cloudLibrary by Bibliotheca Reviews

cloudLibrary has helped me read books again. For a few years now I have been so busy and cannot find time to read. With cloudLibrary I can! Now I download audio books (for free) to listen to while I drive in the car or in my headphones when I walk or if I am waiting at the doctor or for a meeting or out walking. This is great, because I have books on my mobile device that I always carry- I always have books with me. I also download books to just read on my mobil device and I don’t have to worry about late fees. My elderly mom who was an avid reader but has had eye problems of late is now able to “read” again too, because of the audio books. All this takes is a library card. So simple. The only downside is sometimes the audio versions of a book I want are not available, so I have to get the digital one and I have to stare at a screen to read & that I cannot do while I drive, workout or walk. More audio versions would be nice if possible, please!

I listen to audio books and constantly have an issue, nearly if not every time I pause the story, that it skips way forward or way back, and I have to spend half my time trying to find where I left off. The options to go forward or back for a larger amount of time are too few and far between, so it is not helpful what so ever. My library went from Overdrive to cloudLibrary, and I wish I had the other app back.
Another complaint that I have is that the selection here was said to have been larger, but I’m not finding that to be the case. The search option requires specific spelling and complete titles, often I’m not sure of. The overdrive app had suggestions that helped me find what I was looking for.
Also, cloudLibrary doesn’t have a full collection of books in series. I could understand not having the lastest book in a series, but often I can ONLY find the latest of a series, which I can’t read bc I can’t find the previous books. It’s very frustrating and I’m disappointed in cloudLibrary . I don’t have a CD player or tape player in my vehicle at work, so I can’t just checkout from the library.
I’m very fed up and frustrated with cloudLibrary, but I don’t have any other option from my library, so unfortunately I’m stuck with it. If updates become available with fixes to these issues, or if there is another way I can have some of these issues addressed, I’d be glad to receive that info and take it up with anyone who could help. Thanks.

Mar 2022: app crashes whenever opened. I tried deleting and reinstalling.
2021:There is much need for improvement in cloudLibrary. For now my library offers this, Libby and Overdrive. The one thing cloudLibrary does well is to sync books between devices. What is truly confounding is that many of the books I search for on Cloud are NOT available but when I go to Overdrive they are. For 3 months now, I used used both apps to find the same title in my same public library. Cloud found 3 titles of the 42 that I entered, while Overdrive found them all! The Cloud help menu is lame I had to email my library to find out how to enlarge text font. Cloud had no option to renew- Overdrive does. In Cloud the books just disappear with no notice while Overdrive gives a countdown so you know how many days are left before I need to renew. The filter menu is extremely limited and less intuitive compared to Overdrive. I must admit that when Overdrive entered the picture back around 2008 (?) I found it extremely difficult to configure and use but at least a Help Menu existed to walk me through what it did and didn't do. By 2012 it had improved significantly and by 2014 I really began to enjoy Overdrive. Perhaps Cloud will see the same improvements in time, but for now I see no advantage to waste my time using it.

I love how easy it is to search and borrow books from my library and save titles for later. However, as time goes on cloudLibrary gets more and more glitchy and works less consistently. Most times it says I don’t have any saved titles though I know I do. Occasionally, my list will actually show up. I have no “history” despite having borrowed dozens of books. And if I don’t lock my screen orientation and I accidentally tip it (from portrait to landscape then back to portrait) I will have lost my place in the chapter and I have to figure out where I was. Or sometimes my scrolling will jump me to the next chapter. It’s getting very frustrating to use cloudLibrary, which is unfortunate because it used to work better. Please do something to make it work more consistently!
Also, I don’t know if this has to do with cloudLibrary , or how a book is created for it, but I recently borrowed an audio book (it was the only available format for that title) and it had no chapter markings. I would have liked to be able to jump back and listen to certain sections again, but I couldn’t find a way to do that.

I was forced by my library to switch from Overdrive to Cloud Library. It's just not the same or as good. I can't find as many books as I used to. The search results are awkward and take up too much space to scroll through efficiently. And if I look at a book and go back, it puts me back to the beginning of the list and then I have to scroll back through to see where I left off - very time consuming. The sleep timer does not work anymore - it used to but something happened (a bad upgrade perhaps?) and now it never works. With the old app (Overdrive), I could easily -- EASILY -- scroll back 30 minutes by touch because you scrolled through chapters. cloudLibrary, that scroll is for the whole book so you scroll back a little by swipe and you've going way too far. Forget going to the chapters and finding where you were. So finding your spot again is a difficult, near-impossible, colossal waste of time, so much so that I often find myself buying audio books rather than listening to them on here, even if they're available -- for free, mind you. cloudLibrary is so non-user friendly that I prefer to pay for books rather than get them for free. Read that sentence again.

I have used cloudLibrary religiously for years; I use it on one of my devices daily. I usually love cloudLibrary, especially because at least for my library, there are no monthly limits on borrows. However, in the past 1-2 months, I’ve had more problems than not! It won’t recognize that I have books checked out, when I know I do. I’ll check the history, and it’s blank; I check for my saved books (easily over 200 of them) and it will tell me there are none. Generally I have uninstalled/reinstalled (annoying but simple) cloudLibrary , and it’s fine.

Today I kept getting a (new to me) error that I wasn’t connected to the internet when I can see my WiFi signal has full bars and other devices (tv) are clearly connected. I disconnected WiFi to run off 5G and had the same “no internet connection” error. I even deleted and reinstalled cloudLibrary , and when I tried to sign in with my card number and PIN, got told it was “unable to log me in”.

Why has cloudLibrary been so unstable lately? PLEASE fix this as this is my primary distraction during “stay at home” orders!

It would be nice books would be available sooner. Particularly, nonfiction. Many of the books, particularly the technical nonfiction books are in smaller print which is more difficult to read, particularly for an older person. I really like to read the books on electronic devices because the print can be increased in size, back lighted, listened to as well as read and displayed on a TV screen that is really excellent when you want to exercise on an stationary bike or elliptical. The ability to read, listen and copy specific memorable phrases or sentences help enable the memorization of certain facts. I would like to see an approach with the cloud reader similar to the samples offered in the Kindle software. I usually same a book on the Kindle and then download it using the Cloud Library. I can’t afford to pay for all of the Kindle versions or I would probably do that. Anyway, I love the Cloud Library and think that the Auburn Library does an excellent job of selecting newer books. Appreciate much. Regards, Terry Johnson

I’ve been using cloudLibrary for a few years. Only recently, cloudLibrary gets quite glitchy. It shuts down in middle of the book. It skips pages, some time, the entire chapter. When I turn the page backward to re-read a name or place, it would jump to a different section/page entirely, so I have to search for current page. Last but not least, when I click on footnotes to read, there’s no way to go back to the page I was reading, so I have to either bookmark (or do the old fashion way of remembering which page I was on) before checking out the footnote. This gets quite cumbersome when there are a lot of footnotes. Grrrh. Very frustrating.

I wish cloudLibrary would link with the kindle app, so I can borrow books then read on my Kindle. Reading on kindle is less distracting than reading on the phone. Some libraries use the Libby reading app, and the Libby app link with Kindle app, so I’m able to borrow and read with my Kindle. Very convenient. Highly recommend Libby app, instead of this glitchy Cloud Library. I’ll have to report to my current library to see if they can change platform!

cloudLibrary was specifically designed for libraries at no charge to them or library patrons unlike Kjndle/Amazon which does charge libraries for the use of that app. This helps to reduce the cost of ebooks to public libraries enabling them to purchase more hard copy books and ebooks. No, I am not a librarian, just a huge book lover who reads anything of interest and have done so for many, many years. I have found cloudLibrary very easy to use and I am 71 yes. old who still reads actual books but large print books in libraries do not include a large selection due to their higher cost. cloudLibrary allows me to read new books via my tablet and still allows me to check out hard copy books, too.

Unlike Overdrive, there is a far greater selection of books available through cloudLibrary which I, for one, really appreciate! Thank you, 3M, for creating cloudLibrary for our public libraries!

I just started to read a borrowed library book in cloudLibrary , but have paused my reading to come here and give it a one-star rating. I find the interface confusing, buggy, and (compared to the far superior Kindle app), also less attractive (though the difference is subtle). It took me a few tries to figure out how to simply highlight a passage, and another few tries to figure out how to delete the one I highlighted incorrectly. Once I did that and returned to the page, the “deleted” highlight was still there, until I closed and reopened the book. I have memberships with a few local libraries, and I ALWAYS look for the ones that work with the Kindle app, and only use this app when I have no other option. It’s a frustrating program.

8/7/19 update: cloudLibrary is *slightly* less frustrating than it was when I wrote my original review in 2018. Some of the glitches I reported to their tech support over a year ago are still there (e.g., highlighting text is confusing, often difficult, and the interface for doing it is ugly and breaks conventions). It’s still far inferior to the Kindle app and I still will try to avoid library books which require using cloudLibrary.

I’ve only tried to read two books on Cloud Library and gave up on both. I can see why it has a shorter wait list for downloading a title.

The first book had problems with turning the pages. It would look like the page was turned, but it would still be the page I had just read. If I used the table of contents, I could jump to a new chapter, but on short order, if not immediately, that would lock up. I tried opening and closing the book, removing and downloading it again, but nothing worked.

On the second book, I had much less trouble with freezing. It had a problem that is becoming increasingly common in various apps. A lot of different things are activated by tapping the screen, and it’s hard to predict what will happen. On the second book, when I swiped the page to turn it, as often as not, what happened is that the gray top and bottom menus appeared and cut off most of the page. I got so sick and tired of constantly having to get them out of the way, that I returned the book when I was about 20% finished. I removed cloudLibrary . I’m going to get hard copy when my only other option is Cloud Library.

cloudLibrary is great for kids books from the local library, but many other of them are formatted such that they would require adjustments. Sadly, the controls are mostly unresponsive - moving pixels at a time... needs major help...

Updated - still a mess for many kids books and adjustments majorly lacking. Trying to get to the “hidden menus” are painful at best. Put a button on there, geez... Also, please put a restart button or auto rewind after finishing the book - anyone remember VHS? Yeah, try explaining it to a toddler and that “we can’t read that book anymore because you can’t get to menu to go back to the beginning” - even after returning and reborrowing it keeps its place... App also regularly crashes on books over 20 or so pages and it can’t ever keep track of preview thumbnails. I mean seriously, 6 books all labeled differently and have the same book cover and content as the one that is opened first when app is launched. Only way to fix it is to return and redownload the book. Wouldn’t use cloudLibrary if it were a paid app, only use it because I haven’t found another app to access local library content. Downgraded to 1 star.

I’m someone who’s willing to pay foe good apps, so maybe the fact this one is free tells you how little support there will be. The recent update (September 2020) has made this almost unusable on the IPad. It switches back and forth between light and dark background. It routinely loses track of the last read location, meaning the reader has to recall and move around each time the book is closed. And an annoying popup window appears every 3 to 8 minutes asking if I want to go to the “last read position” . Bad bad update.

As of 1/3/21, I learned NEVER to update cloudLibrary and without reading what happened to others. The new update apparently causes lots of people to lose their history or otherwise render cloudLibrary useless. Not sure how the developer gets paid (maybe library license fees), but they’re clearly not a shop with a good testing protocol. Though my old version still has the September bugs and annoyances, at least it still works.

NEVER update cloudLibrary until you check to see how what havoc the newest release has created.

My rating is based on comparison to software I use which costs money or if free is older version of tried and true software. Anyhow heres hoping version 5.0.7.5 I just downloaded for use on new ipad fixes at least most of bugs/problems associated with earlier versions ( i.e recently installed version 5.0.6.5 actually more frustrating than earlier versions—kept forgetting current position in book when I closed and later re-opened book; often forgot who I am and required repeated log in; often opens with tiny font size different from my selected font size and will not accept changing font size when that happens; occasionally would open and then immediately shut down; and so on). Could eventually work around some bugs (i.e. disconnect from internet and open book “offline” to work around open/shutdown bug ). Earlier versions prior to 5.0.6.5 would go hours refusing to open at all. Maybe covid has driven so many people to online library that system is overwhelmed?

I have used cloudLibrary for over a year and had been completely satisfied with it. However recently I’ve experienced an issue with moving from page to page. Sometimes the last line or two are missing from the bottom of the page and I have to fool around with it before it shows up. At other times I flip to the next page and it’s clearly not a continuation of the previous page so then I have to go back several pages and subsequently move forward to try to resync the pages. It’s very annoying and it goes without saying that this is basic functionality that is key to a reading app. Please please fix this!!! I have an updated iPhone 6.

Update: several months later I continue to periodically have problems with cloudLibrary. Right now I experienced an issue where I cannot turn the page in the book I’m currently reading. After trying different workarounds I deleted cloudLibrary and am going to reinstall it. Why does this continue to happen with cloudLibrary? I understand that it’s free, but I expect better if I’m going to use it and recommend to others.

I love the vast selection of books and seeing some of my favorite series on here, however I constantly have issues with cloudLibrary crashing immediately on launch, not letting me borrow books due to system errors, and it not keeping the proper page when reading. I often find that if I leave a book and come back, even for a short second, it will lose my page and move to the beginning of the chapter(sometimes even doing so when I accidentally tilt my phone to landscape mode) and sometimes it will skip pages when I try to turn them, moving to the next chapter instead. However, cloudLibrary is a great system that has a good variety of books, and once they work past these errors, you will have an app on your hands that competes well with any e reader programs.

Suddenly the eBooks from my library are available only in this format, rather than Kindle. It was okay, definitely not great, for the first couple books I read using cloudLibrary. But the search capability isn’t very useful, and the text selection ability is awful (I still haven’t been able to get copying to work at all, or to highlight or look up more than one word at a time). Now I’m trying to read a publication that has copious footnotes, which I would dearly like to read. Although they appear as blue superscript numbers, they aren’t active, i.e., you can’t tap on a footnote number, read the associated footnote text, and return to where you were in the main text. No, you have to set a bookmark for the first page of notes at the end of the book, activate the menu, select Notes/Highlights, and then navigate through to the desired numbered footnote. And then, it seems, you have to navigate, via the Table of Contents or the bottom page slider, back to the page you were previously reading.

I too have used cloudLibrary for years and have been very pleased with its ease of use. That is until the latest version came out. It no longer has pages listed, only chapters, the bookmark doesn’t take you to the exact spot in the chapter, there is no option to choose side “tap” vs. “scroll” when moving forward or backward. “Tap” now takes you to the next chapter or back to the previous chapter.
To make matters worse, the last three times I opened Cloud Library it immediately shut down. I guess that solves the other problems because they never come into play anymore!

My pet peeve with “enhancements” to perfectly working apps is that they are never a user’s choice, just a developer’s whim.
I’ll probably move to Libby or one of the other apps. Bummer!

I used to love cloud library, but after a recent update it no longer functions. Way to ruin a great app! It took me several tries to even find the list of ebooks from my local library and now the ebooks won’t download at all when, before this update, they downloaded easily. Also the new app deleted my user history including a carefully curated list of books I intended to read. cloudLibrary supposedly has more features after the redesign (and it may have more features that I don’t use or care about) but the features I always used and loved now don’t work. The new app also offers many books that aren’t available at my library. It’s a frustrating waste of time to browse through books, see something that you like and then be presented only with the options to “save for later” (whatever that means!?!) or “suggest” (I don’t want to be the collection curator for my local library. That’s what I count on librarians for!) The interface is counter-intuitive and hard to use. What a horribly stupid update. Please restore the functionality of the previous version ASAP.

Updated after iPhone upgrade: I just did the upgrade on my iPhone 6 and app won’t even open. So sorry I upgraded as now I can’t listen to my checked out audio books. Please get your developers working on bug and performance fixes. cloudLibrary is a disappointment!

I mainly use the iPad version and am displeased and frustrated with it, especially the new UI. History does not work. The biggest frustration is that every time I stop reading at book mid chapter, when I reopen cloudLibrary it goes back to the beginning of the chapter. I thought a work around would be to set a bookmark before I closed cloudLibrary , but that doesn’t work because the bookmark takes me to the beginning of the chapter. Earlier versions of cloudLibrary did not have this problem. You need to deploy an emergency bug fix release soon as you’ve made this an unusable tool for reading ebooks from my library and I’m sure they are paying lot of money for their ebook subscriptions.

I’ve been loving cloudLibrary for several months. Recently I’ve become very frustrated by an apparently new glitch; almost every time I stop reading & bookmark a page, I discover that when I return to resume reading the book has frozen at the beginning of that chapter or on that page. I can’t continue reading unless I shut down my Apple phone, the quicker fix, or more time-consuming - delete the entire app & then download it again. That means going to my country & State & re-entering my Library card & also downloading the books again. Luckily, it does then take me back to the place in the book where I stopped reading. However it’s frustrating & time consuming. I love using an app to electronically borrow books from my library. And when I first started using Cloud Library it was so convenient & worked consistently well. Now, it’s just frustrating an unreliable. Please help.

PS. I wish there was an easier way to send you feedback when a glitch exists. I talked to the reference librarian at my local library & he too has recently been having problems with cloudLibrary as well, so at least I know there are 2 of us. Since there’s no way to send feedback beyond this review, I wonder if you even know there is a problem?

I like this in some ways better than Overdrive or the new Libby, but one thing needs changing. When you have a book checked out, it would be helpful to see what the current wait time is for the book. I'm constantly having to decide whether to turn in a book I haven't read when another one I have on hold is available. When I can't see how long the current hold time is (which I can in Overdrive) I have no basis for deciding whether to read one of the books in 3 days because it'll take months to get it back, or whether to turn it in and pick it up again later. Otherwise, I think it works really well.

One other issue, which isn't cloudLibrary 's fault....I wish my library would post new books more often -- sometimes they go months after new books are released to add them to cloudLibrary.

I am not impressed with the Cloud Library app. I have it up to date and on an up to date iPad. Sometimes it refuses to load. Sometimes it seems to forget I’m halfway through the book and sends me to page 1, so I have to hunt for where I left off. I can’t just pick up with a book I was reading on my iPad with my phone because it doesn’t seem to be able to translate locations.

I uninstalled it and reinstalled however I continue to have issues, including new ones such as being able to see a book I have checked out listed in My Books, but not being able to open it, it taking 45-60 seconds for a book to open (gets stuck on the three bars loading symbol), and the latest - I tried to return a book and twice got an “unknown error” message.

This is just so sad to have experienced six or seven distinct errors in a single app. The only reason I keep using it is because it’s the only way I can check out digital content from my library.

First I want to point out how much I LOVE the idea of this e-book library, it’s so so so great. However, cloudLibrary has been glitching for me lately. I borrowed one book that I got quite invested in, but it would never remember the page I was on when I reopened cloudLibrary even if I bookmarked it. I got tired of scrolling through literally hundreds of electronic pages to try to find where I was and I eventually gave up on finishing the book. Other books seem to be working better, but there have been a couple times where page turning didn’t work at all; it would show the animation, but remain on the same page. Fortunately, turning my phone off and back on has seemed to correct this issue so far. I have a new iPhone XS, so I’m not totally sure what the problem is. Again, I LOVE cloudLibrary, and have used it for years now, but lately it’s not performing well at all. Pleeeease either fix or let me know that I’m just technologically illiterate! 😂

The positives - Easy to use. Usually a shorter waiting list than overdrive. The negatives - Some new books are not available for several weeks after their release. Needs to have the ability to suspend a hold and renew a book. Formatting was better before the recent update. This is an issue on an iPad where pages overlap. Overall, I recommend cloudLibrary .

Update. ONLY 3 stars now! The last update created several problems. Sometimes the first page freezes and you can’t go to the next page. App does not sync to different devices. Sometimes you get an error message when trying to download the book. Frustrating dealing with cloudLibrary now. Only plus is that books are available quicker than my library.

this app is plagued with problems. The audiobook player is barely held together. The bookmark function doesn’t work. Most books, you have to push play after every track ends. It buffers - which makes no sense because the book is downloaded on your device. Pausing causes the player to lose its place. Heck, it’ll randomly lose its place while listening. There’s no real way to see your progress other than the entire timeline at the bottom and scrubbing forward or back is difficult. Changing playback speed while book is playing causes cloudLibrary to freeze or lose audio (book keeps playing with no sound).

You like ebooks? Do you have a Kindle (Kindle Fire isn’t an ereader)? Well, I hope that you like reading ebooks on your phone, tablet, or computer. They don’t support Kindle.

Sadly, my local library dropped OverDrive (a superior platform) for this trash of a platform. Get it together Bibliotheca. It’s not like you haven’t been at this for a while now.