Non-functional scan
Unable to use the scan feature to add books to my library. The button does not trigger any action. It would be nice to be able to scan a cover and have the title and author returned.
Long Time User
I have used Library Thing for many years. It has made my life so much easier! As a serious bibliophile, I appreciate its ease of use without a lot of unnecessary distractions. It has allowed me to manage our family library of almost 10,000 volumes quickly and efficiently and I cannot imagine life without it! Thank you!
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Many features lacking
1) ability to share owns catalogue with friends 2) browsing other peoples catalogues 3) find similar books eg. By the same authors, genre, year, country of origin etc. 4) The app crashes when trying to browse an author’s profile. Still my default cataloguing app but would migrate to another, more modern/advanced if I knew how to.
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Badly needs an update
This app hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. It now has glitches which render it unusable for anything other than viewing your catalog, which has at times been buggy on the app to begin with, sometimes failing to find a book that is in my catalog. You can no longer edit books, as other reviewers have noted. This may have coincided with the release of iOS 26. Scanning books into your catalog has been the main benefit of this app through the years. But the app isn’t even very useful as a scanner anymore since you need to use a browser if you want to make any edits.
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Infuriating
If you just want to scan barcodes and accept whatever you get, this app will satisfy you. The scanner is as good as you will find.
But if you edit your book entries, this app is treacherous and may as well have been designed to infuriate users who curate their book catalog.
Best practice among app developers is to save edits unless the user cancels them. This app confuses you into thinking it works that way, because the “Save” button disappears when you scroll down, but “Close” is visible at all times in the top bar. So you work your way down the page, adding tags, assigning a bookshelf, adding details, maybe writing a review. Your only visible option for exiting the page is “Close” so you tap it. Guess what? All your changes were discarded!
I have fallen for this so many times, unable to believe that LibraryThing could be so perverse as to require users to select a “Save” button that is concealed most of the time. It’s clear that user testing was neglected. Whoever was hired to code this obnoxious kludge seems to expect app users to think like punch-card programmers. (“If no SAVE command, erase buffer.”)
I wrote this review to remind myself to never again trust this app for any task other than scanning barcodes. Editing the resulting entry must be done in the web browser. As of Feb. 2026 the last app update was 2 years ago. So I don’t have much hope for improvement.
But if you edit your book entries, this app is treacherous and may as well have been designed to infuriate users who curate their book catalog.
Best practice among app developers is to save edits unless the user cancels them. This app confuses you into thinking it works that way, because the “Save” button disappears when you scroll down, but “Close” is visible at all times in the top bar. So you work your way down the page, adding tags, assigning a bookshelf, adding details, maybe writing a review. Your only visible option for exiting the page is “Close” so you tap it. Guess what? All your changes were discarded!
I have fallen for this so many times, unable to believe that LibraryThing could be so perverse as to require users to select a “Save” button that is concealed most of the time. It’s clear that user testing was neglected. Whoever was hired to code this obnoxious kludge seems to expect app users to think like punch-card programmers. (“If no SAVE command, erase buffer.”)
I wrote this review to remind myself to never again trust this app for any task other than scanning barcodes. Editing the resulting entry must be done in the web browser. As of Feb. 2026 the last app update was 2 years ago. So I don’t have much hope for improvement.
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Manca la wishlist
Molto ben fatta ma manca la whishlist!
Frustrating
Edit button hangs up on iPhone.
Can’t add anything
“Add to catalog” does nothing- it presents me no search bar or barcode scanner. It’s just essentially a blank screen that says “nothing recently added”
Love it!
Thank you for updating the issues! This is a great app for reviewing and adding to my collection. Really handy in bookstores.
Suddenly Slow and Always Crashing
I have loved this app and I use it for my very large home library. But it has recently becoming very slow and often crashes when I am entering books. Would love to see it fixed!
Love it but busted
I love this app, but can you fix the Edit Book and View on LibraryThing actions?
App/Website Not Working
The app won’t allow me to edit books. As soon as I hit edit it goes to a white screen that just spins and then it would let me close it.
Suddenly Slow and Ctashing
I have loved this app and I use it for my very large home library. But it has recently becoming very slow and often crashes when I am entering books. Would love to see it fixed!
(Edit) Fixed Functionality
The website is wonderful, but the app often crashes or freezes on both my phone and tablet, and the barcode scanner consistently causes the app to stop working. It would be much more useful as an app if the barcode worked and were not so slow.
(Edit 6 December 2025) The app can still be slow some days, but it doesn’t crash nearly as often and the barcode scanner works again, so I am very happy with it! I also appreciate that it’s functional without fluff or ads. I respect the developers for that.
(Edit 6 December 2025) The app can still be slow some days, but it doesn’t crash nearly as often and the barcode scanner works again, so I am very happy with it! I also appreciate that it’s functional without fluff or ads. I respect the developers for that.
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Hard to edit anything
Not user friendly
Difficult
Difficult to set up an account, not intuitive!!
Needs more sources
For the most part, I really like the app; however, it is missing a key source Barnes & Noble. I would also like to see Target added because both of these retailers offer exclusive editions. The ISBNs on these books are different, so when you scan or enter the number, nothing comes up.
I do like the ability to scan my books, which has made cataloging my library pretty easy. I just wish that the app had more features of the website. I log all the books in the house, but I like to categorize them by location, and if it’s my book or my kids’. I have to create categories on my computer, then I can select it. That makes it a pain when I’m trying to organize things.
I do like the ability to scan my books, which has made cataloging my library pretty easy. I just wish that the app had more features of the website. I log all the books in the house, but I like to categorize them by location, and if it’s my book or my kids’. I have to create categories on my computer, then I can select it. That makes it a pain when I’m trying to organize things.
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Great in its way, but limited
I’m glad that I had only added 30-odd titles before realizing that there’s no way to manually add some older titles. Also, searching my catalog by title is only sporadically successful.
Great but doesn’t support many non-English books, no reference category
Please add a category for reference materials. I don’t exactly “read” a dictionary but it isn’t a favorite either. I was not able to add books from Japan even if they had English titles and an ISBN.
Needs an iPad version
Except for scanning books, the website is better
