I used to love the books app. So much so that I gave up my kindle in favor of an iPad for reading because I appreciated the interface more and the ease of switching to my phone. This most recent iOS 16 update has really ruined the great things about the books app. The inability to tap and have only the words from the book on the screen is really frustrating and distracting. And there wasn’t a good introduction to the changes making it hard to navigate how to use the different features. I love the old interface because everything was a tap away and you could find it all on the top menu, now I’m constantly worried I’ll tap the wrong spot and end up in the wrong chapter. I’ve loved the books app for years but these changes have made it hard to use. I hope you bring these options back so I can really relax and enjoy reading like I used to.
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
the new update has the app looking very weird. not a fan of the layout. double tap is to bookmark. highlight is the same, but you lose the white progress line on the side of the screen (if in scrolling instead of pages) and there’s constantly a ❌ at the top right that won’t go away, there’s a little box at the bottom right where all the options for the color of the screen, font, notes and bookmarks are all jammed into that tiny box. you lose the page numbers on the left side too (for scrolling mode) and have to tap the screen to see what page you’re on. this is my only issue with the update, i’m an avid reader and use this app everyday. so outside of the books app—i like the update, but i could’ve done without the update if it would save me from this layout. hope they get it fixed or at least more organized.
Apple Books forces you to read one wide column if you don’t want small size fonts in iPads. It slows down the reading and is rather uncomfortable. I didn’t know that squinting is good for you! My Ophthalmologist erroneously always told me that squintingis actuallybad for the eyes!! . I am so glad that Apple set me straight — If it were not for Dr Apple, I would not have known that straining is good for the eyes. I will never trust my Ophthalmologist again! I know Apple thinks that we consumers are not qualified to customize and personalize and it is dangerous to let us make our own decisions. They are so right! All the other e-readers allow you to customize the font size. That is why I don’t trust the others to look out for our well being! 🙁. Also, it doesn’t sync location between iPad and iPhone! The notes/highlighting become jumbled. I guess Apple doesn’t think that stuff is important. Seriously, I will never spend another penny for an Apple book. Kindle blows them away.
This would be 5 stars if it was able to link to Goodreads like Kindle does. With Kindle it will automatically post my highlights on Goodreads, and update the status as “read” and will upload how many stars I give the book without me having to even open the Goodreads app. That’s the ONLY reason I use the Kindle app more.
So developers, if you would be able to have an option to link my iBooks account with Goodreads then I would only be using this app. Please tell me it could become a possibility? Step up your game, use those smart brains I know you have, and make it happen so you can catch up and surpass Kindle. If they can do it then so can you. Your overall average rating on this right now is 3.0. Step it up to bring it up. PLEASE🙏🏻😩
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.
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 technically works to listen to audio books which is why I use it, but it’s clear that it’s more made for apple to sell books rather than serve its reader. For example, my biggest disappointment is that you can’t bookmark anything, which is so incredibly basic. It’s not about knowing where you left off, the app does picks back up there automatically, it’s about flagging meaningful things so you can go back and revisit. I wish apple was thinking more about the reader rather than sales. For now, iBooks is adequate at best. FYI: I did recently discover you can give audible permission to see your iBooks, so I will be listing that way going forward, and audible does have the ability to bookmark audio books, so that is good. Not rocket science apple folks, let’s get up to speed!
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.
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.
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