Review Insights · Google Play
FBReader Premium
FBReader.ORG Limited · 13,811 ratings · ★ 3.5
3.5
★★★★★
13,811 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 46 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"update"
15 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "premium locks up immediately upon install. Please put 3.7 version up for install. This app was fantastic then but got worse with each update." - Teresa Lane
2
"years"
13 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "ugly application, How to get to work smooth page scrolling? EbookDroid has had this feature for years And I cannot refund back." - George Ryabov
3
"book"
11 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I bought FBReader premium in March 2016, and until recently I thought I would be using it for life. But they have broken it so badly that none of my books from my private bookserver will open. I have done everything imaginable with the perm…" - Andrew Lawton
4
"version"
10 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "premium locks up immediately upon install. Please put 3.7 version up for install. This app was fantastic then but got worse with each update." - Teresa Lane
5
"bought"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "keeps freezing. I bought the pro version. very disappointed" - John Miller
6
"premium"
7 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "premium locks up immediately upon install. Please put 3.7 version up for install. This app was fantastic then but got worse with each update." - Teresa Lane
7
"doesn"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paragraph spacing doesn't work" - Souvik Dey
8
"work"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paragraph spacing doesn't work" - Souvik Dey
9
"books"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I bought FBReader premium in March 2016, and until recently I thought I would be using it for life. But they have broken it so badly that none of my books from my private bookserver will open. I have done everything imaginable with the perm…" - Andrew Lawton
10
"page"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "3-4 months ago, the "flipping" of pages slowed down so much that it takes around 35-45 seconds to complete one, if at all. could someone please help me to bring back the smooth and crisp page "flipping"?" - Kung Hao, Sean Chiew
11
"reader"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I bought FBReader premium in March 2016, and until recently I thought I would be using it for life. But they have broken it so badly that none of my books from my private bookserver will open. I have done everything imaginable with the perm…" - Andrew Lawton
📋 All 46 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
купил премиум версию, но на новый телефон она не перенеслась и отказывается устанавливаться
premium locks up immediately upon install. Please put 3.7 version up for install. This app was fantastic then but got worse with each update.
куплена премиум версия для поддержки разработчиков. а теперь приходится обновления искать на альтернативных площадках.
what have you done?? Upgraded to the new version and it's COMPLETELY BORKED - can't change the page, it just HUNG the first time and I had to kill the app! how do I GO BACK??
Utterly useless. Still using the 3.7.7 version.
I bought FBReader premium in March 2016, and until recently I thought I would be using it for life. But they have broken it so badly that none of my books from my private bookserver will open. I have done everything imaginable with the permission settings on my android phone and tablet and nothing works. I can download the books via the network library and files appear on my device, but when i try to open the downloaded books, FBReader shows the last book i was able to open and nothing else.
Update 12/30/25: Issue still not fixed: App periodically freezes and will not advance the page, or is extremely laggy in responding. This has happened on two different tablets, the current with Android 15, 6 GB RAM and over 90 GB available storage. Even clearing cache doesn't help, I have to wipe all data which means losing my bookmarks, reloading the book and finding my way back to where I was. I wish I hadn't payed for this app as fixing this issue is obviously not important to the developer.
broken after recent updates. theme switching from light to dark and back does not work correctly until the application is restarted
ugly application, How to get to work smooth page scrolling? EbookDroid has had this feature for years And I cannot refund back.
Last update ruined everything!
Edit 9-15-25. Had to archive it and go back to free version after last premium update. Locks up with no response. Have used the free version for years as it was my go-to for ebooks. Bought the premium version expecting cloud synching because Dropbox has now limited devices. Doesn't work for me. No really special features.
one of the best e-book reading app. many formats and hightly customizable
It was the best reader for 10+ years: fast, reliable, and customizable. Recent updates made the ui worse and now, after I had to change the phone to xiaomi 15, it doesn't even work at all, just hangs on all actions.
not much better than free one no fonts has tts but a lot of readers have it for free can not connect to dropbox
stalls. not working well. needs updating failed again. now failed a second time. totally stalled unable use premium at all. AI advises that they have had numerous complaints. when will it be usable?
перестало обновляться. хотя приложение было КУПЛЕНО, а не бесплатная версия.
Still using 3.7.7. If you developers could add back the old permission access, this new version would have no problems accessing my SD card library. Alas, 3.7.7 remains the best version.
I've used it for years, I can no longer turn the pages. thanks for the lousy update
Recently booted up my tablet again to read some books but after the recent update this app has completely ruined itself. I can no longer find my books easily, where before I could search by the folders I organized them into. Now everything is a mess and it hurts to look at. It would take me days if not weeks to try to reorganize things using their current organizational system. I'm going to have to look for a ifferent reader now.
bought this app 2 years ago, it doesnt say anywhere that this is a SUBSCRIPTION service!!!! now 2 years later im cjarget 15 euro for same app. Cant cancel it anywhere, cant find support page or anything. well done guys, i hope u are happy
I've used and liked it for years, but the latest version gets stuck at setting it's folder ("can't use this folder" even if it already had a Books folder set) and there's no way to get past that screen or make it navigate to the existing Books folder. And there's no way to report a bug without giving Telegram your phone number.
after update you intentionally sabotage program i lol never use again.
crashed first day. unable to use it anymore
Bought the app a while ago but can't update or install it anymore. upd Still won't let me install it
my fave reader for years. last 2 updates it freezes every 5 mins. closes app. and I restart it. in New galaxy 5 ultra
I bought this app years ago and was very happy using it. latest update ruined it. Now a week later, Tried to reinstall it today but it still is all messed up. After reinstall, it didn't open selected book. Opened random book. Then gave me continuous "close app or wait" messages. Uninstalled it again.
NO. The new update freezes the library and constantly prompts that the app is not responding, even after reading a book. Please, can someone please publish the version I was using in early 2025? Even a clone copy? ---disregard my old review below--- My goto book reader since... (let's just say more than 10 years). Have read full range of novels here. Only extra feature I'd want is a plugged in charger to count as a full battery.
If you find the update buggy, I suggest reverting to version 3.77. Uninstall the app and download the apk from the official website. Download it from the archive of older packages. 3.77 works fine. The previous update broke the app. Now, it takes like 5 seconds to open a book. Opening a book used to be instantaneous. A lot of my settings were gone after the previous update. Now, the new update didn't fix it either. Seriously, why did you release an update if you hadn't properly tested it yet?
На планшете с Android 13 перестал открывать файлы книг вообще. Все разрешения предоставлены
Latest update not working, unable to use. Still not working with latest update. Repoets stopped working and it doesn't even get passed initial splash screen. Downloaded 3-15-25
it was working well, but of course the developer have to make it worse. How I can exit from primary? I just want to access my other folder, for g sake
What happen with the app? It doesn't allow me to read any book. It just says I need to grant access to a folder but when clicking ok, just goes to that folder and there is no option to grant access. I loved this app, bought it many years ago but last two updates messed up completely. Shame
The recent update no longer loads the books. It stays on the last book opened.
The app is literally broken and unusable now
All my metadata gone. I'm done.
Latest update makes it awful. I have paid for every add-on and premium gladly. I stopped trying alternatives in 2019 because fbreader has been everything I wanted for 5+ years, and the best since 2007. Moon reader plus does everything that I need, and I think is a good alternative[2019 review: I constantly try new readers, I constantly come back. This really is my favorite book reader.]
3-4 months ago, the "flipping" of pages slowed down so much that it takes around 35-45 seconds to complete one, if at all. could someone please help me to bring back the smooth and crisp page "flipping"?
keeps freezing. I bought the pro version. very disappointed
Paragraph spacing doesn't work
help the premium version is buggy and does not open
Library in app inconsistent. Only old local library can open list on the author of the current book, the new one just open list with all authors on random place. But only new lib has recently added books, and you need to switch back and forward between different implementations. OPDS works well before, but that looks like it was rewritten to support theming and now constantly freezing and crashing.
went from 5 to 2. It used to be fast, but now it takes minutes sometimes to open a book. And folders takes 15-20 sek to traverse an up to a minute to list books in a folder. it was the best app, but now I can't use it; it takes too long and annoys the hell out of me.
I have used the premium app for years. something in the last update messed it up. About the third day after I load the app, it locks up and won't work anymore. Tried uninstall ing and reloading. same thing. Happens on both premium and free versions.
Worked fine for several years and then just stopped
i should have bought moonreader instead of fbreader. Fbreader has tons of tiny imperfections which make it worse
running into alot of out of memory crashes
Sentiment summary
59%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
34%
Negative (1-2★)