Bookmobile Audiobook Player Reviews

by CBGii

I liked how I could load up my podcasts and books via WIFI but IMHO BookmobileAudiobookPlayer has a HUGE failure, it fails to remember where you left off and keeps restarting at the beginning of the chapter or podcast. Seems I should have read other reviews first. I also like how they state in their support docs that if you give them 1 star you’re basically dead to them. Seeing as I’m apparently already dead to them (zero response from their support) I think I’ll stay that way.
Apparently if you want BookmobileAudiobookPlayer to remember where it leaves off you have to open the phone, open BookmobileAudiobookPlayer and then stop it from there. Yeah, sure, no problem.
Fix that flaw and you get five stars and a glowing review. This bug makes this paid app worthless to me.

by Another MusicMan

Simply, I’d purchased his other Audiobook player that was available at the same time as this one - they were identical and updated in tandem. No mention made of which was to be sunsetted. I made the mistake of buying the abandoned version - despite reaching out, no response.
I’d have purchased this version if received a simple response.
Note: until recently the old version worked fine despite 2years of no updates.
I’ve moved on to BookPlayer. No charge, open source/development, no issues, and constantly updated. It’s easier to use, may lack a few advanced (rarely used features), yet it’s progressing quickly and addresses issues quickly.

by Cwalkeraz

Seems like a good app at first, but I get a ton of errors. I get in my car and it will pick up from my last known place, then it restarts the entire book from 0:00. Luckily you can access an automated log of bookmarks so it isnt too hard to get back to where you were. Tends to continue to run the book in the background even though you pause, close BookmobileAudiobookPlayer , or disconnect from an audio input. BookmobileAudiobookPlayer has made for a pretty discontinuous story and has made the book very hard to follow. Cant wait to switch to a different app. Also the UI and scrubbing are pretty bad too.

by Zozis

BookmobileAudiobookPlayer actually seems to have been well thought out and has useful features. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well. When you open BookmobileAudiobookPlayer and hit play it will often times just start playing from the beginning of the chapter/file. Navigating using the skip buttons is also broken. It doesn’t seem to be able to skip forward/backward across chapters/files. So, you’ll eventually reach a point where it just skips forward to the same spot over and over no matter how many times you press the button. Lastly, it will randomly just lose all your progress completely and just start from the beginning of the book.

Overall, very disappointed. Perhaps I’ll try again when they fix these bugs.

by Fab5friend

I’ve used BookmobileAudiobookPlayer for several years and with several devices. It has many good features. Really like the bookmark feature. You will need it if you use listen using Bluetooth or AirPlay. I find that when I listen using my device speaker everything is great. But if I use it in the car with Bluetooth or at home with AirPlay it doesn’t always remember where you left off. It starts over at the beginning of your file. You need to pull up BookmobileAudiobookPlayer and then go to bookmarks to see where you left off which is nice. But you shouldn’t have to do this. This gets very frustrating and the reason I gave it 2 stars. If they can get this fixed it would be a 5 star app. I’ve looked at their help and tried their suggestions but they didn’t work.

by DuyNgn

[1yr update: We got a promise of a big update at least 4 months from this writing. Nothing has improved about the random resume play bug many people are reporting. Also, we're now into Apple's 2nd gen iPhone X display... And BookmobileAudiobookPlayer hasn't need updated to comply. I'm losing faith...]

I listen to audiobook every day on my commute and bookmobile works well for the most part. However, it's a bit buggy... It doesn't seem like it wants to stop playing. After pausing from the lock screen, everytime I wake the phone, it would auto resume. It would also auto resume playing when I open BookmobileAudiobookPlayer from a paused state. I made sure the auto play features are all off. So it's really annoying to find my phone start talking whenever I wake my phone... Also, BookmobileAudiobookPlayer hasn't been updated for the iPhone X screen, yet.

by Bioenix

I really enjoyed BookmobileAudiobookPlayer but lately it auto plays at random times. When Bluetooth connects/ disconnects when I push the power button. It’s not every time either. I went online and tried a fix that was mentioned on the site it did not help . Then I noticed the last update was 7 months ago. With a note that a bigger update was coming, but that was 7 months ago. Too bad. I used to enjoy BookmobileAudiobookPlayer. If it ever gets updated and I notice it will change this review but for now it’s just too frustrating too use.
Also reorder does not work as someone else has mentioned

by McTibbetts

Been using BookmobileAudiobookPlayer for years, but lately been having a lot of issues with it. It will randomly refuse to pause from the lock screen or when I swipe up from the bottom to pause it doesn’t pause. It will randomly skip back minutes or hours when unpaired. (I have the setting to skip back after a certain amount of time off). And most annoyingly it will jump back to the beginning of the book! I really loved BookmobileAudiobookPlayer. But it’s time to look for something new unless it gets updated again. (No new updates for 5 months at the time of this review)

by A Guy Who Runs

Good audiobook player with intuitive interface, range of useful controls, and reliability issues.

1. Playback spontaneously resumes (from pause) if app is open when screen is turned off
2. App randomly selects new playback position when resuming app. Frequently resumes in incorrect position after using sleep timer.
3. Switching to a different app while audio is playing, then switching back to player results in one of two failures:
a) audio pauses
b) audio temporarily pauses and then resumes from a (seemingly) random automagically created bookmark.
4. Endless supply of pointless automatic bookmarks obscure identification of correct pause point after app chooses random resume spot.
5. "Delete old bookmarks" seldom deletes any of the numerous pointless automatic bookmarks.
6. "Delete old bookmarks" NEEDS to actually do something; eg. Delete ALL POINTLESS, AUTOMATICALLY CREATED BOOKMARKS except "Last Position", itself which NEEDS to start accurately reflecting the last playback position so as to resume where previous playback ceased.

by Bob G Khan

I drive for a living. Recently picked up an iPad Mini and started looking for a good audiobook player. Need to be able to load my own, since I've picked up a few hundred over the years and recently ripped digital copies of them. Thought this would be the solution.

It's not. 1, no dark mode. I drive a lot at night and odd times, dark mode is kinda a must have. 2, on a couple of different books, after pausing and resuming a book, the player resets to the beginning.

So it might work for you, it didn't for me.

by BrightHalo

Easy to add books over WiFi and has great bookmarking features. It does sometimes have bugs like when you have a book on pause in the background and sometime later get a call, after the call it will resume the book for no reason and sometimes if you go to BookmobileAudiobookPlayer while its playing in the background it will forget all the progress it has made and restart the book from when you last had BookmobileAudiobookPlayer open loosing all progress you made in the book wether am few minutes or hours.

by Jesse Schoff

Bookmobile is the best app I've found that has a function allowing manual import audiobook files.

Aestheticly it's lacking in style, but functionally it's quite good. A UI update would be a smart move to convert new users.

Biggest feature missing from BookmobileAudiobookPlayer is syncing progress between devices. Other apps have this function.

No updates have been made for years. Developer, please come back and address users' issues.

An annoying bug causes BookmobileAudiobookPlayer to continue playing if you pause from the lock screen and then hit the lock button. Pause sometimes it won't stop playing unless I unlock the phone and kill BookmobileAudiobookPlayer . I've reported this multiple times in the last year or two but no response or recognition freon the developer.

by Bluew2040

I tried several different podcast apps and this one best fit my needs.
The most important feature I was looking for was an advanced bookmarking function. As part of my studies, I collect segments of podcasts for future reference, so being able to mark the podcast name, episode, start time, and end time was the most critical. What was also important was the ability to export the bookmarks to a NON-PROPRIETARY format so I can process the information afterwards. BookmobileAudiobookPlayer can export to CSV... perfect. I use BookmobileAudiobookPlayer more than everything else on my phone.
A recently added feature, "Newest Downlaoded"/"Oldest Downloaded" under the play order priorities, is extremely valuable at keeping podcast listening truly hands-free when driving.

by Thetortfeasor999

I have been using the paid version of BookmobileAudiobookPlayer for a long time.

Latest update broke the ability to copy from the newish iOS cloud file app to bookmobile.

Would be nice if the dev just INTEGRATED the iOS files app into bookmobile because, hey, I wonder if people host their own audio content on the iOS cloud and then listen to the same content across a family of iOS devices.

iOS: we just made sharing your content across devices. If BookmobileAudiobookPlayer dev is too lazy to integrate the hooks into iOS, you can still manually copy the content over to BookmobileAudiobookPlayer .

No one:

App dev: Let me break that fundamental copy functionality in the latest update.

Everyone: ...

App dev: And I still won’t incorporate iOS files into BookmobileAudiobookPlayer .

by Trihunter

I am stunned by this application. It allows you to download or import audiobooks from more sources than you could think of. Its what I was specifically looking for to play my audio books. I absolutely love the feature in which you can upload a book through your browser from your computer. The free app lets you experience everything perfectly before you pay which is well worth it.

by RustyN

I’ve been looking for an App that does what BookmobileAudiobookPlayer does for years. It’s great for importing an audiobook in MP3 format, and makes it playable, AND keeps your place on iphone. It also pulls book jackets, and has a driving mode. It’s like Plex for audiobooks.

My only gripe is the interface is dated, and not optimized for iPhone X. I paid the $4 in-app purchase in hopes the developer majorly updates the interface and design. Functionality wise, it’s solid.

by Californiacoast

Best audiobook/podcast player I've found. Lots of functionality. It's loaded with features, one of which I find particularly useful: the ability to load and play audiobooks consisting of multiple files within a single ZIP archive file. Also, I like being able to upload my audiobooks to BookmobileAudiobookPlayer using a web browser instead of Itunes. BookmobileAudiobookPlayer just keeps getting better and better. Definitely recommended.

by Malcolm57

I find this to be an excellent app for listening to audiobooks. Bookmarking is important to me. I have no trouble with BookmobileAudiobookPlayer picking up where I left off listening. In addition, Duke has always been very prompt responding to any Bookmobile question I have. Also very patient with stupid questions! My sense is that he is not a developer who puts something out there and then forgets about it and never touches it again. He provides updates and tweaks very periodically. This is one app I have never been sorry I spent money on.

by Therecluse

I have been looking for a podcast app that can bookmark several location of a podcast because I am always hearing something during a drive I want to look up later and BookmobileAudiobookPlayer has that and makes it easy! Everything else about BookmobileAudiobookPlayer is icing on the cake. The ability to have my audio books and podcasts in the same app without having to jump back and fourth and remember what I left off on to the 4 custom jump to time settings. All great!!

by DevNul1

BookmobileAudiobookPlayer is truly extraordinary. I have an iphone and my computer runs linux. This combination is sometimes difficult. BookmobileAudiobookPlayer makes it easy. I own non-audible audiobooks on my computer, and all I want is to listen to them on my iphone without passing them through itunes. Almost no app seems to be able to handle this simple task. But not only can Bookmobile import audiobooks from other apps like dropbox, but moreover IT CAN IMPORT DIRECTLY FROM MY BROWSER ON MY COMPUTER. This may be the single most useful feature I have ever encountered in an app. The interface itself is perfect. Simple and intuitive, difficult to mess up. Bookmobile, you got this one right. Highly recommend.

by W4TU

This is the only app I use for audiobooks. It automatically bookmarks when you stop playing, but you can also manually bookmark (something you can’t do in iBooks.)

I can easily add books I download from my local library either by syncing through iTunes or from my onedrive folders.

Controls are easy to navigate. It works well with my car controls - other apps skip forward entire sections instead of by seconds in my car. By far my favorite audiobook app.