Unable to get off SCAN TO ADD page after scanning a book

Adding new books with scanner, after scanner beeps, it did not display result, and unable to exit away from the scanner screen by pressing DONE or home or anything else. In fact as soon as the scanner is opened, unable to navigate away from the scanner without closing whole app and reopening. On iPhone

I am having the same issue, with the addition that I can't scan anything (no beeps). I have an iPhone as well, running 16.1.2.

>1 grantnik: >2 Bookrarian:

FWIW, it is not happening for me. I scanned three books; all beeped; all scanned; all went into my library, and the app kept working.

iPhone SE, current generation, model #MMX93LL/A, 128GB (a month old)
iOS 16.1

Just a thought: I have a LOT of free space -- over 100 GB still free -- and haven't put many demands on the RAM, either (LT was only the third app I've run since the last startup). Do you have adequate free space, and does the problem still occur if you reboot the iPhone and try it immediately after starting up?

>1 grantnik: I've been having this same type of trouble from our last app update.

>1 grantnik: and >2 Bookrarian: What type of iPhone do you have, and what's your OS grantnik? I have an iPhone 8, running 16.1.2.

>4 kristilabrie: I'd also be interested in having you say what book it was, so I can look to see if there's some specific problem with that book.

>5 timspalding: The scanner is messed up on every book I try to scan. I:
1. Open the scanner and attempt to scan a book or two.
2. The scanner is super slow at registering scans—it appears to do nothing for many seconds. By the time it registers a scan it will often scan the same book multiple times (because I've been trying to scan the book for 30 seconds) and assign the same barcode number multiple times, etc. This happens on every single book, it's the scanner and not the book/s I'm scanning.

I also cannot exit the scanner mode once I get into it, in the iOS App. I have to force-close the App.

Hmmm. Okay. Not me. We have to take this to Chris.

Thank you for posting this. I'm having the same issue so took my phone to Apple to ask them to solve the problem. They, graciously, said it wasn't me and it wasn't the phone.

>4 kristilabrie: I also have an iphone 8, running same (current) OS.

issue is still happening, with all books, not one in particular. I do have plenty of space on the phone, and have tried without any other apps running in the background.

timspaulding I have no idea if this is a help or not, but my dev folks have run into an issue with the current IOS not being able to handle large images without crashing. Maybe related?

Just to add another piece of information, I am experiencing the same issues and have for at least a month. I also have an iPhone 8 (Plus) with current OS. Thanks for trying to fix this!

>6 kristilabrie: Thanks for directing me here. FTR:

• https://www.librarything.com/topic/347833#8041650
• https://www.librarything.com/topic/347833#8041875
• https://www.librarything.com/topic/347833#8042634

Eagerly awaiting resolution!

Ping.

I had to finally update my OS and even though I can scan (if I am patient), it is extremely clunky. Same experience as in >6 kristilabrie:

Plus even if you wait it out, after that the app is extremely sluggish until you force close the app. That makes the app essentially useless.

Any chance to actually fix that or add the ability to scan an isbn barcode to the main website AddBooks. I know I can use a CueCat or something but that’s not the point - trying to catalog the books you have is extremely tedious right now.

PS: iPhone 8, iOS 16.2, No updates for the app available (I looked). The about screen says 1.2.3 (build 108). I updated it a week or so ago because of the experience starting after I updated the OS (and because I had not updated in awhile) but it did not help.

None was that was happening while I was on iOS 15.

>12 AnnieMod: It's good to know that the scanner was fine on iOS 15! I'm going to pass this along to conceptDawg in case he wasn't already aware, not sure if that can help debug this at all. Thanks for your patience.

>13 kristilabrie: In case it is relevant, I use Amazon as my main source with the app (Amazon, Overcat, Amazon UK books are the three in my list) and Quick Find is enabled.

Let me know if any other information is needed or may be helpful.

I have the same problem - iPhone 8, iOS 16.2, plenty of free space and I've tried many different books. I have deleted and reinstalled the LT app, to no avail. I also have an iPad, it the app worked perfectly on that.

>15 melodien: I also have an iPad, it the app worked perfectly on that.

On a fully updated OS? If so, that may actually work for me (until patiently waiting for LT to get the app to work on the phone again...)...

>16 AnnieMod:

Some time ago, one of the LibraryThing staff said that most if not all of the reports seemed to be with iPhone 8's -- and melodien is another person with an iPhone 8. That's still not proof (we probably need a survey), but it's extremely indicative.

It's not just that it's old iPhones, because I know it worked on my iPhone 7.... LibraryThing probably needs to add a note to the instructions. :-(

>17 waltzmn: Yeah - and it worked on iPhone 8 until the OS got upgraded to 16.x so it seems to be the combination of the camera of that phone and the OS and something in the app that trips it. :(

But that reminds me that I have an iPod touch I rarely use - I wonder if the app can go there and if the camera will work - that will work better than lagging my ipad all over the place. Will be back with results as soon as I charge the thing and see if it can do things or not...

And update: same problem there.... So it is not just iPhone 8.

I will see if I can update the touch a bit and see if that helps.

>18 AnnieMod: My iPod Touch running 15.7.3 scans without issue in the current LT app. Since the iPod line was discontinued last spring, 15.x is the last iOS that supports them.

Anybody with the issue updated to 16.3 yet? Some reports in apple dev forums that certain app scanning issues (numerous reports from multiple apps from vers 16) were resolved after 16.3 update.

>19 Taliesien: My touch had not been updated for awhile so let me bring it up to current/latest and see how it behaves.

Meanwhile, I’ve requested the 16.3 for the phone so will see what happens after that.

>19 Taliesien: And nope - no change with 16.3 on iPhone 8 :(

Just to add some updates:

My Ipod Touch is Generation 6 so only goes to iOS 12.5.7. The scanner of LT errors out as described above (even worse I think - it actually crashed the app once)

Iphone 8 on iOS 16.3 has the same issue as described above.

Just as a FYI - both the Goodreads App scanner and the CollectorZ Books App scanner work properly on both devices.

Thanks for the data points.

Same issue. (Won’t acknowledge scanning with noise or notification and gets stuck on page; have to force close, but books are mostly there in library when I reopen app. Also when it does add a book, it adds it with the title in all lowercase. So weird.)
iPhone 8. 😩
Is working just fine on daughter’s iPod and on iPad running newest OS.

>24 jendewell: The all lower case comes from whatever source you are using for the adding - check what sources you had configured in your app.

To add: iPhone 6 Plus. A recent security update bumps me to iOS 12.5.7, but the age of the phone means there won't be major updates beyond version 12, I think.

I find the app works well for the most part, BUT this is because I'm scanning my whole collection and have adjusted to it "hanging". Opening the camera can be slow and though I'm now confident that each touch is registered, it takes some seconds for the light to be activated.

I've been scanning with the mute button on. To start, there can be a sort of change in brightness and a "swipe" effect in the camera window - which I've seen in the instruction video. But that usually happens once (I've now tried un-muted and there is a beep to indicate a successful scan). After that, I'm just holding the phone over one book after another and trusting that it works. Mostly it has, but I have to pile scanned books to double check and then rescan any that were missed. I also have to delete multiple copies that also occur. The easiest thing is to work in front of my PC and refresh the browser page to see the updated listing. As mentioned in other comments, it's quicker to close the app and reopen than to navigate back to the list in the app from the camera/scanner function.

On the scan page I can see a listing (mostly, necessarily obscured by the camera window) and the titles come up, but there is a spinner over the cover images for a while. If I had to guess, I wonder if the delayed responsiveness is caused by downloading the cover images - I don't know if this is a linear process or not. I have a fast connection, but there could be weak link anywhere along the path. If the app is waiting for (what these days maybe large) images, then perhaps making that process asynchronous, buffered or simply eliminating it from the scan process is a solution? Images could be updated in the listing view. They are often not correct for the edition and you have a process to select the correct one or a better quality image. That said, I could be wrong as the app still seems to be scanning - just not feeding back to the user very well. So I'm left wondering if the scan has worked or if I've made multiple scans of the same book.

Aside from that, I'm liking the LibraryThing. A couple of off-topic points:
1. I can see some of my books are owned by other users and can click through to their listings (on the web), so you have / connected all the users dbs. Do you use that as a search source? Would it be faster than external ones? Maybe you are wary of user errors there.
2. On the public-facing TinyCat landing page, can there be an option to just browse? I'm thinking of a view similar to the LibraryThing "Your Books" tab, maybe with less detail. I've not been able to find a setting / preference for this, so it seems a visitor would have to search specifically rather than just see what is there, possibly narrow by category, collection or tag. If the only solution is a "wildcard" search term, I suppose I could add that as an instruction on the page (searching "*" gives server 500 error). A collection list or tag cloud might be other options if they are possible.

>26 HarryBottle: To add: iPhone 6 Plus. A recent security update bumps me to iOS 12.5.7, but the age of the phone means there won't be major updates beyond version 12, I think.

You are correct about the OS. You are lucky they even gave you a security update; Apple only rarely corrects anything to an OS more than three cycles behind, and the current version of iOS is 16.3.1.

I agree that it is unfortunate that they orphan old phones. On the other hand, if they put too much work into the old OS, then it means less engineering talent for the new. :-(

But there is another side effect of this: Apple doesn't like people supplying software to run on really old phones. So you may find that, even if the LT staff can fix the bug, you won't be able to put the new app on your old phone, because Apple won't support it.

Not saying I approve. I don't. But you should be aware that there are things LibraryThing can't do because Apple won't let them. Including updating software for really old phones. :-(

Oh, that's interesting. So you are saying that even if LT can fix the bug, Apple won't allow them to update the app? Or they'll have to limit the availability to the latest OS version?

Well, I can't say I'm surprised. The phone is old because it was free (or vice versa!) It works well enough, but I wouldn't buy a new iphone.

Some here are reporting problems on OS16, so maybe whatever the issue is, it can be fixed and maybe I'll get an update, but as above, I'm muddling through by trusting that something is happening in the background even if the app appears to hang. ;-)

Thanks for the reply.

>27 waltzmn: Actually Apple supports iPhone models for seven years from the last time they sold that particular model. Source: this page.

>26 HarryBottle: re: Tinycat, a view similar to this? https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HarryBottle/search/text/+collectionid%3A+1

>28 HarryBottle: Oh, that's interesting. So you are saying that even if LT can fix the bug, Apple won't allow them to update the app? Or they'll have to limit the availability to the latest OS version?

Not the latest OS version, necessarily, but the last fully-supported one. Which appears to be newer than iOS 12. Not sure about that for an iPhone 6, but I know there is a cutoff date. So LibraryThing would have to produce code that only runs on iPhone 8 or later, or some such cutoff. I don't know what the cutoff is; I'm just warning you of what will happen someday. I recently ditched my iPhone 7, partly because of that and partly because the battery was going. (Yes, I could have replaced the battery, but that was a substantial fraction of the cost of an iPhone SE. Terrible, from an environmental standpoint, but it was getting to the point where none of my devices would talk to each other because they were so old.)

There are several reasons for this. For starters, Apple doesn't want to have to test the software on, say, an iPhone 3. And in fact modern 64-bit code CANNOT run on those older processors -- and Apple no longer supports 32-bit code.

>29 rosalita: Actually Apple supports iPhone models for seven years from the last time they sold that particular model. Source: this page.

And the iPhone 6 was discontinued in 2016. Seven years. Note that it has not been given access to the last four major updates. It was updated (I believe) three times after discontinuation, which got it to iOS 12. And it has been blocked from the four major updates since then.

Support is not the same as software updates to the latest software. The same is true for Microsoft Windows, e.g. I have several older PCs around here, running Windows 10. All are still getting updates, and will for several more years. But they cannot be upgraded to Windows 11.

>31 waltzmn: It was updated (I believe) three times after discontinuation, which got it to iOS 12

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus ran iOS8 when they were initially sold, and the last version they can run is iOS12. So they received four updates before they got cut off.

Of course, I am just being extremely nitpicky here, and none of this should be interpreted as me arguing with what is your most important point, which is that old phones and computers can't be expected to continue receiving all updates. As you pointed out, the older, slower processors in those phones can't handle the demands of the new software, among other things.

We even see a version of this here on LT. Some users cling to the old design of LT, with the "salmon pink" bar at the top and so on. But the developers can't make their recent updates like the LT2.0 styling and the new recommendations feature run on that old code, so people who insist on using the old site are limited to a very small subset of pages here on LT that they can actually access — I believe ConceptDawg said in this thread that only the Work, Author, and Add Books pages still work in that version. And once LT2.0 is rolled out across the whole site, none of the old site will be accessible.

I am not a "new phone (or car) every year" kind of person, but I will upgrade once my current phone can no longer run the latest software. That's usually about five years or so, and I can live with that rate of obsolescence. Everyone's mileage may vary, of course. (My car, however, is coming up on 13 years old and still going strong, bless its combustible heart.)

>30 Taliesien: a view similar to this? https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HarryBottle/search/text/+collectionid%3A+1

Thanks very much! I guess I can put that on the front page for clicking (done). I'll not derail the thread any further. ;-)

>32 rosalita: >31 waltzmn: It was updated (I believe) three times after discontinuation, which got it to iOS 12.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus ran iOS8 when they were initially sold, and the last version they can run is iOS12. So they received four updates before they got cut off.

Of course, I am just being extremely nitpicky here,

It's more a matter of fine shades of wording. Apple releases a new iPhone every year, and a new iOS version every year. But it generally sells an iPhone model for more than one year. A quick search shows that the iPhone 6, when it was first released, was released with iOS 8. But the version of iOS was higher when the iPhone 6 was discontinued. The iPhone 6 could run any version from 8.0 to 12.x, but it was not sold with all those versions.

I think. Based on the dates. The dates say the last OS the iPhone 6 was sold with was 9.x or 10.x. (I'm too lazy to actually check.) Then it was updated as far as 12, with a few patches after that, but no more new system versions.

And Apple could let you use older software on an "at your own risk" basis -- but they don't. Which has both good and bad points. It would certainly be better for the environment if they would allow it.

More data: As long as I ensure the mute switch is off, I'm more confident with the app as it is making beeps more frequently, so this helps in the absence of a visual signal. I'd guess it makes a noise upwards of 60% of the time and successfully scans over 80%, so this is good enough for me and my personal collection.

>34 waltzmn: You're right. I didn't fully take into consideration that the 6/6 Plus was sold in multiple years. So some models likely did receive just three updates, as you said originally.

Thanks for the interesting conversation.

A quick question - if the scanner cannot be fixed for the devices it does not work on, can the text field be changed/augmented to allow the phone/iPod user to switch from the text keyboard to the numeric pad one? On some sites and apps where numbers are expected, it has that selector of the keyboard at the top that allows you to see the pure numeric one which is a lot easier to use and not hit the wrong number all the time.

I can almost live with typing the isbn (with the scanning issues, it is actually faster) but trying to type with the normal phone keyboard where the numbers are at the top line means a lot of mistakes (big fingers, small keys).

>37 AnnieMod: On myPhone (8 Plus, 16.3.1), absent a functioning app, I find it just as easy - if not more so - to go to “Add Books” on the main site, turn on voice recognition, and dictate a 10-digit ISBN. If it’s a book from the last 50+ years, chances are I’ll find the exact edition in a jiffy, with no phat-phingered phaux pas.

>38 jasbro: My phone does not like my accent - partially because I never use the voice-enabled features I suspect :) I am a lot faster typing the 10/13 characters instead - when mu fingers don’t hit the wrong buttons anyway. But yes - that also can work as a workaround. :)

Plus half of the time I am adding books, I have the TV or the radio on or something which tends to throw any voice recognition attemp I do :)

On my iPhone X the scanning doesn't work any longer with iOS 16. But on the iPad Air 4 and on the iPad Pro 2022 there's no problem (both on iOS 16.3.1).

I’m getting the sense that device obsolescence is inhibiting utility of the app. Am I right?

>41 jasbro: I’m getting the sense that device obsolescence is inhibiting utility of the app. Am I right?

Not exactly; it's more complicated than that. iPhone 8's have a lot of trouble, and apparently some other iPhone models give trouble sometimes. But they USED to work, and the app apparently has not been updated. So it's the combination of old phones and newer OSes, with possibly a little dose of Apple not allowing certain upgrades on certain phones. But as a starting point, yes: It seems to be primarily a problem on older devices, although not all older devices have the problem.

>42 waltzmn: Well, it's actually even more nuanced that that.
The app has been updated, but in reality that update might be the issue with iPhone 8 devices (in particular) even though we are using standard iOS functions. We're still trying to figure out why that is happening so that we can fix it "the right way."

>40 dbruggmann: Thanks for the info. I'll see about finding an iPhone X to test against.

Just to add another piece of data — I’m running an iPad 6th generation on 16.3.1 and the scanner used to work fine, I’m assuming after one of the previous LT updates, it stopped working.

When I scan a barcode, I hear an error beep, then the app freezes and I have to force close to get it to work again. I’ve been added books via typing in the ISBN, which, as pointed out, is just much more tedious.

Just thought I'd chime in as yet another iPhone 8 user (iOS 16.3.1) who is experiencing the same issue as everyone else.

Any update? Any plans to make the app usable again for adding books with the scanner on iPhone 8?

I had pushed my planned cataloging a bit but if there are no plans to fix the app, I would rather make other plans and not just pushing it and hoping that LT may fix the issue.

No update, but yes this is still on our plate. There are other priorities that have been taking precedence, so remind us again in 2-3 weeks?

>48 kristilabrie: FWIW I'm having the same issue. It only started after the latest LT app update. But it is not happening on both of my old iPhones. Both running the latest LT app version.
Issue exists on my iPhone 6 running OS 12.5.7, but no issue on the iPhone 6s running OS 15.7.3

>49 Condor286: I have an iPhone 8 also and the whole screen where you can add books via scan doesn’t allow me to touch anything (trying to edit collections nothing happens, and trying to go back to another screen with the buttons at the bottom also doesn’t do anything) but I can still scan books, and sometimes if I just keep pressing then the edit collections screen comes up but then same thing on that screen, it doesn’t respond to me touching and I have to close the app and reopen.

iPhone 8+, 16.4.1(a) behaves as described by ethompson011: after choosing Add to Catalog, all subsequent attempts to control the app have what appears to be a ~60+ second delay before responding--with no other apps open. Tried removing/reinstalling (got 1.2.3 build 108), and did get the iOSquery to allow access to camera, which I granted. App is responsive as would be expected for most options, including Your Catalog, Cover Explore, News and Account--EXCEPT for Your Catalog/Tags, which complains "There was an error connecting to the server. Check your network or proxy settings and retry." Alas, touching "Network Settings" has no immediately visible response, after graying out to indicate recognition of touching the icon--all of which is odd, since the app can obviously connect to at least the main login server. Happily (I guess), this does not "freeze" the app the way that touching the Add to Catalog/"barcode" icon does, and one can navigate to Home et al. without apparent issues.

Bump.

Tried again this afternoon - no go.

We hadn’t added books in a while, but when we tried last week - same problem as above. No sound, it might add the book three or four times. Freezes. Reboot phone to add another book. iPhone 8 iOS 16.5.1. My husband and I have the same phones, and get the same problem.

>54 TWGLibrary: Thanks for the report. We're still aware of the iPhone 8 scanning issues in the app (I have an iPhone 8, myself), but we've been unable to pinpoint the issue so far. iPhone 7s are scanning fine, so it must be something special with the iPhone 8 that we'll need to figure out. Hopefully sooner than later! Thanks for your patience in the meantime, we'll be sure to post here with updates.

Bump

Bump

Removed & reloaded the app … still doesn’t work.

Same issue, iPhone8, iOS 16.7.2, LT freezes after a scan. I deleted the app and reloaded - same issue. I tried another LT account - still the same. Typing in the barcode is fine (but slow).

My wife's iPhone (it's a different model but I can't check which one right now) works fine.

Bump

Bump

>61 jasbro: Thanks for this - I just bought myself a new (to me) iPhone, and will be donating my troublesome iPhone 8 to conceptDawg, soon after, so he will be able to see the scanning issues on iPhone 8 in real time. Hopefully this will help with the investigation!