# Open Library Reader — user reviews

> 42 indexed App Store user reviews of Open Library Reader by Loomis House, LLC, rated 3.00/5 from 50 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/open-library-reader/id1573989409/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/open-library-reader/id1573989409.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 17 · 4★ 5 · 3★ 7 · 2★ 5 · 1★ 16

## Newest reviews (16 of 42)

### 3/5 — Please

*2026-08-15*

The download/signin glitch is now fixed. Thank you - I can now see a book. However, I do not understand the logic of having the two page display option flip pages but the single page display (really, the only reasonable way to read the book without a huge display) just scrolls.  Please fix this so we can read the book without getting video game thumb aches.

### 3/5 — Login issue

*2026-07-18*

There is an existing login issue that's blocking us from using the app. Please fix it

### 3/5 — A good idea, but poorly designed app

*2026-05-11*

I really like being able to read from my phone, but the app is incredibly frustrating sometimes. It’s basically impossible to scroll through pages. The bar at the bottom has a tiny hit box and it doesnt scroll when you hold it. It also resets your progress through the book if another person checks it out (or sometimes just randomly for some reason). I’ve also been logged out for no apparent reason multiple times.

### 3/5 — Broken features

*2025-10-14*

This app would be great but I cannot save bookmarks which is a required feature. Instead it shows me a login button even when I’m already logged in. The bookmarks I’ve saved via the site I cannot see in this app.

### 1/5 — Can’t get past the loving part

*2025-02-15, version 1.0.15+21*

Hi  I can’t even get past the login part everything is correct but I will say loading and then back to sign up

### 1/5 — none

*2025-01-05, version 1.0.14+20*

horrible would not even let me make a account to even try and read any books spent 45 minutes on it don’t waste your time

### 3/5 — What happened

*2024-08-19*

This app needs an update can’t find some of the books that use to be on here other than that I really like this app.

### 1/5 — Schlecht

*2024-08-11*

Dass ich mich mit meinem Google Konto nicht einloggen kann macht diese App nutzlos.

### 1/5 — Used to love OL Reader but I Cant’t Log In

*2024-06-06, version 1.0.14+20*

I used OL Reader fine for so long but one day it logged me out and I haven’t been able to log back in. Please help! Thanks.

### 2/5 — No lists & too small

*2024-05-15*

This app doesn’t show any of the lists I’ve created on my Open Library account, and there’s no zoom option.  The text is too small to read without difficulty.  Full-page mode doesn’t solve the problem.  It’s easier to use Open Library on the phone’s browser.

### 1/5 — Can’t get Past login screen

*2024-05-05*

I had previously signed up for Open Library on the web using my Google credentials.  When I try to use these same credentials to login to the app, it keeps telling me I have the wrong password, and there is no “sign in with Google” option.  So with no apparent workaround I am stuck at the login screen and thus the app is useless to me.

### 1/5 — Crashes when opened

*2023-09-19*

This app crashes when I open it, doesn’t continue pass the opening screen

### 1/5 — Can’t login

*2023-09-13, version 1.0.14+20*

The app won’t let me sign in through google. I already have an OL account and I can sign in through a web browser but not through the app.

### 3/5 — Grateful for app but loading is inconsistent

*2023-07-15*

I love using Open Library and have found many old, out-of-print books my library system no longer carries. For that I’m grateful. However, when I load a book, open it with Reader, and magnify the page using the controls, the view of the page is often cut in half so only half the text is displayed. Very disappointing when this happens, and it does happen frequently.

### 1/5 — Almost Unusable

*2023-07-07*

Zooming in to read easier is impossible. And forget about scrolling from one page to another; it’ll just start jumping from random page to random page. I’d rather just use the website than this headache of an app.

### 1/5 — Non-functional

*2023-03-28, version 1.0.13+19*

The app doesn’t work. When I select a book from my library, only a blank screen appears.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Can’t use it if you can’t download a book

*2026-07-23*

I am logged in. I have logged out, and logged back in. I have logged out, and deleted the app, and re-downloaded the app, and logged back in. No matter what I do, when I try and select the book, it says it can’t download it because I’m not logged in.

### 1/5 — Not working

*2026-07-17*

Though I am logged in, the app tells: This book requires you to be logged in. Please log in and try again.

### 1/5 — Bad App

*2026-01-22*

App does not work. You can create an account, but you can not log in.

### 1/5 — Awful

*2025-08-23*

It opens a book with this bubble on top with instructions but I can’t figure out how to get rid of the bubble so I can actually read the book!

### 1/5 — Great resource! But it lost my whole history.

*2025-07-27*

I was so excited to see how many classic text books were available to borrow for research in my field. I spent an hour searching by the names of several favorite scholars and putting them in my “To Read” collection. Then I logged out and tried to log in again, using the same email as before, but my whole list is gone now. What a loss and a frustration.

### 1/5 — Can't sign up

*2025-05-31*

Since I first learned to program in 1964, I figured I would have the ability to sign up for an account.  Nope. After 20 minutes I gave up.

### 1/5 — Impossible

*2025-03-27, version 1.0.15+21*

Couldn’t sign up or sign in at all. A waste of storage.

### 1/5 — Timed out

*2025-02-24, version 1.0.15+21*

Times out very quickly, therefore unable to load. Retried many times, needs fixing!

### 1/5 — Can’t get pass login screen

*2025-02-22*

It would be nice if you can even get past the login screen. It just seems like the app doesn’t function at all because you can’t login there’s always an error message.

### 1/5 — Ahhh

*2025-02-17*

Does not let me login

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Great & sometimes funny bugs

*2026-08-09*

First of all, thank you to the developers for continued development & maintenance of this app! 🙏

Reading consistency is simpler than a few months ago when sometimes the app logged me out while borrowing. 
Appreciate the fix. 

I Utilize Open Library Reader regularly to….

1) …. read available books,
2) …. update status of books or remove from shelves,  
3) ….find & add “new” books to my shelves (possibly better via the open library web interface currently, however the app is ok to add some books; some unfortunately do not yet show up in the app search).

Suggestions for future updates:
1) Maybe we can see easier whether a book is available to borrow and read *before* we click on the book and get feedback that it were unavailable? For example, a simple green circle 🟢 for available and red circle 🔴 for unavailable could help. 

Could be wrong for a reader app but if relevant: 
2) How could we improve the search? 🔍 
In my experience, the search seems quite strict and takes strings literal, therefore sometimes removing results the more words I give. I do not know how the search functions “under the hood” though. Idea: Maybe a looser “AI”-/ cosine similarity-based search could help here.

Thanks for reading my whole review; enjoy your day 🙏🥰

### 5/5 — Would Love To See More Updates QOL Improvements

*2023-12-31*

Great App. Hope to see a few future updates to keep it fine tuned!

**Developer response:** Thanks for the comments! We're not trying to replicate all the functionality of the Open Library site, just to provide a better reading interface, so the best experience for exploring for books will continue to be the website. However, all the results returned in searches _should_ be available books, though sometimes the data we get from Open Library isn't correct. They're improving that all the time, though.

### 5/5 — Helpful app

*2023-06-22*

This app makes accessing and reading the Open Library collection much nicer on an iPhone and iPad.  Wonderful resource and very helpful app.

### 5/5 — Lets me read car manuals for free

*2022-07-23, version 1.0.10+16*

Got to read about how cars work, no need to buy mechanics manual from Amazon etc, + the varieties is very wide and u can get books even from 70s-80s. not a lot of books u can get of original car model for free. Looked everywhere and this app is an amazing encounter.. thanks.

### 5/5 — Great App for OpenLibrary

*2022-05-02*

I downloaded this app initially and was saddened to learn that the book viewer didn’t work on my phone. But the latest update enables me to read my books now! 5 stars, very pleased.

### 5/5 — Fantastic app!

*2022-04-27*

This app is wonderful for reading books from Open Library! It’s so much better than trying to read a book on a web browser, and very easy to use. It has cool features, like bookmarks, 3 different shelves, and more.

### 5/5 — Most enjoyable way to read Open Library books

*2021-11-11*

Open Library by Internet Archive has thousands of books to borrow for free, but the reading experience on mobile devices is not good. This app changes that, especially with the full screen reading mode, sortable shelves, and search. It is already the best way to enjoy Open Library books on iPhone and iPad, and should only get better with continued improvements and developments.

### 5/5 — Free access to every book ever!

*2021-08-10*

This app has been great for reading books digitized by the Internet Archive that are available on Open Library. There are millions of books of all kinds that I can temporarily borrow just like a library.
The UI of this app is really intuitive. Hopefully it will have an offline mode soon!

### 4/5 — Google Auth

*2025-02-04, version 1.0.15+21*

Google Auth would be great if it was added to the app for login as well

### 4/5 — Really enjoy - Minor critiques!

*2022-11-27*

I honestly really love OL. I read books while at work, and can actually pick them up on my phone instead of having to go to the site, so this is really nice. I only recently downloaded this so I don’t know how previous versions were, but my main thing is when you’re on single page mode you need to scroll. Normally scrolling to the next page wouldn’t be bad if it was more of a swipe up and you were on the next page, but you have to scroll and center the page yourself. It’s not bad, but kind of annoying, especially mixed with the fact the pages don’t stay centered when you have it zoomed in to fill the screen. 

My other thing is full screen mode. I wish I didn’t have to adjust the page size before going into full screen mode, and that when I went FS it would just automatically adjust to my screen. If someone needs text to be larger, then I understand why you need to adjust, but you should at least be able to enable / disable it.

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*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 2026-09-14.*