[Jesse Sjoblom]

Is anyone else having trouble with the audible app on wp8? I'm using a lumia 920. I can install and run app just fine, but every time I start the app I have to re-download the book I want to listen to. It does not stay downloaded. Same problem with multiple books. I have re-installed the app 4 times.

[Michael Green1]

Here's where I am in troubleshooting:

Problem: Download book. Listen to book. Interrupt the book.* Go back to the book. Try to listen. Book requires download.
Observations: The download size of the book grows by the size of the book. So, the first time you download the book you will see it as a (for example) 100MB file. The second time you download the book, it is now a 200MB file with 50% already completed. This repeats for each download (66% complete for 300MB, 75% for 400MB etc).

* Interrupting the book. I haven't yet determined what level of interruption is required to kill the book. It doesn't happen after every call. I'm beginning to think that it's the back arrow/terminate app from memory action that kills the book, but I haven't tested that yet.

Yesterday, I uninstalled the app, reinstalled, downloaded the book and listened. It appeared to work through phone calls and texts. I don't remember if I terminated the app at all. This morning I am having to redownload the book. I've tested it and confirmed that every time I use the back arrow to leave Audible, the file needs to be redownloaded.

I'll play with the book today (I'm driving back to Dallas from Houston) and see if I can avoid redownloading by avoiding the back button.

[Blackfoot Flash]

I'm not seeing downloads vanish.

The only hiccup I'm seeing is that my listening progress on a particular section will be reset to zero after a while. Seems only to happen when I'm streaming in the car.

[Michael Green1]

You have Windows 8 on Nokia Lumia 920 and you're not having the problem? Can you please go into the app, terminate it using the back arrow button, and then reload and test?

It's a dumb request, more so now that I have new test data, but I'm still curious.

OK - today I swore I woudn't hit the back arrow button. I listened to the book, stopped, went about my morning (I'm attending a security conference on mobility and other technologies in the oil and gas industry), and at lunch tried to listen to the book. Bada - bummer - no book. I had to redownload.

It's not the back button, but the back button a sure fire way to do it. I can reproduce the problem 100% if I use the back button to term the audible app. There are other ways to make it happen, but that's a sure fire test.

[Guruphil]

I'm not suffering with the download issue, but I have had to resort to using bookmarks to remember my place in a book when I stop listening.
I do two hours of commuting a day, so tend to use Audible on the train/walk each way. Often I'm finding that in wp8 the Audible app forgets where I was in the book. This is very irritating indeed!
Needless to say, never had this issue on Android.

[Ulairi]

The Audible experience on Windows Phone is terrible. I just came from Android and I miss the syncing between devices and the app itself is slow and cannot download books in the background. It's almost going to make me return the phone.

[Brian McBride]

Audible isn't terrible on WP8 - it is actually so horrifying that it could be the main reason I bail on WP8 this year.

Of course, it forgets your spot. It is slow to open an audiobook. It is pretty, but the navigation isn't streamlined. But worst of all, it has some bug in it where it kicks in your phone CPU and drains your battery faster than any other app I have run on my 920 - faster than all my games.

And get this, you don't even have to be listening to a book. If you don't "back" out of the app to close it, it will continue to turn your phone into a portable pocket heater and eat up your battery. I don't always remember to close the Audible app (which also takes forever to do in Smartphone time) only to pull my phone out a couple hours later to see 1/3 of a battery charge when it was full putting in my pocket.

Of course, I've written Audible, who NEVER respond. Of course, I am a 6+ year customer with over 300 books in my library, so why would they bother to respond to a guy like me (sarcasm aside, Audible clearly could give a **** about WP8).

I've also written Microsoft, but naturally they just point the finger at Audible. WP8 is going to die with problems like this. Audible is one example of a key application where the user experience sucks so bad it hurts the platform. Microsoft needs to send over a couple developers to help Audible fix their app yesterday. Same with Facebook, Pandora, Hulu, etc... I don't need a million apps from Apple's store as most are crap, but there are the mainstream apps that should work great on WP8 and just don't.

But then, even the music player in WP8 needs help. So many problems. *sigh*. I really like the general idea of WP8, but unless MS gets their **** in gear I just don't see the platform surviving.

[Team of Zombies]

I just picked up a windows phone to give it a try, this application is one that's seriously lacking when compared to my android (Galaxy Nexus) phone. I NEVER expected to have to bookmark often or risk losing my spot. I never had that issue on Android. I never had issues getting books to play. I do have this problem on my new windows phone. It's kind of crazy that such a widely used application would be so full of basic functionality fails. I was hoping this was a new issue, but apparently it's been going on for a while and the same issues.