Reviews of ShelfPlayer - Audio Book Shelf

By: AI Tools Apps SRL App

List of user reviews and ratings for ShelfPlayer - Audio Book Shelf

Total ratings

3.80 (Rating count: 139)

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Review summary

ShelfPlayer shows strong integration with Audiobookshelf and a polished UI across Apple devices, with active developer support. However, recurring issues undercut reliability: offline playback is broken, last-position tracking is inconsistent, updates introduce regressions, library browsing can be incomplete, and device-control quirks persist. The app is promising and well-regarded, but stability and data-sync problems appear across many reviews.

Pros

Excellent Audiobookshelf integration and Apple ecosystem compatibility (iOS, iPadOS, macOS).
Beautiful, elegant UI with polished design and attention to details.
Rich feature set and high configurability (Collections, shortcuts, extensive settings).
Active developer responsiveness and ongoing bug fixes.
Good cross-device support and overall user satisfaction across years.

Cons

Offline mode is broken or unreliable; downloaded books may not play without a network.
Progress tracking/last-position is inconsistent; books can restart or lose place.
Update-induced regressions; new bugs appear after updates and disrupt usage.
Incomplete library browsing (e.g., not all books from an author appear; genre search returns no results).
Device-control and UI quirks (AirPods skip behavior, CarPlay field missing, bookmarks requiring app restart).

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User Reviews

Recent rating average: 3.40

All time rating average: 3.80

Upgrade to see all 55 reviews

29% (16)

Date	Author	Comment
2026-07-19	El*****	I am connecting to an instance of Audiobookshelf and I have to log in every other time that I open the app. Then it takes a minute to load the main screen and even though it downloads episodes it stll takes time before you can play anything. I do not recommend at all. There are better alternatives.
I am connecting to an instance of Audiobookshelf and I have to log in every other time that I open the app. Then it takes a minute to load the main screen and even though it downloads episodes it stll takes time before you can play anything. I do not recommend at all. There are better alternatives.
2026-07-14	Ta*****	Constantly going offline, losing my current position in my book, skipping too far, etc. it’s just pretty clunky
Constantly going offline, losing my current position in my book, skipping too far, etc. it’s just pretty clunky
2026-07-06	MZ*****	Using the sleep timer function for several 20 minute podcast series and audio books. When the timer runs through several episodes or chapters over the course of an hour long timer I constantly find the shelf player app not saving progress to ABS on timer end and starting right back where the last session began. I’m losing multiple episodes or chapters of progress and taking up a lot of time constantly re-marking episodes complete or trying to figure out where to resume an audiobook before continuing listening sessions. The UI is very nice but this functionality flaw is heavily detracting from the experience
Using the sleep timer function for several 20 minute podcast series and audio books. When the timer runs through several episodes or chapters over the course of an hour long timer I constantly find the shelf player app not saving progress to ABS on timer end and starting right back where the last session began. I’m losing multiple episodes or chapters of progress and taking up a lot of time constantly re-marking episodes complete or trying to figure out where to resume an audiobook before continuing listening sessions. The UI is very nice but this functionality flaw is heavily detracting from the experience
2026-06-17	Li*****	Does everything I need to, recognizes Audiobookshelf tags, collections, series etc. which is super helpful
Does everything I need to, recognizes Audiobookshelf tags, collections, series etc. which is super helpful
2026-06-10	br*****	This app is getting really really close to perfect. It's the only one that handles seasons well! My only advice regards the mini-player animation. It is SO cool that you have emulated Apple's shrinking album cover effect (I'm geeking out about it!), but I'm not sure it's really ready for release. Until it's smooth and snappy, I'd rather have the whole player slide down off the bottom of the screen quickly and smoothly than have a fancy animation that feels slow and finicky. If it weren't for that, I could easily be convinced this app was built by the Apple devs themselves! 👏👏👏
This app is getting really really close to perfect. It's the only one that handles seasons well! My only advice regards the mini-player animation. It is SO cool that you have emulated Apple's shrinking album cover effect (I'm geeking out about it!), but I'm not sure it's really ready for release. Until it's smooth and snappy, I'd rather have the whole player slide down off the bottom of the screen quickly and smoothly than have a fancy animation that feels slow and finicky. If it weren't for that, I could easily be convinced this app was built by the Apple devs themselves! 👏👏👏
2026-04-10	Im*****	Previous update finally solved the background crashing issue, but caused numerous other issues. 1. Trying to play a completed episode without first explicitly resetting progress causes an instant crash 2. If you have used the sleep timer, you must set to random value, then cancels, then set again. Otherwise it will show a negative number in the thousands and prevent podcasts from playing 3. The latest field has disappeared from CarPlay with no discernible way to get it back. 4. Double click AirPods no longer skips forward, but instead SKIPS TO THE NEXT EPISODE unlike every other audio app in existence. There seems to be no way to change this 5. The currently playing display at the bottom of the screen with occasionally stop working and require a force close 6. Occasionally will crash when queueing multiple episodes To users - maybe just use plappa. It’s clunky and less pretty, but it actually works consistently To the dev - maybe layoff the vibes. Random things are breaking and changing in every update. Kinda bums me out
Previous update finally solved the background crashing issue, but caused numerous other issues. 1. Trying to play a completed episode without first explicitly resetting progress causes an instant crash 2. If you have used the sleep timer, you must set to random value, then cancels, then set again. Otherwise it will show a negative number in the thousands and prevent podcasts from playing 3. The latest field has disappeared from CarPlay with no discernible way to get it back. 4. Double click AirPods no longer skips forward, but instead SKIPS TO THE NEXT EPISODE unlike every other audio app in existence. There seems to be no way to change this 5. The currently playing display at the bottom of the screen with occasionally stop working and require a force close 6. Occasionally will crash when queueing multiple episodes To users - maybe just use plappa. It’s clunky and less pretty, but it actually works consistently To the dev - maybe layoff the vibes. Random things are breaking and changing in every update. Kinda bums me out
2026-03-23	Ji*****	I’m really happy overall with ShelfPlayer as it manages my audiobooks via audiobookshelf running on my Linux server. The problem is, it occasionally starts the book from the beginning. This isn’t a huge deal for shorter books, but I’m listening to 1000+ page books over the course of weeks/months and it takes a long long time of skipping around in the audio book to find my place. Infuriating. Edit: seems fixed
I’m really happy overall with ShelfPlayer as it manages my audiobooks via audiobookshelf running on my Linux server. The problem is, it occasionally starts the book from the beginning. This isn’t a huge deal for shorter books, but I’m listening to 1000+ page books over the course of weeks/months and it takes a long long time of skipping around in the audio book to find my place. Infuriating. Edit: seems fixed
2026-03-19	ke*****	I’m at a period of life where reading books is difficult. I listen to books almost constantly. I have a half dozen audiobook apps and this one is my go to. I have multiple long series that I enjoy re-listening to, and this is a simple way to do that.
I’m at a period of life where reading books is difficult. I listen to books almost constantly. I have a half dozen audiobook apps and this one is my go to. I have multiple long series that I enjoy re-listening to, and this is a simple way to do that.
2026-03-17	De*****	This is my preferred Audiobookshelf app. I particularly like the integration with Shortcuts.
This is my preferred Audiobookshelf app. I particularly like the integration with Shortcuts.
2026-03-17	Tu*****	Unlike Plappa, this runs on everything Apple - iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and provides better UI experience. Unfortunately, critical bugs won’t let me switch away from Plappa. The biggest one is inability to present all books from an author. Say I have 16 books of Dan Simmons. ShelfPlayer shows 16 as a counter of all books from Dan Simmons, but only subset is shown in the actual book list… that’s a hard stop, critical issue for me
Unlike Plappa, this runs on everything Apple - iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and provides better UI experience. Unfortunately, critical bugs won’t let me switch away from Plappa. The biggest one is inability to present all books from an author. Say I have 16 books of Dan Simmons. ShelfPlayer shows 16 as a counter of all books from Dan Simmons, but only subset is shown in the actual book list… that’s a hard stop, critical issue for me