# Teach Yourself Library — user reviews > 95 indexed App Store user reviews of Teach Yourself Library by Hachette UK (Holdings)Limited, rated 3.90/5 from 144 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/teach-yourself-library/id1143087176/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/teach-yourself-library/id1143087176.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 81 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 9 · 1★ 24 ## What do users think of Teach Yourself Library? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Good content of books - 👍 Helpful for language learning - 👍 Clear audio pronunciation - 👍 Easy to navigate interface - 👍 Free titles available **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs - 🐛 App doesn't open or crashes on launch - 🐛 Audio playback issues - 🐛 Downloads fail - 🐛 Poor user experience - 🐛 Not optimized for Mac/iPad - 🐛 Login/sign-in problems - 🐛 Outdated design - 🐛 Difficult to navigate chapters - 🐛 Inconsistent functionality across devices - 🐛 App requires re-downloading multiple times - 🐛 Poor support **Commonly reported bugs** - App doesn't open - Crashes on launch - Downloads not working - App keeps logging off - App not opening on iPhone - App closing spontaneously - Requires internet connection when available - Crashes when features are selected - Arrow keys don't turn pages on Mac - UI is confusing - Clicking on buttons navigates pages - No way to pop from book to collection - Visual affordances lacking - Clicking page makes text appear/disappear - Book content broken across pages - Default font tiny, font settings don't work - App is unstable, crashes frequently - Doesn't save progress - Cannot play some downloaded audios - No way to re-download audios - App won't sign in - Buttons too small to click - Audio doesn't play - Yellow text on yellow background - No proper categories for genres - Little accessibility options - Menu is terrible, no easy way to select chapters - App port of a browser page - App says user has to pay for purchased content - Audio player doesn't stay on Lock Screen - Makes everything zoomed in and keyboard larger - Audio dialogues don't work well - App is rubbish - Forced to use phone, not laptop - Audio doesn't display track numbers - Video in ebook says highlighting words, but can't - Dictionary takes to external sites - App not updated for larger screens - Basic features like translation lookup missing - No support received - App says 'Coming Soon' for books - Unable to access purchased books or sign in - App quits or says 'coming soon' for audio - App closes automatically when reproducing a book - App closes automatically - App crashes when opening files - App crashes and won't open - Audio doesn't work with iOS 13 - App keeps closed - App crashes when playing a chapter - Not compatible with iOS 13 - App crashes constantly when tapping on a book - Audio app not working - App doesn't open and listenings can't be heard - Crashes on iOS 13 - Not working since iOS 13 update - App crashes - App automatically shuts down when clicking a clip - Layout not compatible with iPads - Cannot play audio content - App closes when opening audio for Norwegian - Upgrade stopped French from working - Program keeps closing when trying to listen to lessons - Can't open ANYTHING - App crashing when choosing chapters/audio recordings - Audio no longer works - App crashes and shuts down when opening a new language - App isn't working, program closes when playing French - Not all languages available in audio library - Missing language audio (Serbian, Latvian) - App doesn't work from the beginning on iPhone X - Terrible to sign into - Doesn't allow profile creation or sign in via social media - Error message and sent back to first page when skipping sign in - No sound in ebook, icon present but no mention of audio - App crashes after each track play when switching pages - Downloading audio takes multiple retries - Confusing app, hard to find/access audio - No way to buy audiobooks or audio/book - Audio download is good, but better chapter labeling needed - App keeps closing even after uninstall/reinstall - App closes when clicking on a clip to play - Poor app design - Cannot download audio to iTunes or media player - Listening and re-listening is not intuitive - App is a mess - No control over content paid for - No clear pictures, up-to-date phrases, or easy audio access - Worst educational tool encountered **Most requested features** - Track repeat functionality - More exercises, words, and grammar - Chapters listed as default - Shorter jump forward/back options - Audio player on lock screen - Longer pause between tracks - Better chapter labeling for audio - Make all complete language audio available - Highlighting words in ebooks - Proper in-app dictionary - Update for larger screens - Allow use of other e-reader software - Download audio files to iTunes/media player - More pause time for practice - Add missing units ## Newest reviews (15 of 95) ### 2/5 — Error *2025-03-28, version 2.2* It doesn’t open from today ### 3/5 — Enhanced ebooks? *2025-03-03* To my understanding, I should be able to click on the icon within the ebook to hear the audio but it does not work. I can only seem to listen to the audio by going to the audio playlist. It would be very convenient to be able to use tap on the audio icon in the lesson to listen. ### 2/5 — always turns off *2024-06-25* Keeps logging me off the app and not allowing me back into accessing the book I downloaded , literally have to delete and re download the app multiple times to fix it ### 3/5 — Needs updating *2024-03-11* Good app however it wont let you open app on iPhone anymore due to not real easing a newer version :( so I cant continue my studies but annoying I hope they sort it soon ### 3/5 — App closing spontaneously *2024-03-04* I have been using this app a lot for both reading and the audio. For some reason, it has been randomly closing on both of my devices(iPhone and iPad Air) when I’m using it. It says it is up-to-date and it wasn’t doing this until recently. Please help ### 2/5 — Good content, horrible app *2023-08-18* This is easily the least stable app on my phone and the worst e-reader I have encountered. It doesn’t stay open for more than a few minutes without crashing. It doesn’t save your progress where you left off on books, so every time you open the app it’s a race against time to page flip back to where you left off to make any meaningful progress before the app crashes and you have to do it all over again. The only thing saving this from being a 1-star review is that the actual content of the books is quite good. ### 4/5 — Needs track repeat *2023-07-29* Great app! If it had track repeat I’d give it five stars. ### 4/5 — Great but it does have bugs *2023-01-06* Overall this is a great app. It has many different languages that go along with the complete book with the language you are learning. Or you can simply just learn by listening. It has many different options and you can buy things if you so choose. The unfortunate thing is that it is a glitchy app. I have to hit pause twice, sometimes skipping 30 seconds twice, and it is extremely slow. Beyond the overall performance of the app, my reason for docking a star, I give it a four out of five stars. ### 4/5 — Good *2022-02-11, version 2.0* Suitable for what I need it for. ### 3/5 — OK. Needs improvement. *2021-11-16* Good app to learn a language. Chapters should be listed as a default. Jump forward and back should be way less than 30 seconds as average chapter length is 1 or 2 minutes. ### 3/5 — Complete Catalan *2021-06-24* I really enjoyed the lesson but all of a sudden it disappeared from my iPhone. I would like it back on my iPhone as well as on my iPad. Thank you. ### 2/5 — Set up is brutal *2021-04-02, version 1.9* What should be a simple sign in for a book is taking far too long. Inputted all information and click create account . Looks as if it doing. Something, then kicks me back to the set up new account page. Three times and I’m done. Guess I’m shafted in the audio aspect of this book. ### 2/5 — Needs improvement *2021-03-09, version 1.9* The menu is terrible, there’s no easy way to select chapters, it’s basically just an app port of a browser page. Thank god the book I bought is very good, but the app makes it very frustrating. ### 2/5 — Language Hacking Spanish by Benny Lewis *2021-03-01, version 1.9* I bought the book a couple of years ago and started using the audio on my iPad and iPhone. It worked well but now I can’t get it to work. The app now says I have to pay for it. ### 3/5 — Needs updating *2021-01-14, version 1.9* It would be nice to have the audio player stay on the Lock Screen when audio is paused so you could continue right from there. Also a longer pause between tracks. Makes everything zoomed in and the keyboard larger when opened. Maybe it’s outdated for newer phones. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — No funciona en mi Mac Air *2025-03-16, version 2.2* Seguramente sea la culpa de la basura del Mac. 1200 euros gastados en el ordenador, engañado por la reputación de Apple de ser los mejores ordenadores, y luego me tengo que descargar el Google Chrome, porque el navegador que llevan décadas desarrollando, Safari, es una patata que da problemas de todo tipo, en el McAffee que me colocaron en la tienda no consigo activar el firewall, aplicaciones que no se abren, en fin, una puñetera estafa. Solo hace dos meses que me he comprado este cacharro y ya estoy amargamente arrepentido, podría haber gastado 400 euros menos y no habría adquirido un ordenador peor. Si esta reseña sirve para que alguien evite a los bandidos de Apple, habrá merecido la pena escribirla. ### 1/5 — Downloads not working... *2024-09-21* Download to library constantly fails which makes the app useless. **Developer response:** Sorry for the trouble! Please email support@papertrell.com with your device details and the issues you’re facing. We’re keen to fix this for you. ### 1/5 — Crashes on launch *2024-08-18* Crashes on launch on a M1 Mac ### 1/5 — does not work anymore *2024-02-08, version 2.0* it was a mediocre buggy app before that got its job done, now it’s a hot mess. Concretely it keeps saying that an internet connection is required which I of course have and if any feature is selected it keeps crashing. ### 1/5 — Just an awful experience *2023-10-17* This app is an iPad app that was made available for macos with no extra effort to actually support macos. You can't even use the arrow keys to turn pages! There's nothing in the menus other than stock commands. What little UI exists is a mystery. Clicking near the edges of pages goes forward and back, sure, but there are things in my book that look like buttons, and clicking them...pages forward and back. There's no way to pop directly from the guts of a book to my whole collection (supplemental audio for the book). Visual affordances are utterly lacking. Sometimes clicking on the page makes text appear or disappear on the page instead of paging forward or backward—I have no idea why! Book content that should really be shown together onscreen is broken across pages, so I have to go back and forth too much. Also, the default font is incredibly tiny, and opening the font settings and clicking the larger A changes the margins and line spacing, but the font remains the exact same size. That's...not helpful. Then I opened the Advanced submenu and suddenly the font got bigger. Yay? Some of the controls on that menu don't do what they promise, but at least I got the font size upped. Reading the book I bought is going to be a struggle, and I doubt I'll be buying any more for use in this app. ### 1/5 — Cannot download and play audio *2023-07-23* The app has really bad user experience. I downloaded multiple audios but can’t not play some of them-there’s no way to re-download the audios again and I can only reinstall the app . However reinstall the app doesn’t help at all, I still can’t play some audios ### 1/5 — Not for IPad *2023-03-16, version 2.0* This is a terrible iPad app. It won’t let me sign in. No problem with other apps. It won’t even let me rate it with 1 star. ### 1/5 — Bad design and functionality *2022-10-24, version 2.0* I never write reviews, but this app desperately needs an overhaul. It’s buggy, the buttons are too small to click, and often the audio doesn’t play. It’s kind of ruining my language learning with the Teach Yourself books. Doing the listening exercises as readings instead. ### 1/5 — Poor poor poor *2022-07-20* The people involved in this app should do a teach yourself course on how to make an app, as they are clearly ignorant on how to do it. Yellow text on yellow is not readable No proper categories for genres Very little accessibility option ### 1/5 — Good book, poor app *2020-12-21* I have the Complete Welsh course. The book is excellent but the supporting app with the audio is rubbish. First I am forced to use my phone rather than my laptop. Second the design is poor not intuitive and full of extraneous and intrusive content that delay accessing the material. Third, whilst the book gives track numbers the audio on the phone does not display these so you have to count to find the one you need, I expected far better from such a respected brand. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Complete German *2021-04-29, version 1.9* Very good ### 5/5 — Loving Duolingo! *2021-02-23, version 1.9* Lovely app to learn a new language! All I miss is more exercises, words and grammar ❤️ ### 5/5 — Nice app for audio book lovers *2021-01-24, version 1.9* Enjoyed using this for free audio book ### 5/5 — Works fine *2020-12-23* I’ve got the Complete Danish book and the dialogues work very well both on my MacBook and iPhone. I listen to the dialogues on my phone wherever I can, without the book and this helps me concentrate on the pronunciation. Haven’t had any technical problems with the app. ### 5/5 — Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon) *2020-11-13* More than just a primer for beginning students. Mark Atherton’s passion for his subject ensures not only linguistic competency but a full introduction to the history and culture of early England. ### 5/5 — Greek script Hacking *2020-10-12* I am really enjoying this product. It is easy to use and I get a huge kick out of puzzling out the words after less than a week. I look forward to it every day. ### 5/5 — Excellent choice for beginners *2020-09-14, version 1.9* An excellent app for beginners and very much useful ### 5/5 — I love it... *2020-07-01* I just love it everything is fine and helpful... ### 5/5 — What’s the problem? *2020-07-01* This app works perfectly with iOS 13. Very clear dialogue, perfect for learning a language. Works well on iPhone, iPad Air 3 and on the main iMac computer. The screen is clear and navigating to the chapters and playing them is a piece of cake. Well recommended. ### 5/5 — Problem *2019-09-30, version 1.6* This application is the best but now it doesn’t open and I can hear the listenings. --- *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 2026-08-27.*