Has anybody tried the latest mobile app to view the magazine? I have discovered that the latest issue #315 is not available and according to the app developers will not be availabe as the next issue is due in March, which will be the #316 issue.
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
I just logged on and I don't see anything more recent than #314.
Also, all of my old downloads are gone. I had to re-download them. It looks like everything older than Feb 2023 requires me to purchase them for $12.99
What happened here, FTW team?
The missing issue was the least of my problems when I first tried logging on to the new version of the app. It told me I didn’t have an account, even though I have been subscribing to FWW digital version since 2012. It took me several days to get my login back, having to send the invoices from Apple to ‘prove’ I had an account. I am still missing the issues I paid for between 2012 and 2019 when I swapped to Apple subscription!
I have looked into this a bit further and by going to my FWW account online and registering the email I use for digital subscriptions I can now get into the app, FWW are using the zinio hosting for the magazine, I know this because I also have zinio and it is the same interface, to get all of your old issues back the subscription department at FWW have to tell zinio that you are or were a subscriber and zinio will allow access to all that you have purchased, the only problem here is that if you purchased special issues from Apple they do not look as though they are restoring correctly. The good news is that zinio are an excellent magazine provider and I have been using them since they were first available on ipad, I can still access the original magazines i purchased many years ago. Also if you can access the new app and use the home icon at the bottom of the screen you will see that zinio have every issue back to issue 227 which was the first digital issue produced. An interesting thing though which is that if you have the old app then the latest issue 315 is available but it is not on zinio so I guess that is why people are being told it is not available, Omeda are being somewhat dishonest here, if you look at the 2 images I have included you will see that the toolbar at the bottom of the page on both images is the same and on one of them you can clearly see the name zinio, you can also subscribe to the magazine on zinio but you will not get old issues back that way. This all adds up to a set of clumsy and poor developers of the fww app.
The reason that you are being charged is because the FWW subscription managers have failed to set up your account correctly on Zinio, I suspect that they have only forwarded to Zinio part of your subscription history and that is all Zinio will let you download, it will charge for out of subscription magazines. I have been using Zinio since the first iPad came out and I can still access my very first digital magazine and re-download it without any problem. I have enclosed an image of my first purchase and you can see it is still there.
I don't have my iPad to confirm, but issue #315 is showing as published and available to on my end.
Ben, I have to say that since the app and subscriptions have been taken over by another part of the company the app has been awful, in 2022 they managed to lose my subscription which they then classed as suspended, they failed to issue any further invoices for payment, I was a subscriber since before the start of the digital issues and had every issue on my ipad since the first one came out which was issue 227. I cannot access anything now and last year had to ask Mike Pekovich to get involved, he asked someone to contact me which they did but the minute the subscriptions team got involved it went nowhere, what is annoying here is that the original app used your FWW account to set you up for digital access, I am using the same details as my FWW login but the updated app does not recognize me, I cannot even access the special issues that I purchased at an extortionate rate via the app from Apple, a simple question is that do you have anyone capable of sorting out what should be a simple problem instead of creating a major headache? I can confirm that issue 315 does show on an ipad I have that does not have the latest app update installed.
My iPad has 315 available along with all of my other issues.
Are you accessing your issues via the app, or via a browser? #315 is available on the website, but I don’t have a FWW subscription - my subscription is via Apple. I have just received an email from customer support (FWW) to say they are aware of the problem and are investigating.
Perhaps you are still using the previous version of the app, which worked fine?
FWW are using the zinio hosting software now, all customer services at fww have to do is link the apple subscription to zinio and all of your content will appear, my guess is that in the changeover some of the parts that link up are not working, possibly careless developers or at least clumsy. zinio on the other hand will do a very good job once they get all of the information. I have some special editions that were purchased on an ipad via apple payments and they will not restore. FWW have a lot of explaining to do here. I enclose 2 images and you will see it is the same software different names.
You can always subscribe to FWW via zinio but that will not get the old issues back unless FWW decide to inform zinio to let you have them which they can do, you will notice that along the bottom of the image of the FWW app all the issues are present back to 227 which was the first digital issue. The app clearly was not tested before release.
Also the issue 315 is available in the old app but not the new one, this is further backed up by going to zinio.com and you will see that the latest issue they have is Tools and shops from 2024, because the zinio software is now hosting the FWW digital magazine that means that the latest issue on zinio will be the same as the latest digital magazine on the FWW app.
As I thought, image enclosed from the FWW app under profile - about, powered by Zinio pro, that will be a good move in the long term, in the short term though and based on the evidence it could be more that the current subscriptions team are able to sort out. Out of curiosity to those who are missing issues have you tried to go to profile-preferences-sync your library, this should force sync everything you have paid for providing Zinio have been given this information.
I'm using the FWW app to access my issues. But, as you mentioned, it could be an older version of the app.
My Fine Homebuilding app also updated, and I have the same problems with it wiping out all of my past issues.
If the issues are gone then the file size of the app should be smaller, I suspect that the files may still be there but no longer accessible, on ios or iPad go to general iPad storage and see what space the app takes up, the app size is 73.6mb see second image, an issue is about 30.6mb. I have enclosed 2 images the first showing how to get to the storage indicator and the second showing the app size with 1 issue installed. If you show a lot bigger file size you will need to delete the app otherwise you will be using space that cannot be accessed. the only way around all of these problems in the short term is to sync your iPad with iTunes and see if it has the older app there, if so you could reinstall the older app but it will sill try to update at some point or for the developers to admit the problems and post all the issues to Zinio without cost until they can sort this mess out. After all of these years it still amazes me how developers can put software out that is not working.
For those wishing to find the old app on Itunes on the desktop go to Music\iTunes\iTunes Media and look for the folder mobile applications, inside here look for the FWW or FHB app, it will look like the image below. Make a copy and store this away from the mobile applications folder as when you connect your device it may try to upload the newer app, once you get the old app back you will need to turn off the setting for automatic update apps on the ipad, to do this you will need to do the following, Go to Settings-Select App Store-
Turn off App Updates.
I should add, you must copy the app or apps on Itunes desktop before you connect your device otherwise Itunes will sync the newest version of the app from either the desktop or the ipad.
I purchased a ‘special’ issue, “Arts and Crafts Furniture”, some time ago. The new app does not have it nor issue #315. Where can I get access to these? Please advise.
At the moment if they do not show on Zinio then you will not be able to get them, with special issues the restore function is there but not working, they may have to link apple purchases up. I think the problem comes from the new subscription service provider which is Omeda or AIM, I wonder if they have the correct details of subscribers prior to taking over, a lot of people have commented that they can get issues from the year 2023 which is the year that the new subscription service took over but not before. I had problems at the start of 2023 with auto renew which was my first encounter with these people so I did not renew, surprisingly on the new app I can see all of 2023 available to download which I did not pay for but nothing else. It seems to me at the moment they can easily get you up and running since they took over in 2023 but not before. Now here is the caveat with FWW and FHB prior to 2023 the digital magazines were part of a subscription to the respective web sites which included access to the magazines but not the rights to keep, if you purchased a digital subscription to the magazine then your rights to keep it should be within that subscription, this means that if you were on the first subscription you may never get the magazines back to your collection on the app, if you were on the digital magazine subscription you still may not get them back because Zinio has a different business model to FWW, with Zinio every magazine within a subscription remains in your library to archive and download as many times as you wish but if you did not have a subscription the magazine would be chargeable unless Zinio is told otherwise. Zinio is a very good company and always go that extra mile to keep your library up to date and they have a very fair policy on subscriptions, to be fair all of this would have been better in the hands of Zinio with 20 years experience or more of handling digital magazines. Sorry for the long response but it frustrates me that subscribers like me that have been here for many years are treated with such disdain. Like you I have a few special issues including the one you mention. Editors at FWW where are you, can you get a grip please.
The short answer is not until Zinio host them or the payment system whether it be apple or someone else links up to the new app.
I think the problem is that Zinio operate a different business model to the new owners at Omeda or Aim. With Zinio when you subscribe to a magazine all of the magazines within that subscription remain in your library for ever, the new people took over in 2023 which is about the same time the problems started, people have commented that they can get access for the year 2023 on the new app, I can but interestingly I did not pay for them or subscribe from 2022 on-wards so it seems that the new owners can navigate from when they took over but maybe not before. One caveat here is that there were 2 subscriptions, the first one was where you subscribed to the web site access and had access to the magazines digitally and another where you had an actual digital subscription, in the case of the first one I believe it was argued that you only had access whereas if you had a digital subscription to the magazine you had the right to retain the magazine. Because of this if you had the first type of subscription you may never get access to any of the older magazines because they may struggle to find a digital subscription other than access to the web site, if you had a genuine digital subscription to the magazine they should be able to get you up and running very easily. I would just argue that the publishers are just treating people who have subscribed for tens of years with complete disdain. You can see how many editors and staffers at FWW are responding to this.
I commented last night that we are looking into it. If there is a problem that is unknown to us we can't exactly all swarm here and post without knowing what is going on. We're looking into it.
Ben the problem would be known to you if the app had of been tested correctly, the move to Zinio is a positive one but can you clarify this, I have been a subscriber before the first digital edition came out, but to FWW and not the magazine, when the first magazine came out I had access to download the magazine so do you consider me a subscriber to the magazine or will I lose all of the issues from 227?
We'll make sure your account gets straightened out. Give us time to get the current fires put out. If you don't have access to everything you should in a couple of weeks shoot me an email and I'll light a new fire... for someone else!
bstrano@taunton.com
I totally agree with your comments. I have been a subsciber since the 1980s, first as print and then, when digital came, as a pure digital subscriber. My account shows that I was a FWW subscriber from 2012 to 2019, when I swapped to being an Apple subscriber. As the account for the online FWW subsciption and the Apple subscription seem to be totally separated, I lost access to those issues from 2012 to 2019.
Also, even if you download issues, you still only have access to those issues if you have an active subscription, even though you have paid for the magazines.
You should be able to download your 'paid for' issues and view them without either an account or a subscription, as you do with the print version!
I am hoping that when all these problems are sorted, I will be able to view and download all the digital magazines from 2012 to the present day - and view them should I choose to cancel my subscription.
Andy, that is exactly how the Zinio model works as in you always have access to what you have paid for. If the special issues become part of Zinio as well then that would be an ezcellent result for everyone.
I have twice tried to put up posts criticizing the publisher but they keep vanishing, are the moderators blocking posts?
Nobody is censoring you. If your posts are being tagged as spam we wind up not seeing them. I don't have control over the filters, but I see a bunch of your posts in the spam box. It's likely because you posted a LOT on this post.
Ok folks, here is what I know:
The app got swapped over to the new host before our dev team had a chance to QC it. So, sadly we're playing catchup.
If your app has been updated, you should be able to log in using your website login. Your old login with the old app isn't going to work going forward. The app will be tied to your website/subscription account.
The good news is that this is how it should have always functioned. The bad news is we dropped the ball communicating it to you (and me to be honest).
Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. Oh! Issue #315 somehow didn't get put on the new app... we'll get that resolved today.
Ben, I’m still a little confused by this - I have a website account login which shows that I have two expired subscriptions, one for the print version which expired in 2012 and one for a digital subscription from 2012 to 2019 when I decided to go down the iPad way and swapped to an Apple subscription and used the app successfully until this latest saga. During that time, I was not able to access my website subscription issues.
Are you saying, that when all this is sorted I should be able to use my website account login to access the app and all my digital back issues should be available to view and download?
I have just had an email from Zinio to say that FWW will be releasing #315 to them on Friday 31st January, so all should be resolved as far as I am concerned by then - at last!
However, I am sure others may still have some problems to be resolved.
It was the same as your website login before you joined FWW
I emailed the support team this morning and they quickly got my Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding accounts (apparently) back to where they were before. I was very very impressed that the Support team responded to my message in less than 30 minutes, and everything got resolved in an hour. I sent them the oldest invoice I could find, and I now have full access to the archived library.
There may have be some hiccups on rolling this out, but the Support team is far better in fixing the problems this time than they were in previous transitions. Thanks to the FWW and Zinio team.
@ben, thanks for being the face of FWW and taking all the arrows we're shooting at the publishers! We appreciate you.
Ben has the issue with the publication of #315 been resolved ? I still can’t see it in Zinio.
Thanks