Review Insights · App Store
TrueFire Guitar Lessons
TrueFire · 14,396 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
14,396 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 37 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
"access"
11 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great courses, awful app. I’d buy more courses if they updated the glitchy app. Feels the same today as it did 5 years ago - and it wasn’t good then! The buttons aren’t very responsive, and sometimes totally non responsive. Freezes. Selecting portions of the song to…" - Rickenback
2
"lessons"
10 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bait and switch. You pay for "all access" and a ton of content costs extra. No indication of that in the description. Some good lessons though. Not a great value, but a mediocre one." - Dustin Jeeber
3
"content"
9 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bait and switch. You pay for "all access" and a ton of content costs extra. No indication of that in the description. Some good lessons though. Not a great value, but a mediocre one." - Dustin Jeeber
4
"courses"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great courses, awful app. I’d buy more courses if they updated the glitchy app. Feels the same today as it did 5 years ago - and it wasn’t good then! The buttons aren’t very responsive, and sometimes totally non responsive. Freezes. Selecting portions of the song to…" - Rickenback
5
"ipad"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "IPAD app is not great, crashes a lot.. Read the above." - linlenny11
6
"years"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great courses, awful app. I’d buy more courses if they updated the glitchy app. Feels the same today as it did 5 years ago - and it wasn’t good then! The buttons aren’t very responsive, and sometimes totally non responsive. Freezes. Selecting portions of the song to…" - Rickenback
7
"know"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Search bar. Every time a search a name. I get no results. And I know that name is someone on your platform." - d.roopp
8
"crashes"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "IPAD app is not great, crashes a lot.. Read the above." - linlenny11
9
"play"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t access. I “did myself a favor” last year and purchased a year long subscription of true fire. My intent was to improve my playing and it seemed like I’d have several options from the various courses. The downfall I encountered was, I was using t…" - NiceGuyPete
10
"doesn"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t start. App locks up immediately after creating an account and doesn’t restart. Can’t delete my account. Complete waste of time." - XykonIT
11
"truefire"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "They are definitely there to sell you more content. Emphasis on selling not teaching. In my opinion, this has a great deal of content and it’s also one of the more expensive app driven guitar teaching program. Before you put down your money, know that the ALL ACCESS lets you stream the lessons but you own nothing. They don’…" - SigDog77
12
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App is extremely buggy and has been for years. This app works great for the first video you play. After that, the best performance track either won’t play or it will play the first video again. This has been happening for years through numerous upgrades and is happening on the most rece…" - Mhgl
📋 All 37 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").
Log in experience nightmare
Terrible
Logging In
My name and password, which are carefully typed in, spit out back to meas a failure to log in. A very inconvenient app to operate.
Brutal app. Can’t access the content I paid for.
App rarely works. Usually crashes immediately or within minutes. The main purpose of the app seems to be to sell me more content, despite that I paid for “all access,” and the content I paid for is inaccessible.
Can’t access
I “did myself a favor” last year and purchased a year long subscription of true fire. My intent was to improve my playing and it seemed like I’d have several options from the various courses.
The downfall I encountered was, I was using the Roku tv version.
A few months back, they discontinued that app. When I inquired about it, I was told to go buy a tablet or phone that offers the app, and then use the “share screen” to my tv.
So, I’ve purchased an iPad and tried to use the app.
Yes it will offer the lessons on this device, however it will not speak to the tv. I have emailed support, but from my prior experience, doubt I’ll get any useful help.. probably “buy another device” and try that.
Perhaps this is more an issue with true fire rather than the app. As far as I know, the app does seem to play their format (I have not gone through the entire library). But, it’s not as useful to me.. I began with the larger tv format and was beginning to use the platform before they discontinued it. Moreover, I did request a refund because they basically made my subscription non accessible to me.. and that’s when they required me to get another device.
I’ll not renew the subscription.. if it works for you “that’s great”.
The downfall I encountered was, I was using the Roku tv version.
A few months back, they discontinued that app. When I inquired about it, I was told to go buy a tablet or phone that offers the app, and then use the “share screen” to my tv.
So, I’ve purchased an iPad and tried to use the app.
Yes it will offer the lessons on this device, however it will not speak to the tv. I have emailed support, but from my prior experience, doubt I’ll get any useful help.. probably “buy another device” and try that.
Perhaps this is more an issue with true fire rather than the app. As far as I know, the app does seem to play their format (I have not gone through the entire library). But, it’s not as useful to me.. I began with the larger tv format and was beginning to use the platform before they discontinued it. Moreover, I did request a refund because they basically made my subscription non accessible to me.. and that’s when they required me to get another device.
I’ll not renew the subscription.. if it works for you “that’s great”.
Doesn’t start
App locks up immediately after creating an account and doesn’t restart. Can’t delete my account. Complete waste of time.
Kevin
One of the most unintuitive apps to navigate and utilize that I’ve ever encountered.
Can’t access
Ordered the full access and I can’t access anything! Apparently you can’t order on a weekend! Not off to a good start!
hate app
i never use the app
Good concept but video playback is non functional
I cannot play a video and open full screen without the screen turning black or the buttons not working, let alone try opening another app and coming back to TrueFire to resume a video
Fees, fees and more fees
Everything you want to do on this app costs you money on top of the “privilege” of paying for the base service.
Of all the apps and services that are available this is the least truthful about the full cost of ownership and use. If I wanted to pay that much for all the services I’d go directly to a local instructor.
I feel extremely mislead and it’s so hard to identify what’s included in the subscription outright. It seems like everything I select has another purchase button.
I won’t be giving Truefire another dollar. There are too many competing platforms that don’t nickel and dime me for use.
I just wish I didn’t prepay for a year. #robbed.
Of all the apps and services that are available this is the least truthful about the full cost of ownership and use. If I wanted to pay that much for all the services I’d go directly to a local instructor.
I feel extremely mislead and it’s so hard to identify what’s included in the subscription outright. It seems like everything I select has another purchase button.
I won’t be giving Truefire another dollar. There are too many competing platforms that don’t nickel and dime me for use.
I just wish I didn’t prepay for a year. #robbed.
App is extremely buggy and has been for years
This app works great for the first video you play. After that, the best performance track either won’t play or it will play the first video again. This has been happening for years through numerous upgrades and is happening on the most recent version as well.
I fully deleted the app and reinstalled the latest version and things seemed good for 2-3 videos and then it was back to its old tricks again.
Also, your “all access” pass doesn’t give you access to In the Jams, so hopefully you don’t waste your money like I did in an annual pass just to get screwed.
I fully deleted the app and reinstalled the latest version and things seemed good for 2-3 videos and then it was back to its old tricks again.
Also, your “all access” pass doesn’t give you access to In the Jams, so hopefully you don’t waste your money like I did in an annual pass just to get screwed.
Not working for me
Finding it hard to
Use app. Have paid for courses and now getting access is v difficult
Use app. Have paid for courses and now getting access is v difficult
Pretty weak
Content is okay but the UI is not from this decade. Totally broken on mobile. Also, the tabs are pretty lazy.
App is trash
If your login fails the app hangs until you reboot your device. Pathetic.
Notifications
I have close 1900 notifications and not easy to delete. I would say it’s a little excessive and you should make it easy to delete
App doesn’t work
I open the app and it automatically closes, locking me out of all my purchased courses.
What A Shame
I read the other reviews, but I was hopeful they had fixed some things by now in regards to the UI, my mistake. I’ve been using this app for a couple weeks now. The content is great and I’ve been working through some amazing courses, the app itself though is just terrible. I’m using it through a brand new iPad and it consistently freezes and crashes both in the middle of a class, and even just while browsing the courses or lessons. That’s when it doesn’t get stuck on the loading screen. I can’t in good conscience recommend this app to anyone, especially when many of the instructors have their own websites that you can go through instead to subvert this. It operates like a beta product even though it’s been out for years and many people have tried to bring it to the attention of those who could help. Developers, if you’re reading this, please fix the app. I am open to changing my review once these issues are fixed, and I know that you guys have something great here. You can do this!
App constantly crashes
I’ve been a customer for 10 years and I can’t believe how poorly this app performs. If you try to load an “In the Jam” it will crash if you try and play after downloading EVERY TIME! If deleted and reloaded the app and it doesn’t matter…this is junk
What are they charging?
Used to be Jam Play and I lost my credit and I haven’t been able to use this since. They offer $99 annual special deals but just try to select it. I give up!
Cancelation
I want to cancel this, I don’t know how I happen to have it.
unsubscribe
This is annoying! I would like to unsubscribe from you.
Unusable? Crashes constantly
Upon my first download on the highest end ipad pro, the app crashed on the very first lesson I opened. I reopened the app and tried a different lesson and it opened but then the first video glitched out then crashed. On my third opening the same lesson finally played but then asked me to pay hundreds of dollars to watch more. I’d recommend staying clear of this app. Also, devs, don’t ask me to contact support like you do with all of these other frustrated reviewers. Just use your actual product and fix it when you can’t…
I was not prepared for the deluge of emails
I tried signing up for the service come and immediately was flooded with emails from them. Hey, we’re having a sale! Save now.
Welcome to TrueFire, did we mention that we’re having a sale?
Our sale is ending in 10 hours!
Etc.
I hadn’t even gotten to the first lesson yet. Too many emails trying to sell me more lessons from the 50,000 lessons that they offer - does that mean I’m have to get 50,000 emails this month?
Welcome to TrueFire, did we mention that we’re having a sale?
Our sale is ending in 10 hours!
Etc.
I hadn’t even gotten to the first lesson yet. Too many emails trying to sell me more lessons from the 50,000 lessons that they offer - does that mean I’m have to get 50,000 emails this month?
All access misleading
Not really all access! Paying for a year subscription and then still having to pay to download even at discounts is not worth it. And then no refund. Not even a pro rated one. What a rip off! Customer service pretty much useless.
I bought the all package
I purchased a year of all access only to be pushed into asking to buy the labs and jam packs. Do t be fooled , this is no deal.
Great courses, awful app
I’d buy more courses if they updated the glitchy app. Feels the same today as it did 5 years ago - and it wasn’t good then! The buttons aren’t very responsive, and sometimes totally non responsive. Freezes. Selecting portions of the song to loop is a chore. The list goes on and on. It’s an app I use a lot despite the experience. Would consider All Access with an overhaul.
Search bar
Every time a search a name. I get no results. And I know that name is someone on your platform.
IPAD app is not great, crashes a lot.
Read the above.
Bait and switch
You pay for "all access" and a ton of content costs extra. No indication of that in the description. Some good lessons though. Not a great value, but a mediocre one.
They are definitely there to sell you more content. Emphasis on selling not teaching
In my opinion, this has a great deal of content and it’s also one of the more expensive app driven guitar teaching program. Before you put down your money, know that the ALL ACCESS lets you stream the lessons but you own nothing. They don’t reveal all the details until after you pay the money. Worse, even though I paid, I wasted time dodging all the additional content they wanted me to buy. So all access, seemed to open me up to another glut of advertising. The teaching is fine, but not exceptional. Definitely save your money. TrueFire could do much better.
Great content app needs work
Content is great! The app is lacking important video features like showing the time during video playback and easy skip forward or back capability
Irritating
Love the content, but every time I purchase new content, I have to delete the app for it to show up in My Courses.
I have two lessons by Tommy Emmanuel that I purchased that won’t show up in My Courses despite deleting & reinstalling the app three times.
Also, why is there more content from Educators while using my laptop vs. the app?!
I have two lessons by Tommy Emmanuel that I purchased that won’t show up in My Courses despite deleting & reinstalling the app three times.
Also, why is there more content from Educators while using my laptop vs. the app?!
Great idea, buggy.
The app constantly goes into beachball’ mode when switching lessons, even with downloaded files. Very buggy app. Great idea. Needs a lot of work before I would consider a site wide subscription which they constantly push.
Love the lessons but the app freezes
I am really enjoying the lessons and learning a lot. But I have to restart the app multiple times periodically just to get through a single lesson. I’m not sure what the problem is.
App not working properly
Lessons aren’t loading or getting hung up shortly after launch. Nothing seems to be working properly.
Great Content, Poor Interface
Lessons fail to load and re-load on iPad.
Preferred JamPlay
I had been using JamPlay for a few years and was very happy with it. I liked using both the website and the app in my iPad. I love the content. All of a sudden they are gone absorbed by Trufire. IMHO, the Trufire app is inferior to JamPlay and I am so tired of TrueFire blasting ads at me even though the all access transferred with JamPlay. Since Trufire is the only game in town, I’m stuck. Luckily the JamPlay content is still available, but harder to get to and the sessions are not numbered the way they were in JamPlay. For me, it’s a big step down.
Sentiment summary
94%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)