Products · Product
Calibre
Raised as a usability problem by 108 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 46 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Getting Kindle books into Calibre needs a physical KindleUnreviewed
20102026- Commenter finds Calibre confusing and unnecessary compared to simply copying files to Kindle2022-07-11
- Calibre treats Standard Ebooks kepub files as plain epubs, reformatting them poorly and blocking dual storage2021-04-28
- Average users struggle to convert an ebook and transfer it to a Kindle2021-04-27
Every update requires revisiting the site and redownloading the appUnreviewed
20102026- Every update requires visiting the site and downloading the whole app again2022-07-11
- Updating on Mac means manually visiting the site, downloading and installing each new version2013-08-25
- Update button opens browser for manual download and install instead of updating in-app2011-01-11
Hardcoded ebook styles force manual formatting fixesUnreviewed
20102026- Ebooks with hardcoded styles force ugly formatting that the user must fix manually2023-11-18
- Stripped ebook styling makes readers' section breaks and fonts unusable in dark mode2020-09-25
- Converted ebooks come out poor quality, with text lines and diagrams cut in half2020-08-27
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Calibre's user interface is hard to use, described as godawful2026-08-31
- Finding, downloading, reading and managing books requires many separate steps across apps2026-08-26
- Calibre is slow and has the worst user experience the commenter has seen2026-04-20
- UI described as comically obtuse and amateur for over a decade2025-12-07
- Casual users can't find UI elements they're used to, making it harder to learn2025-03-21
- User dislikes the built-in reader and prefers other devices for reading2025-03-21
- Merge options are hard to pick correctly, so users must be extremely careful not to mess up2025-03-21
- Interface looks dated and its UX is basic and sometimes strange2025-03-21
- Icons are ambiguous and tree menus bury workflows, making commands hard to find2025-03-21
- Viewing a book silently modifies the source file and metadata edits don't propagate as expected2025-03-21
- Reader interface is considered terrible for actually reading books2025-03-21
- Icons are meaningless, menus nested, functions hidden behind context menus2025-03-21
- Jumping to a page takes many steps through nested menus and a plain input box2025-03-21
- Calibre's interface is messy and poorly designed, hard to use as a library2025-02-15
- Ugly, quirky interface that is a slog to set up and use2024-08-05
- UI is cluttered and hard to figure out at first2024-02-06
- Hard to open multiple ePub files at once on macOS2024-01-18
- Hard to find features; must devote much brain power searching for functionality2024-01-14
- Calibre's UI is frustrating to use and cluttered for the commenter2024-01-14
- User got lost in Calibre's confusing UI and found it hard to navigate2024-01-14
- Following the Docker docs still shows no books despite a successful database connection2024-01-14
- Commenter couldn't figure out how to use it and gave up2024-01-14
- Hard to use even for an experienced user, so it can't be recommended to anyone2024-01-14
- Not intuitive; UI/UX is quite bad for casual readers2024-01-14
- Interface is unintuitive and clunky to use2024-01-14
- Plugin-based file type support feels clunky and tied awkwardly into the main app2023-12-19
- Interface is clunky and unintuitive to use2023-12-19
- Writes obviously wrong metadata without asking, and the app is slow to use2023-11-18
- Interface is complicated and gets worse as plugins are added2023-11-18
- UI feels dated to the commenter2023-11-18
- UI is a cluttered mess of buttons and menus scattered everywhere2023-11-18
- Ebooks with hardcoded styles force ugly formatting that the user must fix manually2023-11-18
- Syncing reading progress to an e-reader requires frustrating workarounds, custom fields and code snippets2023-11-18
- Takes minutes to figure out which button does what2023-09-03
- The interface is confusing to figure out2023-09-03
- Interface is awful, so users put up with it for lack of alternatives2023-09-03
- Can't figure out how to do common tasks without research each time2023-09-02
- Feels bloated and clunky, with the desktop reader not great and no in-app updates2023-08-29
- Common functions are time-consuming to set up and the interface is poorly designed2023-04-16
- User finds the overall interface horrible to use2023-04-16
- Interface is cluttered and too complex for simply managing a book library2023-01-27
- Setting up reading position sync takes hours of forum reading and trial-and-error mistakes2023-01-04
- Calibre's UX is puzzling, making it hard to use2022-12-29
- Can't find or figure out the inputs or config options needed to display files2022-07-12
- Commenter finds Calibre confusing and unnecessary compared to simply copying files to Kindle2022-07-11
- Every update requires visiting the site and downloading the whole app again2022-07-11
- Six toolbar icons look virtually identical, and low contrast makes them hard to tell apart2022-07-11
- UI is bad and getting worse, with poor grey shading contrast2022-07-11
- Interface and workflow feel outdated and awful, like 1990s software2022-05-04
- Desktop app's idiosyncratic UI and hostile defaults are traumatizing to use2022-01-22