Dark mode doesn’t apply while reading an article, only in the menus and while browsing article headlines, which is counterintuitive. Email communications preferences should be available in the app with push notifications but they’re not. Instead, after signing up for a paid membership to read news IN THE APP, SacBee still thought I needed to get 10 emails a day showing me the same articles that I already read IN THE APP. I also had to use html view in the gmail app to get the unsubscribe link to appear, which I think may be technically illegal under the federal CAN-SPAM Act. Despite all that, the app UX is productive and the journalism itself is good....usually. Oh and one more thing. The photos section is nothing but Jack Ohman political cartoons...that’s dumb. They’re not even that funny. How about some....PHOTOS?...maybe? Idk
Since I subscribe to the print version, I frequently find a story I’d like to share with someone who does not. With the confusing top line of types of stories, where you find duplicate entries galore and seldom any features beyond insipid sports writing (not including Joe Davidson, who is first class), you have to look through all the headings under each banner to see if the article you want might be there. I don’t understand why the website wouldn’t organize under more traditional headings: Top Stories, National News, International News, Local News, Business, Sports, Opinion, and then Features or special groups of features like Food. Nor do I understand why there is no search function to use so you don’t have to scroll through all the entries to see if your article can be found. All the stories now are in digital form. Pay some competent web designer to have the site do a far better job of mirroring the printed version. Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Good job with the new app. It used to be so clunky and a pain to use and seemed like it was designed by an amateur . Now I think I actually like it better than my other newspaper apps like the WSJ that I used to compare it to. The bar was definitely raised with this one.
There is no way that the rating of 4.3 out of 5 is honest. How many bots did it take, SacBee? The majority of the ratings are one star, for very good reasons. I’m a long time subscriber to the Bee print edition, but had to cancel because the delivery people had a hard time delivering more than 4 days a week. So I payed for the online e-edition. Isn’t it fraud when someone takes your money and gives you a non-working product? I need to read the e-edition on my iPad. Nope; it works on my desktop, but not on the specific device I bought it for. Bottom line: it’s horrible and if the Bee finally does go out of business it’s their own fault for not doing the job they were payed to do. And . . . This is no small point: the app does not include the comics. What is wrong with your people?? It appears your primary objective is to drive customers away. I WANT to support journalism, but your company makes it more and more difficult to do so!
I’ve had very little trouble using the beta testing version of the e-edition on the app, with the exception of the comics sometimes. The comics often get screwed up and hard to navigate. However, since the beta e-edition has been replaced with a totally different looking “live” e-edition, I have been unable to access the app without it crashing. I can still get into the e-edition through the internet, but the app keeps crashing on me at this point. The Bee moved their customer service department, which used to be onsite and staffed with Sacramento-based employees, to a foreign country where the reps don’t care if you’re having service problems so I’m hoping this review causes someone in IT to fix the e-edition on the app so it doesn’t crash the app, which is worthless to me right now.
The “new” beta version arrived without notice and without an option to opt-out. Non-professional. It’s not all that bad except for one CRITICAL element. It doesn’t permit landscape display except on the first and last pages of a section. The FAQ says you can just rotate you iPad, pinch and zoom, or select individual articles. Note that when you select individual articles, they are littered and over-filled with distracting ads. I can’t understand why you wouldn’t just fix this. I high school programmer could take care of this. The whole Bee is essentially an editorial. If you know something about a story, you can see their bias shining through. In addition, the writing quality is has fallen off. Spelling errors, wrong word choices, and sentences that either don’t make sense or contradict are alarmingly common.
The online version is impossible to read as there is no room for the actual content on the screen so I have to download the e-edition to make readable. I tap on icon and today’s paper is there. I tap download and screen goes dark like its downloading but it’s not. I then have to go to the upper left corner, hit e edition, find today’s edition and then hit download. What a pain. In fact every few weeks when I have to re-login there are new issues. This is the worst most inconsistent app ever.... idea what they wetTakes 4-5 clicks to get to the e-edition which then hangs for awhile if it even comes up. The e-edition is unreadable so you have to download to make readable. Then the download then hangs up assuming it comes up. It’s a horrible app. Waste of time. A 3rd rate app by a 5th rate newspaper. Yesterday’s news tomorrow is their slogan.
Not sure why the Bee does not address the problems with its E-Edition. On my iPad, the print is fuzzy and does does not focus for quite a few seconds each time I go to the next page...annoying and dizzying at best. There are ad banners at the bottom of each page that are constantly changing and moving which is distracting when trying to read an article. This is in addition to all the other ads within the paper, which are expected. I’ve messaged the Bee several times alerting them to these issues and they are non responsive. If the Bee wants to improve its readership, these basic issues should be addressed. Basically if you’re looking for a liberal, biased news source that is difficult to read and navigate you’ve come to the right place.
I have found that the current eEdition is an extremely poor substitute for the prior version of the online / app software. I am so tired of the jumping screens, ads, popups, etc. I use an iPad daily to read the paper and when opening the app, all I see are ads and no paper. I have found that links to other pages in the paper no longer work and I have to constantly scroll back and forth to read a single story. If I download the paper, the download time can very from 1 minute to greater than 5 minutes or not a all. Also, there is no directory / index to find specific areas of the paper. I am paying good money for a newspaper subscription and not all of the online ads. Please bring back the old software or remove all of these ads!
It is amazing to see a 4.1 star rating on this app. After the fiasco of the last 3 weeks of constant promises the app is “fixed”, “better”, etc. the reviews indicate a desire for a “0” star review or minus 0 for a true and well-deserved rating. It would be reasonable to give us an honest game plan. Is this even fixable? Are you in the process of going back to a format that worked? Do you have no respect for the intelligence of your customers? This is like “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Not seeing it! Not believing it IS fixable. Why did you not run a pilot program prior to roll out? Whoever is the current editor should graciously throw in the towel and resign! Let’s update the new overall rating from 4.1 to an actual 1, if my math serves correctly.
We had the printed version of the Sac Bee for many years but had to give it up because of consistently horrible delivery service and lack of any real help from customer service. Got the eEdition and got used to it fairly quickly and it was great! But now this new e version is garbage and very frustrating to use (can’t see whole pages, can’t clear out the ads to get more viewing space, can’t jump to sections I want to get to and too many other issues to list here!). You ruined what was a great way to read a digital version of your paper online. One thing the Sac Bee does appear to be good at, helping people to decide to cancel their subscriptions and get their news elsewhere. Congrats.
The Sacramento Bee’s prior app was not very good and this one is even worse. This app is missing important features that I believe a lot of readers would like. To me the most important is the ability to download and read offline the current days newspaper. I could do that with the prior version, but not anymore with this new app. Another missing feature is the ability to share an article. Again, past app you could do it, now that ability has been taken away. If you have the intent of adding these features to this new app, why would you launch this new app that is not fully featured?? Also, I find it hard to believe that your true app rating is 4.2.
I have subscribed to The Bee for decades and enjoy reading in reporting, even when I travel around the world. Reading the eEdition in the full page version, exactly like the paper, was the best feature. Being able to scroll through pages at the bottom as a full view worked perfectly, too. This new version is horrible and earns a rating of MINUS stars! Difficult to navigate, half pages bombarded by flashing adds which cause print to blur each time they change, trying to toggle back and forth to read an entire article-no, no, no! Don’t know who the bright spark is who came up with this new format, but I just want my old version again!!!!
This app doesn’t work well at all. After nearly 40 years as a subscriber to the print version I finally cancelled it because of horrible service and the fact the news in the paper was at least 24-48 hours old. I’ve been trying to use the digital version but it is unfortunately very difficult to use. The news coverage is much better in the digital version but half the time it won’t let me on. Plus they can’t get my billing right even though they take my money monthly. I subscribe to several other newspapers and I’ve never had any problems like I have with the Bee. Plus...there is no sacbee e-edition in the Apple App Store.
The old app worked great. I could enlarge the page and still be able to scroll down to the bottom of the paper. It was just like reading a print. Now the online version and this app are difficult to use, won’t enlarge without cutting off part of the page, and the ads are annoying. Seriously, why do I want to see someone’s fingers handling something gooey with a caption about what not to eat. I don’t need click bait in my paper with disgusting images. I just want to read the paper and have it large enough that I don’t have to squint. Hope you read this and fix it. I like the Bee, but not if it’s hard to read.
I work in state government and see first hand how often this paper gets the facts wrong on purpose. When you know the real story first hand and then you read what these guys write about it, you know the fix is in. It has to be on purpose because they never make a mistake that makes the left look bad, only the right. They recently announced they will be paying their “journalists” based on the number of clicks their stories get. Wow! That won’t encourage misleading or untrue inflammatory headlines and stories now will it? Their parent company filed for bankruptcy for a reason. Defeat this app!
I did not know that the Sac Bee app was going to change, and I was very confused when I couldn’t access my paper anymore. The new app just opens the paper in the browser. When you download it there is no index to navigate the paper. Also the feature for enlarging text on an individual article is gone. These are two features that I really miss. I’ve been reading a paper all my life, and I have been using the e-edition for 12 years, but it may be just too much trouble to continue. The update to the app is a huge step backwards for the reader.
This new app is clumsy and completely user UNFRIENDLY!! You have been “had” gentlemen of the Bee. Not only is it time Consuming and awkward. You gave us readers no heads up in advance, which i find dismissive of you. I cannot understand the thinking behind this change at all-I’m going back to the print edition.
Whoever designed this ap should be banned from ever using a computer. Truly crappy! Load the front page and you get a crystal clear advertisement at the bottom of the page while the text of the actual news article goes blurry making it unreadable. The advertisement goes away for a brief time, the article text becomes clear/readable, then shezam the ad comes back and the article text is again purposely blurred beyond recognition. And to think I paid for this subscription. That won’t happen again!
This used to be a wonderful App for the e-edition. Since “fixing” it two weeks ago, it has deteriorated to the point where we can no longer even sign it. It is a repeating cycle of sending me to the sign in page, I click on it and I get sent right back to the sign page. I cannot believe they have messed it up so thoroughly. Even as I type, my husband is trying to get a human on the phone .. so far, impossible to do. I hate this App and will probably end up having to cancel entirely. I would NOT recommend this to anyone.
I use an iPhone XS with the most up to date version of iOS. News feed never works. I have deleted the app, rebooted the phone and reinstalled the app, cleared the cache etc. works fine on my iPad. The help screens talk about settings going to “my account”. There is no “my account” button/tab/option. There does not seem to be a way to log in or Out.
I read the online (web) version of the Bee, and it’s awful. Hard to maneuver, buggy, and often slow and cumbersome. Worse are the adds that pop-up at the bottom of the screen which I feel shouldn’t be there. The paper already has adds, and I’m paying for a subscription that shouldn’t include those pop-ups! The Bee should take a good long look at how the San Jose Mercury News provides its electronic newspaper, and adopt its method. Come on, Bee: You can do way better, and, at the very least, get rid of the pop-up adds!
I have been a Bee subscriber science moving to Sacramento in 1981. Several years ago went to the eEdition as it was just like have the print edition; that was the selling point and I pay for “that”. Just duetting my new iPad set up and that eEdition thstvI read part of this morning says it is unavailable; been changed. Get the eEdition back or you’ll soon be loosing digital customers just like you have the print version. Ethics is a horrible paper, it is the only only with our local news. Shame on you Sacramento Bee—McClatchy
I got the new version when it first came out and it seemed to work pretty good for a while. All of a sudden, a few days ago, the newest version of the app just stopped working. When I click on it, nothing happens. I can’t seem to figure out anything to do to make it work. I tried sending messages to the bees subscription department to tell them it doesn’t work, but that won’t go through either. They’re really hard to get a hold of.
The Bee is not a national paper like the Times or the Journal or the Post. It covers its area and California news as its primary focus. It does a good enough job although if they had more resources we could hope for more thorough coverage.
The July 22 update has me seriously considering canceling my subscription. Trying to read the paper on the iPad while the image barely covers half the screen is frustrating to say the least. Pinching to zoom, in order to read an article, then having to pinch and go back before being able to turn the page is making this app worthless to me. The previous version was fine. Why fix it if it ain’t broke!
As a subscriber, I’m confused and frustrated by this app. The User Guide says: “ To restore, tap the Settings button on the bottom right corner of the app. Once on the Settings screen, tap “My Account“ on the upper right side. “ However, there is no “My Account” on the settings screen. I’ve deleted and re-installed the app to no avail. The only thing that seems to work in the app is downloading an eEdition.
Don’t let the overall rating of this app fool you as it includes ratings of prior apps going back years. Virtually all the ratings since Oct 1, date of new app, are 1 star, with just a couple of 2 stars. That’s a clear message that prior app versions were working just fine. I’m experiencing ALL the same issues as communicated by others so I won’t rehash them here. Like many long time subscribers I have cancelled my Sacramento Bee subscription and will get my news elsewhere.
I concur with this week’s flood of complaints about the Bee’s new approach to online news delivery via a browser link. We read the paper, as I suspect many do, via the mobile App on a tablet rather than on a desktop/notebook browser. The Bee’s eEdition App worked well, despite occasionally requiring re-validation of subscription credentials (which was annoying enough), but the new regime is enough of a barrier to convenient access to make me consider abandoning the Bee altogether. Too bad.
Periodically the app forces me to go back in and revalidate my credentials. This new version suffers from the same problem. The content of the Bee keeps getting thinner and thinner, except for their increased attention to consistently supporting the left on almost everything. Local news is sloppy and biased. One other problem. The Bee is offering a discount for the e-edition if you use the Google platform. Thus if you are an Apple user you get charged more. I value my privacy so try not to give Google more information. We live in the Sacramento area about half the year and so don’t want the print edition and would like to stay up on local news - with the mix of rising prices, hostility to Apple and thinning coverage it increasingly seems less worth it.
The app is extremely slow with limited features. No search function, and the only way to log out of your account is to delete the app. To make matters worse, the Sacramento Bee is more of a newsletter than a newspaper at this point. The articles are littered with typos, and the reporting can be very sloppy. Unfortunately, the Sacramento Bee is the only show in town when it comes to local news. Very sad.
Let me start out by saying that I am pulling for the Bee. It performs a very important civic function by shining light into dark places. With that said, The App works well in my iPhone, but not so much on my iPad. When using the iPad, I get an error message “Pull to Refresh”. No joy.. Pulling but no refreshing. I tried the help line, but didnt get a resolution. Sigh.
Dear ding dongs running things at the Bee. Here’s a clue. You’re a newspaper. Not a website. Not a tv network. A newspaper. The reason you’re getting rightfully slammed on your new app is that you’ve seriously downgraded the only experience that we readers expect and pay for from you and that is a newspaper. The previous ebook format was as close to perfect as you needed. You had one job and you messed up big time. Please restore the old app as soon as possible.
My husband and I have looked forward to reading the Bee for many years. Now, we are transitioning to the Bee on line. We can make the print bigger as needed and we don’t miss recycling the papers. Sandy & Kim Wallace
Why take away the print edition from the app?? That was the best part of the old app. Now it sends me online to read the paper and the e-edition doesn’t work and hasn’t worked for a few days now. Why am I paying for a paper that I can’t read? This is ridiculous! Fix it and make it like it was or give me my money back! If this doesn’t get fixed in the next day or so, I’m cancelling my subscription.
When I can get in and stay in the app, I think the app is easy to use to read Sac Bee articles. However, it asks for my login several times a day, which is a waste of time. Can’t it be set to keep the same login for at least a week and preferably two weeks?
New app closes articles and crashes multiple times before you can read 1 article
The new app that was redeveloped is terrible. Bring back the old app. This “newer version” crashes very very frequently, making it difficult to read articles without staring from the home page repeatedly. The older version was excellent and never crashed.
Since the most recent update, the app perpetually crashes. This is frustrating as this is my only way to read the Bee. I have to be able to zoom in to read the paper. I only moved to this format after the Bee’s delivery personnel left the paper in my gutter on a consistent basis. I hope to see a fix in the near future so I can read what I pay for.
Usually the feed refreshes easily and I can get my local news but from time to time the app stalls when loading or won’t load the news feed. Needs a bit of work.
The layout/organization/design of this app is horrific. As we move deeper into digital information distribution, it is imperative that you, Sacramento Bee, invest the design resources into this app so as to deliver content in a readable and professional manner. Please see the CNN or NBC news apps to get ideas on how to design a more readable app. Additionally, please review the apps put forth by Behance or Dexigner for ideas that might make the sacbee app look more professional.
I only subscribe to the online version and since the last major change I find the eEdition difficult to read. The reason is that when you select a story it is filled with ads and some of them are moving. Very distracting and that makes it hard to read. Go back to the old version. I am not going to renew my subscription after 30+ years.
If you (the Bee)paid more than $100 for this app...it was too much! Maybe the Bee board should consider water boarding those responsible for this decision. It begins as “user hostile” and ends with the representative at the phone “help” center not knowing where the user help guide could be found. I don’t think , if they tried, they could have released a poorer less useful app. I gave one star only because zero star was possible.
It’s difficult to navigate and the pages take quite a while to fully load. (I’ve waited up to 5 minutes for a page to load (I.e. get past blurry) and it is full of bugs! I’ve been kicked out innumerable times in the last few days. MaClatchy must have made the changes at the urging of their advertisers. That is the only part that seems to work right.
Left 1/3 of screen is littered with pop up ads that decrease screen viewing area. Prior e-edition allowed reader to view and screen print effectively. The apps screen print function does not work on the new app while viewing on an iPad or iPhone. I submitted requests for solution but no response. What’s with that. This app version is a big downgrade..sorry. .
Love the local paper but this new web presence is terrible. Frequent re-logins (with no password storage) were just the start. Reading the paper is almost impossible as 2/3 of the screen area is ads. The downloaded version cannot be zoomed in for readability. It is still stuck on the sept 30 paper and it requires updating the bookmark every single time I reopen the app. This app is totally useless.
Latest update has introduced a couple of problems: - The floating ad bar is extremely annoying and obscures the page. (The newspaper is already full of ads, why do we need additional ads in the app?) - Scrolling up and down isn’t working properly when reading the eEdition.
I find an article online, and I can’t read it because I am subscribed through the app. I go to the app, but I can’t find the article because there is no search feature. Very frustrating. If I try to login online, it takes me through a loop of error messages that I can’t get out of even when I enter my login.
Still waiting for a response to my negative feedback
This is a classic case of fixing something that wasn’t broken. The previous app was much easier to work with. This one has difficulty navigating sections, blurry text, problems with zoom in and out, and an overall glitchy operation. I still haven’t received a response to my message giving feedback. 🤦♀️
Please go back to the previous Sac Bee app. Contents are NOT listed and difficult to navigate by subject. Should Include the DAY on the date for easier scrolling back and forth. The last update is MUCH BETTER than this terrible new one. Please return the OLD way or at least revamp this new one to see subjects like OBITUARIES, COMICS, FOOD AND DRINK, SPORTS, Etc. This is AWFUL. Terrible job, so disappointing.
I love the content, but I can’t read it because whenever I open a page, it probably closes itself. I’ve tried reinstalling the app several times, and this problem keeps recurring. It’s not every day, but right now, it is so chronic that I cannot read the news. Am I the only one who is having this problem?
Connect to The Sacramento Bee newspaper app wherever you are. Receive the latest local and breaking news from Sacramento, Roseville, Elk Grove, Folsom and El Dorado, California. The Sacramento Bee reports on the local topics you care about, including local, weather, traffic, crime, sports and national news. Features of the app include: • Breaking news alerts and real-time updates. • The local news and sports topics you care about from around the Sacramento area. • View stunning photos and videos of news coverage and events. • The Sacramento Bee opinions, editorials and columns you love. • Ability to share stories and galleries on Facebook, Twitter or by email. • An app-native eEdition of the printed newspaper, including 60 additional pages in the ExtraExtra section. Read our Privacy policy here: https://www.sacbee.com/site-services/privacy-policy/text-only/ Read our Terms of Service here: https://www.sacbee.com/site-services/terms-of-service/text-only/ For California Residents: To learn more about managing your sharing preferences and Do Not Sell My Info rights visit https://www.sacbee.com/customer-service/privacy-policy/text-only/#notice_california
