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Barcode scanner is not working properly
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sequelmageJan 3, 2024
The barcode scanner seems to be really finicky. When I try to use it, it takes 5+ attempts and even then it’s not always successful. It seems like it attempts to scan before the camera has come into focus so it’s not grabbing a correct or complete ISBN value so it just fails to find the book. In case this is device specific I am using an iPhone 12 running iOS 16.1.1
Comments
Hi everyone! Just pushed some updates to the scanner. Can you please test it again and if a) it wasn't working for you previously because you couldn't see the "Capture" button or b) your Android phone was choosing the wide-angle lens, please let me know if either/both are fixed. If your Android phone is still using the wide-angle lens, does the scanner/photo capture at least still work? Thank you!
Nadia (on android) I now have the capture button. It is working for me, the camera is still blurry but I do not believe it is the wide-angle anymore. I had that issue the first time you updated it but it seems to work fine now!
Nadia It works fine on my Android device now, thanks!
Nadia Hi! I'm on Android and I can now see the capture button, but the camera won't focus (even in full light) and the blurry barcode doesn't translate to the actual book, it just takes me to the "import a book" page with the wrong ISBN. See attached for the blurry barcodes
gerdavm Thank you for these! Just wondering: what happens if you turn the book sideways on/landscape, so the barcode fills up more of the capture window? And if you go in and out a few times, the camera doesn't eventually find focus? And can you show me a screenshot of how it looks trying to take a photo of the same barcode using the camera app on your phone? Thank you!
There was a soft launch on 3/10 and the scanner finally works for me!! The scanner feature now has a "capture" button so even though the camera image looks so blurry, when I hit capture, it still detected the correct ISBN. Using an android phone version 14, One UI version 6.1.1
I tried both a picture of the cover and the isbn and it work and so much better than the old scanner. Also, it is so nice to to have to give permission for use of the camera so often! Thank you for diligently working on this fix. :)
Soft launching the new scanner...try it out! Let me know if it works for you.
I also have a new cut of the iOS app ready for submission to the App Store that'll stop it asking for permission to use the camera every single time!
Nadia Barcode scanner worked. Cover scanner did not work unfortunately
Nadia The barcode scanner is still out of focus. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, roughly 50/50. I can't really see a pattern so far.
The cover scanner is also out of focus and doesn't work at all for dark covers, though it does sometimes redirect to a list of editions of the correct title. Lighter coloured covers seem to work better, but I've only tested about 10 books altogether so far.
Android 14 | Samsung A54
baffi It's all one thing — whether taking a photo of a barcode or cover — and it should just be opening up your camera. While it shouldn't be ridiculously blurry, we don't need as high a resolution photo any longer. Can you please force quit your app and attach some screenshots of a couple of out-of-focus views? Thank you!
Nadia it is not working for me. The capture button gets lost on the screen so I can never get a barcode or cover image. I can see the capture button if I navigate away and come back but by that time the camera has closed.
Nadia I'm having an issue where the capture button isn't visible when I try to use the scanner, so I can't do anything. I've updated the app.
bibliomania_express sace This was a known bug I've finally fixed. A pull-to-refresh should be sufficient. Let me know how you get on.
Complete re-write/re-do of scanner coming up. Should allow for both barcode scanning and taking a picture of the front of the book and should work on all phones reliably.
Let's see...! Aiming to sort this out within the next couple of weeks.
Nadia not to pile on, but it would be nice if you left room for eventually opening existing images or adding a receive intent for shared images. Getting all those forgotten book recs out of my photo gallery might get me to actually read them. 😉
Also on iPhone and have this issue. It takes 4-5 attempts to scan the barcode (with me moving around to try to get both the lighting and focus to work at the same time) and most of the time scans the incorrect ISBN (not sure where the numbers are pulled from since it doesn’t match anything on the barcode). I tested it out yesterday by scanning a book then realizing the ISBN was incorrect. I typed the correct number in and it directed me to the book. Not sure what would be causing that.
I'm on Android and can't access the barcode scanner at all since the last update. The search icon and the barcode icon overlap, so when I try to open the barcode scanner it only tells me to enter text in the search bar.
anatema The search icon shouldn't be visible at all. This implies the certain parts of the code hasn't loaded up properly on your app. If you force quit, is it still the same? What type of phone do you have?
Nadia
That worked 👍🏻
Thank you for the fast reply.
For my phone (Android S21+), it's that the camera focuses on whatever is in the background, and the foreground is blurry. So what I see is that it is very clear and focusing on the desk or table behind the book, and not the upper half of the screen where the actual barcode is. I am unable to tap or manually select a place for it to focus on the barcode.
I'm on an iPhone in case that matters.
I am able to scan the barcode with no issues. But it almost exclusively leads to the "add a book" page. But when I search for the book via title/author, I am able to find it.
Reverted the recent changes as they weren't working well in general! Sorry everyone! Still working on it.
Nadia Thanks for your hard work! You're doing an awesome job.
rainbowbrarian Aww, thank you sooo much!!
Can everyone force quit and give the scanner a try and see how it goes? (iOS repeatedly asking for permissions is still not fixed it seems.)
Nadia on Android it now is a lot more smooth. I used to have to open, then close, then open again before it focused, now it does it immediately.
Nadia No change for me at all (Android 14 | Samsung A54). The scanner doesn't focus properly. It's all blurry and too far away for the phone being held so close to the book.
Nadia It's still broken for me on Pixel 6a running Android 15. Most of the time it picks up what seems to be an arbitrary number. When scanning the same book, it comes up with a different number each time (and it's not a subset of the numbers associated with either of the barcodes on the back of the book).
Nadia Doesn't seem to be working at all now on iOS 18
Not working on my Google Pixel phone
On my galaxy s22 I have to hold it at an exact distance when I click the scan button otherwise it just never focuses enough to scan.
Seemingly broken with iOS 18.
Might not be the same bug, but I've noticed when on a book it has two bar codes, one of them for ISBN and the other for something else, it occassionally reads both or the non-ISBN, and it then searches for a number different than the ISBN display on the back of the book.
Although, I've noticed employees at Best Buy have to block one of the barcodes during returns with electronics, so maybe it's just a general issue with scanners. So maybe a way to isolate the bar codes (detect all in the frame), and then let the user select the correct barcode. Might be difficult to implement, though.
lostghostofthevoid Thank you for the note!
Nadia This has definitely happened for me, too, a few times, and covering the secondary barcode occasionally helps. But even covering the secondary barcode in good light, it will not focus or scan most of the time. I've even tried prefocusing the camera and then returning to the app, but it doesn't seem to help.
I would be happy to go to some extra effort to send debug data if there's any info that would be helpful. I know it's awful trying to debug transient issues in production!
sassmistress Thank you for this note!
I noticed when using it is the scanner doesn't give you enough time to position the barcode in the middle of the frame before snapping the picture and giving the result - sometimes this means it's missed part of the barcode or misread it. So not just about focusing but it's too quick to scan. I'm on an iPhone 15
Just to provide more information, on my Android 12 the barcode scanner has not been focusing at all for weeks. I haven't been able to scan anything except for one fluke I haven't been able to replicate.
It would be nice to have the possibility to switch the flashlight on, which is not possible right now on my iphone. I expect that the scanning works better with the light on.
tantealex So far, I've only seen the configuration to force the light to go on when scanning, which I'm not sure everyone will want?
I'm experiencing the same issue on Android 12 (tablet) and 13 (Motorola Edge 30 Ultra).
Out of all the barcodes I tried to scan, I think I only got one result, maybe two, but both wrong. No barcode was identified for all the other books.
I was wondering if the scan reader only recognises UK/US barcodes. I tried to scan books from Italy and a few more European countries, in other languages than English.
mikebond It recognises barcodes worldwide — we have people all over Europe successfully using the feature — but it does have an issue with some shapes/styles.
For some cameras/barcode-style combinations it seems to have a higher rate of false positives. I'll be addressing this in the coming months.
Nadia mine seems to be working not of the time now, there's the occasional time it stays blurry, but coming out of it and then selecting the scanner again seems to work
ttwyman Okay, good to know. I still want to make it so that it works first time all of the time!
I'm on Android 14 and I have the same issue! I've already tried deleting and reinstalling the app in case I was missing a newer version, but no luck so far
creosote Will be working on this soon!