I'm reading many people complaining about the app being abandoned, not being updated for a long time.
Have you tried contacting the developer with your issues?
They last replied to a review on Google Play on 13th Jan 2025. Someone else also mentioned that they received a response via DM. So the developer is definitely still alive.
The app is free to use. It's great if you chose to support the developer by paying for the ad-removal or subscription. Unfortunately, I don't believe the user base is large enough to allow the developer to work on it full-time, or even part time.
Personally, I think Sync is a passion project, hence the original Reddit version was so good. The downside with passion projects is that you work on them when you have time and inspiration to work on them.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that all the negativity won't help inspire the developer to dedicate more time to the project.
It would be more helpful to compile a list of bugs and issues, and forward them to the developer.
But no one forces you to pay. You chose to do that to support the developer, but it does not mean they owe you.
Fediverse.org reports that Lemmy currently has 484,850.
Backlinko.com reports that Reddit has 97.2 million daily active users in June 2025.
Let's round those figures up to 500k and 100mil.
Say 5% of Reddit users paid $1 to the developer > 5mil users = $5mil
If my maths is correct, for 5% of Lemmy to donate 5mil to the developer, so they can invest the same time & effort as they did on the Reddit app, each paying Lemmy user would have to pay $5mil / (500k*.0.05) = $200 each.
It would be unreasonable for the developer to expect people to pay $200 to use the Lemmy app. It's equally unreasonable for us users to expect them to put in the same effort, without the same return of investment. I imagine the developer will invest in more time when the Lemmy user base hit some kind of critical mass.
What? When you charge a subscription, you're not saying this is for the work done. You're selling the idea that by paying for a subscription users are supporting the work remaining ongoing. Users who paid yearly, got less than half of what they paid for. So sorry, as much as I like LJ, it absolutely does mean they owe you. At the very least they owe you an explanation.