LivingWriter

I have had a subscription to Livingwriter for around 5 months. In February a system glitch caused my writing to me deleted, my internet went offline and the document let me continue writing and then spontaneously deleted all the writing I had done over the course of a few hours. What is supposed to happen when you go offline is that the document gives you a notification that you are offline and you will not be able to continue writing. That did not happen and instead I lost all the work I had done. I contacted support and I have been in contact with them for a month now. At first they responded helpfully and when I asked them to check their Amazon Cloud Server, where they claim all the writing you do is saved automatically, they said they would check. That was the last I heard from them, and it was a month ago. I have continually reached out to try and check in on any progress with my claim and all of my emails and support claims have been ignored. The i professionalism is astounding. I am frustrated beyond belief at my reasonable claim being ignored and the not knowing if my writing is gone forever or not makes it even worse. I have come to terms with the fact that I will not see my lost writing again, but the fact that Livingwriter has refused to tell me that outright illustrates their unprofessionalism and why you should not buy a subscription to their writing program. If they can loose your writing and will not work with you to recover it you should not put your creative works in their hands.

The upgrade process was a train wreck - I loaded the new version and it simply displayed a black screen, killed the app, restarted- same So I delete the app so I could reinstall - they had pulled the app from the store completely! Several days later I get an email saying I can upgrade now - so I load the new version. This time it loads but good grief what a step back! Half the screen is dedicated to picking a template for your next manuscript, I get frequent ‘white screens of death’ and have to kill the app. Several screens can’t be closed e.g. the stats screen. A bug filled usability mess. Hopefully they get their act together - this used to be a great app

Update: +2 more stars for the staff getting back to me on this issue right away. I managed to recover ~80% of the lost work (no idea where the last 20% ended up). Original: From one writer to another: don’t trust this app. I just lost over 1k and a whole major plot point because this app decided it didn’t want to save. I have been connected to the internet this whole time and there is no reason for this to have happened other than some sort of glitch in this program.

I’m writing my first novel. LivingWriter has been priceless to me. I use it on four different devices: A laptop, desktop, iPhone and iPad. Switching between them has been priceless. The features are more than enough to keep your work organized and to keep you inspired. If you plan on hopping between devices, make sure you close out your work beforehand. Overall, this writing app is highly recommended.

I really need to do a book report and the easiest app i found i cant use anymore :/

Good for beginners and demo books, but not real books. No issues though.

The web application has worked well so far, so I downloaded the app for my Macbook Air M1. Once logging in, I tried to access my story elements. The app immediately crashed. Not a great sign. I'll be uninstalling.

The web-based interface is very good! I’m in my two-week free trial and I’ve decided to purchase this. I really like the features (specifically that you can collaborate with other writers and share drafts for editing) and how intuitive it is to use. My only issue with the web-based software is that I can’t use the free form plot board via the web on my iPad—for some reason it cuts off the bottom portion of the screen (I can’t add items to the board). So even logging in via the web has limited functionality on mobile devices. I’ve had Scrivener for years but I can’t easily collaborate with it, or seamlessly use it between devices, which is why I’ve been looking for something else. That said, the LivingWriter app isn’t great, so I can’t seamlessly use between devices either. ☹️☹️☹️ I’ve tried using it on my iPhone and iPad and gotten error messages literally half the times I’ve tried to use it (4 error messages of 8 attempts). The plot board isn’t available in the app, and the app is buggy—it just does squirrely things. So if you plan on writing solely in the app, I wouldn’t recommend it. But if the app is only for an occasional note or moment of inspiration, I would recommend it because the web interface is very good and the company seems to be constantly improving their product, so I think the app will be reliable and robust at some future point. AND the app doesn’t scrape data which I love. 💕

The fact they allow you to suggest features and report bugs is the most amazing thing ever. I’m just hoping they listen and update. I’ll change my review to 5star when they do.

A VERY watered down version of what you would use on your desktop. No pictures for characters and the options are bare bones. I love the browser version if they could actually translate that success here it would be incredible.