# LibraryThing — user reviews > 170 indexed App Store user reviews of LibraryThing by LibraryThing.com, rated 3.50/5 from 278 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/librarything/id948824489/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/librarything/id948824489.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 92 · 4★ 62 · 3★ 56 · 2★ 27 · 1★ 41 ## What do users think of LibraryThing? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Quick barcode scanning - 👍 Useful for cataloging library - 🚀 Fast book addition **Cons** - 🐛 Glitches and crashes - 🔍 Limited search and editing capabilities - 🤖 Outdated and dated UI **Commonly reported bugs** - Barcode scanner not working - Books disappearing from catalog - Editing and saving issues **Most requested features** - Ability to create custom collections - Offline access to library - Integration with other book apps - Lending/loan tracking feature ## Newest reviews (20 of 170) ### 3/5 — Easy to use, when it runs *2026-08-15* The app is great for scanning a cataloging books, but is too unstable to use for looking up later. It reliably crashes when scrolling the list. ### 3/5 — Non-functional scan *2026-06-08, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 3/5 — Many features lacking *2026-03-29, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 2/5 — Infuriating *2026-02-20, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 4/5 — Manca la wishlist *2026-02-20, version 1.2.4* Molto ben fatta ma manca la whishlist! ### 2/5 — Suddenly Slow and Always Crashing *2026-01-26, version 1.2.4* 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! ### 2/5 — App/Website Not Working *2025-12-20, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 3/5 — Suddenly Slow and Ctashing *2025-12-14, version 1.2.4* 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! ### 3/5 — Hard to edit anything *2025-10-28, version 1.2.4* Not user friendly ### 3/5 — Needs more sources *2025-07-27* 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. ### 2/5 — Great in its way, but limited *2025-07-19* 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. ### 4/5 — Great but doesn’t support many non-English books, no reference category *2025-06-29, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 3/5 — Needs an iPad version *2025-06-13, version 1.2.4* Except for scanning books, the website is better ### 4/5 — Adding/Deleting? *2025-05-31, version 1.2.4* I’ve been adding books, and I have about 2271 added, then noticed the number doesn’t go up as I add. It does sometimes, but not always. Am I losing titles somewhere..or it’s not adding correctly? Love the app except for that ### 3/5 — Incomplete features *2025-05-27, version 1.2.4* I like the simplicity of this app. However, it needs options to import data from other apps like Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, etc. Also need to be able to customize shelves. ### 3/5 — Good but needs some mods. *2025-04-15, version 1.2.4* The barcode scanner is great. I love how fast I can add books. However. I have books in my collection without an ISBN (ex. the volume 0 series from BOTM) that I cannot add. An option for users to manually add books to the catalog that aren't in the database would be amazing. ### 2/5 — Good but only if you have a handful of books of the same interest *2025-04-15, version 1.2.4* This doesn’t allow you to change the names of the files, you have to group them all in one place or remember which file you put them in ### 4/5 — Druuna *2025-04-01, version 1.2.4* Meravigliosa ### 3/5 — So Close to great! *2025-02-16, version 1.2.4* Love this app for organizing my daughter’s hundreds of books. Sadly, tags and custom book entries aren’t working. If they did, it would be perfect! ### 2/5 — Great but only for Books *2025-02-11, version 1.2.4* This app worked great while I was scanning my books but as soon as I started to scan my movies and cds it stopped respecting my selected sources. No matter what I have chosen it always uses Bowker Books in Print, which results in most details being excluded like the movie cover and dates. This means either a different scanner has to be used or manual entry which means not using this app at all. Please fix this. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Badly needs an update *2026-02-21, version 1.2.4* 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. ### 1/5 — Frustrating *2026-02-11, version 1.2.4* Edit button hangs up on iPhone. ### 1/5 — Can’t add anything *2026-02-05, version 1.2.4* “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” ### 1/5 — Difficult *2025-08-03* Difficult to set up an account, not intuitive!! ### 1/5 — Freezes constantly *2025-02-22, version 1.2.4* . ### 1/5 — It never works! *2024-10-15, version 1.2.4* Started off great. Now it never works. ### 1/5 — this is a basic app *2024-10-11* I had high hopes for this app. However, it has a lot of flaws, and programming that does not address basic user needs. It’s basically useless for anything that isn’t currently in print. So if you are book collector, expect to have to do a lot of manual searching and sorting through possible correct records, but no guarantee it’s the right edition or printing. There’s a lot of available free online records out there to use, but this does not have many items that collectors actually would like to see. You might get incorrect entries, requiring you to enter in the correct information, there’s going to be lowercase titles, member tags that aren’t relevant for you, no clarity in your search as to what edition or publication date you’re looking at to select from. and it’s also really glitchy, and not intuitive. sorry. in needs way more beta testing than it got. ### 1/5 — Poor function *2024-04-10, version 1.2.4* 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 we’re not so slow. ### 1/5 — App/Website Not Working *2023-09-04, version 1.2.3* The app logged me out but the app and website won’t work to allow me to log back in. It won’t load. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t wirk *2023-09-04, version 1.2.3* Unable to log in (time out). Website not available. Out of business? ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — AMAZING! *2026-06-27* My mum suggested this app to me when I said I wanted to count all of my books. She has had it for a while (and has about 400 or more books counted) and finds it super useful and amazing. I couldn’t agree more! This app is free, useful and SO fun and easy to use! DOWNLOAD LIBRARY THING TODAY YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!! 😀😀😀 ### 5/5 — Long Time User *2026-05-29, version 1.2.4* 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! ### 5/5 — Love it! *2026-01-29, version 1.2.4* Thank you for updating the issues! This is a great app for reviewing and adding to my collection. Really handy in bookstores. ### 5/5 — Love it but busted *2025-12-21, version 1.2.4* I love this app, but can you fix the Edit Book and View on LibraryThing actions? ### 5/5 — (Edit) Fixed Functionality *2025-12-07* 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. ### 5/5 — Top book inventory *2024-08-20, version 1.2.4* It’s free! This is my favorite app for keeping track of my inventory of books ### 5/5 — Does Exactly What I Want *2024-02-17, version 1.2.4* I have no complaints whatsoever! I needed an app that allowed me to quickly add books to my library, easily view books, modify organization order, etc. LibraryThing does all of that splendidly. I also like being able to view more details on LT or Amazon as needed. Whether scanning barcodes or searching by name., LT always finds my titles. ### 5/5 — Great so big or small collection *2024-01-16, version 1.2.3* I was looking for a good book tracking app to know what I have and so far love this app! The barcode scanner is perfect and I didn’t realize how many books I had till I was done! So far greatly enjoy and makes me looking for what I need so much easier! ### 5/5 — The glitch is fixed *2022-10-31* I'm redoing my review and adding a star because the previous glitch was fixed pretty quickly with an update. The app no longer closes after adding every book. Thank you!!! When adding numerous books from a series I still have to redo the same search for the same series every time. I started copying and pasting the same search in so I don't have to retype. A multi-add feature would be a very nice addition for very long series of books. (Other then that) the app is excellent!!! Now I prefer to use this app because it's much less annoying than the website. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2022-09-02* Excellent software for cataloguing your books. --- *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 2026-09-11.*