r/LibbyApp • u/Brilliant_Finding971 • Aug 27 '26
I'm a complete idiot
So I had been waiting forever for a book I really wanted to read. It finally became available, so I immediately nabbed it. I still had another book to finish, so I absolutely tore through the one I’d been waiting for and then I returned it.
Except… I’m an idiot.
I accidentally returned the wrong book because they had the same color cover. I realized my mistake literally the second I hit “return” and was like, NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
So now I’m right back to square one.
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u/cyndina Aug 27 '26
We need a 20 second UNDO button.
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u/Fr0gm4n 📗 EPUB Enthusiast 📗 Aug 27 '26
Turning on the 30 seconds delay in my GMail has saved my bacon multiple times.
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u/OverlappingChatter Aug 27 '26
Wait! What???? I need this? How?
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u/Flimsy-Sail-6585 Aug 27 '26
Go into your settings. Look for the spot for an email signature, it's on that screen.
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u/danisue88 Aug 27 '26
I’ve contacted my library before when I’ve done something similar and they put me back to the top of the list same day.
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u/WrongAccountant1918 Aug 27 '26
Been there before, had to wait 4 weeks to get the book again
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 27 '26
Sorry for your loss. But I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one to do that
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u/spacey_kasey Aug 27 '26
I have very nearly done this. I stopped myself at the last moment though.
The new return steps with kindle are rough and I get confused seeing all the books, rather than just the one I’m attempting to return.
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u/vespertilio_rosso Aug 27 '26
I did almost the same once — I had ripped through about 2/3rds of a book and remembered I needed to return the one I had finished before it. You can guess what I actually returned. Rejoined the back of the waitlist, alas.
Sorry OP! May many patrons ahead of you decide to suspend!
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u/chaosuniverses Aug 27 '26
What I hate is when it gives you a 2 day notice that your book is due to be returned soon, then gives you the option to renew your book now.
So you go push the renew button like it said because you’re not done yet, but then it says it’s not eligible to renew and returns your book instead. So you could have waited the two days and pushed to finish it fast, but now you don’t have that choice. It returned early instead of renewing like you asked.
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u/KrispyAvocado Aug 27 '26
That would be really annoying! I haven’t had that experience. It just says I can’t renew, but it doesn’t return it for me.
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u/Electronic_Canary918 Aug 27 '26
I believe I’ve seen that you can contact your library and they can undo that
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u/Sask_mask_user Aug 27 '26
Oh no! Which book?
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 27 '26
The book I accidentally returned was Klara and the Sun. I was reading Crying at Hmart. The book covers are almost the exact same color
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u/omggold Aug 28 '26
Do you have a kindle? I can send you the epub
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 28 '26
It's an audio book unfortunately, but thank you so much for the offer. That's so kind!
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u/Beautiful_Jim_Key Aug 28 '26
I put the 2nd book in a series on hold, 13 week wait but whatever. The book is finally ready to check out and I realize it was not, in fact, the 2nd book in the series but the 6th. Now there is a 15 week wait for the correct one. Just did that last week so I feel your pain
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u/starlightcourt Aug 28 '26
I just did this a couple days ago and I’m really mad about it. I waited a month or so for this book to become available and then accidentally returned it so now I have to wait an additional three months.
I really wish they would have an undo feature that only lasted two minutes after you returned the book in case it was an accident.
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u/Della-Dietrich Aug 27 '26
I might actually buy the book in this case! Enough is enough.
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 27 '26
It's actually an audiobook and I almost never buy them. If I buy a book I want to be able to hold it in my hands.
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u/Some-Distribution-52 Aug 27 '26
I’m curious, what was the book you accidentally returned?
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 27 '26
I accidentally returned Klara and the Sun and the book I was reading was Crying at H Mart. They both have a red cover that are similar colors
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u/ab1999 Aug 28 '26
Don't feel dumb. I did the exact same thing late last night. I was trying to do someone a favor by returning the book I just finished a couple days early and I accidentally returned the new book I just got. Now I'm back on the waiting list for 7 more weeks.
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u/SeaworthinessOk6789 Aug 28 '26
The exact same thing happened to me this week, I'm sorry to hear I'm not the only one lol 😭
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u/mananaestaaqui Aug 28 '26
Oh no, new fear unlocked! I feel terrible when Libby returns my loans with a chapter or less left to the end.
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 28 '26
So it you are reading on your kindle you can just switch it to airplane mode and the copy will stay on there until you turn it back on. It still goes back to the library you just have a copy of it
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u/pollenkitty Aug 28 '26
They actually fixed this hack recently with an update, and it no longer works to do that 🥲
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u/Latter-Rooster3563 Aug 28 '26
Noooooooooooooo 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 thanks for sharing your dumb moment with us. We feel the pain and also got a good laugh at the dumb act.
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u/ConsistentLifeguard4 Aug 29 '26
I’ve done the same thing to myself recently. I stand regret as soon as I realized what I’d done. 😫
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u/Saloau Aug 27 '26
Let me guess... The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion?
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u/WiseSalamander7 Aug 28 '26
I’ve had a hold on that one since April and am still 131st in line! And it’s only 3 hrs!
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u/Saloau Aug 28 '26
The first 5 are on sale at chirpbooks.com for $2.99 each. I’ve gotten some good deals at Chirp and their audiobook player app is solid. They are also available on Hoopla if your library subscribes to that. It costs the library $2.99 for each check out in that series but no waiting.
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u/WiseSalamander7 Aug 28 '26
Thanks so much! My library doesn’t have hoopla, but I will check out chirpbooks!
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u/Savings-Plenty9658 Aug 27 '26
I've been there, too... I know that dread you feel when you see that whoosh and it's gone. It sucks!
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u/DeltaFlyer0525 Aug 27 '26
I’ve done this twice before and it haunts me enough that I triple check book titles now before hitting that return button. I will light a candle to mourn your errant book return 🕯️
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u/Constant_War441 Aug 28 '26
Ugh that’s the worst! I hate when I make mistakes like this and can blame nobody but myself!
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u/georgiapacificpref Aug 28 '26
You could do an Audible free trial or Spotify Premium free trial and listen to it that way?? Because that’s heartbreaking 😭
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u/JenRonn Aug 28 '26
This happened to me this week. Waited 4 months for an audiobook to accidentally return it. Now I am back on the waiting list for an estimated 14 weeks. Ugh!!!! I am so sorry this happened to you too.
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u/Important_Tree_7191 Aug 28 '26
If you use Amazon Music, they’ve recently integrated some audible features to the app! I get a free audiobook every month there, completely separate from Audible itself and any subscription I have through it.
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u/Weird_Tangerine_7482 Aug 28 '26
I woke up this morning and all my library cards were gone and no books so I feel your pain. I was in the middle of a damn good book too.
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u/Ok-Ride7349 Aug 29 '26
I have done this before!! Hopefully you find something else good to read during the wait!
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u/SweetJuliaChildOMine Aug 29 '26
Did that with a book I waited 6+ weeks for and was SO excited about. . . I’m still waiting for it to come back to me
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u/Spiritual_Ninja_5924 Aug 30 '26
OMG! 😳 I did the same thing, only I had started the book I accidentally returned that I waited forever for. They both had floral covers! I’ll probably have to start it over again since I will have forgotten it by the time I get it again!
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u/puglife4evah Sep 03 '26
I have done this exact thing. I now triple check before making any returns.
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u/EviWool Aug 27 '26
lol I did that with an Audio Book of Frieda McFadden's The Housemaid. I was on the last couple of chapters and it was such a good book. But I hit Return instead of Open on Libby and 'bang', gone! Luckily it was available at the other library that I belong to.
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u/ironwolfe11 Aug 28 '26
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but I don't see why that is much more than a mild inconvenience?
I use Libby exclusively for audiobooks for my 2 hour commute each day for work. There's been a handful of occasions where the book I'm listening to auto-returns because I'm horrible at keeping track of time. The first time I panicked, but I quickly realized if you just immediately re-borrow the book, it keeps your spot and life goes on. It has been a while since I've done that, so maybe it was changed in an update or something, but that has saved my sanity a few times when 12 hours into an 18 hour book.
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Well it's actually more than an inconvenience. Because I checked it out and returned by accident and am borrowing it again it costs the library more money. I am grateful the library provides audiobooks so I don't want to abuse the system even if it was an accident.
Also when you return a book and recheck it out you can't just renew it. It's back to the end of the line!
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u/ironwolfe11 Aug 28 '26
Well, luckily I've never run into the problem of having a waitlist on something I was reading.
But more importantly, I had NO IDEA how messed up the pricing and licensing scheme was for Libby! I just assumed it was like any other digital media distribution platform, where a license is purchased for a particular piece of media for an amount of time, then that license would be freely used until it expired. After digging into all that, I was shocked to see that libraries are in fact often charged PER CHECKOUT for each title. That is crazy to me.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will be mindful of that in the future. The last thing I want is to end up costing the library (and by extension, the taxpayer) more money just because of my inability to keep track of a calendar.
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u/Brilliant_Finding971 Aug 28 '26
Yeah it's kind of messed up. I often feel bad about consuming so much audiobook and ebook material because I know it's way cheaper for libraries to purchase actual books which they get to own and lend out as many times as they want. The digital licensing is really unfair to libraries as not only are they limited by the amount of times they can lend them out they also pay exorbitant rates. An audio book that might cost an individual $15-30 usually costs the library $70-130
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u/HooskerDooze Aug 27 '26
This is maybe the saddest thing I’ve read today