Kobo Books App Reviews

No way to change password

I previously used the kobo app and e-reader even though it was not as easy to use as Kindle because I wanted to support my local bookstore with my e-book purchases. Kobo now can only link with large stores like Walmart, which is very disappointing as the ability to support my local bookstore was the only reason I used this company. I will no longer be reading on the kobo app after this change.

Customer service is non existent. They do not respond. I want to cancel but get no response. Use audible and Amazon. This site ia a nightmare.

The app itself is great and I’ve never had any issues with. However I feel quality of life upgrades are quite lacking. Such as interface, a few examples: -Better ways to organize your books -Better ways to take notes -Better ways to use the app in general with color and such Another quality of life item for me is that I have to get off the app to buy the book, then It’ll download. Why not have it where you can pay from the app too? Overall however the app is pretty great.

Have not once found an audio book I was looking for. Can’t purchase through the app anyway, you need to waste your time with the web log in. Wish I’d never bothered.

App deleted my books. Customer Service was unable to retrieve them and told me to try a app repair which did not work 😡

Would recommend this app to anyone who reads, you can take a large number of books and you aren’t locked in to a closed system like kindle.

Not terrible, but not great either. - takes a good number of taps and navigating to make notes or to find then - options to change fonts, line spacing and margins is limited (unlike on my h2o, where there are a lot of options) - background color choice is very limited, and text color cannot be changed - bugy: i get notified that i have opened my book on another device when i know i have not. another time my book got marked as read half way through without me intending to do it. and a couple of suggestions: - how about a setting that would allow the reader to keep page numbers regardless of font size. say a particular book is 200 pages in print. i would like the option to have those pages marked on my e reader as well. this 100% system of marking progress is really clumsy. - i would also like the option to read while holding my device in a way that my finger rests on the screen without highlights or notes or other helpful things popping up. there could be a way to activate and deactivate it easily - say by long pressing in one corner of the screen, and while activated, the device would only react to a gesture to turn the page, which would be elaborate enough so it would not be activated by accident... - changing font size would be nicer using buttons to incrementally increase/decrease. the current slider is clumsy and not as effective. doubt this will be read or considered by a human, but on an off chance.. good luck!

Can’t update my email address on the app

I downloaded it and it’s only giving me the option to sign in. I’m a first time user so I don’t have an account to sign in with. Am I missing something?

If it was possible to give a negative star I’d do it. I’ve had nothing but trouble with this app.

Blank pages at the end and beginning of chapters is something that could be eliminated. It would greatly improve the overall experience. App crashes constantly. When the app is reopened, the place in the book is often wrong. I like the books, but I’m getting very annoyed with the app.

If you have a lot of annotations the boom will take forever to load. On top of that all my annotations are some how filed under the “contents” section of my book and not the actual chapters. It doesn’t track where I am in my book in the contents tab. I’m about four chapters in and the red check continues to show that I am on the first page. I also don’t like how true page numbers aren’t available. It only tells you what page your on within the chapter. Not what page your on within the whole book. Page numbers are very important how am I suppose properly quote the book if I don’t know the page number? This app doesn’t have a dictionary built in It seems like a pretty useful feature to have especially for an ebook app. In my opinion you’re probably better off using Apple Books. Small glitches are fine but when you have several of them it gets annoying and Apple Books offers more features anyway.

The books take quite a while to download and even then they,more often than not, tell you that "something went wrong please try again later" upon pressing play. I love their book selection but the audiobooks rarely work and it's very frustrating. Every time I open the app I wonder "will I be able to hear my book today?" Is always a toss of the coin.

Very nice & easy to understand

Missing the easy interactive capabilities of the Kindle app. Page turns need more of an indication. It breaks the chain of thought while reading when you keep checking to see if the page turned.

The app is easy enough to read on but it doesn’t always download books when you purchase them. I had issues downloading a book I purchased and finally got it downloaded 3 days later. They said they would refund the book for my trouble but instead the book is off my app and there’s no refund. So I’m out $10 and still don’t have the book. Don’t waste your money.

I recall the sign in through Facebook was a little glitchy at first, but once I figured out how to sign in, the rest was just grand. Excellent library, very convenient to see which books have audiobook equivalents, very easy to read in the palm of my hand.

A very good reading app. Rewards for reading, good prices, able to buy books with the rewards. Amazon could learn from this!!

Instead of opening a book, I simply get a “loading” message that lasts — I’ve waited as long as five minutes before giving up.

I cannot seem to buy any books

i keep trying to set up the app with the book i bought on the kobo website, yet it never works. it says i’ve purchased the book on the website but absolutely will not sync with the app on my phone, saying i have no new books, so i can only read the preview.

Wish I could download the app on my Fire.

Need to be able to purchase books from within the app. It’s too confusing otherwise.

It's 2019 and we are still forces to connect our eReaders to a computer to transfer books to it. This truly is the future we live in!

Do not join you can not cancel and they keep charging your card

I was able to use the app to read and find specific key words. Thank you!

I can’t even figure out how to buy anything on this app!!!

My Highlights, that I made on my eReader books, all disappeared on this application. But it works fine on Windows 10 and Android. Please Fix it on iOS app

The app has no bookmark feature, and it doesn’t hold my place or allow text annotation with PDFs that I uploaded.

Why doesn't the dictionary function work when you highlight a word?

Too many margin graphics won’t let you view the entire page. I can’t get rid of them in settings.

I find it hard to believe I can’t set a bookmark on audiobooks. I set timer to fall asleep listening and when I wake up I can’t go back to previous spot because I can’t bookmark. I am doing a free month trial and doubt I’ll continued with service without bookmark feature. I contacted customer support and they confirmed bookmarks for audiobooks is not an available feature.

And cheaper. *I use both regularly* I love audiobooks

I really do love this app and listen primarily the audiobooks. I love it, because it is simple to use and there is not much to it. One thing that is missing that would add value is the addition of a feature that would allow you to highlight a particular point that you would like to come back to later. Even if it is a simple push of the button that show where the highlighted parts are to quickly find those, similar maybe to what you can do on a “GoPro”. Thanks!!

I have had nothing but problems with the last book I downloaded. You can’t even make the text size large enough to enjoy. I downloaded to my iPad and it wouldn’t open at all. This will definitely be my last purchase from Kobo. Had to download the kobo app to try to figure anything out. I haven’t enjoyed my book at all. And to make matters worse you won’t even let me leave a review.

This app automatically opens a dictionary window when text is selected. This is very annoying when I just want to highlight. Please provide an option to turn that function off.

Good but should have scroll mode.

I can’t get this app to work on my phone at all. I can’t sign out nor can I listen to my books. I’ve updated it and have a new phone! I’m extremely frustrated!

I don’t read in Spanish. How can I change books to English

糟糕的體驗

I was out of my country. Even configuring the app and the account (Credicard, language, country...) it kept altering back every time to the place i was visiting.

This app is a scam, don’t buy books because it doesn’t work

Can't delete books. Don't want older books listed to download.

Buttons saying “learn how to buy” lead to a page the reads “buy directly on kobo and read here,” with no link or info on how to actually do that.

I love this platform! Easy to use, has the same features as any other ebook reader, and feels nice!

C'est cool ,il y a audio et l 'écrit

For whatever reason, sometimes advancing to the next chapter or section doesn’t work, and it sends you back to the beginning of the current section. To make things worse, this bug is completely unpredictable, so you have to do a double take each time to figure out if you really advanced to the next section or not. Also, their internal bug report system is bad. I really don’t want to leave my email or phone, I just want to file feedback and move on.

I love audio books but I am really struggling ordering on this app, can’t even begin to explain what/how things are going so wrong. I can’t be the only one.

Can't continue using the app unless the fonts get bigger.

I am have a difficult time trying to purchase a book that I want to read. Any book you make it hard for people that are not tech savvy.

Cant login to my book store account

A trash app. “Free credit” to many hoops to jump through. Can’t even buy audio books from the app

Sleep timer doesn’t work. My audiobooks freeze while playing. There’s no bookmark option for audiobooks. Needless to say this is the worst app for audiobooks.

Stopped opening purchased ebooks on iPad had to download them to a computer and transfer them to iBook

Poor quality user interface & nonexistent search function make this app an obvious delete

The app with not let me purchase any of the books and it’s very frustrating do not recommend

I went to find my payment method..which card I was using...and it had the wrong payment method.i couldn't get into my account and when I did it wouldn't Change the card acct. The app works very well but they have to get it right with the settings and accounting. The computer is bad with this company.

I cannot read. All I get we’re blank pages

Great App and great devices

I like the app because I can take my books anywhere. The only thing I dislike is that I tried an audiobook for the first time and there was way to much noise interference while trying to listen to the book

enough! fix this sign-in mistake in the app. I can sign in in PC but not in the app. Dont you have a developer?

I am very happy how you are serving kids with books I just want you to have more books thank you sincerely Abby

Kobo is a bit cheaper than some other audiobook subscription survives. I began reading Anne of Avonlea as an audio book and the audio is good enough, kobo has an easy to use design and I like that they show you how far you are in the book by a percentage below the title/cover icon. However, I also realized that when I got Anne of Avonlea when I clicked through to the audio display, the cover of the book is blurry for some reason, not so much that I couldn’t see the art or title but enough for it to ruin the aesthetic of the cover. I don’t know if this is a problem w the app itself or not but it makes it look kind of cheap tbh. That’s why I’m giving this three stars, not amazing but also not too bad. I can’t complain too much as it is cheaper than audible

It seems counterintuitive to have an electronic book that largely ignores the advantages of a computerized book. There is no way to see what page you are on or the length of the book. Searches are very slow (search for ‘Mashed Potatoes’ in the cookbook I have took 17 min) and while the provided list will jump you to the searched location, it provides absolutely no indication of where you are in the book (no page number or chapter info). After waiting 17 minutes I would have liked to know what section of the book the recipie was in. When reading a book, if you switch to the table of contents, it always goes to the start of the table and doesn’t indicate which chapter you are currently on. So when reading the Percy Jackson three-pack to my kids, I have to go through all 40 chapters of book 1, 2 and into book 3 if I’m trying to find our place. Annotaions sort of work. You can mark a page and it shows up most of the time in other connected devices, but not always (hence having to scroll through 100 chapters to find our place). There are several fonts and a short list of color schemes, but no way to adjust contrast. Yes light gray on a sepia background is lovely, but what if just want black text? I like the idea of Kobo, I want to support a ecosystem that is independent of Amazon and Apple, and I want to support a business that potentially independent booksellors could partner with. I bought an AuraH2O, and spent $100 on books to start. But it is a constant irritant to use the software, and I’m not sure I trust Kobo since these problems have been around since 2010.

I want to support my local bookstore rather than Amazon but this app is terrible to use. Won’t update at all, with a recommendation to look out there’s no way to log back in and except through Facebook. Ridiculous.

The Kobo app is excellent.

Getting charged every month 9.99 & I don’t even use the app! Smh. No phone number to call. Trying to chat with a rep is impossible. DO NOT GET THIS APP!!

GREAT

i really hate it.

So I just got a new phone and I went to sign in to Kobo and all I get is a blank screen. So I wish I could give it zero stars. I have removed and reinstalled the past that doesn’t work. I’ve tried both WiFi and cellular and nothing.

I purchased a book thru the website .... because apparently you can’t do that thru the app and it’s been one hour and I still can’t find it in my app and it won’t let me do anything online..... don’t buy into this

1. Audio books skip chapters, sometimes return to chapters that were already read. 2. Need smaller steps for reading speed. Now first slower speed is 0.75. Too slow. 0.85-0.9 would be good. Otherwise app is good.

Horrible service and no person to talk to

The app doesn’t show downloads from one device to another. Very frustrating. Glad I haven’t purchased their reader yet.

I like to listen to books while I fall asleep and I always set a 30 minute sleep timer. One time it turned off and I thought “that couldn’t possibly be 30 minutes already” and when I looked, it was still counting down. It had only been 15 minutes. I tried to press play to start the audiobook again and it would play for a split second then pause again. Over and over I tried it but would only ever play a split second until I fully exited and closed the app and restarted. If that isn’t happening then sometimes it ignores the sleep timer all together. 2 nights in a row it didn’t stop after the 30 minute sleep timer. I woke up hours later and my audiobook was still going. The first time it happened I thought maybe I did forget to set the time but the second night I KNOW it was set. It has happened at least 2 other times since that back-to-back night. I can always scroll back to where I last remember but it’s kind of a pain to be woken up because my audiobook can’t obey a sleep timer.

I’ve had a recurring problem with this app on both iPhone 6 and iPad 5th generation. Most of the books I’ve purchased won’t open. I download and then tap to open a book and nothing happens. I’ve tried deleting and then reinstalling the app on both devices to no avail. Now I feel as if the money I’ve spend on these books has been wasted.

Need to be able to mark spots in the audio book as you can in Audible. That is invaluable.... otherwise, great!

1. App crashes and resumes at page 1 2. App goes from end of chapter 8 to beginning of chapter 8 Awful compared to Nook, Kindle, Google Play or Bluefire

Open KOBO app after installing on iPhone, looks great! After initial thrill of exploring and completely mesmerized how easy to download your books to read and At Your convenience, your confident when you close for the day all is well. Nope, you go to the icon for KOBO, it opens and one of the boos you reviewed earlier, is fire front and there it is, A Wallpaper of sort, you can’t close it to choose a different book it only allows you to tap to the next page....etc I had to find KOBO in browser and sign in from the WEB to use the installed app! NOT USER FRIENDLY or simple to make your life easier! I would have liked the eReader I received, but the eReader download never moved passed 105mb’s after 8 hours from computer to eReader from the KOBO web site to set up eReader! Just a waste of time! You want me to buy books? Improve your process! Very Dissatisfied!

Ordered, was delivered as book not audio, can’t change it, can’t contact, difficult site to get around in, they withdraw their money & leave you high & dry. As difficult a site as Amazon.

I have used kobo for several years . Love them !!! They are so helpful when I need it . Thanks Kobo

This new Ratkunen nonsense they added on to Kobo is garbage. They lost all my Kobo books I had on here. I would NOT recommend this new version with this Ratkunen.

Mostly smooth But kept forgetting my spot and going back a few chapters

I had an issue for signing in and I read other reviews saying something similar. I decided to contact the support via chat window. Unlike many of the customer support of other apps or online stores, a guy named Arturo knew what he was talking about. I described my issue and he immediately pointed out what I’d have to do. It had something to do with the unclarity of sign-in options on the screen. The App designer definitely needs to make it more visible. You need to sign in by specifying what you originally signed up with. There is a small text below sign in boxes saying “more sign in options”. If you click on that there was a long list of different options. After going through that, there was no problem. Thanks again, Arturo!

I have tried to contact someone, (ANYONE!), in the customer service to cancel my membership.

If your looking for a romance with a touch of mystery, here is your book to read.

Numerous times when opening the app, it wouldn’t remember where I left off on the book. It also was hard to manage account settings via the app

Kobo will not open on iOS since the most recent update. I get the splash screen for a few seconds, then it shuts right down.

It’s a beautifully crafted app. I hope there will be options to customize the font weight and margins in future updates. The pdfs are very fidgety and sometimes freezes.

I enjoyed Black Rain. However, the Kobo audiobook App made listening annoying because it kept repeating chapters.

I’ve used a lot of audiobook apps, and many of them (other than Audible) have struggled with correctly picking back up where you left off listening. Some of them are so bad that you teach yourself to manually set a bookmark any time you’re going to stop listening, but this app doesn’t even offer a bookmarking option as far as I can tell. Being able to immediately, reliably pick back up where you left off is fundamental to the audiobook experience. I gave this platform a chance because it is less expensive than Audible, but unless there are fixes soon, I will be dropping it. Barely one star in its current state.

I absolutely loved this book, the scenery and everything was highly detailed. I can't wait to be able to afford the rest of the set!

My book will not load

The app is easy to navigate and instinctive to use. My only problem is that EVERY book I’ve downloaded so far has contained a large number of typos- far more than should be expected. I’ve checked some of the books on other platforms and these don’t appear on them so must be down to the way that the material is scanned in? Other than that though, the choice, availability and price of material is comparable to its rivals, while not being limited to particular devices or platforms which is a great bonus as I can read when and where I like, picking up where ever I was on whichever device I use

I had a lot of issue with this app for audiobooks (especially when using my Honda’s Bluetooth). It would not remember the correct spot on my book. The play/pause didn’t work correctly on the stereo. If using GPS like Waze, it does not pause. I like the service but the app needs to mature and include more features such as notes/clips. I worked with support on some of the issues and it was the typical reinstall and use repair function to get things working again. It is getting there, just needs to bake more.

When my phone is locked, the app reverts to a chapter it previously played. The app frequently stops playing. The app will play the same chapter over and over. The app truncates the chapter lists so if a book puts the book title before the chapter number, NO chapter numbers appear in the chapter list. Example: “book title (unabridg....“Did anybody test this app? Because of the bugs that cause frequent loss of place, the numeric chapter listings would help. Its very frustrating to to listen to books on this app. I don’t want to go to audible but I probably will since their app works.

I don’t always want every audiobook I bought to show on the screen, so I “managed my downloads” and now show only the one I am currently listening to. HOWEVER, there is no way in the app to bring back those downloads. I have tried reinstalling, etc. I am now going to delete this app and go back to Audible, which has a better method of managing data in the app. Learn a lesson from your betters. Improve your interface.

I’d like it better if I could read stuff without paying. I love reading but I don’t have the money for any books which is why I was looking for an app that lets me read real books for free no payment at all. If you don’t have the money I do not advise you to get Kobo. Nice try but better luck next time, Kobo.

Why are the genres not categorized? Unless we know what books we’re looking for, we have to scroll through random books to find something we’ll want to read. I’m trying to ditch kindle/amazon, but it’s hard when other apps don’t have the features. Unless I’m missing something, I’m finding that Kobo is inconvenient.

I do not like that this app is connected to Walmart. Did not enjoy dealing with Walmart at all! Or ordering the books through the Walmart app. Other than that the app is fine.

The software works fairly well and is fine to use. There are problems with the swipe controls - I am constantly dimming the display or increasing the font size by accidentally swiping a certain way. This is awkward and unreliable.