UPDATE: whoever fixed the annotation issue i love you and i hope you get a raise. OLD REVIEW: Came to the app store to find a new reader. Glad to see I'm not the only one who's having trouble with the new version- hopefully they'll revert it!! Here are some more suggestions: -the app deletes books off the device to save space. it's always done this but with the new version, it's not always able to re-download them- even if the epub is saved local on the files app! i've lost annotated copies. please fix this, and add a way to turn off the feature in the first place. i want all my books saved local. -every time you open the annotations list, it takes you back to the top. I'd like to be able to scroll through my annotations, click one and read it, and then open the list again and be where I left off so I don't have to scroll down and find it again. It's so annoying-i have hundreds of annotations in some books. the original version held your place in the list. Everything else I've seen described in other reviews. you dont even have to go through the trouble of fixing all this just take it back to the previous version pleaseeeeee please
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.
Dear Books Product Team, I am delighted to be able to reach out to you in this manner! I am a devoted Apple user and a passionate book enthusiast :P. I thoroughly enjoy your Books app, whether it's on my Mac, iPhone, or iPad. The Books app consistently provides me with a seamless and enjoyable reading experience, and I am truly grateful for your hard work! However, one minor issue I've encountered is that when I read books in the epub format, although I've noticed that the Books app allows for customizing fonts, unfortunately, the selection of fonts provided by the app is a bit limited and doesn't include my preferred ones. I attempted to find a solution through Google but was unsuccessful. The response I received was that the Books app doesn't offer additional font options (sad face). I earnestly request if it would be possible for you to add more font options, preferably allowing the import of TrueType Font files or selecting fonts from the system. Of course, it would be fantastic if I could also choose fonts that I have installed in my system (like Pages, Numbers app). Thank you sincerely! I hope you can accommodate the request of this fervent Apple Books enthusiast. Once again, thank you! Wishing you all the best!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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!!!
This app frustrates me a lot. I don’t typically use it to read books, as the books cost money and no way I’m doing that when I can probably find it at the library for free, but often times I will use it to look for books or review books that I have already read. However, at some point in the past year-ish, I noticed that I could no longer review the books. I then realized that if I clicked a few buttons, I could still do this anyways. I was disappointed to find a few days ago when I went to review a book that the option to do so had entirely disappeared. I also can not see the reviews that other people have left, only that they have left them, which especially angers me because if I am going to be spending money on a book, I want to see if it really is a good book, which I can do only through reading the reviews of other people. This change has therefore prevented me from reading books and as a result spending money on the app, which I suppose is better for me but worse for the company who created this app. I do not recommend using this app, and if you want to read books on your phone using hoopla through your library or one of various other reading apps. Thank you.
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!
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.
Terrible changes to Reading Now page in iOS 17.1 version
What was a relatively useful way to see what I’m currently reading and what’s coming up soon in my wishlist or purchases, now seems like a page full of ads for stuff I have no interest in, and I can’t turn off all the useless sections. It would be tolerable if I could disable the unwanted sections, but no way to do that. All I want to see is what I’m actively reading, what I’ve ordered but haven’t started reading, stuff I’ve flagged for future interest by grabbing samples, and maybe the recommendations based on my known reading genres and books. I don’t want 3/4 of the page filled with irrelevant noise, which is what I’m seeing now. I’m probably going to have to create custom lists for current reading, future reading, and maybe interesting stuff and just not look at the Reading Now mostly-ad page at all. It’s just too frustrating. I also miss seeing the cover thumbnails in normal size in my current sublists, only the ad sections show full cover thumbnails now. Frankly, Apple Books has never really done what I want, its organization tools are just too limited for someone who reads as much as I do. But now it’s significantly worse.
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!
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.
1. Why you renamed reading now to read now? Are you ordering me to read those books? I hope not. You’re displaying books I’m READING, so call it the way it is. 2. Why “top picks” are now above “want to read” ? Again I chose books I would like to read next, so I picked them and would like to see them right next to reading now, not somewhere where I need to scroll down to find. Please move top pics right under want to read. 3. The most screwed up section is “previous” section. There you include the books which have NOT been released yet, how are they previous? I understand those I finished are included, but future books should not be there. I think I know how those future books gotten into previous list, it’s because at some point I marked them “want to read”, so they are kind of in my library and your software doesn’t check if release date is in the future, so you include them there. Even more, you show 1% read for those books. How are they 1% read, if there is no way to even open them? Before 17.1 update I would give you 5 stars, but you screwed it up in 17.1, no more than 2.
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.
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!!!
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.
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!!!
Updated iPad today and guess iBooks got another update making it even worse than before. Use to love seeing the page number on the side but they got rid of that in favor of a tap telling you. Annoying but can be dealt with. Now they’ve gotten rid of the how many pages left in a chapter. I don’t understand why you would ever remove that feature. Now I have to click a couple buttons and do mental math to figure how many pages left in a chapter if I want to know that info. Further now I’m forced to see the title of the book I’m reading at the top of the page. It’s annoying cause I read scroll style and used the top of my iPad to help me keep track of where I am and now I can’t cause the title is just in the way in the middle. Idk who is making these decisions and what their reading style is but this is two updates now where my experience has gotten worse not better. Please fix these issues and think of what the actual reading experience of people is before coding updates that makes things worse not better. Another update or two like this and I’ll likely just switch to. Different reading platform that understands readers.
This app is really terrible. I downloaded books that happen to be in some sort of conglomeration called “Apple Books Classics”. However, instead of showing each book individually, it shows a pile of books that i have to click on just to see the book that i want to read. It is really confusing that they hide the book in this manner. Oh and unlike other entries in the Libary, there is no way to hide this pile of Apple Classics books. Also, the “Finished” Collection keeps getting entries that i did not finish. And while it provides a way to mark a book as not finished, it doesnt always work. I eventually gave up and hid all of Apple’s Collections and created my own: one for finished books and one for unfinished books. UPDATE: I gaveup on trashbag app Apple Books and downloaded SimpleE instead. it was made by a consortium of public libraries. It has tons of free classics, and if your library is affiliated with it, you can borrow best sellers for free just like IRL at your library. If your library isnt on there, try remotely getting a card at one that does. More intuitive, less frustrating than junkbucket Apple Books. And free books.
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.
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!!!!
This app doesn’t work. This app is broken. This app should not be here because the single use it has, *reading books*, is not working. Say it with me again. It. Is. Not. Working. 16.1 broke it, completely, utterly. I’ve never seen such a poor redesign in my life, but, perhaps if it fundamentally worked, I could ignore the piss-poor design, the removed features, the way the pages turning looks like what an alien might dream up if you told them what a book was. I work in tech, I am native to computers, I fix them for a living, and I could not sort out the god awful new UI. But, the core issue here, is it doesn’t work. Imagine buying a car that doesn’t drive. Imagine buying a phone that doesn’t call. Imagine buying an iPad for reading, only for Apple to break their books app. And the only recourse is to leave a review here, because a company with so much money, with billions of dollars, literally the brightest minds in the world, cannot build a functioning version of a technology perfected in the age of the printing press. Incredible. I have no words. My desire to ever buy a product from this company again is below the floor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I want this app to achieve 5 star status! My biggest, nagging complaint is upon opening Books the app it’s clear it isn’t enticing you to continue where you left off in the book or books you’re currently reading. I miss the Read Now section so much. We used to get a beautiful image of the cover of whatever we were currently reading. Now the app makes it an afterthought. Your eyes are drawn to the section posted right beneath Continue; the Top Picks section. It’s basically ads for more books to read and purchase. The design makes it impossible to focus on continuing what you were reading but rather the goal of the design feels more to convince you to try out some other popular books. In other words, please purchase MORE! Please also consider making the bookmarks more obvious on the pages again. The design choice to have the red bookmark at the top corner is genius. I adore this app otherwise. Other than reading from my e-reader, this is my go to! It’s everything I’d need, better than an e-reader. Annotation and looking up words or translating text is so natural. I love that the page turn animation was brought back and the customization was fluffed. Please consider redesigning that section and give the readers an invitation to finish our books. The “Currently Reading” section should be the focus of the Home Screen in Books
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
iBooks used to be a great app. Over the period of past 5 years it is rendered unusable. Nobody tests the software, nobody reads the apple forum where users discuss issues. There is no reliable way to sync content between iPhone and Mac. The iCloud Drive feature forces the manually downloaded books to disappear. They offload and download every 15(!) minutes. It’s impossible to read books in a Books app. Every offload/download (of the very book you are reading in the exact moment) cause the freezes. Both Mac and iPhone app are unusable due to this “feature”. Finally, you can not (!) disable iCloud drive without loosing all of your books. I am searching for workarounds to save the books collection I created over years. I just want it to stay on devices after disabling iCloud Drive for Books. But that’s impossible! I am left with a collection of books that are impossible to read and Apple seriously believes that it’s ok to fully delete user files
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.
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.
More than 10 years ago a street in my subdivision was closed to exiting traffic due to danger and wrecks from people being careless while entering a very busy road. So now you can only enter via this end of the street. No exiting. A couple of weeks ago I tried out Apple Map, primarily because I prefer to stay away from anything Google. The directions I entered from my home instructed me (with a visual map) to exit from the “enter only” section of the street. I sent a detailed correction via the app, but surprise, surprise, no correction has occurred. The Apple Map continues to direct me over curbing, bushes and several metal sign posts placed to stop cars from exiting. After verifying today that the error is not corrected, I deleted the Apple Map app. There is and always have been constant street changes & improvements in the city and suburbs here due to rapid growth. I cannot take the chance various Apple directions are not updated promptly (or at all), which may put me in danger, so AMF Apple Map. This should serve as a warning to others.
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.
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.
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.
***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.
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.
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.
Apple Books is the best place to discover, read and listen to entertaining and informative books and audiobooks. Browse through top charts, personalised recommendations and expertly curated collections in the Book Store and Audiobook Store, or use search to easily find the perfect read or listen, no subscription needed. Track what you’ve read and want to read, and set your own reading goals—all in one app and across all your Apple devices. Explore millions of books and audiobooks • Check out today’s bestsellers, free books and special offers for readers of all ages, plus personalised recommendations. • Explore collections curated by the Apple Books team to find your next book or audiobook in your favourite genres, from mysteries and thrillers to romance, history, self-development and kids. • Sample any book or preview an audiobook to start enjoying the first few pages for free. • Keep track of the books and audiobooks you’re interested in with your Want to Read list. Customise your reading experience • Choose from a selection of reading themes, which include a variety of fonts and background colours. • Make your book easy to read by adjusting line height and letter spacing to your preference. • Use Auto-Night Theme and adjust your screen brightness to make reading more comfortable for your eyes. • Enable vertical scrolling to move continuously through books instead of flipping pages. Make reading a habit with Reading Goals • Set a reading goal to encourage yourself to read daily. • Track reading streaks and how many books you’ve read this year. • Get reminders and coaching to help you achieve your reading goals. Share with your whole family • Family Sharing lets you enjoy your books and audiobooks with your favourite people. Invite up to five family members. Apple CarPlay • Designed with safety in mind, the Audiobooks app in Apple CarPlay allows you to listen to audiobooks while driving. • Large buttons make it easy to start and stop, rewind or fast forward, and the simplified library helps you find your next audiobook while still keeping your eyes on the road. Apple Watch features • Use the Audiobooks app on Apple Watch to get back to your recent audiobooks or browse your library right from your wrist. • Use the Watch app on iPhone to choose which audiobooks to download to your Apple Watch. Requirements & store availability • iPhone requires iOS 11 or later. • iPad requires iPadOS 11 or later. • Content varies by country or region and may not be available on all devices.
