Users Unhappy with MyFitnessPal's Removal of Free Barcode Scanner Feature

New update messed everything up - no scan ability now. Anyone wondering about it, their support wrote to say that the scanner is now for Premium members only. Bait and switch. Many scans lead to erroneous info lately, so it's just as well. I've had to enter things by hand a lot. So while the scan is useful at times, it is not consistently useful enough to pay for it. Nice try though. Lack of comms on the subject too. Why not indicate it in the app as one tries to use the scan?

This was my go to app in previous years, making it easy with features like bar code scan. However after revisiting it following a break, all the features that made it a great tool to use now come at a cost. If you have money to spare it could be great, but it is being given one star since updates appear to have only added ads and require subscriptions for previously free content. $20 a month or $80 a year for a previously free feature (bar code scan) speaks volumes to what the app has become.

It has the benefit of being probably the biggest food database out there, and makes tracking a little less painful. That being said, it's much too aggressive in using and presenting its paywall. Also, one that ng that they haven't fixed for years now is the necessity to select a meal when logging, even when there's only one, daily meal set up for tracking every meal all day.

Started using this today. I'm already annoyed as information for foods already in the system doesn't seem to be added correctly. My goal is to lose weight and keep track of the calories. It's going to be difficult. A portion of any fruit and veg (fresh, frozen, tinned) is always 80g. The ones I wanted to add today all have a serving as 100g The yoghurt I eat has been added as a serving of 227g, instead of using the info on the pot for 100g. Pointless!!

This WAS a great app. For years I encouraged others to use MFP. I agree with all the critisms on "recent" changes that make this too frustrating to continue using. For me the final nail in the coffin is that we can only see 2 or 3 logged food at a time in the diary view now squeezed between ads and banner wanting us to buy premium. Just isn't usable, so regrettably moving onto something more balanced.

I lost 40 lbs using this app and have been using it off and on for almost 10 years. 5 stars if the barcode scanner is returned to the free version. I understand having premium features and needing people to subscribe, but the app is basically not usable without the scanner. Edit: Your auto reply to reviews is obnoxious. The manual database is inaccurate and unuasable. Uninstalling.

The newest version of the app put barcode scan behind a paywall. Barcode scan has been part of the free version for years. They've been responding to people saying, "oh just search for it," but the search function sucks and is often inaccurate. They've been providing barcode scanning for years. If they have to put it behind a paywall to make money it means their premium couldn't stand on it's own before. Also. Their data security sucks. Their response motivated me to buy Lose It Premium.

*Update* I just redownloaded this app after using it several years ago & was disappointed to see that it's much harder to find the foods I'm trying to add, & I can no longer find the exact brands,etc. I don't know why they'd want to mess with a good thing. I'll give it a few days, but I may have to find an app with a better library of foods~~~ Very helpful! Great tool for weight loss! Love the calorie counting feature, so easy to use; it gives you all the nutritional info of the foods you enter.

The UI is terribly unintuitive. Now you must have a subscription to scan barrows. The subscription model is dying. Get with the program guys. And your UI "fixes" are terrible. Literally have to go in and delete foods that I didn't realize were added because the confirmation is on screen foe less than 1/10th of a second (dont blink). Been a dedicated user of nearly 4000 consecutive days and this is the worst iteration yet.

I've been using this app and praising it for years. Came back today to start using it again and see the barcode scanner is now a paid feature - how disappointing. I understand you can still search for foods, but the convenience and draw of the app was that I could easily scan my food items instead of attempting to search for it and find exactly what I'm looking for. Such a shame.

Money grubbers removed the barcode scanner in the free version. Time to roll back to an old version or find a new app. EDIT: another reviewer mentioned "Lose It" is comparable to the old free version. I'll try that out. EDIT: OMG, Lose It is sooo good. The free vs is great, but I immediately subscribed. $40/yr with desirable features like intermittent fasting, varied daily calorie goals, lots of customization options, etc. Take notice, MFP.

Came back to the app to start dieting again. Had huge success in the past. When to log a meal and the scanner is now a premium feature. Really disappointing that they'd lock down previously free features. I understand paying for added capability, but this wasn't that way for years. I'll be looking for a different app

This app has become unusable unfortunately, since a short time ago the ads now appear directly in the Diary, and it's very easy to touch it by mistake but worse, it makes the app nearly unusable. And now that they have made the 'scan barcode' feature pay only, I will search for an alternative. The ads at the top were enough, but putting them directly in the diary is abusive to your customers. And there are plenty of alternatives that are better which I have just found out.

Very pleased with this app in general. The database of foods is impressive and logging each item has made being in calorie deficit easy. My only issue is the recording of exercise/steps. The steps in particular are erratic going up and down and never seem to be the full amount. There doesn't seem to be any way to sync with Google fit or Samsung health even though they have recorded the steps correctly.

I would like the app better if I could manually add macros for custom food recipes. I'm a paid user too. There's no description how to do it if there's a way. You have to search individual ingredient and go with the calories listed for that one ingredient. Well, what if I know the macros, but don't want to input every ingredient manually? Out of luck. It's a pretty easy fix to just have the ability to type in the macros manually if I want to.

Used to be a good app. In the last day the app has lost years of data that I can't get back. After hours of trying to get it to sync with Garmin Connect it finally 'works', but the sync is incredibly slow and the data is wrong easily half the time, meaning my calories burned and consumed are always way out. So it's essentially useless except for telling me how many calories are in something, and I can get that information from hundreds of other apps.

To my disgust, I just noticed that they force you to buy premium. I swapped to a new phone and, therefore, a new version, probably. It is no longer possible to scan barcodes without buying premium, rendering the app completely useless. Because I can keep track of the water I drink on a simple checklist, but obviously not of pre-made food. This is how to make money in the short term, but sealing the nail coffin for your app. I hope a lot of people leave and get an alternative.

This app used to be the gold standard for calorie counting, now it's just an overpriced waste of space. Time for me to move on. Good job MyFitnessPal.👋 Quick update, the "Lose It" app still has the barcode scanner for free and and is making tons of improvements as to what's offered through the premium plan from the last time I checked it out. Also if one does decides to upgrade to the premium plan it's way way way way cheaper.

I use this to mainly track calorie intake but recently it stopped syncing with Garmin Connect. It only updates the calories on the first time. This makes calorie counting very inconvenient, and I only use MyFitnessPal to calorie count. On top of that, I paid the premium. When it was free I didn't have so many problems with it. I think the dev team is cashing out or paying out investors. I won't be around next year if this isn't fixed. I feel a bit cheated.

Used this app for like 10 years. Successfully lost tons of weight without pain or misery of any kind: it worked. Seen tons of ads; was well worth it. Then it started intermittently and spontaneously "forgetting" food entries, rendering it useless. Also stopped integrating with MapMyRun. Recent but stable phone and OS and updated app. The lost functions seem so basic that I suspect they "broke" with intent to force buying full, so I'm looking for my replacement app. After 10 years. Sad face.

Everything was fine with the app, no faults, the barcode scanner was working fine, and one day, randomly, it logged me out. When I tried to log back in, it kept saying my password and email were incorrect. I was told to delete and reinstall the app only to find the barcode scanner and other features I used are now premium, and I can no longer use it.

This app has made this journey kinda cool, and has challenged me in a way to push myself. Just noticed today though that my macro goals are incorrect. I've not adjusted anything either. I'll close and reopen the app and they'll be different than the last time. Not the entries, just the goal amounts. Weird. This is something I'd like to not deal with though considering it's a $20 monthly subscription.

Used to love this app. I've been using it for several years. My favorite feature was the barcode scanner. Made the app super fast and convenient to use. Now, they have made it a premium feature we have to pay for. So, the app is now inconvenient and an absolute pain. I don't have time to spend hours a day logging all my food. I eat 5x a day. Won't be using anymore unless they bring the barcode scanner back to the free version. Guess greed always wins out over what's best for their users.

it is okay for tracking but it is missing some of the very basic stuff. there is no ability to leave notes on a single food item, nor take pictures. it is impossible for the database to always have everything, so when it doesn't... notes and pictures would help a lot. you also can't turn off features you don't want. for example, I don't want exercise tracking but it still takes up half my screen. I can't make the diary be my default screen. I can't have current time being the default

I am very disappointed that I can not connect the data from my Huawei GT3 Pro. This, on it's own, would stop me from taking out a subscription. Also, the amount of ads on the free version are horrendous, and many are constantly changing. This makes it very difficult to familiarise yourself with the page layout, thus making data entry more difficult.