# Marin Independent Journal News — user reviews > 80 indexed App Store user reviews of Marin Independent Journal News by MediaNews Group, rated 4.60/5 from 207 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/marin-independent-journal-news/id499674553/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/marin-independent-journal-news/id499674553.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 158 · 4★ 29 · 3★ 11 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 6 ## What do users think of Marin Independent Journal News? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Great local coverage - 👍 Comprehensive access to IJ - 👍 Vast improvement in navigation (newer reviews) - 👍 Good source of local news - 👍 Reliable with few bugs **Cons** - 👎 Forced and useless updates - 👎 Too many ads, distracting - 👎 App is awful, frustrating - 👎 Cannot log in with paid ID - 👎 Privacy concerns, opt-out impossible - 👎 App is useless, crashes often - 👎 Content not updated frequently - 👎 Paid access required, not free - 👎 Poor content quality - 👎 Interface is unsophisticated and clumsy - 👎 App is broken, non-inviting, boring - 👎 Stories are old, don't catch up - 👎 Cannot read in landscape view - 👎 Cannot see older stories - 👎 New update is a disaster - 👎 Major step backwards (no comments) - 👎 Old version much better - 👎 New app flops, doesn't auto-rotate - 👎 Glorified police blotter/high school newspaper - 👎 Slow, intrusive, full of mistakes - 👎 Janky app, stories don't load - 👎 Weak app, needs improvement - 👎 Annoying advertising ticker - 👎 Search function missing - 👎 Buggy and cumbersome to navigate - 👎 App won't open - 👎 Not working at all - 👎 Text size cannot be increased **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes and won't load - App support link is broken (404) - Cannot login - App crashes all the time - App won't open - App not working - App crashes after upgrade - App spins or shows article unavailable - Network error in local jobs section - Stories not updating properly, days old **Most requested features** - Allow comments on articles - Ability to comment on articles - Add search function - Option to purchase app to eliminate ads - Consolidated calendar of events - Push urgent notifications/news - Expand photos - Remove intrusive ads - More content and frequent updates - Allow users to choose between horizontal and vertical reading - Bring back obituaries - Fix local jobs section - Update sports section daily - Fix weather to show Marin County - Allow headlines to wrap ## Newest reviews (19 of 80) ### 2/5 — Cannot connect *2026-08-07* Cannot connect messages all the time ### 3/5 — Conservative News *2025-06-17* Marin County’s conservative, corporate news organization. Reflects the values of the parent company with some conservative to middle of the road reporting. ### 1/5 — Broken app *2021-05-16, version 7.6.0* The most recent app Makes mr sign on every time I want to read a news article. They need to find a fix that keeps me logged in. ### 1/5 — Opting out of tracking is impossible *2021-04-09, version 7.5.9* Says to go to storage option in account page to opt out of tracking, but can’t be found. ### 1/5 — Bad app *2020-12-09, version 7.5.9* Really bad app. Can’t login. ### 1/5 — Who does the IJ think they are?!? *2020-11-02* I have a subscription to this lowly rag because I need it for business. The interface online is unsophisticated and clumsy. And now they threaten my access to my paid subscription if I don’t link my subscription to a social account? This is unfortunately yet another example of overstepping boundaries and authority. This is a news paper for Christ sake! Not a game app. UPDATE: I want up to date news not last weeks news. Clumsy and idiotic app ### 1/5 — Please get yourselves together online!!! *2020-10-15* What a disappointment. I want to support local journalism but sorry, this paper is not really available online. And the promised benefit of access to merc news et al. is never fulfilled/broken. The folks at “customer service” are of no use(Tho they are always very pleasant), please provide them w training! I’ll come back when you address these problems. ### 1/5 — Terrible paper *2020-07-14, version 7.4.5* I get better Marin news from the SF Chronicle than the I J. ### 1/5 — No News Here *2020-07-01, version 7.4.5* I’m not sure if it is the app itself, or that it feels like there is not a lot of local reporting in the Marin I.J. Do the reporters get to leave the office? ### 1/5 — Text size needs to be larger *2020-05-18, version 7.4.5* I’ve tried to toggle the text size larger but it does nothing. ### 1/5 — Get with it!!! *2019-11-12, version 7.4.0* This is the worst application I’ve ever used!! ### 4/5 — Vast improvement *2019-10-13* New version MUCH easier to navigate - using buttons that show up only if you tap "Show More", otherwise it's the old, confusing menu-based search, which I could never master. Thanks! ### 1/5 — v7.4 update (Oct 2019) a total fail. *2019-10-12* Previous version of app worked like a charm on my iPad. Updated to v7.4 this morning and now app just crashes and won't load at all. My iOS is up to date and have tried un/reinstalling the v7.4 app without success. I tried clicking the "app support" option in the App Store and get a 404 notice on the IJ webpage. Classic. I wish there was an easy way to access old app versions! Please undo whatever you did because I enjoyed your old app. ### 1/5 — Searching *2019-04-05, version 7.3.11* There is not even a way to look up an article, even if you get the paper rag and use the same headline. ### 1/5 — Worthless *2017-11-03, version 7.2.11* Very little and useless news. Forget this app ### 1/5 — No stars, the app wouldn't allow! *2017-06-02* I have been a San Rafael resident for nearly 50 years and the IJ has been the local fish wrap. I even delivered it as a young man. Unfortunately the website is broken, non-inviting and boring. Example of broken: I now get the paper through the app on my iPhone. Today I had a flag depicting New news as well as a banner flash talking about the Paris accord. When I clicked the icon, instead of the article that flashed all over my iPhone coming up, some basketball article came up instead. Moreover, I had to search the news list to find the article, it was fifth from the top. I'm not sure why they flash a banner and flag my app with a red number then make me search for the article? ### 1/5 — App has problems *2017-04-09, version 7.1.7* Stories featured are three or four days old, never seems to catch up to today. ### 3/5 — New app *2017-01-07* Couple annoying issues with new app. Cannot read in landscape view and cannot see stories that ran earlier in the week. Was going to call about this. Bother wise nice look and assume this is a more responsive version. ### 1/5 — Bring back prior version *2017-01-07, version 7.0.0023* The new update is a disaster ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Constantly force g updates *2026-08-22* And cannot “connect messages” all the time ### 1/5 — Please stop forcing useless updates *2026-04-19* You’re not a bank, stop forcing useless updates. ### 1/5 — Please stop forcing useless updates *2026-01-18, version 10.0.51* You’re not a bank, stop forcing useless updates ### 1/5 — Forced updates constantly *2025-08-28* Too many forced updates, disabling the app you just downloaded already on your phone. Each new update provides absolutely nothing new ### 1/5 — way too many ads *2024-01-12* There are so many moments when I scroll through an article and all of a sudden my screen is half-covered by multiple ads. The ads are too distracting and annoying for the app to be useful. I’m going back to a browser and ad-blocker. ### 1/5 — Frustrating *2023-01-13, version 7.6.3* This app is awful. I need to unsubscribe- there are few that are full articles, most are only headlines linking to a series of ads or tweets. And I can’t figure out how to easily cancel my subscription. Now I can’t even post this because I need a ‘nickname’ and the ones I enter all seem to be taken… Argh ### 1/5 — Cmon *2022-09-08, version 7.6.3* No ability to convert to the eEdition? Why make it so hard? And when I try all versions of ‘not happy’, that all seem to be taken. No way… ### 1/5 — Awful, and maybe CPPA non-compliant *2022-08-13* I can’t login to this app with my own paid-for user ID, but only with the Auth0 ID, which tells me it will sell all my data. Honest, but ecch. There’s no way to exercise my privacy choices under the California Consumer Privacy Act— all links that might lead to the choice buttons are dead. The website isn’t easy to navigate, either, and it puts up more ads than my iPhone can reasonably handle. This app, and the website, need a compete rewrite— perhaps with a lawyer’s guidance. Update: a long phone call to the IJ allowed me to update my card expiration date and password, and, even though I was still Auth0, I could then exercise my privacy choices. I still can’t give this more than one star, though; this process should be much easier and doable without a phone call from within the app. ### 1/5 — The IJ app is Useless! *2022-02-25, version 7.6.3* Paid $140 for an app that does not allow me to read more than 3 articles. The IJ should be ashamed of it’s utterly incompetent attempt to enter the digital media arena. Anyone thinking of purchasing this app should do themselves a favor and drop the though altogether. ### 1/5 — Privacy *2021-06-04* Now the app warns me that it is telling my information to a third-party but gives me zero options for opting out except to contact the company -and it won’t let you in unless you accept. I called three times and got dropped by the automated system - when I select the different departments just go dead. So then I emailed them to let them know that I did not want my privacy information sold. It’s unclear if I’ll get removed or not. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great local coverage *2014-05-06, version 5.6* Comprehensive access to the IJ. Thanks! ### 5/5 — Great local content *2013-09-04, version 4.5.2.0* For the price you can't beat the local content. ### 5/5 — Love it *2013-08-30, version 4.5.2.0* Nicely done. Level of features. ### 5/5 — Great App *2013-07-16, version 4.3.0.0* Works great, but there are a few times that it hangs. Overall, it's a good app! ### 5/5 — Mij *2013-07-13, version 4.3.0.0* I love the IJ! It is up to date and relevant . I enjoy all of the APPS dining, entertainment, latest news... ### 5/5 — Great! *2013-07-02, version 4.3.0.0* Indeed, easy to view and covers a variety of news about the Bay Area. ### 5/5 — Love getting my local news this way! *2013-06-04, version 4.3.0.0* use it every day ### 5/5 — Very reliable *2013-04-22, version 4.2.1.0* Very few bugs. Good articles relevant to Marinites, north and south. ### 5/5 — I like this app *2012-10-10* In response to some of the earlier reviews, I notice that the app now shows weather for San Rafael, which is where I am. It also functions fine on iOS 6, and it always has, at least for me. ### 4/5 — The Times it isn’t *2023-12-08* Marin probably has a fully educated readership that is as educated as any of any countrywide newspaper in the USA with only a very few exceptions yet when I read it I feel it could be written for a high school. Senior or college class. I am suspect our country has one of THE best educated college educated groups in the USA but many large USA cities read above the 7B reading level I subscribe to the NYTimes yet local insight, I do read the IJ which leaped forward when sold a dozen years ago. It try’s and is allot better than nothing at all. Thanks for asking, no please share. --- *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 2026-09-03.*