We analyzed 23 negative reviews from the top 5 Library apps on the App Store. Here's what users hate most.
Ranked by frequency — how often each complaint appears in negative reviews.
48% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"I live in a small town of 6k, therefore my library isn't in the selection"
"I have a few different library cards and none of those systems are on this app"
22% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Despite being in the American App Store this only shows libraries in the U.K. which is useless if you don't live there"
"I don't see any way to use this for libraries in the USA. Is that correct? It's only for UK libraries?"
13% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"It takes a special kind of stupid to make an eBook app that has the font invariably set to a size that is too small to read. It even overrides the system settings"
"The default font is always tiny and has to be reset for every new book instead of being able to set a default font size"
13% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"I spend far too much time trying to find the last page I was on as this app fails to record it reliably"
"Inconveniently the app doesn't open a book one is reading at the page one has reached without havig to open the book again"
9% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Even with the limited library the AudioBook feature is great.... except when listening to AudioBooks they just stop! Have to go back to the App and press the screen to start again"
"BorrowBox doesn't respond to the pause button on my Bluetooth earphones, so I have to fish my phone out in order to pause"
9% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"30.1.25- latest update crashes"
"Worked perfectly until the last update. Now it's not working at all. What's happened ?"
Design and usability issues driving negative reviews.
Tapping the page to navigate triggers unwanted popups that cover text instead of turning pages smoothly
"really hate this app because when you tap the page, it either closes the book, or pop-ups top and bottom cover lines of text. extremely frustrating"
Users download the app only to discover their region or library isn't supported, wasting time
"This app should state in which countries it can be used"
App ignores iOS accessibility settings for font size, forcing manual adjustments
"It takes a special kind of stupid to make an eBook app that has the font invariably set to a size that is too small to read. It even overrides the system settings to accomplish this"
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