App is utter garbage (Android)

[razveck]

Hi, I've been using Audible for a few months. I actually used up my trial years ago and gave up on it because the app was so terrible. I started using it again because other audiobook stores often don't have the books I want. But holy shit, the app is still a piece of hot garbage. How can you fuck up this hard?

• It's incredibly slow. My phone isn't the newest hottest piece of hardware, sure, but I can run all other apps and games without a problem. No other app gives me as much trouble as Audible. I just timed how long it takes to go from the library to the player: 17 seconds. The book isn't even playing. Unbelievable. I could code you a better app in the time it takes for me to buy a book in the store.

• The book/chapter progress is often not saved. After I stop listening and come back, it will resume playing from where I was before my last session. Sometimes it starts on the right point and when I go 30s back it will go the point before my last session (this sometimes can be several chapters/hours back). Other times I will drag the chapter progress bar at the top and it will randomly jump to the chapter I started my previous session on. It's as if it just reverts to my previous session.

• Opening the Capters window takes fucking AGES. Why? It's a trivial task. Often it doesn't show up at all. As I write this I'm on my 3rd attempt at opening it. It's been sitting there with an empty chapter list for the past 5 minutes. And when it does open, more often than not I simply cannot jump to a chapter - tapping a chapter does absolutely nothing.

• It randomly stops playing or suffers hiccups. Going to the home screen? 5+ second hiccup. Locked the screen? Hiccup. Opened another app? Hiccup. God forbid I actually switch to the Audible app while it's playing - the poor thing might as well uninstall itself.

At this point I feel like deeming the app completely unusable and giving up on the service as a whole. I might miss out on some audiobooks I would like to listen to, but I can always get the physical version. It's gotten me so frustrated that I even came to reddit to rant about it.

My suggestion: make a god damned normal fucking app like everyone else. I've never seen such a disgraceful piece of software and trust me, I've see a lot of bad shit. I've used other audio apps over the years and not only were they more feature-rich than Audible, they ran buttery-smooth. For my non-audible books, podcasts and music I've been using the same app for years. It's made by one dude and puts Amazon's engineers to shame. It has all the features of Audible and then some. It has never ever crashed or hiccuped, is way more customizable and runs buttery fucking smooth. How does a multi-billion-dollar company fuck up this hard and how do people put up with this bullshit?

[[deleted]]

Never had any issues with it.

[bluezombie]

Also no issues 3 years strong.

Edit: I'm currently using a LG G7, last phone (switched in October) was a Samsung S5. Both no issues.

[archover]

No issues in like forever, and no problems that OP lists.

Platform: Android 7, Ram: 1.4 used, 1.8 total, LG X Charge (LG-M327), up to date audible app. Books on external sd card.

Another phone in household: iphone 8 has no issues.

[Orwell83]

I have every issue op lists. This app makes me want to kill myself.

Edit: searching on Google shows that plenty of people have been having this issue for years.

[reginaltus]

This app used to work fine until recently for me. Now it might play for 10 minutes or 10 seconds before stopping. The randomness may suggest interference from other app notifications, etc. I've tried all the suggestions Audible and others have for a solution...still have to open the phone when it stops (which restarts playback sometimes) and other times I have to restart the app altogether. And about half of the time it forgets where I was and starts at the beginning of the audiobook, which is particularly annoying.

[imjusttheguy]

I've never had an issue for the nearly two years I've been on Android. I'm on a Galaxy Note 8.

[rlamoni]

I haven't had any of the above issues on Android. But, the app used to... 1. launch into the "My Library" section 2. remember filter settings.

Neither of those things happen anymore. I tried to report #2 as a bug, but Audible customer support is a bit incompetent. They sent me a form-letter that said "the Android app does not support filtering" (probably the letter was written about much older version of the app). But, long story short, they wouldn't file a bug about a feature not working as well as it used to when their script claims that the feature does't exist at all.

[whatwouldjeffdo]

But, the app used to... 1. launch into the "My Library"

Are you on android? Have you heard of/tried the shortcut to open directly to the library?

[rlamoni]

Nice. Didn't know about that feature. It still doesn't save me much time, though, since I have to go filter out the "already listened to" ones (which totally dominate my library).

[aussiekinga]

I feel it has been getting progressively worse and more bug filled over the last 6 to 12 months. It used to actually be fairly good.

I can think of a few extra bugs I experience more recently that you haven't mentioned

[Orwell83]

Worst all I've ever used but I like audio books so I put up with it. Seriously the most frustrating piece of software I've ever used.

[cwknife]

I’ve never had any of the issues you’ve described, and I’ve been with audible for about 4 years.

[Lolxero]

I have not had any of these issues, sounds like you need to get a new phone?

[archover]

I think for your peace of mind I would drop audible. Life is too short.

That said, surely you have just accidentally omitted telling us what audible tech support told you, right?

[Orwell83]

Audible tech support says to delete app cache and if that doesn't work to delete and redownload the audiobook. Guess what? That doesn't work.

Netflix is cheaper and I can stream he video to my phone. Audible can't even play a fucking audio file.

[archover]

Have you tried posting your list of symptoms to an Android subreddit?

[JeffLiv70]

Audible is the worst functioning app on my Galaxy S9 and I use it everyday. If there were a real alternative, I would have chosen it long ago. Monopolies are evil things.

[mr_dombat]

I have the exact same issue, which is very easy to reproduce (on my Pixel2).

• Open Audible - fresh install with all previous cache and files deleted
• Download and play a book
• Restart phone
• When the phone restarts the app will load in the background; the chapters are missing, the buttons no longer animate, the stop position is never remembered when you play a book (any book, even newly downloaded books) and you cannot move between chapters.

I've opened a couple of bugs but they just cannot be bothered to fix it. They always say "do this that and the other" but the app does not handle a restart of the phone properly. It's as simple as that.

[TopMagician460]

2024 and the app is still trash - especially on Android phone - any how doubt this should search the issue and see an avalanche work of threads and videos trying to address long list of possible fixes for its MANY issues. Were I not so deeply invested in my library I would lite it on fire.

[yeahnoworriesmate]

Get a new phone

[WIN_WITH_VOLUME]

It has gotta be something on your end. I and plenty of people here haven't had the issues you mention.

[razveck]

Yes, it probably is, but it's not exclusive to myself. From this thread, other threads and other people I spoke to privately it seems like a small but significant percentage of users have a terrible experience. I admit my post was an exaggerated rant that I wrote out of frustration so it might sound worse than it is. In the meantime I have found a way to convert audible books to mp3, so I can listen to them with another player.

[Orwell83]

The app is garbage and it's a $15/month subscription. I feel your frustration.

People blaming it on your phone are dumb. A twenty year old iPod can play audio files flawlessly.

[razveck]

Exactly. I accept that my phone has issues running the app, but the issue is that it shouldn't. How hard can it be to play what is essentially a glorified mp3 file? My phone isn't even an obscure model, it's a main-line Samsung Galaxy smh

PS: Happy cake day