New Overdrive coming and it is awful

[John F]

Originally Posted by glendalekid

John F: Thank you. I appreciate the effort you put into finding the answer to my problem. I think I have got it now.

Should not be this difficult to do a simple action like this.

Karen

Your welcome, and just in case...

I believe you could bookmark the page and the bookmark will work correctly.

[Blossom]

Filters seem broken on one if my libraries. It just shows available now titles and nothing else.

Sent from my XT1528

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Filters seem broken on one if my libraries. It just shows available now titles and nothing else.

Sent from my XT1528

I had that happen once and the next day it was ok. But that is a pain in the ass.

[thekidsmom]

Two things that are bothering the heck out of me with this new overdrive: my accounts switched to automatic checkout (which I don't want) and I can't seem to easily distinguish between ebooks and audiobooks. For instance before, I could just hit 'ebooks' and it would only show...you guessed it...ebooks. Still looking for this magic button....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thekidsmom

Two things that are bothering the heck out of me with this new overdrive: my accounts switched to automatic checkout (which I don't want) and I can't seem to easily distinguish between ebooks and audiobooks. For instance before, I could just hit 'ebooks' and it would only show...you guessed it...ebooks. Still looking for this magic button....

In settings, you can turn off auto checkout and it applies to all your checkouts.

If you are in cover view, for eBooks, under the cover it has a book icon and shows EBOOK next to the icon. This is right under the author. For audiobooks it has a headphone icon and and shows AUDIOBOOK.

If you are in list view, these icons are to the right of the book thumbnail and under the author name.

There are two ways to see all eBooks. One is to click the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen (same line as My account). Then click advanced. In the advanced search is a line titled All formats. Just select All eBooks. if you somehow don't do it this way, when you are looking at the books (in either view), to the left is a clickable like that says eBooks. Click that and select the format you want. You can select as many eBook formats as you want. Same thing with audiobooks.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

if you somehow don't do it this way, when you are looking at the books (in either view), to the left is a clickable like that says eBooks. Click that and select the format you want. You can select as many eBook formats as you want. Same thing with audiobooks.

Unfortunately it only shows books that meet all of the selected criteria. So if you click on both "EPUB eBook" and "Open EPUB eBook" it will show only books that have both of those formats, not books available in either format.

[thekidsmom]

Thanks JSWolf, I did find the button to switch the automatic checkouts. But I would have never found the advanced options under search. Thanks so much.

I should also mention a feature that I like in the new version- on my pc I noticed I can sort the book list by 'added in the last 7 days', or 2 weeks, etc. That's very useful.

[Atunah]

I can't find anywhere anymore how to sort by publisher. I was able to have those filters on the left on the old site, not I can't find it. I also had to turn off auto checkout as I now cannot see anymore what ebook formats there are for a book. Why is this important? If I happen to get first on the list of a book not out yet its only listed as epub if its a pre-release.

Then when it comes available and I am on the top of the list, I only have access to that epub and cannot change to kindle version. This has burned me a few times where I had to return the book and then go in the back of the line to be able to read the book. But now I can't check to make sure the books is listed as kindle book at all. Not on the book page as it used to. I also cannot change auto checkout individually. Its a all or nothing.

So I had to quickly cancel a couple of holds on pre-releases and then put them on hold again after I turned the auto check out off site wide. Ugh.

Now that I am using the new site more, I really am missing a lot of stuff I used to use all the time.

[Love Audiobooks]

I DESPISE THE NEW OVERDRIVE. There. Whew. I have complained via their "feedback" three separate times. I suppose they don't care. What they have done is accommodate smartphone users, as most web sites are doing now. I use a desktop. This has to be the unfriendliest version of Overdrive for desktop that I've ever used and I've been using it since it started.

In the past, I would check new added to the site books/audiobooks every week. Easy peasy. A pleasure to use. Now, everything is a bloody effort. No way to tell what my limit is at a glance; no way to tell how many items checked out. And that's the LEAST of my dislike.

I truly hate developers who think, between eating their Cheetos and playing Foosball in the rec room (yes, I've worked in such tech places), that everything MUST be revamped just...because. Not everyone has a smartphone!

My lifeline is Overdrive. I don't have cable. I watch very little over the air TV. I read. I listen to audiobooks. I can't afford to do anything else (other than the Internet.) Overdrive has now screwed up one of my last real pleasures.

The other revamp was EASY to get used to. EASY to manipulate and use. EASY to look at.

This one? NOT AT ALL.

Gee, thanks, Overdrive, real friendly revamp ya got there.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Unfortunately it only shows books that meet all of the selected criteria. So if you click on both "EPUB eBook" and "Open EPUB eBook" it will show only books that have both of those formats, not books available in either format.

Then the easiest thing to do is use the advanced search to select all eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thekidsmom

Thanks JSWolf, I did find the button to switch the automatic checkouts. But I would have never found the advanced options under search. Thanks so much.

I should also mention a feature that I like in the new version- on my pc I noticed I can sort the book list by 'added in the last 7 days', or 2 weeks, etc. That's very useful.

The search on 7 days etc. was available in the advanced search on the previous Overdrive.

[PurpleStar]

Oh no my library has the new overdrive. *shudder*

[glendalekid]

While the search does allow you to search via different time frames, it is not accurate. I know this because I have been in the habit of checking my libraries every morning re newly added books. Since this neat little feature does not actually do what it says it does . . . . what good is it?

It appears that this NEW version has not only eliminated the best features, it has fouled up the supposedly IMPROVED features.

I do notice that no one from Overdrive has commented here as they did last time the site was "improved". Do they not care? Do they not want to know? Or both?

And, NO, we don't all have smart phones!!!

[4691mls]

Regarding the search by time frame - I don't know has changed with the new version of the site as my library only recently switched. With the previous version of Overdrive, a couple times a week I would search for all books acquired in the past 7 days to see if anything new had come in that looked interesting. Usually the search results would include any new books in ongoing series I had been reading.

However, there have been several times when I have searched all books of a particular author (not within a specific time frame) and discovered new books listed which I had never seen in browsing new books by time frame. So I wonder whether searching by time frame actually shows everything that comes in.

[copyrite]

Last of my two libraries has updated - Brooklyn.