ahead, sometimes pages ahead, sometimes to the end of the current chapter, or other times to the end of the book. Imagine trying to find where you were reading last when that happens. (An opportunity to use the search feature as long as you have the exact verbiage.) Anyway, to fix the jumping scroll issue I change from scroll to page turning or sometimes I have decreased the font size, and then sometimes I have to close the book because it won’t reload after a font size change. And since the pages are renumbered you can’t just go to your last page and continue reading. Please FIX this bug in the near future. Thank you.

1 year ago, shi hi an

Works, but still lots of bugs, and slowly degrading

I enjoy reading books with this app, but there are still a lot of glitches from my last review. 1: light reading books that come in volumes are still not stacking up for some reason. The author’s name hasn’t changed for the series, so the is no reason it can’t consolidate them to one group rather than have each book separated. 2: sometimes when the page, it goes to a blank page. I have to swipe a previous page or two and then go back to the said page. Lastly: both my iPhone 12 and iPad Air app crashes sometimes. Not too sure why this hasn’t been addressed, but it’s been years since the app came out. The more software continues to advance, it should reduce the problems, not create more. Would like to see my money’s worth purchasing books from this app be put to use on updating the app (REAL updates). It would be much appreciated. But I believe my words are being unheard. Some books I pre-ordered are not showing up. When I hit “View Item” it says that the said book is no longer available in this country or region. Mind the fact, that I waited over a month for the book and now I can’t read it. Not too sure if it’s due to technical issues or incompetent functions. All I know is that this app is getting worse and no one is fixing it. My advice to those looking at this app, keep what you got and find another iBook app. This was once at the top of it’s peak and now it’s falling fast.

9 months ago, SendingOutAnSOS

How dare you!

UPDATE: the more I use this updated version of Books the more I HATE it. The stupid little thing in the bottom righthand corner to control everything is the worst designed button in the history of screens. FIRE THE ENTIRE DESIGN TEAM WHO TOOK ONE OF APPLE’S BEST APPS AND TRASHED IT. Since 2010; I have but using iPads to read all of my books. The design, the layout, was absolutely stellar from the very beginning. The graphics of turning a page made the transition from reading a paper book to a virtual book seamless. But then 2022 came along with the release of the latest iOS for iPads. An apple, with its horrible wisdom decided to hand over this project to someone who obviously has never read a paper book. I am furious. As a loyal Apple user for over 25 years, I am seriously open to other providers not just for reading books; but I am ready to go back to paper books, giving up my Apple Watch for real watch, putting down my iPhone, and maybe even considering going with another type of cell phone that is not an apple. With your meals price increases for Apple services, I’ve already canceled those and I’m ready to give up everything that is Apple. Apples become too greedy without any consideration for its very loyal customers changing books it’s just the latest, possibly the straw that breaks many of our backs interest to taking any more from Apple. Yes I am upset. Yes, I have been loyal for many many years. Yes, I really may leave.

7 months ago, Nick_Wilde_403

Ruined by new update.

The most recent update has made this perhaps the most frustrating experience I've had yet while trying to read and annotate. The previous format made it easy to highlight, scroll between pages, add notes, clear highlight marks, find the index (a crazy concept now), and overall be able to hold my device while using the app. This recent update has made it feel more like I'm scrolling through my camera roll of screenshots that someone took of book pages than it actually feels like I'm attempting to read a formatted book. The highlighting feature is almost twice as twitchy and jumpy as before, and I find it even harder to remove highlighting that was done by mistake. Not only that, but instead of being able to tap a drop-down menu for the book's index, you now need to tap the screen three or four times before it registers that you don't want to just be in image mode, and that you'd actually like to access another menu. This menu, which was formerly easy to use and access, has been relegated to a very tiny and hard-to-find button in the bottom corner that doesn't always show up. In addition to that frustration, it's much harder to operate than the last menu. My best description of the new update is that they tried to fix something that wasn't really broken, and in doing so just made it worse.

1 year ago, scztt

Sync and library bugs make this almost unusable

Almost every time I launch the app, large chunks of my library are mysteriously missing - often including things I was actively reading fifteen minutes before. If I wait patiently with the app open for 3, 4, 5 minutes (no progress indicator or “syncing” message, you just have to trust it….) eventually things will slowly reappear and I’ll see library items again - though given how random the behavior is, I’m never quite sure if it’s all there. Sometimes the resync never happens and I have to do a ritual of settings changes, restarts, and reinstalls to get it back. The app will aggressively delete local copies of things (presumably to save space, but it’s not like ebooks are very large….), including very recently opened files, which has left me more than once with an empty library over a long flight where I was literally reading something on the train to the airport. Really hard to grok how an app could get basic workflows like “I want to continue reading the book I was reading yesterday” so wrong, but somehow this only seems to work like 25% of the time. The desktop is equally broken, though somehow in slightly different ways. Somehow this would be even slightly excusable if the app had any features at all, but tbh it’s a very basic and utilitarian reader app - it’s simple and would be great if it reliably did the three or four things it sets out to do.

6 months ago, ChristineFlip11

So many issues…

Even before the most recent changes I have been having issues with books in the same series saving all as separate books or books 1 and 3 together, 3, 4, and 5 separately, and then books 7-9 together. In the folders where a few are grouped together it prompts me to re-buy the books I ALREADY OWN. I contacted Apple for help with no resolution. As an avid reader with DOZENS of books it is extremely frustrating to have series separated like this! Now, after this new update, the entire app is no longer user friendly. The font, font sizes, spacing, etc. looks awful. Trying to access specific chapters, settings, bookmarks, and the search bar is super inconvenient. And as small as it seems, having to hit the X in the top right corner to get out of the book is just awful. Due to these changes, I am currently moving all of my favorite books and unfinished series over to the kindle app. It’s depressing to rebuy all of my books on another platform simply bc the developers made all of these changes, clearly without even seeking the opinions of those who use this app. It’s disappointing that Apple continues to destroy so many things that were the reason many of us chose to utilize their products. It has been 11.5 years since the loss of a pioneer whose work is slowly being deconstructed by those who took over his company.

2 months ago, Word Counter Reviewer

took away copy paste? no?

highlight is broken sometimes, my dudes and dudettes new bugs: scroll reading gets glitchy partway thru a book. cant scroll smoothly have to go back to paging. hilite suddenly broken after going back to paging, what? non english books needs to list the translator and the author. very important. similar for english to X translation. --- been using this app since it was new but 4 stars now because they took away ability to copy n' paste. i'm an academic, i want to take notes of interesting phrases, not steal your text. what ever happened to rip mix burn? another reviewer commented that prior copy paste added extra boilerplate copyright text. that was kind of annoying but at least it worked. other issue: if you accidentally touch the bottom page bar, you hyperspace jump to another page and there doesnt seem to be an undo. this is the latest ios15.x version, apparently 16 has gone off the rails? according to other reviewers. wait now i am confused. maybe the ios 16 version is missing copy paste, and ios 15 is ok.

8 months ago, Snap Alongs

Such a bad update iOS 16 (facepalm)

Have to agree with other reviewers re: iOS 16 update. Wow. App has had most of the useful features gutted and what’s left is a dysfunctional mess. For starters PLEASE bring back the page turning animation. If I wanted to feel like I’m readim* a spreadsheet at work, I’d read a spreadsheet at work. Next - I Tried to bold fonts to help with my bad eye issues and some portions of the book are in bold, some are not. It’s completely random, sometimes with the bold text stopping in the middle of a paragraph or even middle of a word. Previous books no longer open to my last location, but start at the beginning or random locations in the book, leaving me to flip flip flip flip flip flip back trying to find where I left off. Beyond frustrating. There is a quite long lag when opening a book, often leaving me to wonder if the app has crashed. Not a fan of all the functions relegated to the pop up menu tab instead of being readily available at the top of the screen since I am not happy when I have to have a scavenger hunt just to find basic functions. This was not an “update”. It was a huge step backwards. Someone at Apple really needs to take a course in ui functionality and user friendly interface design. Why change the great things about this app and replace it with this mess?

3 months ago, DD West

Absolutely the worst book app ever created

I’m at 100% battery. 6 gb of storage left. My phone won’t download any books, just tosses them into iCloud. They want you to pay for iCloud. They don’t care if you’re a student just trying to do some homework. Your phone won’t care if you’re not on low power mode and have a lot of storage. You will not be able to get a single assignment done unless you open the PDF in a different app. This “app” is GENUINELY a scam, it’s preventing me from getting courses done that I have paid real money for. I’ve spent 30 minutes now just trying to keep the book open to read the info I need. It just keeps on closing and crashing. I keep having to REDOWNLOAD the book EVERY time that happens. It is a scam. I will be sharing all of my screen recordings and screen shots with the DCA. This is quite literally preposterous. It’s become a normal school standard to have books on your tablets and phones and laptops, yet, these people are trying to FORCE their UNNECESSARY extra services on you. When you literally are just trying to get some work done. And even if it DOES finish downloading and SEEMS like it’s in your iCloud library, oh u wanna open your notes app? HAVE FUN SPENDING ANOTHER 5 MINUTES DOWNLOADING THE BOOK AGAIN???? LIKE WHAT???? YOUVE COST ME 30 MINUTES OF STRAIGHT TIME. STRESSFUL PAINFUL. DCA TIME ON GOD I AM GONNA GO CRAZY

10 months ago, Ruff mommy

From Classy to … this update is Horrible

I hate this update. I use iBooks daily. I read for hours. It is my thing. I dislike: -how sensitive the screen is so it bookmarks every darn thing. Annoying and waste of time. -I keep the app open all of the time and the words on the page jumble and the content has to reload so I have to close the app and restart. - There is no longer a toggle on the right that also indicates how far you are in the text - The overall layout and lack of highlight options. - I try to highlight a section and it is never accurate and I cannot select the small portion I want to remove from the highlighting. It chooses the entire section. -I don’t like the widget at the bottom opposed to a tool bar you can select. Again the layout is terrible. -This is not user friendly and I may stop using as I would prefer to have a book. -Feels more like an app and less like a hook and the original iBooks mimic the book experience jus in electronic form. This. UPDATE. IS. TERRIBLE. The app doesn’t even work well anymore. It is always crashing. Plus the percent complete does not work and doesn’t count your completed books correctly. It only goes to the next to last page, says complete, but doesn’t count in the graphic representation on your reading goals. PLEASE FIX THIS MESS!!!

9 months ago, RtfFan

Problems with 16.2 update.

I’m a fan of Apple Books. I moved from Kindle a while ago even with large set of books I’d marked up in that app. I got used to the iPadOS 16 interface. I appreciated fixing the sensitive bookmarking and poor handling of highlight colors in the first update. But the latest (16.2) has some new (or newly discovered) dealbreakers that have me considering going back to kindle. One is the handling of Notes. They appear to have been deprecated to a simple annotation of highlights… I can’t filter for Notes or find them in anyway (they’re not even identified in the list of highlights). I have to scroll through the book looking for them… crazy. (Also, as an aside, it would be nice if I could filter on highlights of specific color.) And the biggest issue that I just stumbled across is I can’t highlight some parts of the text (so far it has always been at the end of a paragraph… but not the end of all paragraphs). I actually can’t tell if the highlight is invisible or just not there… though when I select the same area and try to highlight it again I don’t see the “Remove” option, which makes me suspect it’s just not added. I feel like this is piling on, but man o man… what a horrible update!

12 months ago, Exkrimazen

From a 5 star to 1, please give back the skeuomorphic page turning animation

One of the biggest reasons why I love and use apple books is the realistic page turning animation. It adds a lot to the reading experience, it was everything for me. With the release of ios 16, I just found out after I updated and went to apple books that it was gone. Instead we got flat, plain, terrible flash cards for a page turning animation. I was heartbroken, I can’t even find alternatives that would give me the same feeling. I wish I could downgrade back to ios 15 just for that reason. Why do you have ruin such a perfect feature. There rest of the features you added including the screen orientation lock and themes were good, that’s fine, but why, why did you remove the skeuomorphic page turn. Another thing is the efficiency of the dark and light mode, it seems much slower now compared to ios 15, back then it would turn into dark mode when you’re in a dark surrounding but now it takes around 3 seconds for it to change, what’s up with that? Are all these just bugs or is this really all you have to give us? I still have hopes for you apple, please fix these, I beg of you.

2 months ago, DME_Ski

iOS 16.2 Killed the Books App

iOS 15 and Books NOT MESHING WELL iOS 15 has been a really buggy update whether it’s on my iPad or iPhone. It has terribly affected Books in the following ways: (1) The Book App keeps reloading my PDFs, etc. each time I open it. I’ve restarted my devices and it still does this. (2) Since the iOS 15 update (and the latest fixes to the iOS) not all of my stuff in Books is syncing properly across my devices and even my iMac. I regularly (like weekly or more often) back up my devices to the iCloud, so why is this happening? I’ve already lost a few PDFs because of this. (3) Since the latest iOS (and subsequent updates to it), I keep getting in the Books App that my iCloud Storage is Full. I pay for 50 GB of storage monthly and have only used up 8.8 GB to date. And that is the total of backing up all my Apple Devices, so I shouldn’t be seeing “Your iCloud Storage is Full”. In fact, I wonder if this iCloud Storage Full glitch is part of the problem why the stuff in my Books App is not syncing correctly. I’ve looked all of this up online and many others are having the same problems. People are warning others not to update yet to the iOS 15 update. I wish I would have listened. PLEASE PLEASE fix this. Thank you!

10 months ago, GuidryOWilson

Changes and challenges

The app previously would have had a 3.5 star review from me. Let me talk about why 3.5 stars in the last few years instead of 5 stars. Love the highlighter, change of font, layout etc. what is missing is a genre search. I mean it’s a book app. Plus it is also missing the ability to search within your library and to separate purchases from sample reads that are open to read 2-3 chapters. Next, is the issues with the “updated version glitch that brought the overall rating down to a 2. I open up a purchased book in my library. A notification pops up that lets me know I won’t be able to do any markings if i don’t update. It gives me the option of clicking “not now” or “update”. I choose update. It simply loops around to the same thing. So all of the previous lacking in the 3.5 star review exist, and now there is the glitch. I will probably go to Kindle or somewhere onc i get a few more bucks to purchase my library content there. That is if Apple does’t at the very minimum address the glitch. And no, i don’t have an antiquated device. I know people who won’t try Apple Books for self-publishing due to the issues with the platform.

6 months ago, Jharv32

No issues here.

I don’t understand the bad reviews, but also not sure what experiences that are causing such a low ranking score. It’s a clean, minimal, design. Book store is loaded with up to date releases, mind you they could do more to monitor the consistent pool of new titles. The ease of the book store and it’s navigational tools are on par with today’s apps. Being able to buy and download straight to your device is so much more convenient. Reading off of my iPad is absolutely stunning since most of my reading is done at night. Which I can agree that if you’re reading during the day you might not want to be out in a park with your phone or electronic device.., there’s not very many bugs to be weary of, it’s accessibility options are at the front of the apps design. It definitely has its pros and cons just like with any application. But that’s to go without saying. Definitely an under developed score. This app deserves a lot more attention than it’s been given.

10 months ago, SpotifyNeedsWork

There is no reason why this app should be this bad

Visually this app is one of the best ebook readers you can get for free. That’s why I’m confused how it is handled so poorly. I’m sure others have mentioned it, but this app deletes local files like a weed whacker. I have literally lost books WHILE I was actively reading them because the app seemed to think they were taking up space. There is no option to disable this feature. WHY? I manage the storage on the rest of my phone, why are relatively small ebook files so beyond the pale? This would be okay by me if not for the other issue that makes this app unusable. For whatever reason, and this is also a widely reported problem, I cannot download ebooks over my cellular data. I have incredibly fast unlimited service capable of downloading 4k video so it’s not a speed or memory issue. I can even download ebooks over poor wifi connections with only one or two bars. I have disabled and reenabled cell service for this app and my phone many times. It just. Doesn’t. Work. So congrats to apple for making a reading app that can’t fulfill its most basic function of allowing you to read on your own time. I recommend Marvin, despite its best features being paywalled.

9 months ago, Water chemgal

Biggest disappointment ever.

The very first iBook app was the best. It was very easy to set up categories of books and then drag the books to the bookshelf. The page turn feature was great as was the range of fonts and character sizes. Many supposed upgrades later and all those wonderful features are gone or so cheapened to be disgusting. If I want to read a book with two pages shown, the largest font size is so small to be almost impossible to read. Jump up a character size and you end up with a continuous scrolling book with a character size way too big. I could go on and on, but unless the developers are paying attention, it’s just a waste of time….. I do not like audible books, my mind doesn’t work that way. I fully understand that apple makes way more profits from audiobooks and music and games. But I have been a loyal apple customer for a long time. Print books are the best, but I would have to buy a bigger home. Please, please, please fix this! Otherwise I may have to start looking elsewhere. Kindle, which used to be the worst book app is now way ahead of apple. You are very close to being at the bottom of my book app reading choices.

3 months ago, Garbage847

Updated: Somebody had to justify their job

Updated 7/1/23: Hey everyone - I’m with you with the horrible update that destroyed this great app but I’d like to alert you that I - and you - are wasting our time. We’ve been writing these reviews for months now and the “I’m smarter than you” decision-makers have ignored us. So, my tip to you is to explore your local library’s ebooks, which is what I did when Apple destroyed this app. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars every year on buying books from Apple and now, since the update frustrated me so much, I found I can rent the same books from my library on their e-app for free. Apple doesn’t care about us and our whining about people who needed to justify their jobs destroying this app. Go out to your local library app, start renting your books for free, and wave bye-bye to the big brain who approved this “upgrade” - haha…. Previous review…..You know what I love? A lot of changes to an app that was great just to make changes, and those changes made it clunky and inefficient. Hey iBook C-suite, fire the lower-level manager who dreamed up / approved these latest changes tomorrow and reinstitute the great app you had before. Signed, someone who loves tech advancement and this is NOT it!!!

8 months ago, Redsox7jf

REVERT!!!!

The 16.2 update took my favorite book app and destroyed it. Check that, destroyed then set on fire, then uploaded the ashes to pose as a barely functional “update.” The control box is worthless. The bookmarks, worthless. The scrolling content bar, yup, worthless. Oh, and Themes and Settings? Worse than worthless. I used to be able to put my iPad to sleep at night then pick up the next day right on the page, sentence, and word were I left off. Now, you ask? The whole thing reboots to Books Home Screen, and may the fourth be with you if you forgot to bookmark. That’s if the app decides to save that bookmark. If not, it chooses a RANDOM LOCATION in the book! That’s not closing the app or turning the device off either, just hitting the lock button for the night. And, since I read a lot in bed at low light you might think the app would save its brightness or theme settings between sessions. Nope. Every night, every morning, every single time I have to readjust the settings. I could keep on, but I think I made my point. Apple, I couldn’t be more disappointed. So much so that I felt it necessary to leave my very first ever review for any app anywhere. For shame. Fix this or just REVERT!!!

4 months ago, Wildcat fan85

Three taps to bookmark a page. WHY????

Update: After my last review, I bought a Kindle and used it for every book. But Kindle didn’t have the last book I wanted to read, so I begrudgingly came back for one book. It’s worse than before! I have to tap a minimum of THREE TIMES to bookmark a page. This is not a great feature when you want to stop quickly to answer the phone or talk to someone. And good luck finding the exact spot to tap! It’s ludicrous! Kindle is not as good as this app used to be, but I’ll use it every time I can until they go back to making this app reader friendly. Older review: First book I’ve read on my phone since the new update and I am so frustrated. I use the scroll feature and I already have 93 accidental bookmarks in 23 pages. I could erase them, but what a waste of time that would be! The joy of reading is being ruined. Please go back to the old version and please test on actual readers before you make changes. I can’t wait to see what else they have ruined. I refuse to update my iPad because that is the only place I can read in peace — until I get my new Kindle for Christmas. This app is dead to me.

1 year ago, BigSis805

It used to be Love but now it’s Loathe

I used to really enjoy this app but over the years it seems there are more and more issues occurring with every update. Unfortunately, my biggest issue with this app besides it’s syncing issues is that I can no longer permanently delete books that I don’t want! If I had purchased a book or got one for free through the Apple Books store and I did not enjoy it I, once upon a time, could just deleted it. Now, I only have the option to “hide” the purchase but it is still essentially taking up storage space in my iCloud account and I hate that so much! It is like purchasing a physical book, only getting through chapter 3, deciding that I hate it but never being able to throw it away. Instead, I am required to keep it in my home where it takes up space in which I could be storing books I actually thoroughly enjoyed. Please, for the love of all that is decent in this world, from a dedicated book dragon, I implore you to, in the next update, make it possible to PERMANENTLY delete books again, NOT HIDE them but actually PERMANENTLY DELETE them!!!!

12 months ago, Jailynwilliams598#2018

My honest thoughts

Honestly, I love this book app it's great, especially for on-the-go reading and I don't have enough time to swipe a book. But these recent updates spoil the mood for this app. For example, I loved the feature where when you turn the pages it's a 3D animation of a page flip! I thought that was a cool and fun feature and it made reading on this app fun, but now the recent update got rid of that and it's just a slide. In my opinion, this makes the app bland and unfun to read from I'm sure others agree. There's also a problem with permanently deleting books that you don't want I think these features should be attended to! Also, the dark color for reading isn't dark anymore like It used to be, when I try to read it's still super bright cause it's more of a gray color than black. I just think you shouldn't change cool features that are fine where they are and instead fix other issues about the app.

9 months ago, cceebar

fixing something that isn’t broken?

HELLO APPLE - what the H with the 16 update? it’s a book app,not rocket science! i can’t read the book I just purchased b/c YOUR APP keeps returning to the start of the chapter I’ve already read. The app just suddenly goes back to the start of this chapter as I’m trying to read. It’s ridiculous. I will be asking for my money back and finding a new app! ZERO Stars Did anyone truly check with users of the apple book app before this upgrade to 16? With this upgrade, I have to tap more times to access any of the features or tools I use most (except now I have a bookmark for almost every page because of the way I scroll with my thumb and somehow trigger a bookmark). I usually use continuous scroll but why take away options for other experiences? why do I have to leave the app to adjust brightness? And now when sampling a book, I can’t read a few pages w/o a persistent banner telling me how much this next book is going to cost. It’s like test driving a car with the sticker price still pasted on the windshield. Disappointing. Again, this app is pathetic - no bug fixes yet? Too many likely.

9 months ago, BeegMama

Change from Air 2 to 10th Generation

I have been pleased with the upgrades over time when new features have been added. When I replaced my Air Pad 2 with a 10th Generation I was even more pleased with the ability to alter the theme when reading. There is one thing I miss. In fact, I never realized how much I used it until it was gone. That’s the line under the text with the dot that shows where you are in the book. In 10th generation you have to touch the screen for it to show you what “page of pages” you’re on. That would be fine if it stayed on, but it’s only there momentarily. Also, the dot could be used to advance or revisit areas in the book without having to start at a chapter. That was a handy way to maneuver within the book. These are such small things considering. Like I said, never realized how much I used it. I hope this functionality will be added back in 10th Generation in the future.

7 months ago, WillHerondaleIsHere

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

The Apple Books app use to be phenomenal. It had everything every other reading app had, but better. It was perfect. A few years ago I discovered I could use it as a way to listen to my books through “text to speech” and it was life changing. After updates, that changed. The feature stopped working, and instead would only read one or two pages and stop. A while later, it improved, but would constantly crash. And that’s where we are still now. There isn’t a day that that this app does not crash. I am constantly given a message saying that there is no book to read, and I’m constantly having to close and reopen the app. This app is virtually unusable. It’s trash. Also, the interface changed and it’s now ugly. You were able to scroll quickly using a level at the bottom, and also change pages very comfortably in a way that made you feel as if it was an actual book. I was never a Kindle app fan but now, that app is the one reigning superior. Which is a shame because upgrades are supposed to elevate the app, not ruin it.

8 months ago, froggydoggy127

It used to be a real app…

Guys be for real. Who on Earth green lighted this update 😭😭 the UI/UX is absolutely despicable now which is truly surprising coming from Apple. Instead of adding new features and improving existing features (like highlighting and annotation tools), the newest update seems to be trying to emulate the Great Instagram Bleaching of 16. All the character, accessibility, and customization is GONE. It’s just a sterile book viewer with terrible highlighting functionality now. Like come on I cannot even highlight passages in peace 😭 and this was a feature that was bad before. How did it get worse 😭 And the worst part of all is the PAGE TURN ANIMATION…. the sliding thing is NOT doing it. This is the BOOKS APP, not a poorly animated PowerPoint presentation I would have made in the 4th grade. Please bring back the page turning it was literally the only reason anyone used this app 😭 there is so much good that could have been done. Integration with other apps, with a book reviewing platform, maybe even social features and academic tools, but it somehow just got so bad that I can barely use it to read TEXTBOOKS 😭 pls fix 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

2 months ago, User_12738

Authors Page is Bugged

I’ve noticed a few authors whose books are not organized correctly. PhD Sam Harris’ books are about philosophy and spirituality but his page a book about a pig by an author also named Sam Harris. That second Sam Harris is a different guy. Robert Greene has the same issue with another person named Robert Greenes’ books bunched together on the same page. This issue is much worse with John Gray. Half of his books are on an authors page labeled John Gray, the other half are on John Grey (with an “e”). And not all of his books are available in audio form which is understandable. But why is the opposite true where only the audio version exists? And, again, someone else’s books are on both of John Gray’s/Grey's’ page who also goes by John Gray/Grey but is not the clinical psychologist. I really despise Amazons Audible app. Apple Books is so elegant especially in iOS 16. Pls fix this :)

7 months ago, 32270

Loved it until iOS 16

Not only are there bugs, and not only have they made page turns far less elegant (now it’s like a Droid), but Apple has actually taken away functionality with its latest update. I used to be able to look up the meaning of words instantly using search. Now it brings up multiple useless options making it hard to find the one I want. When I am reading a book with lots of characters, I like that I could plug a name into search and it would show me other places, including page numbers, where that character appeared. I could go directly to those other pages from search. Like many of my friends, I often read three books at once. This was such a wonderful feature because it helped get oriented quickly to the characters in the book again. In fact, when I showed this feature to one of my book clubs, several members converted from other platforms to Apple Books. Now plugging a name into search takes you to the web or Wikipedia, not to pages in the book. Completely useless. You really screwed up this one, Apple.

8 months ago, audrom3

Frozen in time

Books is freezing at the opening of a book or trying to select a word or phrase/sentence to look up or highlight. Then I have to hit the home button reopen Books and try again. This went on for a awhile. It’s becoming increasingly worse where after numerous tries the functions seem to work but then while reading and going to the next page it flips forward next chapter or back to beginning of the chapter and then freezes when I try to return. So again I have to press the home button and reopen only to find that the functions that appeared to be working are gone. I read philosophy texts on Books for different classes and group discussions. I can’t have my notes and highlights go missing. Now I have to go back to downloading to acrobat which now seems so easy to use - even the kindle app works better. I will try to connect with the app developer in the meantime because the last few updates noticeably decreased performance of this app that used to work so nicely. audrom1

3 months ago, kspaz8

Feels like Microsoft Took A Dump and Called it Books

This last update royally screwed up my library. I had 400+ pdfs and epubs in my library which I read on my iPad. Many of them are inexplicably gone, I had to track them down in my downloads folder, and now only 30 of them are left in the app through some sync / iCloud mishap. This means I’d have to go through every single file and “open with” Books to get back to where I was, a complete time sucker I’m not willing to go through. App used to be easy to use and wonderful, now it’s a horrible mess. Takes more steps to get to my highlights and notes?! Isn’t that a Microsoft philosophy? Why do something in one step when you can do it in four steps? syncing is buggy and app crashes constantly. Every book that I’ve already read shows up as NEW and the app can’t even handle loading the cover art. Very very very disappointed. I am constantly extolling the virtues of Apple products to other people, the unified architecture, the ease of use. I’d expect this fustercluck from Microsoft, but not from Apple. This is a dreadful step backward.

9 months ago, Daxas7

A reasonable rant with a touch of optimism

Greetings, Disgruntled, albeit, devoted user here. The sad reality about the new books app, after IOS16, is that we are at the mercy of the developers to correct an issue that is surely nestled at the bottom of their to-fix-list, considering all the other “fires” Apple is putting out after the update. As you can probably tell, everyone hates the app right now, or the the very least is putting up with it because 1) they are better human beings than me or 2) have not known what once was. I am not opposed to a lil’ shake up, I will say, because we all like shiny new things but, be weary of your ambitions for the road to H-E-double-hockey-sticks is paved with good intentions after all. Now, A lot of the changes are cool/useful, but the overall experience has been tarnished by the new and improved laggy interface, a broken double-tap book mark feature, and a lifeless page turn animation (RIP skeuomorphic aesthetic). I only complain because I know what the app can be, guys. One star for now but, I waggle a 5-star carrot that I’ll readily give once you right this wrong. Please.

5 months ago, Hope my Opinion Helps

IOS Update

I’m incredibly disappointed in the most recent update for iBooks. There is no navigation option other than using chapters (which using now requires an extra button inconveniently located in the corner of the screen), searching, using bookmarks, or flipping through pages directly. This makes any navigation to less specific points incredibly difficult. The ‘quicker’ method of exiting the book is actually far worse. Developers forget that having to click twice to exit your book as opposed to having a button always available means a proneness to accidental exits. I may be wrong, but the sensitivity of the page curling appears to have been turned up, and there is no way of controlling it. Someone else described it as like swiping on a dating app, and even with the curl setting, it feels this way. It feels distracting. All of the default font and sizing changes with every update are disruptive. The pages in old books are suddenly completely different. Changing settings changes them in every book (which has always been the case but I even more problematic now due to the inconvenience of the settings) despite the fact that the base settings for different books are different, meaning what works for one does not necessarily work for another. New options are ugly and inaccessible. The reality is, because it’s Apple, we are left with few other options. If you are able I’d encourage you to use other apps for reading.

9 months ago, tcap131

A Book is supposed to have pages that turn not scroll….

Seriously guys! I am an avid reader. I have purchased A LOT of books from Apple Books. And to change the Book scheme to a scroll? What the cuss? Book have pages, they’re meant to be turned. That was the beauty of an ebook, you still got the same feeling of reading an actual book. Go back to the beginning Apple Books. At least make it an option to turn pages or to scroll. To each their own. I can’t nor do I appreciate/like to scroll my books. I will go to Kindle, borrow my books from the library and continue “reading” my BOOKS as a book should be read. FIX THE PROBLEM so I can come back and read the books I’ve already purchased. So dissatisfied and disappointed in being forced into a new application, glitch. It is not pleasing to the eye for reading purposes. They are Books. Not articles to be read on a website or a magazine. BOOKS are meant to have pages that turn left to right not up and down.

7 months ago, kerry_17

I’m finding another app

I loved reading my books on here for years. The representation of page scrolling was incredible. I could keep the font size the same to compare lengths of books. The font size was perfect to have 2 pages on screen and still be able to read in bed without my glasses. It was the best I could’ve imagined. And then you ruined it. If everything else had changed except font sizes and page numbers, I would’ve been fine. But now I cannot compare a new books size to an old one to see how long it will take to read. I cannot read the two page view anymore because the font is so freaking small, and I hate the one page view. It scrolls like a presentation and doesn’t seem the SLIGHTEST like an actual book. Whoever designed this update has never used the app. Everything that helped the app function became terrible. I will now have to find a new app until these idiots realize their mistakes and go back to the old version. So thanks for ruining my favorite reading app and making my life so much more difficult.

8 months ago, gigirem521

Horrible Update

Ever since I updated the app to the 16.2, it has been the worst thing I could to the app. This new version constantly loses my position in the book and says that the content cannot properly load every time I go on it which means I have to constantly close the app just to be sent back to my original page. The font sizes constantly change without me doing anything and it changes where I am in the book. To now put bookmarks, it take several steps instead of one and the bar where you could scroll through the book is no longer at the bottom and the new style is very buggy and won’t let me slide all the way to the end. This update is the worst thing Apple has done to iBooks. This new version is not user friendly and constantly irritates me to no end. I also hate how the page does not turn but instead slides now. Please fix this, as an avid book reader this version is horrible and I prefer the old one. I hate how all the configurations are on the bottom corner and it makes it very awkward.

11 months ago, Andasola

Loathe the Update

Who did the background research for the latest update? They obviously don’t have the slightest “avid reader” love of the simple and elegant features the Books app had. No page turning (which was why I got an iPad in the first place and what I miss the most!!!), hideous redesign of the features, and the awful layout of the details tool bar. It crashes constantly and sometimes just starts moving quickly through pages, especially when I’m looking at a sample. Why give beautifully smooth features an update that makes them perform like a cheap, substandard copy? Wake up, Apple!! Not all updates need to redesign everything. Hopefully there is someone with common sense that will read these reviews and do the right thing! Do you guys even gather the important data of how we use the app instead of how much money we spend on it? Terrible decision, Apple. Especially when you step far away from the simplicity that made Books so beloved. Am terribly disappointed.

5 months ago, my lighthouse

Terrible update

I have downloaded a few books from the app and whilst reading them if I happen to fully close the app I lose where I am in the book as it goes back to the title page. The app won’t let me scroll to the page I was on and the content is at 0%, meaning the book is empty. I can usually shut the app down and reopen it again which takes me to the beginning of the book where I can either tap on the chapter I was in (if I happen to take note of where I was up to) or I have to scroll for pages and pages until I can figure out where I am. However, nothing has worked this time. (For the second time 😡) I am unable to open the book I was reading (and almost finished) at all. It is extremely frustrating. This is also the second time I won’t know the ending to a book I was enjoying which really reeks havoc for my OCD! Please fix this terrible update! Also, please add back the name and author of the book at the top when you tap on the screen. Sometimes I forget what I’m reading. And page numbers. Thank you.

7 months ago, Adgrand

Why is this better?

I liked Apple Books the way it was until this update. I liked the fact that I was turning a page. I liked my bookmarks at the top of the page not at the bottom. It seems like a meaningless change for the sake of whoever's whim. You could at least give the people who purchase thousands of dollars worth of products options to keep their devices the way they were happy with. Does Apple want to make people happy with their products? What kind of polling do you do? You are really falling behind in innovation also. You make minor changes to library and other small inconsequential things to Apps and make us think it’s the next best thing. AI is the next best thing and what are you all doing to integrate that into your devices ? Out iPhones could be so much more and Siri is so far behind. Home pod speaker is new but the technology inside is a joke. I didn’t need to say all this other stuff, I wanted to. Give people the power to make their devices the way they want them. Not what you think we want. Not that you care.

1 year ago, RKP81

Books App is unstable since the last three updates starting with iOS 15

I’ve been using iPad since the very first one came out and one of the apps I use most often is the Apple Books app. I have about 2000+ PDFs and a number of purchase books and ever since I updated iOS 15 on my iPad Pro I’ve had nothing but grief with his application. I’ve done all the normal things; run diagnostics, restarted, rebooted, deleted the app, factory reset, and made sure I was up to the most current revision etc… and it’s still extremely unstable. It randomly crashes, it randomly loses all the bookmarks, It randomly loses the most recent PDFs I’ve opened and that was made more difficult since the search program got hosed but seems to been recently fixed with the last update. All my subdirectories get randomly cleared of all books and I’m told that I have no books orPDFs. I contacted Apple for support and the support technician agreed that based on the symptoms that I described and the fact that I had gone through all the normal Debug procedures that it was most likely related to the latest update. They proceeded to connect me to the next level support and unfortunately they connected me to the wrong department. When I called back I had to rehash the whole explanation of my problem all over again and I still don’t have a satisfactory answer. It’s nice to have new features in the new iOS but I wish they would test the iOS better before they release it. Apple get your act together.

6 months ago, FamilyJules28

Why do they mess with perfection?

***UPDATE*** As of the 16.4 update, the page turn animation has been restored! Thank you Apple for listening to the people! I spend a large majority of my time using Apple Books. In fact, I never write reviews, but the changes with the new update are so upsetting. I appreciated the page turn animation and enjoyed the reading experience. I can’t stand to read on the new update. I’m so frustrated with it. If you haven’t already completed the update DON’T!! The only choices are the endless scroll or the disconnected page slide that completely takes me out of the story. Please return this feature!! Would not recommend the app as it sits with its update to anyone. In fact, if I could give less than one star I would. Prior to the update I would have given 5/5.

3 months ago, R from WA

Worst version yet.

This is the worst iteration of books yet. Clearly the developers are not readers. Nor could it have gone through any sort of usability testing by people who actually read books or it would have been soundly rejected. Just trying to get to the menu function is a huge frustration. The active region to tap appears to be somewhere in the middle of the page, but it takes several tries to find it...FAIL. Adding a bookmark went from a simple tap in the corner to being buried in a menu so it takes 2 or more taps just to set a bookmark...FAIL. Adding notes or highlights is relatively simple, editing or remove it them is not since the app frequently fails to display the appropriate options... FAIL. These issues are evident across all devices, and worse yet on older devices. The ONLY good thing in this version was the return of the page turn animation. The purpose of this app is to READ, not just sell more books! Do better!

10 months ago, cbwood2016

New User - Works Fine

I am a new Books user since I just purchased an iPad a few months ago. I am currently reading a free Jane Austin book (have not purchased an ebook yet). I have used other ebook apps (nook, Libby, etc) and this one is equally fine. I have yet to come across a stellar eReading application. I wish Apple would take advantage of its ecosystem and give users the ability to annotate on books with an Apple Pencil. In my opinion, it would really make their native app stand out over competitors, as I have not been able to find this feature in any eReader app, and my Apple Pencil sitting inches away from the eBook is yearning to be used. Instead, if I want to take notes I have to open a separate app as opposed to marking up the page. Adding a true freehand annotation feature would really make it a 4- or 5-star application.

9 months ago, 𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕞𝕔

Great app but…..

This app is really great b/c it has so many different audio books and regular books to read. I think this app is great also b/c when you are traveling, you can just pick any book to read so you don’t have to pack like 30 books. You can also listen to the audio books when you are trying to sleep. But this app is also annoying b/c it doesn’t have every book, which I don’t expect it to. This app can also be annoying when it makes you pay like $5, which kinda REALLY PISSES YOU OFF(sorry for the language). I also don’t know why everyone hates this app and gives it bad ratings. Everyone out there who rated this app bad, those bugs you talk about are all b/c of the device you are using, the device is prob just glitchy. Soooo yeah this is a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ app. Byeeeeeeeeeeeee! 😀😛😜😝😁😃

1 year ago, The little 1

Why the problems?!

What exactly is going on with you guys at Apple? I can’t even use my “books” app most of the time because it keeps loosing ALL of my files! I have over 2,000 files in my app and EVERY TIME I go to open it here lately, I am informed I have no files, along with helpful suggestions for books to purchase. I don’t want your books! I want to get into the files I that I have! I shouldn’t have to worry about where my files are when I open the app. You guys need to get this fixed! ASAP! Edit: as of todays date 5-6-22, I have been unable to read anything in my iBooks. Everything is gone but six books. I can’t even get it to except new downloads at this point. Since my first post, it tried to load my documents and it briefly showed I had over 3,000 documents in my iBooks. They were gone again within minutes. Now they are completely gone and I can’t get them on ANY device. It’s been four days. You guys need to fix this! It’s unacceptable that this is happening with no response it.

4 weeks ago, enj0yl!f3

Security Issues with Ratings & other problems

The ratings section of iBooks is severely compromised and the rating scale is worthless, in my opinion. At one point I felt comfortable purchasing books based on reader reviews but now it seems those reviews have been hacked and are being used to send cryptic messages. For example, one 5-star review is titled “I’m going out with” and the review states “Because of that we will not”. These types of messages continue for six 5-star reviews under various user names. No wonder many of my favorite authors have jumped to Kindle. To top it off, if you select App Support under iBooks in the App Store the link redirects you to Apple’s “Page Not Found” error page. What’s up with that?? Also, as others have already said, this most recent update is actually a downgrade in the functionality of the app. If the developers can not provide a better product then don’t update just for the sake of saying you have.

1 year ago, _nanye

roll back the update.

literally why. why would you ruin everything. why would you make the reading experience UGLY. you can’t even turn a page normally now, instead of a book it looks like flipping through flash cards. and the reading menu is the worst UI ever why would you put EVERYTHING in one place. it’s completely unintuitive and most importantly UGLY and annoying. why would you make a bookmark look like a notification- notifications are designed to be annoying and eye catching. when i’m reading i want to be focused on one thing- the THING IM READING. the worst is that the X in the corner does not go away at all. it’s like those annoying pop-up ads in games. i’m currently looking for a new reading app after being a loyal ibooks/apple books user for a decade <3 anyway congratulations to whoever decided to greenlight this update, you have created the most annoying looking interface for a reading app and completely missed the point of what reading apps are for in the first place

8 months ago, Msdedebird

This is startling to give slavery vibes

As someone who usually does not write review, because I don’t work for FREE……it has become really ghetto here in IBooks. As a customer with over 4000 books in my library please do not test my gangsta, and make me ask for all my coins because I can’t read my books in this trifling app you call IBook. Then you had the lil 🍆 energy to change how my pages turn….like before you start changing things you might want to fix the things broken. Pumpkin …you really given scam vibes …I mean if I buy a book, then a few years later you republish the book like it’s new…..SCAM……and let’s not talk about the books that disappear or I can’t download…😤😤😤😤 fix it Jesus …..you have 90 days and the receipts storm begins….you got me screwed in the paint if you think I am gonna tolerate this nonsense..a person who lives to read it was easy for me to use this app and in the beginning it was given….but now the issues are out weighing the, perks…..please address my concerns…

9 months ago, firebird1246

Extremely disappointed

I’ve always loved Apple’s Book app, but the recent update is awful. The 3D page turning was a 10/10 and to take that away makes me extremely disappointed. The visualizer made it so much easier for me to read books on the app. If it wasn’t for the decision to remove that amazing feature, the new update probably deserves 3 stars. It isn’t elegant. Instead of the app being immersive and functional it now feels as if I am in a pop up window when I’m reading. The “x” in the corner and the weird swipe to exit feature seem like an ad dismissal, not a return to menu option. All this to say, no one likes change, but some changes are actually bad. Please bring back the 3D page turn feature and maybe we’ll eventually get used to the new tacky interface.

7 months ago, Angelica0517

Love the app but the new update still has bugs

Sometimes when I try to highlight something, it doesn’t and I have to close the app and open it again so it finally highlights what I wanted it too. But then I keep reading want to highlight something new and the same thing happens. This also happens with trying to bookmark a page. It won’t bookmark it until I close the app and open the book again then it will but it’s just annoying having to close the app every 5 minutes just to get it to do the simple tasks I want it too. I would say that I’d like for the app to have a “not started yet” function because I have almost a thousand books but I don’t want to have to go through every single book in order to see which ones I haven’t read yet. I wish there’d be a category for books that you either haven’t finished or haven’t started. Just an idea. PLEASE FIX THESE NEW UPDATE BUGS SO I CAN RATE THE APP HIGHER

Description

Apple Books lets you lose yourself in the best books and audiobooks right on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch. You’ll find bestsellers, classics, up-and-coming authors, and more — all ready to instantly download and enjoy. Features • Selection: Explore millions of books and audiobooks from every category including fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, thrillers, romance, kids’ books, comics, and more. • Book Store: Check out Top Charts, and find new releases, limited-time offers, and recommendations for you, updated every week. • Audiobooks: Discover great audiobooks read by actors, authors, and other memorable voices. • Free samples: Preview books and audiobooks while you browse, and download free samples — sometimes before they’re available anywhere else. • Want to Read: Keep track of books and audiobooks you’d like to read next by adding them to your Want to Read collection. • Audiobooks app for Apple Watch: Listen to your favorite audiobooks on your next hike, run, or exercise session, right from your wrist. • Customize your reading experience: Choose between a selection of fonts and easy-to-read page colors. Use Auto-Night Theme and adjust your screen brightness to make reading more comfortable on your eyes. Enabling Scrolling View to move continuously through books instead of flipping pages. iCloud Features • Access any of the books you purchase from Apple Books on all of your devices. • Family Sharing makes it easy for you and up to five family members to share your books and audiobooks purchases. • Organize your books and PDFs into personal collections that will appear on all of your devices. • Access bookmarks, highlights, notes, and your current page on all of your devices. Requirements & Store Availability • The Book Store is available in many countries. The selection of available books varies by country. • Downloading content from Books or iCloud requires an Apple ID and Internet access. • Adding books and PDFs from outside the Book Store to the Books app requires they be DRM-free. Some PDF documents may not be compatible with Books.