Play Book Tag discussion

It started when I was in MyBooks. I lost most of my display and mainly saw book titles. Screens in other parts of the site looked ok. I had changed the settings in one folder to add the pub dates, so I thought I hit something else by mistake. But it was in all folders

I shut down, and when I came back other pages looked wrong too,

I can read the message I just wrote, but the reply, edit, delete buttons are missing.

NancyJ wrote: "I can read the message I just wrote, but the reply, edit, delete buttons are missing."

I just used the "reply" button to start this post. My display seems OK.

Hopefully you just encountered a small glitch, and its not a sign of unwelcome changes to come.

Thanks Sue, I reported the problem to Goodreads support. I wonder if this is what I would see if I used the mobile app. I rarely use it. I’ll look at the Apple settings to see if I accidentally changed something.

NANCY - the mobile app pages look 'wrong', and a couple times recently, mine would suddenly be on the mobile app though I did not do anything to change from desktop. I use GR exclusively in my browser on every device.

IT IS AN EASY FIX.

Scroll down to bottom of page you are on. Under the tabs for the app stores, you should see the small words 'mobile version'. IF YOU SEE 'desktop version', tap that and GR will instantly switch to desktop.

That is all. You see the words 'mobile app' when you are in desktop.

It should stay, but just remember that switch when things seem odd. One big difference is not being able to link to book in mobile version.

That’s not it.

© 2025 Goodreads, Inc.
Desktop version

Is that what is says at the bottom? Then you are in the mobile app version.

I am in desktop version and it says

2025 Goodreads, Inc.
Mobile version

Omg. That WAS it.

BEFORE I saw your message, I checked my Apple settings, requested the desktop version, logged off etc. I logged in as usual.
When I saw desktop version at the bottom of the page, I thought it was telling me I was in the desktop version. It didn’t even look clickable.

THANK YOU!!!

Yea. They WANT you using the mobile version. I refuse to let them push me around!

It is such a simple fix. Always check that when things look odd or changed. And if you see those magic words 'desktop version' click on them. No need to sign out and sign back in.

Glad I could help.

It must be a toggle, that is, it will show you what you are NOT on. This confuses people on Zoom settings all the time also. If it said “Switch to Desktop “, everyone would understand. After trying the mobile version once years ago, I’ve avoided it, even on my phone.

Robin P wrote: "It must be a toggle, that is, it will show you what you are NOT on. This confuses people on Zoom settings all the time also. If it said “Switch to Desktop “, everyone would understand. After trying..."

Yes “switch to” would be nice. Or use a different color print to show it’s clickable. I might have noticed it, and realized that my hand hit it accidentally.

It’s all in the same dark gray print, along with the copyright statement. All that stuff at the bottom of the page might as well be invisible to regular users.

I’m surprised it’s never happened to me before. My hand often hits the wrong key. I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally deleted a post I was trying to edit. I sometimes find that I’ve accidentally rated a book, or changed a rating, and I might not even realize it until much later. It often happens when an ad takes longer to load, causing the whole page to shift. When I’m trying to click on the Amazon link, I’ll hit the stars instead. Though usually I end up clicking on the ad. I’m sure that’s by design.

NancyJ wrote: "Robin P wrote: "It must be a toggle, that is, it will show you what you are NOT on. This confuses people on Zoom settings all the time also. If it said “Switch to Desktop “, everyone would understa..."

What you see under Goodreads, Inc is the link where you switch. I'm on the desktop version and see "Mobile version" but it doesn't look like a link. I clicked on it and got that horrid thing you wrote of, so pressed the "end" key and then clicked on Desktop version to get back to the better format.

Karin wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Robin P wrote: "It must be a toggle, that is, it will show you what you are NOT on. This confuses people on Zoom settings all the time also. If it said “Switch to Desktop “, everyone..."

It’s easy to get out of it, IF you know about it.

The answer I got from gr support the following day didn’t mention it at all, I gave them the info about which functions weren’t working, and about the change in appearance. It’s probably happening a lot, so they should have us start there. Instead they asked a bunch of questions about my browser, computer, etc.

I have done some tech support and it seems to me that agents are trained to blame the customer's machine, internet service, cord connections, choice of browser, etc., even though other websites work fine. Or to tell people to "clear the cache", which never once in my experience helped.

Robin P wrote: "I have done some tech support and it seems to me that agents are trained to blame the customer's machine, internet service, cord connections, choice of browser, etc., even though other websites wor..."

Haha I always clear the cache when my system seems slow or glitchy. It did help with something important once (years ago) but not here.

Robin P wrote: "I have done some tech support and it seems to me that agents are trained to blame the customer's machine, internet service, cord connections, choice of browser, etc., even though other websites wor..."

Yes, this is it in a nutshell. You can't possibly be smart enough to have tried those things on your own! What's worse is when I tell them I've done those things before they instruct me to try that, but sometimes they are smart enough to move onto the next step.

When my late HP printer stopped working on my Mac, each company blamed the other. I simply moved it to my old, off-line PC and used it there until it died an ignoble death in 2024, possibly hastened by my mistakenly buying copy paper rather than inkjet paper (NOT a good idea.)