Apple Books Ratings and Reviews

I do love this app. I did like it when I could put large PDF’s in here. My favorite thing to do is have the book read to me via the read function (by dragging two fingers from the top of the screen, or by activating the read control via the Accessibility settings menu. Mainly because I have focus issues and I like following along, but also because I can listen and do other things as well. I like how the portion being read is highlighted and it scrolls as it’s reading. I would like to offer a suggestion that I think many will love, why not offer a book print and audio option so that it could do that via the app and I can listen on CarPlay. I know some authors read their own books for audio books and would love being able to buy a book that also offers the audio so I can follow along when I can and hear the author’s reading it to me. Recently using the read function has been glitchy and it’s been skipping parts, especially in the end of the chapters. I’m not sure if this is what other reviewers were talking about, but this is what I experience when using the read function.

Frustration with iOS 16 disfunction leaves me wondering if the upgrade was tested before being released. I agree with the previous reviewer and won’t re-address those same concerns. However, I will address the book mark and scroll reading issues. The slightest touch while scroll reading activates the red book mark which (because I’m reading) needs to be cleared. Sometimes touching the red bookmark is enough to clear it, but other times you have to open the Themes and Settings menu and remove the bookmark there as well. This seems to be more sensitive with iOS 16 than previous versions.

Even more frustrating, though; when using the scroll reading feature near the end of a chapter the (scroll) screen jumps ahead - sometimes paragraphs ahead, sometimes pages ahead, sometimes to the end of the current chapter, or other times to the end of the book. Imagine trying to find where you were reading last when that happens. (An opportunity to use the search feature as long as you have the exact verbiage.)

Anyway, to fix the jumping scroll issue I change from scroll to page turning or sometimes I have decreased the font size, and then sometimes I have to close the book because it won’t reload after a font size change. And since the pages are renumbered you can’t just go to your last page and continue reading. Please FIX this bug in the near future. Thank you.

Dear Books Product Team, I am delighted to be able to reach out to you in this manner! I am a devoted Apple user and a passionate book enthusiast :P. I thoroughly enjoy your Books app, whether it's on my Mac, iPhone, or iPad. The Books app consistently provides me with a seamless and enjoyable reading experience, and I am truly grateful for your hard work! However, one minor issue I've encountered is that when I read books in the epub format, although I've noticed that the Books app allows for customizing fonts, unfortunately, the selection of fonts provided by the app is a bit limited and doesn't include my preferred ones. I attempted to find a solution through Google but was unsuccessful. The response I received was that the Books app doesn't offer additional font options (sad face). I earnestly request if it would be possible for you to add more font options, preferably allowing the import of TrueType Font files or selecting fonts from the system. Of course, it would be fantastic if I could also choose fonts that I have installed in my system (like Pages, Numbers app). Thank you sincerely! I hope you can accommodate the request of this fervent Apple Books enthusiast. Once again, thank you! Wishing you all the best!

I enjoy reading books with this app, but there are still a lot of glitches from my last review. 1: light reading books that come in volumes are still not stacking up for some reason. The author’s name hasn’t changed for the series, so the is no reason it can’t consolidate them to one group rather than have each book separated. 2: sometimes when the page, it goes to a blank page. I have to swipe a previous page or two and then go back to the said page. Lastly: both my iPhone 12 and iPad Air app crashes sometimes. Not too sure why this hasn’t been addressed, but it’s been years since the app came out. The more software continues to advance, it should reduce the problems, not create more. Would like to see my money’s worth purchasing books from this app be put to use on updating the app (REAL updates). It would be much appreciated. But I believe my words are being unheard. Some books I pre-ordered are not showing up. When I hit “View Item” it says that the said book is no longer available in this country or region. Mind the fact, that I waited over a month for the book and now I can’t read it. Not too sure if it’s due to technical issues or incompetent functions. All I know is that this app is getting worse and no one is fixing it. My advice to those looking at this app, keep what you got and find another iBook app. This was once at the top of it’s peak and now it’s falling fast.

UPDATE: the more I use this updated version of Books the more I HATE it. The stupid little thing in the bottom righthand corner to control everything is the worst designed button in the history of screens. FIRE THE ENTIRE DESIGN TEAM WHO TOOK ONE OF APPLE’S BEST APPS AND TRASHED IT.

Since 2010; I have but using iPads to read all of my books. The design, the layout, was absolutely stellar from the very beginning. The graphics of turning a page made the transition from reading a paper book to a virtual book seamless. But then 2022 came along with the release of the latest iOS for iPads. An apple, with its horrible wisdom decided to hand over this project to someone who obviously has never read a paper book. I am furious. As a loyal Apple user for over 25 years, I am seriously open to other providers not just for reading books; but I am ready to go back to paper books, giving up my Apple Watch for real watch, putting down my iPhone, and maybe even considering going with another type of cell phone that is not an apple. With your meals price increases for Apple services, I’ve already canceled those and I’m ready to give up everything that is Apple. Apples become too greedy without any consideration for its very loyal customers changing books it’s just the latest, possibly the straw that breaks many of our backs interest to taking any more from Apple. Yes I am upset. Yes, I have been loyal for many many years. Yes, I really may leave.

The most recent update has made this perhaps the most frustrating experience I've had yet while trying to read and annotate. The previous format made it easy to highlight, scroll between pages, add notes, clear highlight marks, find the index (a crazy concept now), and overall be able to hold my device while using the app.

This recent update has made it feel more like I'm scrolling through my camera roll of screenshots that someone took of book pages than it actually feels like I'm attempting to read a formatted book. The highlighting feature is almost twice as twitchy and jumpy as before, and I find it even harder to remove highlighting that was done by mistake. Not only that, but instead of being able to tap a drop-down menu for the book's index, you now need to tap the screen three or four times before it registers that you don't want to just be in image mode, and that you'd actually like to access another menu. This menu, which was formerly easy to use and access, has been relegated to a very tiny and hard-to-find button in the bottom corner that doesn't always show up. In addition to that frustration, it's much harder to operate than the last menu.

My best description of the new update is that they tried to fix something that wasn't really broken, and in doing so just made it worse.

Almost every time I launch the app, large chunks of my library are mysteriously missing - often including things I was actively reading fifteen minutes before. If I wait patiently with the app open for 3, 4, 5 minutes (no progress indicator or “syncing” message, you just have to trust it….) eventually things will slowly reappear and I’ll see library items again - though given how random the behavior is, I’m never quite sure if it’s all there. Sometimes the resync never happens and I have to do a ritual of settings changes, restarts, and reinstalls to get it back. The app will aggressively delete local copies of things (presumably to save space, but it’s not like ebooks are very large….), including very recently opened files, which has left me more than once with an empty library over a long flight where I was literally reading something on the train to the airport. Really hard to grok how an app could get basic workflows like “I want to continue reading the book I was reading yesterday” so wrong, but somehow this only seems to work like 25% of the time. The desktop is equally broken, though somehow in slightly different ways. Somehow this would be even slightly excusable if the app had any features at all, but tbh it’s a very basic and utilitarian reader app - it’s simple and would be great if it reliably did the three or four things it sets out to do.

Even before the most recent changes I have been having issues with books in the same series saving all as separate books or books 1 and 3 together, 3, 4, and 5 separately, and then books 7-9 together. In the folders where a few are grouped together it prompts me to re-buy the books I ALREADY OWN. I contacted Apple for help with no resolution. As an avid reader with DOZENS of books it is extremely frustrating to have series separated like this!

Now, after this new update, the entire app is no longer user friendly. The font, font sizes, spacing, etc. looks awful. Trying to access specific chapters, settings, bookmarks, and the search bar is super inconvenient. And as small as it seems, having to hit the X in the top right corner to get out of the book is just awful.

Due to these changes, I am currently moving all of my favorite books and unfinished series over to the kindle app. It’s depressing to rebuy all of my books on another platform simply bc the developers made all of these changes, clearly without even seeking the opinions of those who use this app. It’s disappointing that Apple continues to destroy so many things that were the reason many of us chose to utilize their products. It has been 11.5 years since the loss of a pioneer whose work is slowly being deconstructed by those who took over his company.

Have to agree with other reviewers re: iOS 16 update. Wow. App has had most of the useful features gutted and what’s left is a dysfunctional mess. For starters PLEASE bring back the page turning animation. If I wanted to feel like I’m readim* a spreadsheet at work, I’d read a spreadsheet at work. Next - I Tried to bold fonts to help with my bad eye issues and some portions of the book are in bold, some are not. It’s completely random, sometimes with the bold text stopping in the middle of a paragraph or even middle of a word. Previous books no longer open to my last location, but start at the beginning or random locations in the book, leaving me to flip flip flip flip flip flip back trying to find where I left off. Beyond frustrating. There is a quite long lag when opening a book, often leaving me to wonder if the app has crashed. Not a fan of all the functions relegated to the pop up menu tab instead of being readily available at the top of the screen since I am not happy when I have to have a scavenger hunt just to find basic functions. This was not an “update”. It was a huge step backwards. Someone at Apple really needs to take a course in ui functionality and user friendly interface design. Why change the great things about this app and replace it with this mess?

I’m at 100% battery. 6 gb of storage left. My phone won’t download any books, just tosses them into iCloud. They want you to pay for iCloud. They don’t care if you’re a student just trying to do some homework. Your phone won’t care if you’re not on low power mode and have a lot of storage. You will not be able to get a single assignment done unless you open the PDF in a different app. This “app” is GENUINELY a scam, it’s preventing me from getting courses done that I have paid real money for. I’ve spent 30 minutes now just trying to keep the book open to read the info I need. It just keeps on closing and crashing. I keep having to REDOWNLOAD the book EVERY time that happens.

It is a scam. I will be sharing all of my screen recordings and screen shots with the DCA. This is quite literally preposterous. It’s become a normal school standard to have books on your tablets and phones and laptops, yet, these people are trying to FORCE their UNNECESSARY extra services on you. When you literally are just trying to get some work done. And even if it DOES finish downloading and SEEMS like it’s in your iCloud library, oh u wanna open your notes app? HAVE FUN SPENDING ANOTHER 5 MINUTES DOWNLOADING THE BOOK AGAIN???? LIKE WHAT????

YOUVE COST ME 30 MINUTES OF STRAIGHT TIME. STRESSFUL PAINFUL. DCA TIME ON GOD I AM GONNA GO CRAZY