Popular Mechanics Magazine US Customer Service

This is my one remaining digital publication and I am looking to get more. Not only is the price great, but I don’t have to search for it and if I’m done, it isn’t necessary to recycle it. When I go to my summer house, it follows me! However, it has been succeedingly difficult to get my download. I get notes like wrong ID format , notifications of new providers, subscription expired. I’m paid up into 2020 through HEARST on line and about every other issue I have trouble opening the issue. Hearst confirms my script! I still don’t know who is the magazine source or where to turn for help. So I ‘m using this and MAZ and PM that should have been e magazines.

I’m glad Pop Mech has allowed for an all-digital subscription that’s actually better than what you can get in paper form. Many other publications force you to also subscribe to the paper version, which is superfluous with a digital copy. I like how I don’t have to download all the issues onto my device, since all of them are available in the cloud any time. I like being given a choice of how to access the content (as a sort of browser or as a more book-style PDF). This is digital content done right.

January 2020 issue never came to be downloaded in i pad and it is already feb 2020. DigitalmSubscription paid up to august 2020. I feel cheated and robbed. A refund would be ok.

The interface is not working well on my iPad Pro. ‘Contents” button does not work. Swiping and scrolling do not always work.

This magazine is great, no complaints about that, but my phone lost 40 percent in an hour. That seems a little excessive for scrolling through a magazine.

Been reading since 1970 but issues going back to 1953 Always enjoy hearing about the latest mechanical developments.

I used to sneak away on my bike to the library to read these magazines at the Port Hueneme Library 🙏🏻✝️🙏🏻. Happy to revisit these magazines & all the epic information & engineering.

Same great articles as always, but what’s up with all the junk advertisements ?

The best of the best was the story of CC Meyers rebuilding the burned out blown up section of the I 580 in Oakland (the maze). Fantastic story about an amazing accomplishment by an amazing group of men

It’s cool just want more free articles and less of a subscription fee

It’s science you can understand.

Pleased with the app so far

Love reading, it reminds me of my Dad

First off, if you are trying to compare or talk about price regarding the paper format, don't bother. At two dollars a month or less, this magazine app is well worth your time and money on its own right. That alone garners a five star rating and me as a happy subscribed customer. The formatting is wonderful, you scroll and activate buttons for bulletins and movies just how you would hope. Moving through all the articles can be a bit weird with the drop down and timeline format on the bottom, but starts to work well enough with a little practice. Issue downloads are a little large but with a decent Internet connection you won't have to wait too long. Using an iPad 2 I have not had any issues with usability or slowness and can only see some improvements in terms of streamlining how you find and view articles that you particularly interested in - perhaps some kind of word cloud. I'm really pleased with the subscription rates and content I get and I think most people will be too.

I love to buy a copy of Popular Mechanics on my way thru an airport. It's a great magazine with a stellar history of technology journalism that I have enjoyed all my life. I don't remember how much I paid for the last paper issue I bought at the airport newsstand but it was probably five or ten bucks. For the cost of a few paper copies this subscription is worth every penny. It's got interactive media like I always thought electronic information should be presented. The interface is simple and intuitive and the content is first rate. I subscribed to another magazine app and all I got was a copy of each and every page with no extra content at all. Zero. This is how it should be done. If you already subscribe to the print rag then call them up ASAP and tell them to stop sending you dead trees in the mail and give them your money for this instead. Its the future of the magazine style media experience.

But where is the December issue in the store?? I had the previous version installed with the November issue, downloaded the update, but nothing new showing up.

PM has been my favourite mag in this class (I've been reading it since the 60's). The digital version gives me all the goodies on my iPad for a great price and with added functionality and detail. Get it !

Finally! Retina support. It's hard to believe how smooth page transitions are with all the animations and Retina resolution. And, the entire January issue is only 93 MB. Well done guys. (The content is as top-notch as always.)

Just love the visuals and interractivity of my magazine.

Been using since mid dec 2011 works great so nice I can carry my I pad around instead of magazines

This is a nice app with a good amount of free content. Of course you have to pay for the full magazine but it costs less than the paper one.

If you love science and technology this is the magazine for you. Much better than the paper version because there are videos and it is a cool way of showing the information.

Occasionally, I want to look up my account,,,, stopping me from doing that… why??…. and I allowed to know when my subscription started, when my subscription ended or is going to end… and several other legitimate questions…. why are you not allowing me access to my account?.. I want access. I’ve tried several things it just goes around and around this oughta be easy…. should have something in the upper right hand corner, little icon, my picture something hit that and everything pops out…. where is my easy access?…

I enjoy all the articles that Popular Mechanics puts out. All their gear reviews and in depth stories. However, one of the most annoying issues I have with their App is that it has a tendency to refresh itself while you're in the middle of reading articles. Then, after it decides to randomly refresh, you have to scroll back down and find where you left off and hope that you can read the rest of your article before it refreshes again.

We all love this publication. The “app” is a dodgy mobile website embedded in an app. Super glitchy and unreliable. Halfway through sn article it refreshes on its own and takes you back to the home page. Ads everywhere. Honestly the worst app on my phone, but at least it’s slightly less worse than trying to access popmech through google news. The in viewer video ads are so annoying. I should also mention that I have a digital and physical subscription. Great articles when you can actual read them. Thanks

I'm growing ever so tired of this app losing my subscription. For every new issue coming out, I have to "restore" my subscription info, which doesn't work all the time. The app will also not start up in offline mode. Just prior to writing this review, I boarded an airplane. My iPad was already in airplane mode. I go to open the app, and it gives me a blank screen with an airplane at the bottom, and an error saying it cannot make a connection. What good is downloading content for offline, if the app to read the content will not work offline!

I love the mag. However I live in a poor internet environment & I download issues for supposed offline reading, when I’m in the US. Unfortunately they are never available afterwards. Is it a VPN issue or what? It worked fine when it was an app available in the Apple App Store. Though now, I have a library full of mags that need to be downloaded. Throwing money away is always frustrating. You would think with a title like "Popular mechanics", they could fix the app.

I've had a print subscription for years. Have not been able to link it to online account; paid extra for the online plus and not getting any of the daily emails I'm supposed to even though buttons checked. Terrible online presence

For a company that prides itself in cutting edge technology, the app feels more like a 1980s home computer. So many things I can’t list. But go on it once and you’ll see. You don’t smoothly log in even when your acct is set up. You don’t open to nice graphics or articles. It looks like they are selling individual magazines -Not an app to actually enjoy your digital subscription. I cancelled. Not worth the money.

While reading articles the app will randomly jump back up, making you scroll down to find where you were before it did that. Also my phone gets hot while using this app, and it consumes battery power wildly fast. While using this app on a flight my phone went from 87% to 19% power in just over an hour.

At least i can read the articles now. Would be nice if i could actually open the pdf of the nag in my own pdf reader, but this works ok.

I give one star because advertising in this book are too many as pay monthly for education? We don't need ads every other pages per education as we either enjoyed or not enjoyed reading and learning. I would put fewer ads at the very back end of the page. I'm so sick of see ads every where......

Bought subscription two months ago and still can’t login. Email customer service is useless. They just keep shuffling me around and I still can login to my account and access the digital magazines.

Can’t swipe from page to page, contents button exits magazine, and even when you do get to contents, the links don’t work. I literally cannot read the magazine anyway. Copy some other magazine that works please, like pops science. I hate having different interfaces on every dang magazine I read!

I've been reading popular mechanics on my iPad for years. I updated the app and now it locks up, then it won't open. Very frustrating. I have to delete the app and reinstall it when it gets stuck. Nothing else works.

Since Hearst saw fit to remove the “News” feature, I feel this is is generally worthless to have unless you subscribe to the digital version of the magazine. I get it. They want subscribers, not “freeloading “ readers. I’ll delete the app from my iPad and phone. I can get the mag on Zinio for the issues I want to read the mag.

I am 64 & I have read every issue since I was 10. You appealed to an ability others said I did not have. Today I run my own company and I still apply the message of using your head and your own hands to simplify a complex world. Steve Ricci

I have tried multiple time to log in via subscription, but it won’t let me. I want the app, and love popular mechanics, but i wish I could actually log in 🤷🏽‍♀️

I decided to get a yearly subscription online and from the very start it’s been a nightmare! From how you “activate” your subscription to getting multiple errors while trying to log in! Not worth the headache

App has always been poor. I’d prefer a pdf rather than the buggy mess that is this app. For the current issue, the app crashes continuously after about the fourth article.

No way to search for a navigate to previous articles.

I subscribed. It says I have a subscription and asks for my account and password- which of course it never let me set up a password- so I Can’t access anything. Popular mechanics support has NOT been helpful. All that money wasted.

I was given the magazine as a gift, but have no computer access even after many attempts. Nor have I received a hard copy. Wasted gift. Ripped off money from my friend by Popular Mechanics Staff.

I just subscribed and I go to read the digital magazine nut all the shows up on the screen is a white blank page or one that has an empty image place card thing in the upper corner.

Gives cannot load error on WiFi and cell data. Both work fine. Oh and stop writing “articles” to sell crap for advertisers, thanks.

Visiting on my Chromebook frequently but can never log in with the app, why is this so complicated? Email and zipcode should be easy you think, I guess not

I paid for a subscription but was unable to log in. Sent a message for help but never got a response. Not good.

Despite paying for access you still have to view ads. What a joke

Have paid twice and still cannot open the magazine

When will this be fixed . Its at least been since early feb its now may...is anybody home?

This app is broken in every sense of the term. Now I have to wait 4-6 weeks for my next paper issue. Rip off

In the running for worst app on my device. login is useless. doesn’t have a login through google like the web portal. doesn’t recognize my credentials. even the “done” tab submits a request and won’t exit. nonsense.

Need a new update! Can’t read after the last update. Can’t swipe pages.

Would love you a show you this!

Poor, never works.

It doesnt work

Layout is nice. I like how you don't have to scroll up & down, what you see on the screen is what is on that page besides some occasional horizontal sliders which work well. When you flip the page however it's like the page freezes for a second then turns, minor issue but kind of annoying. The app crashed on me 4 times (always while turning a page) and I'm not finished reading the entire mag yet. Font size is good, pics & video look great. I love the DIY sections where you can rotate the projects and see the individual pieces with some details on each piece, the horizontal slider that details the assembly without turning to the next page is great. Subscription is a must if you want me to buy more than a couple mags/year though. The bookmark feature is fine but maybe make it accessible from the library view and be able to enter a custom name. That way if I ever have 20 or so issues stored and I don't remember which mag had the DIY article I wanted to come back to, I just go to my bookmarks.

Poor “instructions “ and despite following email from this magazine, I still can’t access my subscription.

Love the magazine but the old version has features that made it feel optimized for reading on the iPad, not sure why they removed all of the features

The app let's you look at thumbnails of each story, not even 1 preview article to sample magazine layout. 3.99/ month? No thanks. 11.99/year I would sign up and I'm sure a lot of other people would to. I can subscribe and get a hard copy delivered To my door for $12/ year. Why are you trying to rip off your tech savvy customers?

Perhaps my review would be more meaningful if I could actually SEE the December issue I purchased. After about a dozen attempts to download it, I still have nothing. So far, a waste of money.

Im not gonna pay again to get the digital edition

At least they changed the false advertising that said they would give you a free issue. Make it a sensible price of $15.99 per year like Popular Science or you won't get my $$$. I've already been taken for 5.99 for one issue in March!

One of the worst magazine apps I have. I'm sorry I subscribed

This was the biggest disappointment I have ever purchased! This App crashes constantly and had to restart my iPad more times than I can coount. It is a memory hog that will drain all resources on your unit. Best of all, Popular MEchanics would never let me download new episodes. I think I got 4 issues of my 12 month subscription. Goodbye Popular Mechanics!

Looks terrible on the new iPad 3rd gen. A shame really. Cancelled subscription until this is fixed.

This app never seems to work properly. I paid for a yearly subscription and can never seem to access any of the mags.

Love this magazine, but the magazine has been on store shelves for about two weeks and still hasn't been released on the app yet. Should just get the paper subscription, app is too delayed.

I have paid for a monthly subscription to this magazine for over two months and since the august issue has been released i an unable to download it as part of my subscription. I think none of Hearst subscriptions are working and they don’t respond to email support. Im not very happy!!!

I love reading PS...but this app is a joke and they should be embarrassed for putting something like this on the app store..and Apple...what are you doing approving something this bad?

We are now into the second week of Jan and still no issue for this month. I could have bought the printed copy almost 4 weeks ago. I like the app but if Hearst is not going to support it by releasing the month issues in a timely manner what is the point!

I had purchased issues before the update and now they are gone!! I tried to restore but it won't work! This needs to be addressed!!

Even after you "download" a magazine you still need to be online to view it! How useful is that while travelling? Also, this app has a terrible digital subscription process and UI. Frustrating and impossible to use. Very illogical and not at all user friendly. Content is generally shallow and often 'advertorial'. I am not renewing my subscription.

IPad 2 ver 5.1.1 crashes without ever getting app to open.. After shutting down all apps, and reset.. Still not working. Why I don't update.. I don't want a slower OS. Apple breaks older devices through updates.. I guess they can break them without updating too. Planned obsolescence is suspected.

Surprisingly, there is no two finger pinch zoom feature in this app (which is so common in many other periodical applications). So bring your reading glasses with you if your eyes don't see so well. I won't be subscribing to their digital content for now. Hopefully they will add this basic feature in the future.

Not renewing my subscription I am 3 months behind because can't download issues. Horrible

The worst application ever. Do not install and subscribe. After two years of subscription they want me to buy all issues I've paid for again. I cannot read them and I cannot get my money back. Their team told me that they are working on this problem three month ago for Christ sake and nothing has been change since than.

Every time I try to download a new month the app crashes. I love the magazine but the app needs to be updated. Please fix!

When it finally works/downloads, the mag is great. But and it's a big but...it can not seem to download a new months mag without crashing and or getting stuck on the unzipping part. More than frustrating!!! Can't and won't give it more than a 1.5 stars... And that's only because the mag is great when it finally works.

The title says it all. Do not understand the need to be online once issues are downloaded. 5 stars if online requirement removed.

It's really crappy that a magazine that is all about technology can't even move forward in the right direction. Every other magazine has a free digital version if you own a paper subscription. It's silly not too. I mean I tend to give my paper copies out to friends without even opening them because I prefer the digital. I want my friends to like the same things I do. I've got at least 5 friends to get subscriptions to other magazines this way. Just makes good sense to me. Get with the times.

Need to add the ability to zoom in on text If I was to download a PDF version illegally and add it to my bookshelf I WOULD be able to do this

Love the magazine, too bad I can't read it because it crashes constantly.

It's fine when it works. Crashes constantly. I am unable to read most months. $20 wasted. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, re downloaded the magazines. But no luck.

The issues I have downloaded are lost over and over. The restore does not work more often than it works. Once restored the issues disappear again.

When I can get this and pop sci to actually load fantastic, great use of medium, background downloading would be appreciated

The only reason I didn't rate it lower is because I do like the magazine. But the app needs a LOT of work.

I was hoping there'd be more substance, but it seems to be an example of style over practicality. The annoying techno-fonts and lack of any ability to zoom is making me cancel my subscription after just one issue. I'd rather just read the articles and explore the links without so much conscious effort.

It shuts down for no reason Does not start Do not get it it is not worth the subscription as you can not read it!!! Crap crap crap no stars I would put negative stars if I could.

From the beginning, this app/magazine has been unstable, always ending in having to delete it, re install and then load issues back again, again, again. If you want to spend lots of time reloading what should be your content, then use this app, it will give you endless hours reloading issues.

Somehow - I ended up with a print subscription. I received a print magazine in the mail about a month after using the app. Going through the junk mail I found a notice from them about a new subscription and an invoice would follow. I don't know how I got that print subscription - but somewhere along the way it happened - probably buried deep in some fine print or a contest or something.

Says there downloaded but it's not there ....what a waste of money. Got the one year subscription and havent been able to use it since iOS 5 !!!! DO NOT BUY ANYTHING TILL THIS IS FIXED

Too expensive.

Just installed the latest version, can't start it, keep on crashing. Damn it...

Hey Hearst! Time and Conde Nast give print subscribers free iPad versions. When are you going to wake up and do likewise? Nobody is going to pay twice if they already subscribe to the print editions. Oh yeah, and why is it so expensive for digital subs compared to print versions anyway

This app only works in portrait orientation on the iPad.