Excellent!
The developer has clarified that reading progress is indeed synced to iCloud for every session, which is very good news! I do wonder if frequent annotations and highlights on different devices might get lost with only once-a-day backups, but I don’t use these features all that heavily, so it might not be an issue for me. I have restored my 5-star rating and enthusiastically recommend this reader!
Update:
Well, the developer has added automatic iCloud backup, which is good, but the implementation seems to be only a marginal improvement because it only backs up once a day. I switch devices for reading multiple times a day, so it’s not clear I’ll get any benefit from the automation and I’ll have to continue backing up manually. I’d prefer a more aggressive backup strategy using app open/close and wake/sleep events so we’d have true iCloud sync.
Original review:
This is a beautiful, feature-packed app that could easily become my 5-star go to reader… except that it uses Google Drive to backup instead of iCloud Drive. Unfortunately, that makes it a nonstarter.
Response from developer
Dear User, Thank you for the update and for sticking with Leaf & Spine. The full backup runs once a day but your reading place doesn't wait for it. Turn on Keep my place across devices in Backup & Restore on each of your devices (same iCloud account). Your page in every book is then saved to iCloud each time you close a book or leave the app and your other device picks it up as soon as you open the app or come back to it. Highlights, notes and newly added books still travel with the daily backup so for switching devices to keep reading, Keep my place is the one to turn on.
Excellent!
With the addition of iCloud backup, this is now my favorite all-around reader for iOS. It would be nice if backup were automatic rather than manual (I’ve already forgotten to backup my progress on my iPad and couldn’t resume on iPhone when I was away from home… the app should just use open / close / background / etc events to do incremental backups at every opportunity). Other than that, this is a fantastic alternative to the other readers on the AppStore!
Original review:
This is a beautiful, feature-packed app that could easily become my 5-star go to reader… except that it uses Google Drive to backup instead of iCloud Drive. Unfortunately, that makes it a nonstarter.
Response from developer
Dear User, You can now choose to turn on Automatic Backups save your reading progress across all devices.
Love this!!
I love this reading app. I think it is amazing. The only problem I have encountered is I can’t figure out how to get it to read my epub books. I’m not tech savvy so I’m sure it’s not the app. If you love reading this is a wonderful app even if your not tech savvy like me ☺️
Response from developer
Thank you for the 5 stars! You can now listen to your EPUBs in the new update by tapping on the bottom while reading to bring up the controls menu and tapping on Listen. You can also go to settings and tap on Restart Tutorial. Happy Reading and Listening :)
How do you use this?
Response from developer
Dear User, You can now restart the tutorial - check it out in Settings. There's also been a lot of bug fixes and performance updates along with the new Listen feature. I hope you this new update will win you back. Happy to answer any questions - Email at expera.forge@gmail.com
