Review Insights · App Store
Bluefire Reader
Bluefire Productions · 4,054 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
4,054 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 47 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
"books"
16 negative reviews mention this · 34% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Could not import my ebooks. Could not import my ebooks" - kloudnein
2
"read"
15 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t log in to my Adobe Account. I purchased this for the purpose of replacing Adobe Digital Editions. It will not sign in to my Adobe account for me to read my DRM protected materials. $5 down the drain." - DLP1987
3
"page"
14 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bugs galore. I used to enjoy using this app but it’s recently got a lot of bugs. If I'm reading and close the app without a hard shutdown it will freeze and books won’t open. Other times this happens when I open the app after a hard restart of the app a…" - someow
4
"book"
13 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Could not import my ebooks. Could not import my ebooks" - kloudnein
5
"frustrating"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bugs galore. I used to enjoy using this app but it’s recently got a lot of bugs. If I'm reading and close the app without a hard shutdown it will freeze and books won’t open. Other times this happens when I open the app after a hard restart of the app a…" - someow
6
"reader"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was a Great Reader Until Yesterday. I liked using this app to organize and read pdfs and e-books. Yesterday it started to crash while i was using it to read and today, it crashes as soon as i open it. This is a frustrating disappointment." - AndrewN716
7
"text"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. If this app wasn’t the only way for me to read my textbook I would have deleted it months ago. It doesn’t save my place, it completely freezes up when I try to highlight and take notes, and the table of contents is virtually useless. Do bet…" - tqfklyuluvag wehn
8
"doesn"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. If this app wasn’t the only way for me to read my textbook I would have deleted it months ago. It doesn’t save my place, it completely freezes up when I try to highlight and take notes, and the table of contents is virtually useless. Do bet…" - tqfklyuluvag wehn
9
"update"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "bugs and crashed. please update" - siddguo
10
"able"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bugs galore. I used to enjoy using this app but it’s recently got a lot of bugs. If I'm reading and close the app without a hard shutdown it will freeze and books won’t open. Other times this happens when I open the app after a hard restart of the app a…" - someow
11
"reading"
7 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bugs galore. I used to enjoy using this app but it’s recently got a lot of bugs. If I'm reading and close the app without a hard shutdown it will freeze and books won’t open. Other times this happens when I open the app after a hard restart of the app a…" - someow
12
"highlight"
7 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. If this app wasn’t the only way for me to read my textbook I would have deleted it months ago. It doesn’t save my place, it completely freezes up when I try to highlight and take notes, and the table of contents is virtually useless. Do bet…" - tqfklyuluvag wehn
📋 All 47 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").
Could not import my ebooks
Could not import my ebooks
Can’t log in to my Adobe Account
I purchased this for the purpose of replacing Adobe Digital Editions. It will not sign in to my Adobe account for me to read my DRM protected materials. $5 down the drain.
Was a Great Reader Until Yesterday
I liked using this app to organize and read pdfs and e-books.
Yesterday it started to crash while i was using it to read and today, it crashes as soon as i open it. This is a frustrating disappointment.
Yesterday it started to crash while i was using it to read and today, it crashes as soon as i open it. This is a frustrating disappointment.
Please stop begging for feedback!
The more you ask, the less I want to. Needy really isn’t a good look for you.
Terrible
If this app wasn’t the only way for me to read my textbook I would have deleted it months ago. It doesn’t save my place, it completely freezes up when I try to highlight and take notes, and the table of contents is virtually useless. Do better.
bugs and crashed
please update
So disappointing
I had gotten the Windows app and it works well. I then wanted the iPad app so I can pick up where I left off on the iPad. I thought this was a given, only to find you can’t sync books you have with both devices using my Adobe ID to log in. I thought it was a given. I am asking for a refund.
Not user friendly
I cannot lock in a larger font. I cannot easily go to a certain page or link directly to a page
Really bad
I purchased a study ebook and my option to use it was Bluefire. I spend more time fighting with the app and getting frustrated than I do studying. Half the time the app comes up blank and I have to close the app and then my page I was on isn’t saved. Also if you swipe two,g the book closes and I have to tap several times to open it again. I have been able to use highlight once. That’s it, once. For studying highlighting is really important. I’m deeply unhappy and not sure if I will have luck passing my exam.
Used to be great
When I first got this years ago it was wonderful! Now, Somehow every single book I had on here is gone and I have no idea how to even get them back. And they were expensive technical books, just gone.
A rewrite that totally bombed
I get it... the developer states the app had to be rewritten. But in doing so as an overwriting of version 3, verses a companion Version 4, it made my bookmarks on some of my version 3 book worthless. The bookmark/notes are there and highlighted - but reverence page 0. (It’s hit or miss - there doesn’t seem to be a pattern.) That means you can’t click on the bookmark in “bookmarks” and be taken to the page. That’s not my definition of progress.
This used to be my go to ebook reader. Now, with no system font, a couple of my books are in a font 1. Absolutely unreadable. I thought I”d just zoom in then. Nope. Unsupported.
Surely there were options available without forcing an update on to us. GoodNotes, as an example, maintained two versions and their users could pick which they wanted. I have 0, none, nada, zip new epub books that this new app was created to support. The 673 books - epub mostly with a few pdf’s - did not ask nor need this “upgrade” that lost what I loved about Bluefire Reader.
As others have noted, the ability to change brightness, the ease to turn pages.... the features that made Bluefire our beloved program are now a thing of the past.
I’ve found a new app and will be slowly making the transition. Goodbye old friend - you were great before your upgrade.
This used to be my go to ebook reader. Now, with no system font, a couple of my books are in a font 1. Absolutely unreadable. I thought I”d just zoom in then. Nope. Unsupported.
Surely there were options available without forcing an update on to us. GoodNotes, as an example, maintained two versions and their users could pick which they wanted. I have 0, none, nada, zip new epub books that this new app was created to support. The 673 books - epub mostly with a few pdf’s - did not ask nor need this “upgrade” that lost what I loved about Bluefire Reader.
As others have noted, the ability to change brightness, the ease to turn pages.... the features that made Bluefire our beloved program are now a thing of the past.
I’ve found a new app and will be slowly making the transition. Goodbye old friend - you were great before your upgrade.
Reduced functionality
I used to be able to swipe up or down to darken or lighten page. Important to me. Gone now.
Also dark mode is white text on grayish background instead of rich, easy to read black.
Seems to be less adjustable in settings than before. Will probably delete. I should never have updated.
Update: just deleted it. So sorry, but have old version on IPad. Will not update. Not usable for me anymore.
Also dark mode is white text on grayish background instead of rich, easy to read black.
Seems to be less adjustable in settings than before. Will probably delete. I should never have updated.
Update: just deleted it. So sorry, but have old version on IPad. Will not update. Not usable for me anymore.
All ways sign in issue
I got the link from Avid they are saying it is free with Adobe account but it is not free and not allowing you to sign in with adobe account.
Hangs, becomes unresponsive
This app seems to no longer be supported at all. With the last few ios updates PDF documents hang, seize up, become unresponsive for no obvious reason. Unusable for flipping through multipage doccuments.
Worst reading app
I have never been so frustrated using an app. It said to authorize the book by entering AdobeID, which I did enter correctly because I just changed the password few minutes earlier. The app keeps popping up the same window and making me reentering it after I submit. I regret not buying a physical book.
Horrible support
Had to buy this reader app as the ebook I purchased only works with this reader. After tons of steps downloading it, realized that I cannot play any videos from the book on my iPad Pro 2020. Emailed support on 10/17/20 still no answer or solution.
UI needs updated. Not user friendly.
I downloaded this app to read a book for a certification training for work. Whenever I try to bookmark a page it takes me to the beginning of the chapter. Whenever I return to the book I must flip through the pages to get back to where I left off. I’m unable to highlight any text. The highlight option comes up in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and not where the text is I want to highlight. For a paid app, I expected to be able to do the basic tasks a free e-reader can do. While the e-book for the training was free to me, I almost wish I bought the $100+ physical book.
This application lost my purchase
I bought an e-book on-line and this was the one of two that would allow me to read it. Today I wanted to go back to the ebook and found none, the only available book I have is how to use the application. All other applications save your purchases and have them available on the updated version. The only notification I got from them was that iOS 12 and 13 have been causing problems with the app. So it is Apple’s fault for updating the iOS and not them. The notification also stated that the company reads their mail once a week. I lost $40.00.
Was great until the last update, now no access to book files
I used to be able to copy my drm-protected books to a backup so that if I change iOS devices, I can just copy those book files into the new device... but the most recent update took away the shared access to the data files (which since iOS 8 means I can’t access them!). So, no good way to back up anymore. Note: this is nothing to do with bypassing drm! I still can only access books per license, but now can’t back them up anymore!!!
Downhill fast
Like everyone mentioned else this app has gone downhill fast. From no longer connecting to Dropbox to the touch issues and loading issues this all went from a solid 4 star app to not even a 1 star app.
Best reading app, but....
I have used this app and it has reliably stored my books for years. However, the new iOS update locked me out of my app saying I no longer have permissions for it and have to view it in the App Store, and when I click “open” it says the same thing, it’s an annoying loop. I never made an account because i didn’t need to, and now my books might be gone forever. I was really looking to my summer reading and I’m asking the developers to please send me an email to contact them or update the app so it’s compatible w the new update. I want my books back! This is a nightmare, I can’t get those books on there again. Usually this app is 5 stars all the way.
Lost connection to Dropbox
Latest version doesn’t seem to connect to Dropbox. So I have lost my library. How do I get back to the previous version.
Frustrating
The “ Now reading” feature doesn't function reliably. Jumping to page numbers is impossible. Notes for the book I purchased were unavailable. I wasted lots of time simply tryinng to reach the point in the book I had left off. I’ve been using e-readers for years but this poor quality reading experience I’ve never had!
What happened?
All of a sudden, the download page is completely missing and I’m only left with my library, currently reading, and info page. I can’t download new books. I decided to delete the app and then redone load, but that did nothing. Please update... I wonder if anyone has the same problem.
Downloads
Downloads have become too complex, process is cumbersome and frustrating. Simplicity is best for readers enjoyment and you can still enjoy your protections without the fuss
Not loading my books!
Use to love this app. Had over 200 books. Now they won’t load, app freezes during the opening up/loading process. I’ve tried deleting app and reloading books (multiple times), but once I get past 60 books, it freezes up on me all over again. I’m not going to delete/download books each time I won’t to read them!
Does not work on apple tablet pro since several weeks.
My apple system and bluefire reader app are both updated. I log with my library which offers books for bluefire reader. After identification I ask for a book, then I get an email from the library with the link to bluefire reader and there I could download the book, or access reading on line. Recently the links from the library does not work. I have done this for several years without problem . All of a sudden it does not work, just can’t download. I called the library and they tell me there is a bug with Apple that has not been fixed for several weeks, and in the meantime try to use the google chrome browser which they claim works. Google is up to date, but not Apple. I will have to go to the library so they can show me how to do it with Google Chrome.
Terrible for textbooks
Really, really bad app for a protected textbook I was only allowed to download onto this ereader. The app freezes every time I try to read the textbook, making its download useless. Deleting this app and going back to reading it on the website...
The books are there but don’t display
I just downloaded this app to read some library ebooks formatted by Enki. Once I logged in, the book file shows up but nothing shows up on the screen when I open it. The same goes for a user guide on the app and a sample book (Treasure Island).
Id then login
I make an account, now enter ur ID, (it doesn’t mention which part of what i created is the id) i go to help page. Then I enter my email as the id because they talk about logging in on different accounts using id. Then I enter Id and password. And it doesn’t work, I just made it, what a pain.
Slow as hell to open a book
Just got it and u able to read; book is there but app is super slow to load page! Can’t believe so many good reviews when app is slow as hell to load a single page
Clumsy app for DRM content
This app is a joke compared to even kindle. Want useful notes to save? Nope. Want to easily highlight text? Nope. This is the most frustrating way I’ve ever had to use a textbook. Please fire this developer.
Bugs galore
I used to enjoy using this app but it’s recently got a lot of bugs. If I'm reading and close the app without a hard shutdown it will freeze and books won’t open. Other times this happens when I open the app after a hard restart of the app and no books will open. Sometimes it will lose my page and I have to bookmark often to get back to where I was reading. It’s frustrating and makes the app unusable.
Buggy with some imports
This app is better than Adobe Digital Editions, but it still doesn’t work that well with every import. I just bought a book from the Dutch online store bol.com and I can’t press on one word to select it. It selects the whole sentence and when I try to adjust the selection to just that word, it behaves erratically, selecting the whole paragraph or some other amount of text. This makes it impossible to select a word to look up in the dictionary and also to highlight text. The sample book that was in the app library when I downloaded it (Treasure Island) doesn’t have this problem, so maybe it’s not the app, but as a user this was my experience and it has never happened with Apple Books. I wish e-books were more portable.
Great rendering and flow, unusable library management
This is probably the best flow and rendering of ePub documents I’ve seen. It displays clear, high quality text that is a pleasure to read. It’s library capabilities and replication via third party file engines, cloud or private is up dependable and convoluted.
I use OneDrive and File Manager, and one would think that adding documents or folders should be easy. But it isn’t, adding items is an onerous task and does not add them to the library. The collections in the library cannot be organized by the document folder structure, but all appear to be dumped in one huge pot. Each individual document then must be manually moved to a collection manually. Collections are at one level only, so there is no hierarchy for Collection organization.
I can also not see if a document in the library is copied in the apps’ storage or if it is simply a link to the original location. Obviously no internal document / file management exists.
Perhaps I’m incorrect, in which case I would love to correct my initial impressions. Certainly for a product associated with Adobe, it is a huge disappointment.
I use OneDrive and File Manager, and one would think that adding documents or folders should be easy. But it isn’t, adding items is an onerous task and does not add them to the library. The collections in the library cannot be organized by the document folder structure, but all appear to be dumped in one huge pot. Each individual document then must be manually moved to a collection manually. Collections are at one level only, so there is no hierarchy for Collection organization.
I can also not see if a document in the library is copied in the apps’ storage or if it is simply a link to the original location. Obviously no internal document / file management exists.
Perhaps I’m incorrect, in which case I would love to correct my initial impressions. Certainly for a product associated with Adobe, it is a huge disappointment.
Poor accessibility
I used to love this app, but the recent update is terrible for accessibility. I can’t change the text size for most documents, which makes me unable to read them. I’m really sad that an update that was supposed to increase access actually barred me from being able to use the app like I used to. This was the best PDF reader and now I have to find a new one.
Problem with current update
Having problems epub3 and some epub2downloads. Used to love this app and never had any problems. Now Text small and goes from margin to margin. I read books for a living and this is a big issue for me Help.
Never updated or improved
I use Bluefire to read digital ARCs (advance reader copies) for reviewing purposes. It’s okay. However, I’ve noticed that it’s not holding the last page I read before exiting the app. That’s the bare minimum it should do. It’s never updated or improved.
Needs some UI improvements
I don’t use Bluefire Reader that often, but today I was really frustrated with a UI issue and saw no feedback medium except for here. I copied one of my thesis papers into Bluefire so I wouldn’t have to navigate between different MS Word files while working on a new paper. My goal was to copy references and/or content for citing in this new paper in a simple manner. However, Bluefire doesn’t actually respond intuitively when you attempt to highlight and copy text. I have a hanging indent for one of my references, and it regularly highlights the 2nd character and only up to a certain point on the second line (if one tries hard enough). I gave up and just started retyping my references and previously cited content.
The app also doesn’t regularly appear as an in-browser option for exporting online text. I.e., say I want to import a file instead of manually printing it. The developers need to look into expanding Bluefire’s presence in the “more options” sections of widely used mobile browsers. I gave the app two stars because I am able to still navigate between papers courtesy of separate apps.
The app also doesn’t regularly appear as an in-browser option for exporting online text. I.e., say I want to import a file instead of manually printing it. The developers need to look into expanding Bluefire’s presence in the “more options” sections of widely used mobile browsers. I gave the app two stars because I am able to still navigate between papers courtesy of separate apps.
No Good
Bookmarks don’t work. They lead you to the page then it goes about 25 pages back when you select the bookmark. Then you have to slowly scroll through many pages to get back to your bookmark. Very frustrating.
للأسف التطبيق ليس سلس بالاستخدام على الاطلاق
بحيث عندما افتح اتطبيق وادخل على كتاب كثيرا ما لا يستجيب ، وعندما احول بين الكتب ايضا لا يستجيب . للاسف الشديد لا ينفعني
Good until today
The app on my new iPad mini just keeps freezing and quitting. Nothing can be opened!
What’s the point if I can’t get full books?
It is very frustrating.
Books not available
Several books after downloading are giving me an error message - no longer available, expired. Very frustrating- have to go back and download again.
Doesn’t highlight PDF books properly
The app is pretty good overall but it doesn’t highlight text properly in PDF books. This is a serious flaw if you read textbooks or other books you want to highlight a lot.
The problem is that, when you hold your finger on a word, the app is very slow to recognize that you are trying to begin highlighting (up to several seconds) and you have to place your finger exactly over the first letter of the word (not anywhere on the word). If you don’t manage to do this - my success rate is maybe 50% after weeks of practice - you may not be able to manually reposition the cursor to begin at the first letter before the highlight feature disengages. After you highlight several short passages the app seems to get “fatigued” and it can take up to 10 seconds for the highlight to register.
You also can’t delete a highlight on the page - you have to go into the notes section and find the page where the highlight is, which is very time-consuming. Also, if you don’t manage to exactly hit the first letter of a word but do manage to manually drag the cursor to the beginning of the word, the notes section doesn’t recognize that you want to start the highlighting at a point earlier than where you first put your finger, and cuts off the first part of the word.
Highlighting on the Bluefire app is Kafkaesque. It’s completely baffling how a developer could get a basic feature so wrong. I have no problem highlighting PDFs using the iOS Kindle, GoodReader, or Apple Books apps, but those apps don’t work with Adobe DRM protected PDFs. If these apps can get it right, it’s not clear why Bluefire can’t.
The problem is that, when you hold your finger on a word, the app is very slow to recognize that you are trying to begin highlighting (up to several seconds) and you have to place your finger exactly over the first letter of the word (not anywhere on the word). If you don’t manage to do this - my success rate is maybe 50% after weeks of practice - you may not be able to manually reposition the cursor to begin at the first letter before the highlight feature disengages. After you highlight several short passages the app seems to get “fatigued” and it can take up to 10 seconds for the highlight to register.
You also can’t delete a highlight on the page - you have to go into the notes section and find the page where the highlight is, which is very time-consuming. Also, if you don’t manage to exactly hit the first letter of a word but do manage to manually drag the cursor to the beginning of the word, the notes section doesn’t recognize that you want to start the highlighting at a point earlier than where you first put your finger, and cuts off the first part of the word.
Highlighting on the Bluefire app is Kafkaesque. It’s completely baffling how a developer could get a basic feature so wrong. I have no problem highlighting PDFs using the iOS Kindle, GoodReader, or Apple Books apps, but those apps don’t work with Adobe DRM protected PDFs. If these apps can get it right, it’s not clear why Bluefire can’t.
Freezing when turning pages
It’s very frustrating to be attempting to turn the page just to have to swipe repeatedly oftentimes.
Slow transitions, Not responsive Reader
Slow transitions, Not responsive Reader.
Sentiment summary
91%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)