Products · Product
Internet Archive
Raised as a usability problem by 42 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 40 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
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 46 complaints
- Scanned text sits on muddy gray background; manual cleanup is slow2026-08-13
- Interface for accessing the audio files is atrocious and hard to use2026-04-14
- Archived copies render differently or not at all when opened2026-02-21
- Reading daily news through the Internet Archive has a poor interface2026-02-15
- Default interface is slow and painful for multi-file items and bulk downloads2026-01-19
- Science books are hard to find in the search interface2025-04-23
- Search doesn't work and users must click through many captures before one loads2025-03-16
- Cannot resume a failed download, forcing users to restart long transfers manually2025-01-28
- Internal search doesn't work, so users must search on Google instead2024-10-10
- Website became unusable for people who have JavaScript disabled2024-10-10
- Default search is powerful but daunting for people to use2024-07-08
- Commenter found the Internet Archive's book interface terrible to use2024-06-22
- Donation form fails repeatedly, sometimes blocking card number entry or not validating it2023-08-15
- Uploaded item doesn't appear in collections and the way to add it is undocumented2023-07-14
- No good way to browse online, and search is broken2023-07-06
- Site is very slow and shows errors when opening snapshots2023-02-02
- Content refuses to load in a browser that uses an ad blocker2023-01-24
- Searching for a URL on the IPFS version redirects to the standard archive site2022-11-27
- Searching for a site on the IPFS version redirects to the standard archive URL2022-11-16
- Can't change or update recurring donation without manually contacting support2022-09-20
- Cannot enter multiple URLs or crawl an entire domain at once2022-06-07
- Relevant videos are buried under mainstream media results and hard to find2022-03-26
- Archiving services only capture a CAPTCHA error message instead of the page2022-03-03
- Site is very slow and its interface looks dated2021-09-16
- Website is very slow to load or respond2021-09-16
- Struggles to archive desired pages because of the JavaScript interface2020-06-11
- Redesigned layout is disorganized and infinite scrolling makes browsing aimless2020-05-24
- Website's UX feels outdated compared to modern expectations2019-09-19
- Redesigned navigation and infinite scrolling make the site a pain to use2019-07-21
- Cannot pull down .torrent files, forcing one-by-one manual downloads over months2019-06-06
- Open, spacey mobile-first redesign makes the desktop site harder to use for its core purpose2019-02-28
- Search drops one of the three search words, returning useless results2018-03-24
- Tap to click on the trackpad doesn't work, though physical click does2017-04-17
- Redesigned site is slow, bloated, and disorganized for research use2016-10-20
- Embedded programs load about 30% too far down, making them unusable2016-02-11
- A previous redesign hid the search bar somewhere else, making it hard to find2015-12-22
- Infinite scrolling makes the page hard to use, and the new layout is image-heavy rather than text-based2015-04-21
- Plain list of uploaded files hidden behind an uncoloured link only highlighted on hover2015-04-21
- New design is cluttered and confusing, with infinite scrolling making navigation chaotic2015-04-21
- Column headers are unclear and misaligned, so users can't tell what each column means2015-04-21
- Almost impossible to find items when only partial knowledge of them is known2015-04-21
- New design is cluttered and confusing, with infinite scrolling making navigation chaotic2015-04-16
- New interface is unusable when JavaScript is turned off2015-02-01
- Visitors land on the old site and must opt into the new one, which then persists via a cookie2014-10-29
- Couldn't find how to view the book; borrow-only flow leaves it unreadable when checked out2014-06-01
- Latest snapshot redirects to site root; back button skips back to search results2013-10-08