Review Insights · App Store
The Darkroom Lab
The Darkroom · 80 ratings · ★ 3.8
3.8
★★★★★
80 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 13 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
"order"
5 negative reviews mention this · 38% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App does nothing. I’ve tried to set up a film development order probably a dozen times. Every time “my cart is empty”. Ok I give up." - Zhaine
2
"cart"
4 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Keeps saying cart empty. Trying to develop and cart saying it’s empty + missing permissions as others have stated" - Duhhellman
3
"empty"
4 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Keeps saying cart empty. Trying to develop and cart saying it’s empty + missing permissions as others have stated" - Duhhellman
4
"cart empty"
4 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Keeps saying cart empty. Trying to develop and cart saying it’s empty + missing permissions as others have stated" - Duhhellman
5
"saying"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Keeps saying cart empty. Trying to develop and cart saying it’s empty + missing permissions as others have stated" - Duhhellman
6
"film"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App does nothing. I’ve tried to set up a film development order probably a dozen times. Every time “my cart is empty”. Ok I give up." - Zhaine
7
"photos"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Could be good, but is objectively bad. Let me start with the good: An easy way to access your scans from your order, and love the ability to quickly rotate the photos. The bad: the app crashes to springboard maybe 50% of the time that I tap on a photo I want to view. Insane how …" - AppleBoy98
8
"screen"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Could be good, but is objectively bad. Let me start with the good: An easy way to access your scans from your order, and love the ability to quickly rotate the photos. The bad: the app crashes to springboard maybe 50% of the time that I tap on a photo I want to view. Insane how …" - AppleBoy98
9
"website"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work on IPhone pro max 11. I found a home for my film development and have no problem with utilizing the website. Although, having the app would be quite flexible and easier to access photos. It just shows a blank screen ?" - Jadetheactor24
10
"password"
3 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t Login App. First, let me say I LOVE DarkroomLab. They have amazing service and are my go to developers for 35mm film. However, I can’t seem to log on to the app. I’ve changed my password multiple times and verified by logging into the website but the …" - lisamilktea
📋 All 13 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").
Keeps saying cart empty
Trying to develop and cart saying it’s empty + missing permissions as others have stated
App does nothing
I’ve tried to set up a film development order probably a dozen times. Every time “my cart is empty”. Ok I give up.
Bummer
Used this once before and was really happy. Now it just keeps saying my cart is empty after choosing my options.
Can’t place order
When putting in my card info I never get a complete processing. The screen just goes black. Needs a bug fix.
Nice, but has issues
The lab is great but the app not so much. It often locks up and I have to close and restart. Now I’m on my second complete delete and reload, we’ll see if that works. And, when it was partly working, there was constantly a badge notice on it, that I could not remove. Hope they can improve it, would make things very handy. Using an iPhone 13+ and it always has the latest updates.
can’t register
user name and password fails again and again. both app and website
Very glitchy
Downloading scans is fine, not great but fine, but it’s absolutely impossible to try to upload and order prints without it completely bugging out and not working
Initial order
Trying to set up to get roll developed. Seems intuitive, but once I select all the options regarding my roll, it just tells me the shopping cart is empty. Secondly, kept booting me from app after entering mail and billing address (why not have an option to check a box and that says both are same?) and not saving it. Shelving this for now and developing elsewhere. It gets 2 stars because I can’t say I’ve actually had any success using it.
Could be good, but is objectively bad
Let me start with the good: An easy way to access your scans from your order, and love the ability to quickly rotate the photos. The bad: the app crashes to springboard maybe 50% of the time that I tap on a photo I want to view. Insane how often it happens. Also the inability to zoom in within the app is so weird. Fix the constant crashing and allow people to preview in full screen and zoom and you’re good to go.
Does not work on IPhone pro max 11
I found a home for my film development and have no problem with utilizing the website. Although, having the app would be quite flexible and easier to access photos. It just shows a blank screen ?
Sleeker app loses features
Bummed by the new update which makes a sleeker looking app, but unfortunately loses some aspects of the old app that I loved (plus I loved the low-key version - it was very simple looking and functional). Now when you download your photos to your phone, it doesn’t size them for social media as the old version did. So photos are too big and get cropped on Instagram, for example, and you need to use a second app if you wanna edit it to make it fit.
Can’t Login App
First, let me say I LOVE DarkroomLab. They have amazing service and are my go to developers for 35mm film. However, I can’t seem to log on to the app. I’ve changed my password multiple times and verified by logging into the website but the app still says it’s incorrect. This makes me sad because I was so excited to use their mobile app.
That being said, I will continue to use the website until this error can be fixed.
That being said, I will continue to use the website until this error can be fixed.
Won’t let me login
I changed my password for this site. And I changed it, I try to log in and it end up saying it is incorrect password/username.
Sentiment summary
65%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
28%
Negative (1-2★)