Anyone using Unlimited (Throttled) Scribd? - Page 2

Synamon · 12-16-2019, 02:21 PM

Ugh. My husband started listening to another audiobook and the download of the one I was listening to was deleted from my phone and shows as unavailable until the next month’s billing date. After searching and fiddling it allowed me to keep listening for a bit longer (80 minutes it appears) as a “preview”. But that’s not long enough for me to finish the book since I’ve listened to 3 hours of the 18 hour audiobook.

I understand that they don’t want people listening to a lot of books, but removing a downloaded one instead of just blocking access to additional audiobooks is infuriating and makes little sense. My available ‘saved’ list has still has 5 audiobooks.

I just checked my phone data usage for the month and it appears that the app must be streaming using cellular data quite a bit instead of using the audiobook file downloaded to my phone. I found a way in settings to turn off cellular at least, but there was no reason for it to ever use it in the first place.

Two more strikes. I definitely will not be renewing the subscription.

tubemonkey · 12-16-2019, 03:16 PM

Just a reminder, but Downpour has audiobooks for rent and is currently running a sale for up to 75% off the rental rates. During the sale, many books are priced at $1.74 each.

Granted, their catalog is small (~18,000 titles) but if you find something you want to read and don't care if you own it, then you can save quite a bit.

See this post for further details about the program.

icedtea · 04-02-2020, 09:59 PM

I'm using the no credit card free trial.

So far, I've completed 1 audiobook and then 4 ebooks, all titles that aren't available at my library or local Overdrive. I have about 2 weeks left, so we'll see if I hit the limits before that.

I downloaded everything for offline use (but only 1 or 2 at a time as I finished, not all at once), and had no issues on a phone in airplane mode with no sim card. The app remembered my position in between sessions when I closed the app; no bookmarking required.

One annoying thing, is that even though I didn't use their app or website 'save' function to bookmark potential reads (I was actually just bookmarking in my browser), even just searching for authors/titles seemed to make the algorithm hit the 'unavailable' on one particular author/title when I went back to view it a second time.

This was with only the audiobook downloaded, too. I think I looked up about 10 titles when it happened.

Paperbackstash · 04-05-2020, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synamon

I understand that they don’t want people listening to a lot of books, but removing a downloaded one instead of just blocking access to additional audiobooks is infuriating and makes little sense. My available ‘saved’ list has still has 5 audiobooks.

.

I agree, that part is unacceptable. I haven't run into it myself but that would be enough for me to leave if it kept happening. If they need to, they could restrict how many could be downloaded and 'active', but it's not okay to remove downloads, especially if you are currently listening to it.

Too controlling

That hasnt happened to me and I'm still a happy member but I am using the downloaded files less since I found them glitchy.

Synamon · 04-18-2020, 03:18 PM

I used the recent one month free offer (no credit card required) to finish listening to the downloaded audiobook that was removed during my earlier trial, but I won't be using the service past that.

I did like the concept, but the glitches and lack of transparency with the restrictions made it more trouble than it was worth.

icedtea · 04-26-2020, 07:33 PM

Update, I managed to finish another 3 ebooks, so my total was 8 items completed on the trial, but only 1 of those was an audiobook -- I'm not much of an audio listener.

So I got quite a bit out of my month's use, but for those of you only wanting audio, agreed, it's probably not worth it.

Paperbackstash · 05-12-2020, 12:06 AM

I ran into too many issues listening to audio offline - not sure if it was the phone, or just the app - but I haven't run into issues when listening to it streaming.

infectious · 06-25-2020, 11:11 AM

I've only seen Scribd offering "free e-books! Just log in!" and steered clear away. Too much weird stuff going on w/ the internet. Though I just now taken a peek and they've done quite a bit of revamping!

When I read Audible's terms - 3 books a month? That's it? And 2 of them HAVE to be 'an audible original'?! Um no. The modern pricing model for anything is subscription-based now and my pockets have holes in them or something.

I've been finding more and more audiobook oferings on my various local county library websites. Ebooks too, but not a massive selection.

I also buy a kindle book on sale for $.99 (out of sight out of mind for this reader!) and for $7.49 upgrade to get the Audible. Or find a prior e-book I purchased had that same offer to upgrade - and audio is the only I can get through books at the moment. It works.

Now I'm in the confusion of how to get the audios *out* of audible. I bought them after all! That's what I'm looking up now. Or trying to.

Paperbackstash · 06-29-2020, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infectious

I've only seen Scribd offering "free e-books! Just log in!" and steered clear away. Too much weird stuff going on w/ the internet. Though I just now taken a peek and they've done quite a bit of revamping!

When I read Audible's terms - 3 books a month? That's it? And 2 of them HAVE to be 'an audible original'?! Um no. The modern pricing model for anything is subscription-based now and my pockets have holes in them or something.

I've been finding more and more audiobook oferings on my various local county library websites. Ebooks too, but not a massive selection.

I also buy a kindle book on sale for $.99 (out of sight out of mind for this reader!) and for $7.49 upgrade to get the Audible. Or find a prior e-book I purchased had that same offer to upgrade - and audio is the only I can get through books at the moment. It works.

Now I'm in the confusion of how to get the audios *out* of audible. I bought them after all! That's what I'm looking up now. Or trying to.

I am not longer a subscribing member to Audible but can listen to the books I previously purchased or grabbed fine through my account. The account still exists with available books. I've read a bit on getting them out of the account somehow but that seems complicated. There's a lot of protection on them. I do need to figure out how to back these up just in case.

I am still a member of Scribd and still loving the service. I never ran into some of the issues others have other than my phone being glitchy with offline files, but nothing is perfect and that was not a deal breaker for me.

Lparsons21 · 06-29-2020, 11:47 AM

I’ve been using Scribd for a couple years now and find it to be a good service. That said I don’t do audible books all that much so haven’t had the issues some seem to be having.

Deskisamess · 06-29-2020, 11:57 AM

I remember trying Scribd back when it first came out and was truly unlimited. Not being able to read on my e-ink Kindles was a drawback, but I kept using it for a few months. I eventually stopped subscribing, and remember the hubbub when they began restricting titles.

Wasn't it the authors who were unhappy with the subscription model and pushed for the changes?

Not being able to read on e-ink devices was the reason I never cared to get back into the program.

Lparsons21 · 06-29-2020, 12:12 PM

You can read on at least some e-ink devices. The app works fairly well on the Likebook Mars and Onyx Nova Pro.

Paperbackstash · 06-29-2020, 02:14 PM

I don't rent many e-books from them since I have hundreds unread through purchasing and Kindle Unlimited. I mainly got them for Audiobooks. However, I have borrowed one or two and use my Kindle Fire for it. It does bum me that it does not work on e-ink, but that gives me another excuse to justify a Kindle Fire purchase -- this was before I got addicted to games on the tablet

As for the authors pushing for the change, not sure. I subscribed after all that. I don't mind some restrictions, honestly, due to the market. To me getting 2-4 audiobooks out of it for under 10 a month is an excellent deal. I don't listen to more than that regardless.

Paperbackstash · 11-08-2020, 07:24 PM

I finally did it and got throttled by Scribd by listening to a lot of audiobooks in October and a few e-book rentals. I'm on "break" from most of my audios that are saved on the website until 11/13

I haven't run into where an audiobook suddenly becomes available yet still, that would bug me more than the limiting that pops up sometimes.

I'm not surprised I ran into a cap and it doesn't actually bother me. I listened to a lot of children's related easy ones for challenges out of the halloween season. Total of Nine Audiobooks and One E-book Rental for month of October.

tempest@de · 05-03-2021, 06:41 AM

Reviving this tread to add some information

I’ve signed again and only used it for audiobooks, in this first month I listened to 3 audiobooks before coming across some restrictions, I’d say that about a 1/3 of my saved list appeared marked has «available after…», I’m listening to the 8th audio, and all but this one and another are available now, all the other 29 audios in my saved list are blocked.

Also this blockage affects the search, I searched for audiobooks from a specific narrator and had no results shown, I found it odd because I’ve seen some before so I logged out and searches again and there were several.
So it seems that if I want to search for new books I will have to do it before getting throttled.

I think it would be best to let us see which books are in scribd even if they are not available for me at the moment, this way I feel deceived, because If I search for something and it shows no results, I will think they are not available on scribd not that they are not available to me temporarily.

12-16-2019, 02:21 PM	#16
Synamon Lunatic Posts: 1,691 Karma: 4386372 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Land of the Loonie Device: Kindle Paperwhite and Keyboard, Kobo Aura, iPad mini, iPod Touch	Anyone using Unlimited (Throttled) Scribd? Ugh. My husband started listening to another audiobook and the download of the one I was listening to was deleted from my phone and shows as unavailable until the next month’s billing date. After searching and fiddling it allowed me to keep listening for a bit longer (80 minutes it appears) as a “preview”. But that’s not long enough for me to finish the book since I’ve listened to 3 hours of the 18 hour audiobook. I understand that they don’t want people listening to a lot of books, but removing a downloaded one instead of just blocking access to additional audiobooks is infuriating and makes little sense. My available ‘saved’ list has still has 5 audiobooks. I just checked my phone data usage for the month and it appears that the app must be streaming using cellular data quite a bit instead of using the audiobook file downloaded to my phone. I found a way in settings to turn off cellular at least, but there was no reason for it to ever use it in the first place. Two more strikes. I definitely will not be renewing the subscription. Last edited by Synamon; 12-16-2019 at 02:38 PM.

11-08-2020, 07:24 PM	#29
Paperbackstash Wizard Posts: 1,592 Karma: 20086276 Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: Central Florida Device: Oasis 3, PW 3, 4, 5, Fire HD 2012, Fire HD 8 (8th Gen)	I finally did it and got throttled by Scribd by listening to a lot of audiobooks in October and a few e-book rentals. I'm on "break" from most of my audios that are saved on the website until 11/13 I haven't run into where an audiobook suddenly becomes available yet still, that would bug me more than the limiting that pops up sometimes. I'm not surprised I ran into a cap and it doesn't actually bother me. I listened to a lot of children's related easy ones for challenges out of the halloween season. Total of Nine Audiobooks and One E-book Rental for month of October. Last edited by Paperbackstash; 11-09-2020 at 12:19 PM.

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12-16-2019, 03:16 PM	#17
tubemonkey monkey on the fringe Posts: 45,477 Karma: 158151390 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Seattle Metro Device: Moto E6, Echo Show	Just a reminder, but Downpour has audiobooks for rent and is currently running a sale for up to 75% off the rental rates. During the sale, many books are priced at $1.74 each. Granted, their catalog is small (~18,000 titles) but if you find something you want to read and don't care if you own it, then you can save quite a bit. See this post for further details about the program.

04-02-2020, 09:59 PM	#18
icedtea elibrary love Posts: 162 Karma: 375558 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kindle3, RIP Mini	I'm using the no credit card free trial. So far, I've completed 1 audiobook and then 4 ebooks, all titles that aren't available at my library or local Overdrive. I have about 2 weeks left, so we'll see if I hit the limits before that. I downloaded everything for offline use (but only 1 or 2 at a time as I finished, not all at once), and had no issues on a phone in airplane mode with no sim card. The app remembered my position in between sessions when I closed the app; no bookmarking required. One annoying thing, is that even though I didn't use their app or website 'save' function to bookmark potential reads (I was actually just bookmarking in my browser), even just searching for authors/titles seemed to make the algorithm hit the 'unavailable' on one particular author/title when I went back to view it a second time. This was with only the audiobook downloaded, too. I think I looked up about 10 titles when it happened.

04-18-2020, 03:18 PM	#20
Synamon Lunatic Posts: 1,691 Karma: 4386372 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Land of the Loonie Device: Kindle Paperwhite and Keyboard, Kobo Aura, iPad mini, iPod Touch	I used the recent one month free offer (no credit card required) to finish listening to the downloaded audiobook that was removed during my earlier trial, but I won't be using the service past that. I did like the concept, but the glitches and lack of transparency with the restrictions made it more trouble than it was worth.

04-26-2020, 07:33 PM	#21
icedtea elibrary love Posts: 162 Karma: 375558 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kindle3, RIP Mini	Update, I managed to finish another 3 ebooks, so my total was 8 items completed on the trial, but only 1 of those was an audiobook -- I'm not much of an audio listener. So I got quite a bit out of my month's use, but for those of you only wanting audio, agreed, it's probably not worth it.

05-12-2020, 12:06 AM	#22
Paperbackstash Wizard Posts: 1,592 Karma: 20086276 Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: Central Florida Device: Oasis 3, PW 3, 4, 5, Fire HD 2012, Fire HD 8 (8th Gen)	I ran into too many issues listening to audio offline - not sure if it was the phone, or just the app - but I haven't run into issues when listening to it streaming.

06-25-2020, 11:11 AM	#23
infectious Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: calibre	I've only seen Scribd offering "free e-books! Just log in!" and steered clear away. Too much weird stuff going on w/ the internet. Though I just now taken a peek and they've done quite a bit of revamping! When I read Audible's terms - 3 books a month? That's it? And 2 of them HAVE to be 'an audible original'?! Um no. The modern pricing model for anything is subscription-based now and my pockets have holes in them or something. I've been finding more and more audiobook oferings on my various local county library websites. Ebooks too, but not a massive selection. I also buy a kindle book on sale for $.99 (out of sight out of mind for this reader!) and for $7.49 upgrade to get the Audible. Or find a prior e-book I purchased had that same offer to upgrade - and audio is the only I can get through books at the moment. It works. Now I'm in the confusion of how to get the audios out of audible. I bought them after all! That's what I'm looking up now. Or trying to.

06-29-2020, 11:47 AM	#25
Lparsons21 Zealot Posts: 139 Karma: 4321046 Join Date: Nov 2018 Device: iPad mini 4	I’ve been using Scribd for a couple years now and find it to be a good service. That said I don’t do audible books all that much so haven’t had the issues some seem to be having.

06-29-2020, 11:57 AM	#26
Deskisamess Wizard Posts: 2,609 Karma: 42697471 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Ohio Device: iPhone 7+, iPad mini, 2021 iPad Pro 12.9",Paperwhite 6.8"	I remember trying Scribd back when it first came out and was truly unlimited. Not being able to read on my e-ink Kindles was a drawback, but I kept using it for a few months. I eventually stopped subscribing, and remember the hubbub when they began restricting titles. Wasn't it the authors who were unhappy with the subscription model and pushed for the changes? Not being able to read on e-ink devices was the reason I never cared to get back into the program.

06-29-2020, 12:12 PM	#27
Lparsons21 Zealot Posts: 139 Karma: 4321046 Join Date: Nov 2018 Device: iPad mini 4	You can read on at least some e-ink devices. The app works fairly well on the Likebook Mars and Onyx Nova Pro.

06-29-2020, 02:14 PM	#28
Paperbackstash Wizard Posts: 1,592 Karma: 20086276 Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: Central Florida Device: Oasis 3, PW 3, 4, 5, Fire HD 2012, Fire HD 8 (8th Gen)	I don't rent many e-books from them since I have hundreds unread through purchasing and Kindle Unlimited. I mainly got them for Audiobooks. However, I have borrowed one or two and use my Kindle Fire for it. It does bum me that it does not work on e-ink, but that gives me another excuse to justify a Kindle Fire purchase -- this was before I got addicted to games on the tablet As for the authors pushing for the change, not sure. I subscribed after all that. I don't mind some restrictions, honestly, due to the market. To me getting 2-4 audiobooks out of it for under 10 a month is an excellent deal. I don't listen to more than that regardless.

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05-03-2021, 06:41 AM	#30
tempest@de Fanatic Posts: 516 Karma: 4442943 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Portugal Device: Kobo Glo, kindle	Reviving this tread to add some information I’ve signed again and only used it for audiobooks, in this first month I listened to 3 audiobooks before coming across some restrictions, I’d say that about a 1/3 of my saved list appeared marked has «available after…», I’m listening to the 8th audio, and all but this one and another are available now, all the other 29 audios in my saved list are blocked. Also this blockage affects the search, I searched for audiobooks from a specific narrator and had no results shown, I found it odd because I’ve seen some before so I logged out and searches again and there were several. So it seems that if I want to search for new books I will have to do it before getting throttled. I think it would be best to let us see which books are in scribd even if they are not available for me at the moment, this way I feel deceived, because If I search for something and it shows no results, I will think they are not available on scribd not that they are not available to me temporarily.