Hello,
Environment
macOS 15.6.1 / Xcode 26 beta 7 / iOS 26 Beta 9
In a simple AVFoundation video-playback sample, I’m seeing different behavior between iOS 18 and iOS 26 regarding AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification.
I’ve attached a minimal sample below. Please replace videoURL with a valid short video URL.
Repro steps
Tap “Play” to start playback and let the video finish.
The AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification registered with NotificationCenter should fire, and you should see Play finished. in the console.
Without relaunching, tap “Play” again. This is where the issue arises.
Observed behavior
On iOS 18 and earlier: The video does not play again (it does not restart from the beginning), but AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification is posted and Play finished. appears in the console. The same happens every time you press “Play”.
On iOS 26: Pressing “Play” does not post AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification. The code path that prints Play finished. is never called (the callback enclosing that line is not invoked again).
Building the same program with Xcode 16.4 and running it on an iOS 26 beta device shows the same phenomenon, which suggests there has been a behavioral change for AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification on iOS 26. I couldn’t find any mention of this in the release notes or API Reference.
Because the semantics around AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification appear to differ, we’re forced to adjust our logic. If there is a way to achieve the iOS 18–style behavior on iOS 26, I would appreciate guidance.
Alternatively, if this change is intentional, could you share the reasoning? Is iOS 26 the correct behavior from Apple’s perspective and iOS 18 (and earlier) behavior considered incorrect? Any official clarification would be extremely helpful.
import UIKit
import AVFoundation
final class ViewController: UIViewController {
private let videoURL = URL(string: "https://......mp4")!
private var player: AVPlayer?
private var playerItem: AVPlayerItem?
private var playerLayer: AVPlayerLayer?
private var observeForComplete: NSObjectProtocol?
// UI
private let playerContainerView = UIView()
private let playButton = UIButton(type: .system)
private let stopButton = UIButton(type: .system)
private let replayButton = UIButton(type: .system)
deinit {
if let observeForComplete {
NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete)
}
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground
setupUI()
setupPlayer()
}
override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
playerLayer?.frame = playerContainerView.bounds
}
// MARK: - Setup
private func setupUI() {
playerContainerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
playerContainerView.backgroundColor = .black
view.addSubview(playerContainerView)
// Buttons
playButton.setTitle("Play", for: .normal)
stopButton.setTitle("Pause", for: .normal)
replayButton.setTitle("RePlay", for: .normal)
[playButton, stopButton, replayButton].forEach {
$0.titleLabel?.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 16, weight: .semibold)
$0.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
$0.contentEdgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 10, left: 16, bottom: 10, right: 16)
}
let stack = UIStackView(arrangedSubviews: [playButton, stopButton, replayButton])
stack.axis = .horizontal
stack.spacing = 16
stack.alignment = .center
stack.distribution = .equalCentering
stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
view.addSubview(stack)
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
playerContainerView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor, constant: 20),
playerContainerView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor),
playerContainerView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor),
playerContainerView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200),
stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: playerContainerView.bottomAnchor, constant: 20),
stack.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor)
])
// Action
playButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapPlay), for: .touchUpInside)
stopButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapStop), for: .touchUpInside)
replayButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapReplayFromStart), for: .touchUpInside)
}
private func setupPlayer() {
// AVURLAsset -> AVPlayerItem → AVPlayer
let asset = AVURLAsset(url: videoURL)
let item = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset)
self.playerItem = item
let player = AVPlayer(playerItem: item)
player.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = true
self.player = player
let layer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player)
layer.videoGravity = .resizeAspect
playerContainerView.layer.addSublayer(layer)
layer.frame = playerContainerView.bounds
self.playerLayer = layer
// Notification
if let observeForComplete {
NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete)
}
if let playerItem {
observeForComplete = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
forName: AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification,
object: playerItem,
queue: .main
) { [weak self] _ in
guard self != nil else { return }
Task { @MainActor in
print("Play finished.")
}
}
}
}
// MARK: - Actions
@objc private func didTapPlay() {
player?.play()
}
@objc private func didTapStop() {
player?.pause()
}
// RePlay
@objc private func didTapReplayFromStart() {
player?.seek(to: .zero, toleranceBefore: .zero, toleranceAfter: .zero) { [weak self] _ in
self?.player?.play()
}
}
}
I would greatly appreciate an official response from Apple engineering on whether this is an intentional change, a regression, or an API contract clarification, and what the recommended approach is going forward. Thank you.
AVKit
RSS for tagCreate view-level services for media playback, complete with user controls, chapter navigation, and support for subtitles and closed captioning using AVKit.
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I'm having a crash on an app that plays videos when the users activates close captions.
I was able to replicate the issue on an empty project. The crash happens when the AVPlayerLayer is used to instantiate an AVPictureInPictureController
These are the example project where I tested the crash:
struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
VStack {
VideoPlaylistView()
}
.frame(maxWidth: .infinity, maxHeight: .infinity)
.background(Color.black.ignoresSafeArea())
}
}
class VideoPlaylistViewModel: ObservableObject {
// Test with other videos
var player: AVPlayer? = AVPlayer(url: URL(string:"https://d2ufudlfb4rsg4.cloudfront.net/newsnation/WIpkLz23h/adaptive/WIpkLz23h_master.m3u8")!)
}
struct VideoPlaylistView: View {
@StateObject var viewModel = VideoPlaylistViewModel()
var body: some View {
ScrollView {
VideoCellView(player: viewModel.player)
.onAppear {
viewModel.player?.play()
}
}
.scrollTargetBehavior(.paging)
.ignoresSafeArea()
}
}
struct VideoCellView: View {
let player: AVPlayer?
@State var isCCEnabled: Bool = false
var body: some View {
ZStack {
PlayerView(player: player)
.accessibilityIdentifier("Player View")
}
.containerRelativeFrame([.horizontal, .vertical])
.overlay(alignment: .bottom) {
Button {
player?.currentItem?.asset.loadMediaSelectionGroup(for: .legible) { group,error in
if let group {
let option = !isCCEnabled ? group.options.first : nil
player?.currentItem?.select(option, in: group)
isCCEnabled.toggle()
}
}
} label: {
Text("Close Captions")
.font(.subheadline)
.foregroundStyle(isCCEnabled ? .red : .primary)
.buttonStyle(.bordered)
.padding(8)
.background(Color.blue.opacity(0.75))
}
.padding(.bottom, 48)
.accessibilityIdentifier("Button Close Captions")
}
}
}
import Foundation
import UIKit
import SwiftUI
import AVFoundation
import AVKit
struct PlayerView: UIViewRepresentable {
let player: AVPlayer?
func updateUIView(_ uiView: UIView, context: UIViewRepresentableContext<PlayerView>) {
}
func makeUIView(context: Context) -> UIView {
let view = PlayerUIView()
view.playerLayer.player = player
view.layer.addSublayer(view.playerLayer)
view.layer.backgroundColor = UIColor.red.cgColor
view.pipController = AVPictureInPictureController(playerLayer: view.playerLayer)
view.pipController?.requiresLinearPlayback = true
view.pipController?.canStartPictureInPictureAutomaticallyFromInline = true
view.pipController?.delegate = view
return view
}
}
class PlayerUIView: UIView, AVPictureInPictureControllerDelegate {
let playerLayer = AVPlayerLayer()
var pipController: AVPictureInPictureController?
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
}
required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
override func layoutSubviews() {
super.layoutSubviews()
playerLayer.frame = bounds
playerLayer.backgroundColor = UIColor.green.cgColor
}
func pictureInPictureController(_ pictureInPictureController: AVPictureInPictureController, failedToStartPictureInPictureWithError error: any Error) {
print("Error starting Picture in Picture: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate {
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
do {
try audioSession.setCategory(.playback, mode: .moviePlayback)
try audioSession.setActive(true)
} catch {
print("ERR: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
return true
}
}
UITest to make the app crash:
final class VideoPlaylistSampleUITests: XCTestCase {
func testCrashiOS26ToggleCloseCaptions() throws {
let app = XCUIApplication()
app.launch()
let videoPlayer = app.otherElements["Player View"]
XCTAssertTrue(videoPlayer.waitForExistence(timeout: 30))
let closeCaptionButton = app.buttons["Button Close Captions"]
for _ in 0..<2000 {
closeCaptionButton.tap()
}
}
}
One thing I've noticed on tvOS 26 is that if you try to set the AVPlayerViewController customInfoViewControllers property while the Content Tabs are on screen, your app will crash.
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'UIViewControllerHierarchyInconsistency', reason: 'trying to add child view controller that is already presented: <AVInfoPanelViewController: 0x1030cdc00>'
*** First throw call stack:
(0x18a7167bc 0x189a77510 0x18a7166a8 0x1ab425658 0x1b2ee9d54 0x1b2efcd60 0x1b2eaf3f0 0x1080f744c 0x107e021a8 0x107e01b3c 0x18de41c14 0x18de41ba8 0x18de48d28 0x18ad9e358 0x101fac5f0 0x101fc6228 0x101fe7278 0x101fbc6fc 0x101fbc63c 0x18a67a2e0 0x18a679418 0x18a673b34 0x1937e4d5c 0x1abb36588 0x1abb3ae80 0x1aae9dec4 0x108610174 0x1086100e4 0x108615140 0x189abd4d0)
I've logged a feedback (FB19554461) but it's getting awfully late in the dev cycle. So I've been trying to think of a workaround.
The problem is that customInfoViewControllers is pretty declarative in nature. There are no properties or delegate methods I am aware of that let me know when they are displaying or not.
One trick I came up with was seeing if my custom info view controller's view was "visible" or not - I put that in quotes because it turns out it can be visible even when I think it's not, as when the transport bar is scrolled to the top my custom VC still has its top pixels showing, so it gets a viewDidAppear call. So, I tried to see if my view controllers view is completely visible, ie based on the results of the GGRect contains method. And that works! But the problem is it only accounts for my own custom info view controllers, and not the standard one that Apple provides. I can't think of a way at all to know whether that is showing.
Any ideas?
I'm working on a video player app that has the basic functionality of viewing a video and then be able to trim and crop that video and then save it.
My flow of trimming a video and then saving it works well with any and every video.
Cropping, however, doesn't work in the sense that I am unable to Save the video and export it.
Whenever I crop a video, in the video player, I can see the cropped version of the video (it plays too!)
but on saving said video, I get the error:
Export failed with status: 4, error: Cannot Decode
I've been debugging for 2 days now but I'm still unsure as to why this happens.
I'm almost certain the bug is somewhere cause of cropping and then saving/exporting.
If anyone has dealt with this before, please let me know what the best step to do is! If you could help me refine the flow for cropping and exporting, that'd be really helpful too.
Thanks!
When creating and activating AVPictureInPictureController on iPhone 11 running iOS 18.x, the main screen viewport unexpectedly changes from the native 375×812 logical points to 414×896 points (the size of a different device such as iPhone XR/11 Plus). Additionally, a separate UIWindow with zero CGRect is created. This causes UIKit layout calculations, especially related to the keyboard and safeAreaInsets, to malfunction and results in issues like keyboard clipping and general UI misalignment. The problem appears tied specifically to iOS 18+ behavior and does not manifest on earlier iOS versions or other devices consistently.
Steps to Reproduce:
Run the app on iPhone 11 with iOS 18.x (including the latest minor updates).
Instantiate and start an AVPictureInPictureController during app runtime.
Observe that UIScreen.main.bounds changes from 375×812 (native iPhone 11 size) to 414×896.
Notice a secondary UIWindow appears with frame CGRectZero.
Interact with text inputs that cause the keyboard to appear.
The keyboard is clipped or partially obscured, causing UI usability issues.
Layout elements dependent on UIScreen.main.bounds or safeAreaInsets behave incorrectly.
Expected Behavior:
UIScreen.main.bounds should not dynamically change upon PiP controller creation. The coordinate space and viewport should remain accurate to device native dimensions. The keyboard and UI layout should adjust properly with respect to the actual on-screen size and safe areas.
Actual Behavior:
UIScreen.main.bounds changes to 414×896 upon PiP controller creation on iPhone 11 iOS 18+.
A zero-rect secondary UIWindow is created, impacting layout queries.
Keyboard clipping and UI layout bugs occur.
The app viewport and coordinate space are inconsistent with device hardware.
Recurring crash on install of any app with the new sourceVideoTrackProvider.next()
dyld[41966]: Symbol not found: _$sSo19AVAssetReaderOutputC12AVFoundationE8ProviderC4nextxSgyYaKFTjTu Referenced from: <79AA2BE0-A6B4-32F5-A804-E84BBE5D1AEA> /Users/<username>/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/TrackProviderCrash-bbbhjptcxnmfdcackxtpucnunxyc/Build/Products/Debug-maccatalyst/TrackProviderCrash.app/Contents/MacOS/TrackProviderCrash.debug.dylib Expected in: <1B847AF9-7973-3B28-95C2-09E73F6DD50B> /usr/lib/swift/libswiftAVFoundation.dylib
Can be reproduced with the current Xcode Beta 4 by running on to MacCatalyst and macOS
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/AVFoundation/converting-projected-video-to-apple-projected-media-profile
Crash goes away of you comment out lines 154-158 and 164-170 which are while let sampleBuffer = try await sourceVideoTrackProvider.next(){/*other code*/}
Can also be reproduced if you add the code below to a MacCatalyst project
import AVKit
let asset: AVURLAsset = .init(url: Bundle.main.url(forResource: "SomeVideo.mp4", withExtension: nil)!)
let videoReader = try! AVAssetReader(asset: asset)
let videoTracks = try! await asset.loadTracks(withMediaCharacteristic: .visual)
// Get the side-by-side video track.
let videoTrack = videoTracks.first!
let videoInputTrack = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: videoTrack, outputSettings: nil)
let sourceVideoTrackProvider: AVAssetReaderOutput.Provider<CMReadySampleBuffer<CMSampleBuffer.DynamicContent>> = videoReader.outputProvider(for: videoInputTrack)
//Comment out this
while let sb = try! await sourceVideoTrackProvider.next() {
}
AVPictureInPictureControllerContentSource *contentSource = [[AVPictureInPictureControllerContentSource alloc] initWithSampleBufferDisplayLayer:self.renderView.sampleBufferDisplayLayer playbackDelegate:self];
AVPictureInPictureController *pictureInPictureController = [[AVPictureInPictureController alloc] initWithContentSource:contentSource];
pictureInPictureController.delegate = self;
(void)pictureInPictureController:(AVPictureInPictureController *)pictureInPictureController failedToStartPictureInPictureWithError:(NSError *)error
{
//error NSError * domain: @"PGPegasusErrorDomain" - code: -1003 0x00000002819fe3a0
}
when first start the PiP play, I got the error "//error NSError * domain: @"PGPegasusErrorDomain" - code: -1003 0x00000002819fe3a0", why?
and second start is Ok.
Hi everyone,
I'm developing a visionOS app for Apple Vision Pro, and I've encountered an issue related to window resizing at runtime when using AVPlayer to play a live HLS stream.
✅ What I'm Trying to Do
Play a live HLS stream (from Wowza) inside my app using AVPlayer.
Support resizing the immersive window using Vision Pro’s built-in runtime scaling gesture.
Stream works fine at default window size when the app launches.
❌ Problem
If I resize the app’s window at runtime (using the Vision Pro pinch-drag gesture), then try to start the stream, it does not play.
Instead, it just shows the "Loading live stream..." state and never proceeds to playback.
This issue only occurs after resizing the window — if I don’t resize, the stream works perfectly every time.
🧪 What I’ve Tried
Verified the HLS URL — it’s working and plays fine in Safari and in the app before resizing.
Set .automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = false on AVPlayer.
Observed that .status on AVPlayerItem never reaches .readyToPlay after resizing.
Tried to force window size back using UIWindowScene.requestGeometryUpdate(...), but behavior persists.
PLATFORM AND VERSION :iOS 18.5
I wanted to bring to your attention a critical issue some of our production users are experiencing with the CoinOut app. Specifically, users are encountering a problem when attempting to capture photos of receipts using the app's customized camera feature. The camera, which utilizes AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer and AVCaptureDevice, occasionally fails to load the preview, resulting in a black screen instead of the expected camera view.
This camera blackout issue is significantly impacting the user experience as it prevents them from snapping photos of their receipts, which is a core functionality of the CoinOut app.
Any help/suggestion to this issue would be greatly appreciated.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Open the app and click on camera icon.
It will display camera to capture photo.
Camera shows black for few production user's.
class ViewController: UIViewController {
@IBOutlet private weak var captureButton: UIButton!
private var fillLayer: CAShapeLayer!
private var previewLayer : AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer!
private var output: AVCapturePhotoOutput!
private var device: AVCaptureDevice!
private var session : AVCaptureSession!
private var highResolutionEnabled: Bool = false
private let sessionQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "session queue")
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setupCamera()
customiseUI()
}
@IBAction func startCamera(sender: UIButton) {
didTapTakePhoto()
}
private func setupCamera() {
let session = AVCaptureSession()
session.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSession.Preset.high
previewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: session)
output = AVCapturePhotoOutput()
device = AVCaptureDevice.default(.builtInWideAngleCamera, for: AVMediaType.video, position: .back)
if let device = self.device{
do{
let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: device)
if session.canAddInput(input){ session.addInput(input)}
else { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : Session Input addition failed") }
if session.canAddOutput(output){
output.isHighResolutionCaptureEnabled = self.highResolutionEnabled
session.addOutput(output)
} else { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : Session Input high resolution failed") }
previewLayer.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill
previewLayer.session = session
sessionQueue.async { session.startRunning() }
self.session = session
self.session.accessibilityElementIsFocused()
try device.lockForConfiguration()
if device.isWhiteBalanceModeSupported(AVCaptureDevice.WhiteBalanceMode.autoWhiteBalance) {
device.whiteBalanceMode = .autoWhiteBalance
} else { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : isWhiteBalanceModeSupported no supported") }
if device.isWhiteBalanceModeSupported(AVCaptureDevice.WhiteBalanceMode.continuousAutoWhiteBalance) {
device.whiteBalanceMode = .continuousAutoWhiteBalance
} else { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : isWhiteBalanceModeSupported no supported") }
if device.isFocusModeSupported(.continuousAutoFocus) { device.focusMode = .continuousAutoFocus}
else if device.isFocusModeSupported(.autoFocus) { device.focusMode = .autoFocus }
device.unlockForConfiguration()
} catch { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : \(error.localizedDescription)") }
} else { print("\(#fileID):\(#function):\(#line) : Device found as nil") }
}
private func customiseUI() {
let path = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.bounds.width, height: self.view.bounds.height), cornerRadius: 0)
let rectangleWidth = view.frame.width - (view.frame.width * 0.16)
let x = (view.frame.width - rectangleWidth) / 2
let rectangleHeight = view.frame.height - (view.frame.height * 0.16)
let y = (view.frame.height - rectangleHeight) / 2
let roundRect = UIBezierPath(roundedRect: CGRect(x: x, y: y, width: rectangleWidth, height: rectangleHeight), byRoundingCorners:.allCorners, cornerRadii: CGSize(width: 0, height: 0))
roundRect.move(to: CGPoint(x: self.view.center.x , y: self.view.center.y))
path.append(roundRect)
path.usesEvenOddFillRule = true
fillLayer = CAShapeLayer()
fillLayer.path = path.cgPath
fillLayer.fillRule = .evenOdd
fillLayer.opacity = 0.4
previewLayer.addSublayer(fillLayer)
previewLayer.frame = view.bounds
view.layer.addSublayer(previewLayer)
view.bringSubviewToFront(captureButton)
}
private func didTapTakePhoto() {
let settings = self.getSettings(camera: self.device)
if device.isAdjustingFocus {
do {
try device.lockForConfiguration()
device.focusMode = .continuousAutoFocus
device.unlockForConfiguration()
device.addObserver(self, forKeyPath: "adjustingFocus", options: [.new], context: nil)
} catch { print(error) }
} else { output.capturePhoto(with: settings, delegate: self) }
}
func getSettings(camera: AVCaptureDevice) -> AVCapturePhotoSettings {
var settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings()
if let rawFormat = output.availableRawPhotoPixelFormatTypes.first {
settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings(rawPixelFormatType: OSType(rawFormat))
}
settings.isHighResolutionPhotoEnabled = self.highResolutionEnabled
let previewPixelType = settings.availablePreviewPhotoPixelFormatTypes.first!
let previewFormat = [kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as String: previewPixelType] as [String : Any]
settings.previewPhotoFormat = previewFormat
return settings
}
}
extension ViewController: AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate {
func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, willCapturePhotoFor resolvedSettings: AVCaptureResolvedPhotoSettings) {
AudioServicesDisposeSystemSoundID(1108)
}
func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, didFinishProcessingPhoto photo: AVCapturePhoto, error: Error?) {
guard let data = photo.fileDataRepresentation() else { return }
let image = UIImage(data: data)!
showImage(cropped: image)
}
func showImage(cropped: UIImage) {
let vc = self.storyboard?.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "ImagePreviewViewController") as? ImagePreviewViewController
vc?.captured = cropped
self.present(vc!, animated: true)
}
}```
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to use AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate to handle a live radio stream (e.g. Icecast/HTTP stream). My goal is to have access to the last 30 seconds of audio data during playback, so I can analyze it for specific audio patterns in near-real-time.
I’ve implemented a custom resource loader that works fine for podcasts and static files, where the file size and content length are known. However, for infinite live streams, my current implementation stops receiving new loading requests after the first one is served. As a result, the playback either stalls or fails to continue.
Has anyone successfully used AVAssetResourceLoaderDelegate with a continuous radio stream? Or maybe you can suggest betterapproach for buffering and analyzing live audio?
Any tips, examples, or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hello, I'm trying to subscribe to AVPlayerItem status updates using Combine and it's bridge to Swift Concurrency – .values.
This is my sample code.
struct ContentView: View {
@State var player: AVPlayer?
@State var loaded = false
var body: some View {
VStack {
if let player {
Text("loading status: \(loaded)")
Spacer()
VideoPlayer(player: player)
Button("Load") {
Task {
let item = AVPlayerItem(
url: URL(string: "https://sample-videos.com/video321/mp4/360/big_buck_bunny_360p_5mb.mp4")!
)
player.replaceCurrentItem(with: item)
let publisher = player.publisher(for: \.status)
for await status in publisher.values {
print(status.rawValue)
if status == .readyToPlay {
loaded = true
break
}
}
print("we are out")
}
}
}
else {
Text("No video selected")
}
}
.task {
player = AVPlayer()
}
}
}
After I click on the "load" button it prints out 0 (as the initial status of .unknown) and nothing after – even when the video is fully loaded.
At the same time this works as expected (loading status is set to true):
struct ContentView: View {
@State var player: AVPlayer?
@State var loaded = false
@State var cancellable: AnyCancellable?
var body: some View {
VStack {
if let player {
Text("loading status: \(loaded)")
Spacer()
VideoPlayer(player: player)
Button("Load") {
Task {
let item = AVPlayerItem(
url: URL(string: "https://sample-videos.com/video321/mp4/360/big_buck_bunny_360p_5mb.mp4")!
)
player.replaceCurrentItem(with: item)
let stream = AsyncStream { continuation in
cancellable = item.publisher(for: \.status)
.sink {
if $0 == .readyToPlay {
continuation.yield($0)
continuation.finish()
}
}
}
for await _ in stream {
loaded = true
cancellable?.cancel()
cancellable = nil
break
}
}
}
}
else {
Text("No video selected")
}
}
.task {
player = AVPlayer()
}
}
}
Is this a bug or something?
Hello everyone,
I'm developing a SwiftUI app that includes a fullscreen video player (AVPlayerViewController or AVPlayerLayer). I'm currently testing the app on an iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 26 Beta, as well as on the corresponding simulator.
With iOS 26, during video playback, an unexpected black or white glow/halo appears around the video, depending on the system appearance (dark/light mode). However, this issue does not occur when testing on iOS 18 — neither on device nor simulator.
Has anyone encountered this issue?
Is there any known workaround or solution to remove this visual effect on iOS 26?
I've attached screenshot below to illustrate the problem.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Hi everyone,
I'm working with AVPlayerViewController in a tvOS/iOS app and ran into a limitation that I believe some developers face.
When using player.currentItem?.currentTime(), we only get the playback time—which is fine while the video is playing. But when the player is paused and the user drags the scrubber, there's no public API to get the time that is currently being previewed under the scrubber thumb (stick), but there's no way to read it programmatically.
This becomes a problem when trying to show thumbnail previews or display metadata tied to the scrubbed position.
I’m building a SwiftUI app whose primary job is to play audio. I manage all of the Now-Playing metadata and Command center manually via the available shared instances:
MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo
In certain parts of the app I also need to display videos, but as soon as I attach another AVPlayer, it automatically pushes its own metadata into the Control Center and overwrites my audio info.
What I need: a way to show video inline without ever having that video player update the system’s Now-Playing info (or Control Center).
In my app, I start by configuring the shared audio session
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback,
mode: .default,
options: [
.allowAirPlay,
.allowBluetoothA2DP
])
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
NSLog("%@", "**** Failed to set up AVAudioSession \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
and then set the MPRemoteCommandCenter commands and MPNowPlayingInfoCenter nowPlayingInfo like mentioned above.
All this works without any issues as long as I only have one AVPlayer in my app. But when I add other AVPlayers to display some videos (and keep the main AVPlayer for the sound) they push undesired updates to MPNowPlayingInfoCenter:
struct VideoCardView: View {
@State private var player: AVPlayer
let videoName: String
init(player: AVPlayer = AVPlayer(), videoName: String) {
self.player = player
self.videoName = videoName
guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: videoName, ofType: nil) else { return }
let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: path)
let item = AVPlayerItem(url: url)
self.player.replaceCurrentItem(with: item)
}
var body: some View {
VideoPlayer(player: player)
.aspectRatio(contentMode: .fill)
.onAppear {
player.isMuted = true
player.allowsExternalPlayback = false
player.actionAtItemEnd = .none
player.play()
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = nil
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().playbackState = .stopped
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: .AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime,
object: player.currentItem,
queue: .main) { notification in
guard let finishedItem = notification.object as? AVPlayerItem,
finishedItem === player.currentItem else { return }
player.seek(to: .zero)
player.play()
}
}
.onDisappear {
player.pause()
}
}
}
Which is why I tried adding:
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo = nil
MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().playbackState = .stopped // or .interrupted, .unknown
But that didn't work.
I also tried making a wrapper around the AVPlayerViewController in order to set updatesNowPlayingInfoCenter to false, but that didn’t work either:
struct CustomAVPlayerView: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
let player: AVPlayer
func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> AVPlayerViewController {
let vc = AVPlayerViewController()
vc.player = player
vc.updatesNowPlayingInfoCenter = false
vc.showsPlaybackControls = false
return vc
}
func updateUIViewController(_ controller: AVPlayerViewController, context: Context) {
controller.player = player
}
}
Hence any help on how to embed video in SwiftUI without its AVPlayer touching MPNowPlayingInfoCenter would be greatly appreciated.
All this was tested on an actual device with iOS 18.4.1, and built with Xcode 16.2 on macOS 15.5
There are significant crash reports coming from iOS 18 users regarding AVKit framework that starts from this line [AVPlayerController _observeValueForKeyPath:oldValue:newValue:] which seems to be coming from iOS internal SDK. There are 2 kinds of crash we found:
UI modification on background thread
From the stack trace it seems like when AVPictureInPictureController is being deallocated and its view is being removed from superview somehow the code is being executed in background thread because there is this line there _AssertAutoLayoutOnAllowedThreadsOnly highlighted before the crash.
But I’ve checked our code that plays around AVPictureInPictureController, in the locations where we would deallocate the object it will always be called on main thread which are insideviewDidLoad and deinit inside UIViewController class. From the log, it seems like the crash happened when user try to open another content when PIP player is active resulting in the current PIP instance will be replaced with a new one. My suspect is the observation logic inside AVPlayerController could be the hint to this issue, probably something broken over there since this issue happened across our app versions on iOS 18 users only.
Unfortunately, I was unable to reproduce this issue yet but one of my colleagues reproduced it once but haven’t been able to do it again since. The reports keep raising each day up to 1.3k events in the last 30 days now.
Over release object
This one has lower reports than the first one but I decided to include it since it might have relevant information regarding the first crash since the starting stack trace is similar. The crash timing seems to be similar to the first one, where we deallocate existing AVPictureInPictureController and later replace it with a new one and also found only in iOS 18 users which also refers to [AVPlayerController _observeValueForKeyPath:oldValue:newValue:]. I also was unable to reproduce this issue so far.
Oh, and both of the issues happened on both iPhone and iPad.
We’d appreciate any advice on what we can do to avoid this in the future and probably any hint on why it could happened.
I have reported this issue with bug number: FB15620734
I also attached one sample crash report for each of the crashes here.
non ui thread access.crash
over release.crash
Is there any way we can detect the status of the Show When Muted and Show on Skip Back device settings in code ?
I have a crash related to playing video in AVPlayerViewController and AVQueuePlayer. I download the video locally from the network and then initialize it using AVAsset and AVPlayerItem. Can't reproduce locally, but crashes occur from firebase crashlytics only for users starting with iOS 18.4.0 with this trace:
Crashed: com.apple.avkit.playerControllerBackgroundQueue
0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x1458 objc_retain + 16
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x1458 objc_retain_x0 + 16
2 AVKit 0x12afdc __77-[AVPlayerController currentEnabledAssetTrackForMediaType:completionHandler:]_block_invoke + 108
3 libdispatch.dylib 0x1aac _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 32
4 libdispatch.dylib 0x1b584 _dispatch_client_callout + 16
5 libdispatch.dylib 0x6560 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 596
6 libdispatch.dylib 0x5bd4 _dispatch_async_redirect_invoke + 580
7 libdispatch.dylib 0x13db0 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 364
8 libdispatch.dylib 0x1454c _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 156
9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x4624 _pthread_wqthread + 232
10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x19f8 start_wqthread + 8
How can I setup correctly AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer for video display when I have input picture format kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA?
Currently video i visible in simulator, but not iPhone, miss I something?
Render code:
var pixelBuffer: CVPixelBuffer?
let attrs: [String: Any] = [
kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as String: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA,
kCVPixelBufferWidthKey as String: width,
kCVPixelBufferHeightKey as String: height,
kCVPixelBufferBytesPerRowAlignmentKey as String: width * 4,
kCVPixelBufferIOSurfacePropertiesKey as String: [:]
]
let status = CVPixelBufferCreateWithBytes(
nil,
width,
height,
kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA,
img,
width * 4,
nil,
nil,
attrs as CFDictionary,
&pixelBuffer
)
guard status == kCVReturnSuccess, let pb = pixelBuffer else { return }
var formatDesc: CMVideoFormatDescription?
CMVideoFormatDescriptionCreateForImageBuffer(
allocator: nil,
imageBuffer: pb,
formatDescriptionOut: &formatDesc
)
guard let format = formatDesc else { return }
var timingInfo = CMSampleTimingInfo(
duration: .invalid,
presentationTimeStamp: currentTime,
decodeTimeStamp: .invalid
)
var sampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer?
CMSampleBufferCreateForImageBuffer(
allocator: kCFAllocatorDefault,
imageBuffer: pb,
dataReady: true,
makeDataReadyCallback: nil,
refcon: nil,
formatDescription: format,
sampleTiming: &timingInfo,
sampleBufferOut: &sampleBuffer
)
if let sb = sampleBuffer {
if CMSampleBufferGetPresentationTimeStamp(sb) == .invalid {
print("Invalid video timestamp")
}
if (displayLayer.status == .failed) {
displayLayer.flush()
}
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
guard let self = self else {
print("Lost reference to self drawing")
return
}
displayLayer.enqueue(sb)
}
frameIndex += 1
}
I have a simple AVAudioEngine graph as follows:
AVAudioPlayerNode -> AVAudioUnitEQ -> AVAudioUnitTimePitch -> AVAudioUnitReverb -> Main mixer node of AVAudioEngine.
I noticed that whenever I have AVAudioUnitTimePitch or AVAudioUnitVarispeed in the graph, I noticed a very distinct crackling/popping sound in my Airpods Pro 2 when starting up the engine and playing the AVAudioPlayerNode and unable to find the reason why this is happening. When I remove the node, the crackling completely goes away. How do I fix this problem since i need the user to be able to control the pitch and rate of the audio during playback.
import AVKit
@Observable @MainActor
class AudioEngineManager {
nonisolated private let engine = AVAudioEngine()
private let playerNode = AVAudioPlayerNode()
private let reverb = AVAudioUnitReverb()
private let pitch = AVAudioUnitTimePitch()
private let eq = AVAudioUnitEQ(numberOfBands: 10)
private var audioFile: AVAudioFile?
private var fadePlayPauseTask: Task<Void, Error>?
private var playPauseCurrentFadeTime: Double = 0
init() {
setupAudioEngine()
}
private func setupAudioEngine() {
guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Song name goes here", withExtension: "mp3") else {
print("Audio file not found")
return
}
do {
audioFile = try AVAudioFile(forReading: url)
} catch {
print("Failed to load audio file: \(error)")
return
}
reverb.loadFactoryPreset(.mediumHall)
reverb.wetDryMix = 50
pitch.pitch = 0 // Increase pitch by 500 cents (5 semitones)
engine.attach(playerNode)
engine.attach(pitch)
engine.attach(reverb)
engine.attach(eq)
// Connect: player -> pitch -> reverb -> output
engine.connect(playerNode, to: eq, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(eq, to: pitch, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(pitch, to: reverb, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
engine.connect(reverb, to: engine.mainMixerNode, format: audioFile?.processingFormat)
}
func prepare() {
guard let audioFile else { return }
playerNode.scheduleFile(audioFile, at: nil)
}
func play() {
DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
engine.prepare()
try? engine.start()
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
playerNode.play()
fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel()
playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0
fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
while true {
let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: true)
// Ramp up volume until 1 is reached
if volume >= 1 { break }
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume
try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10))
playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01
}
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 1
}
}
}
}
func pause() {
fadePlayPauseTask?.cancel()
playPauseCurrentFadeTime = 0
fadePlayPauseTask = Task { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
while true {
let volume = updateVolume(for: playPauseCurrentFadeTime / 0.1, rising: false)
// Ramp down volume until 0 is reached
if volume <= 0 { break }
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = volume
try await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(10))
playPauseCurrentFadeTime += 0.01
}
engine.mainMixerNode.outputVolume = 0
playerNode.pause()
// Shut down engine once ramp down completes
DispatchQueue.global().async { [weak self] in
guard let self else { return }
engine.pause()
}
}
}
private func updateVolume(for x: Double, rising: Bool) -> Float {
if rising {
// Fade in
return Float(pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x)))
} else {
// Fade out
return Float(1 - (pow(x, 2) * (3.0 - 2.0 * (x))))
}
}
func setPitch(_ value: Float) {
pitch.pitch = value
}
func setReverbMix(_ value: Float) {
reverb.wetDryMix = value
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var audioManager = AudioEngineManager()
@State private var pitch: Float = 0
@State private var reverb: Float = 0
var body: some View {
VStack(spacing: 20) {
Text("🎵 Audio Player with Reverb & Pitch")
.font(.title2)
HStack {
Button("Prepare") {
audioManager.prepare()
}
Button("Play") {
audioManager.play()
}
.padding()
.background(Color.green)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.cornerRadius(10)
Button("Pause") {
audioManager.pause()
}
.padding()
.background(Color.red)
.foregroundColor(.white)
.cornerRadius(10)
}
VStack {
Text("Pitch: \(Int(pitch)) cents")
Slider(value: $pitch, in: -2400...2400, step: 100) { _ in
audioManager.setPitch(pitch)
}
}
VStack {
Text("Reverb Mix: \(Int(reverb))%")
Slider(value: $reverb, in: 0...100, step: 1) { _ in
audioManager.setReverbMix(reverb)
}
}
}
.padding()
}
}
Hello Apple Developer Community,
I am trying to play an HLS stream using the React Native Video player (underneath it's using AvPlayer). I am able to play the stream smoothly, but in some cases the player can not play the stream properly.
Behaviour:
react-native-video: I am getting the below error.
Error details from react-native-video player:
Error Code: -12971
Domain: CoreMediaErrorDomain
Localised Description: The operation couldn’t be completed. (CoreMediaErrorDomain error -12971.)
Target: 2457
The error does not provide a specific failure reason or recovery suggestion, which makes troubleshooting challenging.
AvPlayer on native iOS project: Video playback stopped after playing a few seconds.
AVPlayer configuration:
player.currentItem?.preferredForwardBufferDuration = 1
player.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = true
N.B.: The same buffer duration is working perfectly for others.
Stream properties:
video resolution: 1280 x 720
I have attached an overview report generated from MediaStreamValidator.
I would appreciate any insights or suggestions on how to address this error. Has anyone in the community experienced a similar issue or have any advice on potential solutions?
Thank you for your help!