# AOPA Mags — user reviews > 78 indexed App Store user reviews of AOPA Mags by Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), rated 4.00/5 from 377 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/aopa-mags/id478058436/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/aopa-mags/id478058436.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 230 · 4★ 50 · 3★ 23 · 2★ 26 · 1★ 48 ## What do users think of AOPA Mags? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 📚 Access to magazine library on-the-go - 🌍 Portable alternative to paper magazines - 📖 Quality content and articles - 🎥 Embedded videos supplementing articles - 🔗 Cross-referencing with embedded links - 📑 Page navigation and department access **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes - ⏱️ Slow app startup and loading times - 📱 Poor optimization for iPhone screens - 🔍 Limited and problematic zoom functionality - 📄 Print layout not adapted for digital reading - 🌐 Requires WiFi despite downloaded magazines - 🔐 Persistent login and authentication issues - 📦 Large app file size (~1GB) - 🔄 App reloads when backgrounded - 🎯 Non-standard gesture controls - ⚠️ Blurry text rendering issues - 🚫 Inaccessible to users with visual impairments - 🔌 Offline reading doesn't work reliably **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes on startup requiring restart - Doesn't remember last read page or position - Zoom locks in center of page, can't pan to edges - Ghosted/disabled buttons after download - Downloaded magazines inaccessible without WiFi - Blurry text at all zoom levels - Scrolling only works in one plane (horizontal or vertical) - App freezes when zooming in - Login/logout issues and authentication failures - Catalog loading loops and timeouts - Magazines disappear after updating back issues - App crashes when deleting archives - Blank screens or error messages on launch - Incompatibility with special characters in passwords - International ISP access issues - Photo captions on different pages from images - Photos spread across pages making them unviewable **Most requested features** - Automatic bookmarking to last read page across all issues - Single-column layout optimized for digital reading - Adjustable font sizes with responsive layout - Custom zoom levels with free panning - Proper offline reading capability - Text selection and copy functionality - VoiceOver accessibility support - Faster download speeds - Persistent login sessions - Better iPad Pro display scaling - Merge AOPA app and Magazine app - Support for multiple magazine editions (Turbine Pilot, etc.) ## Newest reviews (16 of 78) ### 2/5 — Not suitable format for iPad *2024-10-12, version 4.11.9* Just page images from print magazine. Two- and three-column text layout means small font, difficult to read without zooming, then you need to scroll all over to read the article, then unzoom to change to the next page. Repeat. Annoying every time. Photos are sometimes spread across pages so you can't see the whole photo, or the captions aren't on the same page. Online magazines should be reformatted for single-column reading with adjustable font size that alters layout as size changes. Each article gets its own page. ### 2/5 — Useless 85% of the time *2024-02-25* This app worked great at the beginning. Now I download so I can read offline while traveling. And every time it stalls out. Even while at home and you click on a link and return to the app it crashes. Been very frustrated with this app the last few years! ### 2/5 — Never works first time *2023-05-01* Every time I enter this app, it spins. I have to kill the app and restart it. Every single time. It NEVER knows where I stopped reading. NEVER. It seems reasonable that it should know where I left off and work when I return to it. Amazingly, however, it does provide the content. How AOPA can continue to allow this grossly substandard app is beyond me. ### 3/5 — Can’t zoom in anywhere but the center of each page *2022-10-26* Good luck if you want to read this on your phone. You can zoom in, but only on the middle of the page. No scrolling or moving it around to read the writing on the sides of the page. ### 3/5 — Good, not quite great *2022-07-19, version 4.9.4* To be better, when I return to the app after an absence, it would be on the page I was reading when I left. To be great, no matter which issue I visit, it would start on the page I left off at. Like a dog ear. Only no crease. And zooming is sometimes wonky too … but a good app. Well, that text was written a couple years back. It’s not better, it’s worse now. If I leave the app and come back after an hour or more, it spins. I have to kill the app and restart it, and once again it doesn’t know where I am. Why the heck is it getting worse? ### 2/5 — Ghosted Buttons *2022-01-06, version 4.9.4* After downloading the “Read” button is ghosted but you can delete it but when you go back to home page all buttons are ghosted. R Terry ### 2/5 — Difficult to use *2020-05-17* I have tried to use this app on three different iPads. In every case, once I zoom into a page, the view locks and cannot be panned to the desired spot. Occasionally, I can briefly scroll vertically but not laterally. To correct, I must zoom out to full page view and then attempt to re-zoom to the desired view. However, it is very difficult to zoom into a specific portion of a page. Invariably, part of the text ends up off screen and again cannot be panned. I have several digital magazine subscriptions on my iPads, and this app is the only one that exhibits this defect. ### 2/5 — Not quite there yet. *2020-03-06* I have two main problems with this app. First, the magazines in my library aren't all visible. I have to click on one of them for another to display - I originally thought it was deleted. Secondly, you can't bookmark where you left off. If you wait too long to resume reading you have to remember where you were. Then you need to start at the beginning of the magazine and navigate to it which is a hassle even when using the page menu icon. I read Flying on Zinio and have none of these problems. I hope AOPA will offer Zinio as an option soon. Update 3/5/20 The bookmark feature was fixed on a previous version but with the latest release I can’t return to the page I last read. I have to remember and navigate there every time. ### 4/5 — AOPA mag app *2019-12-05, version 4.8.8* Content and videos are terrific but app is slow to download, seems to take forever compared to other apps. ### 3/5 — Slow *2019-09-24, version 4.8.8* The app is slow and rather “clunky”. I do like reading the monthly magazines on my iPad but there are way superior apps that are used to read magazines ### 4/5 — All good, one request... *2019-09-22, version 4.8.8* ... sure wish it would open right up to the page I left when I revisit the app... ### 1/5 — AOPA Mag 👎 *2019-09-12, version 4.8.8* It’s hard to enjoy a magazine, when they make it impossible for you to log in. Maybe I need to make a larger donation. ### 2/5 — Eric *2019-09-06, version 4.8.8* New version is terrible. Doesn’t allow free zooming and panning which makes it hard to read on iPhone and iPad. Only has 2 zoom levels. Worked better before. Hope they fix this! Love the magazines! ### 3/5 — Just ok. *2019-08-12* Better than last version, but will not allow custom zoom levels. The only choices are page level and one zoom setting, which is not sufficiently large sometimes. There no reason a reader app should have such a limitation. ### 2/5 — Love the magazine but not the app *2019-07-15, version 2.3.2.1039* App is very slow and magazines do not show up when offline. ### 1/5 — Keeps crashing *2019-06-14, version 2.3.2.1039* It’s a magazine app. Solely for reading a magazine. But when you download the magazine to your iPad to read, it crashes. I don’t understand. It’s not like it’s a powerful app for everything. AOPA seriously?? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Downloads *2022-02-20, version 4.9.4* It says I’m offline when not. Want open mags when offline. What’s the point of downloading it? ### 1/5 — Clumsy app. Freezes, slow to load, difficult to use *2021-08-29* Unfortunately this app is so bad that it makes me want to switch back to paper. It freezes up, takes forever to download a magazine, and is not intuitive to navigate. I have had major issues scrolling / moving around a page. The app will freeze up when I try to zoom in on a page. It’s difficult to get back out of a magazine to view other issues. I am using this app on the newest iOS software. Does not work well at all. Would not recommend. ### 1/5 — No WiFi *2021-03-04* I paid the extra for the digital version of the mags so I could download copies to read anytime anywhere. At one time I could do that but not any more. It almost works when I am at home or somewhere with access to a fast WiFi. Even though I have several mags downloaded...it will not let me get to them without WiFi. Don’t waste your money on the digital subscriptions. ### 1/5 — Absolute Garbage *2021-02-18, version 4.8.22* Update - 2/18/21: I either get an error every time I try to read or download the latest issue, or just a blank screen. When zoomed in enough where you can actually read the text, it winds up being too blurry. Even zoomed halfway in, it’s still too blurry. Zoom all the way out, and it’s too small. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work at all now *2020-11-13, version 4.8.22* I’ve suffered through the clunky app, random crashes, and login/logout issues for a few months. Not it won’t display any of my past issues at all. Completely useless. Time to call & switch back to the paper magazine (can’t AOPA even allow us to make that change via their website rather than requiring a phone call?!). ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work *2020-10-10, version 4.8.22* 6th generation iPad. App is not functional even after deleting and reloading. ### 1/5 — bad user experience on iPad, near useless on iPhone, no real improvement over time *2020-08-14, version 4.8.22* Updated review: Nothing has improved about this app since my last review. It’s still terrible. —— This app is generally frustrating. The gestures are non standard, it’s slow on the latest iPad, and it’s unintuitive. If you are deciding to go digital... don’t. Unfortunately, though it wastes money that could be used for advocacy, the printed edition is still significantly superior to what this app provides. Sadly this does not have to be. There are numerous magazine apps out there (Apple News+, Amazon, specific publication apps) that have useful magazine apps. The app is also useless on an iPhone. You cannot zoom in on text close to the edges of a page, so you cannot read many articles (iPhone 11 pro max). Also, the app does not work with the built in voiceover accessibility features of iOS. If someone has poor vision, are they assumed to be uninterested in aviation and supporting advocacy for GA? I won’t add a shame on you here... but think about it. I have been on occasion (less and less so) checking for useful updates only to find that the app continues to be pretty terrible on an iPad and useless on an iPhone... so, generally speaking, I do not read what I’m assuming are great articles and I get a little less value out of my membership. This leads me to having a less tangible sense of value in terms of what I’m paying for. Please revise this app to behave like a normal Apple iOS application. Download a copy of the official Apple HIG. It’s free and it’ll give you clear guidelines on how an iOS app should work. This app’s behavior compared to the HIG is like a pilot who’s never bothered to read the AIM. ### 1/5 — Worthless App if you need to enlarge the type on an iPhone to read the articles. *2020-03-11, version 4.8.22* For a group that prides itself on innovative modern avionics, etc, this App is like a Cessna 150 with a compass only. Move onto the 21 century and fix this thing so we can read the articles across all devices. ### 1/5 — Terrible implementation *2020-02-19* This is one of the worst reading apps I’ve ever used. After the last redesign, there were only two zoom levels - in or out. In was too small, out was way too small. Then there was an update where zoom started working as you’d expect on the iPad, only it was very slow and clunky. I would zoom in and there was a default location where the page would zoom, regardless of where the zoom was initiated. Then I would try and scroll to where I wanted to read but it wouldn’t work and took many tries. Sometimes scrolling would only work in one plane at a time - horizontal or vertical. No diagonal scrolling. I’ve never understood why AOPA can’t get their act together with respect to their reading app. ### 1/5 — Useless on the I phone *2019-12-12, version 4.8.8* The ability to zoom to a legible size has been lost in the apps rewrite. On an iPhone the maximum zoom is barely enough to be legible so reading has become impossible. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Carry it with me .... *2019-12-24, version 4.8.8* There are several things I love about eMags, and the major one is that I can carry them with me, and they are no burden to the environment. BUT ..... my wife loves it even more ..... no more “clutter.” ### 5/5 — Enlightening *2019-10-12* There is always new insights to improve your perspective in attaining new safer levels of proficiency. AOPA stays in the lead with keeping you informed on better ADM, products, technique, and keeping the pilot community cohesive. When we share our experiences, we grow collectively. ### 5/5 — Pilot blood *2019-02-21, version 2.3.2.1039* Keep up the good work AOPA. I love aviation and I love your organization and look forward to a new magazine each month and AOPA Live each week. I wish there was a 24/7 aviation tv channel online. ### 5/5 — Works Perfectly! *2019-01-10, version 2.3.2.1039* No issues whatsoever. ### 5/5 — Great Way to take AOPA on the road *2017-04-22, version 2.3.2.1039* Great way to take my AOPA mag library on the road with me ### 5/5 — Love this magazine *2017-03-16, version 2.3.2.1039* And being digital makes it even better. ### 5/5 — Great app *2016-12-27* I like being able to go to a page or department that I like. Have not had any trouble with it at all but I am using it as a reading issue app only. Sure is better than trying to sort through paper mags that pile up. ### 5/5 — Great app *2016-08-22, version 2.3.2.1039* Great App! ### 5/5 — Great App *2016-05-01, version 2.3.2.1039* Love being able to read past issues and the video programs that are included with the online magazine that supplements the written articles. ### 5/5 — AOPA mags *2016-02-11, version 2.3.2.1039* Works great,I've used it on 3or 4 different IPads with no problems. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*