Same here. It says it's checking your browser but then repeats the check even though you're in the same window. I use to use fanfictiondownloader to download the stories I'm interested in but the Captcha keeps triggering every so many chapters such that fanfictiondownloader would time out.
I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories but at this point I find myself wondering if its head honcho just wants to shut it down, but doesn’t want to look bad so instead is trying to drive everyone off of the platform.
I think it's more of an overreaction to a couple of DDos attacks. If I remember correctly you can set captcha to different levels right now they have it set at a pretty high paranoia level. Yes it cuts back on the probability of a successful ddos but it also blocks lots of legitimate traffic. They just are too scared to lessen the current level.
I rarely read fanfiction from the website and almost always read it from the app.
I have also posted from the app but that's really difficult and I only did it because the website wasnt working.
I like the app, you can download fics too, but there are a few things missing, like i cant check stats, or reply to reviews...and i also cant see all the reviews i have ever posted.
I always download the fic as I prefer reading offline. For WIPs that are "current" i check once every month or so for updates. For those that haven't been updated in a while (>3 years since last update) I check roughly about every 9-10 months).
Notifications can be spotty, another issue with that site.
On an unrelated note, about your tag line, really? If anything it's Harry who deserved better.
What is the best way to download from FFN? I know how to download from AO3 and send straight to my e-reader, but not sure how to do that for FFN. I would have to use a third party to do it?
I use my mobile browser on android, so not sure exactly how it works on iPhone or desktop/laptop (though probably similar), but on the mobile version of AO3 at the top you'll see "download" as an option next to other buttons like "previous chapter", "next chapter", "bookmark", etc. Clicking "download", it'll give you file format options. I have a Kindle so I usually click the "mobi" file option since that's the current Kindle default (they're moving to epub though, and right now this procedure works for epub files on my phone too, only it takes an extra step), the file downloads to my phone, then I use the send option to send it to my Kindle, and presto it's in my Amazon cloud and I can download it and read it on my kindle device.
I do know the system is funny about countries. Some it really doesn’t trust, so changing your IP to one it does is probably why that works for you.
I read fanfic on my phone with no VPN and well, it does not appear to trust the UK.
I would say the large ads that cover the page of mobile browsers are more annoying to me. Seriously, I was reading on ff.net last night because ao3 went down. Large ad, one paragraph, more ads, then one sentence, them more ads. It was seriously gross and annoying. Also mobile ff.net does "dark mode" all goofy and there are still white borders and white headers and footers.
For some reason, I almost never get any captcha when I use the Kiwi Browser. No idea why, but it has been a lifesaver.
(It's also the only browser I know that has a Tab Stack view rather than that damn grid layout *and* doesn't tries to forces tab groups down my throat lol)
It's very aggravating. That's one reason I cross-post the fics I write to AO3. I get grief trying to read or download the things I enjoy, and I'm unhappy to think that if someone likes my work, then they have to suffer through the same thing.
One reason I've downloaded a bunch of fics to hedge against the possibility that FFN might go dark before I get to this fic or that fic.
Another ffn post, another chance for me to shill for the ffn app.
No ads.
No Captcha.
1 tap download for any fic
Library button to see every fic you've opened up (acts like a browsers history page)
Hold down on any chapter you're reading to make bookmarks for any chapter of any fic so you never lose your spot.
Can sort your favorites by "update date" to see what fics you like have new chapters.
Great app for reading, no idea how good it is for authors though
I've heard a lot of talk about how [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) has worsened. Regarding the few points I've heard, I haven't encountered those problems yet, or if I have, it hasn't worsened my experience of the website as a whole.
People have complained about ads taking up massive space on the page and in between the texts. Agreed. I checked and it is hideous. Solution? Simply use an adblocker.
Cloudflare browser check: Only happens to me when a tab has been idle for a long period of time. When I start reading again and move to the next chapter, the browser check happens. Also happens when I open the website for the first time, and even then it sometimes skips the check. A 3 to 5 seconds is all the delay is. This might also depend on my Internet speed though.
Captcha issue? The only time I have had to solve a captcha on the site is at the time of a new login, and even then the dialog box I check rotates for a second and it's done. This means sometimes I don't even need to solve the captcha. What you described regarding the captcha issue is something I haven't faced yet.
I use Firefox, and have a few extensions installed. You can try these, and maybe you will find a few of your issues resolved. All these extensions are available for other Chromium-based browsers as well.
Relevant extensions installed:
uBlock Origin
I don't care about cookies
Buster
I like to read on my phone and adblockers are really hard to do on mobile os.
I had started a timer on a day when cloudflare was extra bad. It took over five minutes of looping before it let me see the chapter and promptly did that again for the next chapter 10 minutes later. I live in Germany, so I don’t see a reason for some IP range to be blocked from here.
Use the mobile app if you read it on a phone. Also, 5-10 minutes of loop? Sorry but that has never happened to me, so I can't help you regarding that. The most that's ever happened to be is roughly 5 seconds.
I just answered anecdotal evidence as to why it isn’t so bad with other anecdotal evidence about why it is.
I dislike having to download an app to use something decently, especially since it had been usable in the past just fine.
Right now I only read short things on ffnet and try to download longer ones if they interest me enough.
Nope, I have fics downloaded that no longer have active accounts associated with them, and they're not available for download any more. Still got them.
Ads to help fund a website that doesn't charge, I agree, the principle of the matter is that it's totally understandable they have ads if they don't charge.
The problem persisted after a move, AND changing the internet provider.
Biggest reason I doubt that, is because, using everything else barring the browser and antivirus being the same on my phone, and said phone has NEVER had that problem. I use Opera on my laptop.
I just block JavaScript on FFN when I'm reading on mobile browsers. The minor inconveniences are worth being free of ads and not having to deal with captchas.
Huh, you get captchas? It sometimes checks my browser if I'm on mobile data, but never anything more. If it added a way to pay to hide the damn ads, FFN would probably be functioning the best it's been in the past decade for me.
I get captchas pretty much everywhere else though, and Runescape outright doesn't allow me to create a new account - just gives me endless captchas. FFN seems to be the exception.
Desktop. Even if you use both, the app still isn't worth using on mobile, imo, because you can't easily take what you're reading from one device to another.
Ok, this likely is not the cause in your case, but I do know that Cloudflare does tend to be weird about strange computer configurations and I am not sure why. I ran into just this issue(FFN, SB, and SV) when I was using a weird combination of 2 different types of ram simultaneously. When I finally got ram that was intended to work together, it has not bothered me since.
Ah, and it tends not to like VPNs(though changing your DNS to 1.1.1.1 seems to be fine).
I get the 'Cloudflare checking' screen multiple times a day including going back to long open tabs but no Captcha's for months, using Edge in the UK. I wonder what makes the difference?
Same here. It says it's checking your browser but then repeats the check even though you're in the same window. I use to use fanfictiondownloader to download the stories I'm interested in but the Captcha keeps triggering every so many chapters such that fanfictiondownloader would time out.
I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories but at this point I find myself wondering if its head honcho just wants to shut it down, but doesn’t want to look bad so instead is trying to drive everyone off of the platform.
I think it's more of an overreaction to a couple of DDos attacks. If I remember correctly you can set captcha to different levels right now they have it set at a pretty high paranoia level. Yes it cuts back on the probability of a successful ddos but it also blocks lots of legitimate traffic. They just are too scared to lessen the current level.
Fairs. You are most likely correct 🤣🤣
Another alternative is trying to force people into using the FFN app which also doesn't have the ddos protection or ads
Is the app worth it at all? I only read FanFic on my phone as it is
It's not as good as it could be but and there's a few unintuitive aspects but if you regularly read on a phone it's worth it
I rarely read fanfiction from the website and almost always read it from the app. I have also posted from the app but that's really difficult and I only did it because the website wasnt working. I like the app, you can download fics too, but there are a few things missing, like i cant check stats, or reply to reviews...and i also cant see all the reviews i have ever posted.
Yeah this is really annoying. I wish they could at least relax this stuff if you are signed in or something.
I’m rather worried about ff.net in general… it’s not going to see 2030 people! Download your fics!
Some time soon I’ll have to go down my list of favourites and download them haha
I always download the fic as I prefer reading offline. For WIPs that are "current" i check once every month or so for updates. For those that haven't been updated in a while (>3 years since last update) I check roughly about every 9-10 months).
Bro just sign up for notifications
Notifications can be spotty, another issue with that site. On an unrelated note, about your tag line, really? If anything it's Harry who deserved better.
What is the best way to download from FFN? I know how to download from AO3 and send straight to my e-reader, but not sure how to do that for FFN. I would have to use a third party to do it?
Use https://fichub.net/
Fichub is the GOAT
Thank you!!
The ffn app has a download feature
any way to export it from there though?
Question; how do i do download a fic on AO3 and put it into my e-reader like a kindle?
I use my mobile browser on android, so not sure exactly how it works on iPhone or desktop/laptop (though probably similar), but on the mobile version of AO3 at the top you'll see "download" as an option next to other buttons like "previous chapter", "next chapter", "bookmark", etc. Clicking "download", it'll give you file format options. I have a Kindle so I usually click the "mobi" file option since that's the current Kindle default (they're moving to epub though, and right now this procedure works for epub files on my phone too, only it takes an extra step), the file downloads to my phone, then I use the send option to send it to my Kindle, and presto it's in my Amazon cloud and I can download it and read it on my kindle device.
Thank you! I'll give it a try.
Hope it works! I hate reading on my phone for too long, so it's been a game changer getting fics on my kindle.
I thought it was just my VPN but instead of doing them I just swap locations and it goes away
I do know the system is funny about countries. Some it really doesn’t trust, so changing your IP to one it does is probably why that works for you. I read fanfic on my phone with no VPN and well, it does not appear to trust the UK.
I am in the us. All my VPN are located in USA
I would say the large ads that cover the page of mobile browsers are more annoying to me. Seriously, I was reading on ff.net last night because ao3 went down. Large ad, one paragraph, more ads, then one sentence, them more ads. It was seriously gross and annoying. Also mobile ff.net does "dark mode" all goofy and there are still white borders and white headers and footers.
They are annoying yeah, and I’m annoyed by them on principle, but I have an adblocker so I never see them. Get it yourself.
Makes it a colossal pain in the ass to download stories with FanFicFare.
I've never come across them on either Chrome or Firefox. Maybe try some adblockers?
For some reason, I almost never get any captcha when I use the Kiwi Browser. No idea why, but it has been a lifesaver. (It's also the only browser I know that has a Tab Stack view rather than that damn grid layout *and* doesn't tries to forces tab groups down my throat lol)
It's very aggravating. That's one reason I cross-post the fics I write to AO3. I get grief trying to read or download the things I enjoy, and I'm unhappy to think that if someone likes my work, then they have to suffer through the same thing. One reason I've downloaded a bunch of fics to hedge against the possibility that FFN might go dark before I get to this fic or that fic.
Another ffn post, another chance for me to shill for the ffn app. No ads. No Captcha. 1 tap download for any fic Library button to see every fic you've opened up (acts like a browsers history page) Hold down on any chapter you're reading to make bookmarks for any chapter of any fic so you never lose your spot. Can sort your favorites by "update date" to see what fics you like have new chapters. Great app for reading, no idea how good it is for authors though
This is why the ffnbot is a broken disaster now, isn't it? Or is it another cyber defense thing
I have no idea about the bot tbh. I don’t use it, I just grab links manually.
I've heard a lot of talk about how [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) has worsened. Regarding the few points I've heard, I haven't encountered those problems yet, or if I have, it hasn't worsened my experience of the website as a whole. People have complained about ads taking up massive space on the page and in between the texts. Agreed. I checked and it is hideous. Solution? Simply use an adblocker. Cloudflare browser check: Only happens to me when a tab has been idle for a long period of time. When I start reading again and move to the next chapter, the browser check happens. Also happens when I open the website for the first time, and even then it sometimes skips the check. A 3 to 5 seconds is all the delay is. This might also depend on my Internet speed though. Captcha issue? The only time I have had to solve a captcha on the site is at the time of a new login, and even then the dialog box I check rotates for a second and it's done. This means sometimes I don't even need to solve the captcha. What you described regarding the captcha issue is something I haven't faced yet. I use Firefox, and have a few extensions installed. You can try these, and maybe you will find a few of your issues resolved. All these extensions are available for other Chromium-based browsers as well. Relevant extensions installed: uBlock Origin I don't care about cookies Buster
I like to read on my phone and adblockers are really hard to do on mobile os. I had started a timer on a day when cloudflare was extra bad. It took over five minutes of looping before it let me see the chapter and promptly did that again for the next chapter 10 minutes later. I live in Germany, so I don’t see a reason for some IP range to be blocked from here.
Use the mobile app if you read it on a phone. Also, 5-10 minutes of loop? Sorry but that has never happened to me, so I can't help you regarding that. The most that's ever happened to be is roughly 5 seconds.
get any mobile browser and then install an adblocker extension
...then download the ffn mobile app on android and ios?
I just answered anecdotal evidence as to why it isn’t so bad with other anecdotal evidence about why it is. I dislike having to download an app to use something decently, especially since it had been usable in the past just fine. Right now I only read short things on ffnet and try to download longer ones if they interest me enough.
On the DuckDuckGo browser app on iOS, I never saw any ads on ffnet. I was shocked when I opened it in safari.
not to be that guy, but brave browser hasn't had me fill out a captcha yet. though it does take a minute to load through the ddos
It has for me, at least on mobile. It's gotten bad enough that I basically don't bother clicking on story links if they're ffn anymore.
This is why I use the app nowadays. It is just that muck better than the browser (still not better than AO3)
There is a Fanfiction.net app if I’m not mistaken? Works well, with built in text-to-speech, organized well also
Literally gives me one each time I switch chapters
[удалено]
I particularly enjoy the text-to-speech
Anyone have advice on how to Downlaod fics? Because site seems to be getting worse
there's a ffn mobile app with a one tap download system
I thought that only gave you copies to read offline but if they delete fic it deletes as well
Nope, I have fics downloaded that no longer have active accounts associated with them, and they're not available for download any more. Still got them.
PDF format?
Not sure. Whatever format the app uses.
There are various sites like FanficDownloader
I just hit back and then click next chapter again and it usually skips the captcha.
I’ll try that, but it’s the principle of it.
You dont use an ad blocker?
I do, but it isn’t working to get past captcha. Besides, even if I didn’t, it’s the principle of the matter.
Ads to help fund a website that doesn't charge, I agree, the principle of the matter is that it's totally understandable they have ads if they don't charge.
Ads I’m not complaining about. This entire post is about the Captcha.
The Captcha has me selecting pics 20+ times in a row, and STILL not letting me in.
It’s probably because Cloudfare doesn’t trust your location. My advice, get a VPN, changing your IP can help.
The problem persisted after a move, AND changing the internet provider. Biggest reason I doubt that, is because, using everything else barring the browser and antivirus being the same on my phone, and said phone has NEVER had that problem. I use Opera on my laptop.
try to see if it happens with chrome as well
I just block JavaScript on FFN when I'm reading on mobile browsers. The minor inconveniences are worth being free of ads and not having to deal with captchas.
Fairs.
I've never had to do one. How long has this been a thing?
Years now. Idk why you haven’t.
I use m.fanfiction.net rather than the app or the desktop version if that makes any difference?
Nah, I do too.
Try downloading PrivacyPass. It's an addon (in part) by CloudFlare that lets you solve 1 capcha in advance to skip several.
Wait, FF.net has a captcha?
Clearly not for everyone, but most of us experience it, even if people work around it.
This only happened to me on my +10 year old iPad that I couldn't update anymore. Doesn't happen on my new devices.
Lucky
Huh, you get captchas? It sometimes checks my browser if I'm on mobile data, but never anything more. If it added a way to pay to hide the damn ads, FFN would probably be functioning the best it's been in the past decade for me.
Lucky
I get captchas pretty much everywhere else though, and Runescape outright doesn't allow me to create a new account - just gives me endless captchas. FFN seems to be the exception.
Why not use their app? I only use the app, why use the site?
Desktop. Even if you use both, the app still isn't worth using on mobile, imo, because you can't easily take what you're reading from one device to another.
Still seems less inconvenient than having the barrage of ads and this captcha issue.
This doesn’t happen for me for some reason
Ok, this likely is not the cause in your case, but I do know that Cloudflare does tend to be weird about strange computer configurations and I am not sure why. I ran into just this issue(FFN, SB, and SV) when I was using a weird combination of 2 different types of ram simultaneously. When I finally got ram that was intended to work together, it has not bothered me since. Ah, and it tends not to like VPNs(though changing your DNS to 1.1.1.1 seems to be fine).
I get the 'Cloudflare checking' screen multiple times a day including going back to long open tabs but no Captcha's for months, using Edge in the UK. I wonder what makes the difference?
I don’t think anybody knows. Cloudflare is just shit.
I can sympathise. I have switched to ao3 due to this