Help > iPhone
No, you can’t. If you’re looking for a great mobile reading experience that offers the world's largest catalog of ebooks, including thousands of free ebooks, we recommend the Kindle app, available for free from the App Store:
If you’re looking for a place to discover a great book, a place to discuss your favorite books, or a place to get in touch with your favorite author, Goodreads is the place to be.
And if you're in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom, you can Preview most books within the app to help decide if it's the right one for you. To see if a book has a preview available, just look for the preview button on the book page:
1. Navigate to the book page for the book in question (you can search for it using the "search" icon on the bottom of the screen or find it in one of your shelves).
2. Under your rating, you'll see a box that says "Write a Review" or "Edit Your Review" (depending on if you have already entered a text review or not). Tap that box to open the review screen.
3. Tap "No Start Date" or "No Finish Date" to enter the date started or date read.
4. Choose the correct date, and then tap "Done" at the top right.
5. On the review screen, tap "Done" again to save.
6. Click the blue "done" button when you've made the necessary changes.
If the Goodreads iPhone app crashes after updating it to the latest release (usually right after you launch it), it's possible you're experiencing a bug in certain versions of iOS, the operating system on all iPhone, iPods and iPads.
The solution to this problem is to shut down and restart the device. If the crash still persists, then the cause of the problem is a different one.
Why do you need to restart the device? During the update process, it's possible on certain versions of iOS that the app is not perfectly cleaned up by the system, not allowing the newly installed version to start correctly. A hard reboot fixes this situation.
Sometimes, even if you typed your email and password correctly, the iOS app does not allow you to sign in to Goodreads, producing error messages along the lines of (412) An unexpected error occurred.
This problem happens when the time on your iOS device is incorrect, which is most often due to your time zone setting (PDT, EST, etc) being incorrect. Goodreads turns down important requests when your clock is too far off as part of protecting your account.
For example, let's say you're in California and it's 3:00 PM. The time on your iOS device reads 3:00 PM, but the time zone is set to "Eastern Daylight Time". Since it's 6:00 PM on the East Coast, your clock is actually three hours behind.
Here's how to fix the time:
1. From the iOS home screen, launch the Settings app.
2. Choose "General".
3. Choose "Date & Time," which is around the bottom-half of the page.
4. Ensure that the date, time zone, and time are all correct.
5. To make things even more reliable, set the "Set Automatically" switch to the ON position. This allows your device to automatically set the correct time and timezone everywhere you go, and it typically solves any related issues. (Some old iPods running iOS 3 may not have this option.)
Right after a scan, tap on the book cover that appears at the top. This will close the scanner and open a page containing reviews and other information about the book. Alternatively, you can scan all your books, tap "Done," then tap on a book of your choice from the "Scanned Books" list that appears when you close the scanner.
If the Goodreads iPhone app crashes (closes unexpectedly), we'd greatly appreciate it if you could send us your crash logs. These will help us find the problem and fix it.
How to get your crash logs:
1. Sync your iPhone
2. Browse to the following folders. DEVICE_NAME indicates the name of your iPhone as shown in iTunes.
Mac OS X:
/Users/<your_user>/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\
Windows Vista:
C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\
3. Each log file will begin with the name of the application. Create a zip file including all the log files related to Goodreads, and email it to support@goodreads.com. (To create a zip file on the Mac: Control-click -> Compress; on Windows: Right-click -> WinZip.)
Here's how to add a new profile picture on the iOS app:
1. On the home screen, tap "More" on the bottom right.
2. Tap your current picture or name (at the top left) to view your profile.
3. Tap "Edit Profile.”
4. On the edit profile page, click on “Edit” beneath your profile picture.
5. Tap either "Take a Photo" or "Choose from Library" to take a picture or find an existing picture you'd like to use.
6. Once you've found the picture that you want, tap "Choose."
That's it! Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
First, take a screenshot of the error or bug. To capture a screenshot using the iPhone or iPod Touch, briefly hold down the power button. While holding it down, press the home key (the key with the square on it). Your screen should briefly flash. There should now be a photo of your iPhone screen saved to your photos. Please email that screenshot to support[at]goodreads[dot]com with a brief description of the error and how you produced it.
If the app unexpectedly closed/crashed, please send us your crash logs as well. That's a great help in diagnosing the problem. We strive to fix all bugs for which we receive crash logs. Here you can find instructions for sending logs.
1. Tap the "My Books" icon, and select "Update Progress".
2. Enter your progress update. You can toggle between pages and percentages by tapping "Page#" or "Percentage".
3. Tap "Done".
*You'll have to add a book to your 'currently-reading' shelf before you'll be able to update its progress.
1. Tap on the "more" icon, and select "Friends".
2. On the top right, select "Add Friends".
3. You can then choose whether you want to search your Phone Contacts or your Facebook friends. Whichever you choose, just tap 'add' next to the person you'd like to add to send a friend request.
If you want to sign in with Gmail/Google, Twitter, or Facebook you will need to use the Goodreads site to create a login. Here's how:
1. Sign into Goodreads as normal using your Twitter/Google/Facebook login on the computer.
2. Click on your profile picture and select Account Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Navigate to the Settings tab and enter your email address and password into the appropriate fields. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Save account settings." You'll now be able to log in using your email and password on the website, the iOS app, and the mobile site.
1. Navigate to the book page of the book you’d like to review.
2. Tap the stars to give the book a star rating, or move it to your Read shelf by tapping the books icon next to "Want to Read."
3. Scroll down and tap the “Write a Review” button. (It should appear under your star rating.)
4. A text box will open for you to edit the review text.
5. Tap "Done" at the top right to save!
To add a book to your shelves using the iPhone app, try this:
1. Tap the "Search" icon at the bottom of the app.
2. In the search bar, type the title and/or author of the book that you’d like to find.
3. Scroll until you find the desired book, then tap the book's title. This will take you to the book page.
4. Tap the green “Want to Read” button to add the book to your “to-read” shelf. If you’d like to add the book to a different shelf, tap the green books icon at the right-hand side of the “Want to Read” button. That will open a list of your existing shelves.
1. Navigate to the book page of the book you reviewed.
2. Scroll down, and select "edit your review."
3. Click "done" on the top right to save!
1. Navigate to the book's page (you can find it through the search tool on the bottom of the screen or through your shelves).
2. Tap the gray arrow on the right-hand side of the “Want to Read” button. (This button may also say “Read” or “Reading” depending on which shelf the book is on).
3. You’ll see a list of your exclusive shelves. If you’d like to add or remove custom shelves, scroll to the end of the list and tap “More Shelves.”
4. Tap "Done" at the top of the page to save.
You can invite friends to Goodreads from your phone's address book, or your Facebook friends.
1. Tap on 'More' (it should be on the bottom right).
2. Then tap on 'Friends' from the menu.
3. On the top right, select 'Add Friends'.
4. From there, you will have the option to add friends from Facebook or from your Phone Contacts. Choose appropriately*.
*'Facebook friends' might open the Facebook app to ask you to grant posting permission - don't worry, we won't post anything unless you tap 'invite' next to a Facebook contact.
1. Navigate to the book page.
2. Scroll down below the book description. Tap the beige “Details & Editions” button.
3. Tap on the “Editions” line.
4. Find the edition you’d like to shelve, and choose “Switch to this edition.”
This will move your review of the book to a new edition. If you’d like to add a separate review for that edition, you can do so from our main website.
To edit your profile in the Goodreads iOS app:
1. Tap on "More," then tap on your name at the top of the page.
2. Tap on "Edit Profile."
3. Make the changes you'd like and tap "done" to save your changes. You can also tap "cancel" to abandon your edits.
1. Select "Scan" from the menu on the bottom of your screen.
2. It should default to your list of scanned books. If you see the camera instead, just tap "Done" on the bottom left to get to the list.
3. Next to "Scanned Books" at the top of the page, tap "Clear"
1. Tap on the Goodreads icon and hold for two seconds, until all your applications begin jiggling.
2. Tap on the "x" that appears on the top left of the Goodreads icon.
3. When the dialog appears, tap "delete" to confirm.
You can scan multiple books at once onto your "read" or "to-read" shelf:
1. Open the app and click "scan" in the bottom right menu.
2. If you're not on the Scanned Books List, tap "Done" on the bottom left to get there.
3. Check to see if you have scanned books in the list that you don't want to add to the shelf. If you do, scroll down to the bottom and tap "Clear Scanned Book List" before moving to step 4.
4. Tap "Scan" on the top right to move into camera mode.
5. Scan barcodes for all the books you'd like to add. You can just scan one after another without tapping or exiting into the list. As long as you see the ISBN appear in green below the viewer, the barcode has been processed.
6. When you're done, tap "done" on the bottom left.
7. Scroll down to the bottom and tap either "Add All to Read Shelf" or "Add All to To-Read Shelf", depending on your preference.
There are 2 kinds of notifications: Apple Push Notifications and Goodreads notifications. Push notifications are the ones you receive on your device even when the Goodreads app is not active or even when you're not using your phone. You typically see them in alerts that you can swipe up to open them in the Goodreads app. To disable push notifications, do the following:
1. Tap on your "Settings" icon (it looks like silver gears).
2. Tap "Notifications".
3. Scroll down until you see "Goodreads".
4. Select "Goodreads".
5. Under "Alert Style", select "None" on the far left.
You can also turn off Goodreads in the notification center at the top of your iOS device by switching "Notification Center" to "OFF" at the top.
Even after disabling push notifications, you will still receive Goodreads notifications. These are the equivalent (no more, no less) of the notifications you see at the top right of the website's header, i.e. the "g" badge. The majority of these notifications come from groups or topics you are subscribed to. To disable them, simply go to the group or topic page and look for "Group Notification Settings" or "Topic Notification Settings," somewhere around the bottom of the page. Then simply turn them off.
Keep in mind that even if you turn off the Group notification settings, you may still receive notifications for an individual topic in that group. The easiest way to turn everything off is to open the (unwanted) notification, scroll down and disable it using the Topic notification setting control.
In addition, the website gives you full control over which Goodreads notifications you are receiving at this page: http://www.goodreads.com/user/edit?tab=emails
1. Navigate to the discussion topic in question.
2. You'll see an arrow on the top right. Tap that arrow once to reverse the ordering to newest first. Tapping the arrow again will revert the order back to the default (oldest first).
1. Tap on the 'more' icon.
2. Tap 'Settings'.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'Sign Out'.
You cannot yet change your location from within the iPhone app. But you can do so on the website on your edit profile page.
