PlayerSurface (media3-ui-compose) can trigger IllegalArgumentException in MediaCodec.setOutputSurface

[chosc0410]

Version

Media3 1.9.0

More version details

Environment:

• media3-ui-compose 1.9.0
• Jetpack Compose
• Surface type: SURFACE_TYPE_TEXTURE_VIEW
• Device: low-end devices reproduce more frequently

Summary:
When using PlayerSurface with TextureView, we intermittently hit
ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK (1004) with IllegalArgumentException from
MediaCodec.setOutputSurface(). This seems to happen when the surface is
replaced/invalidated during rapid attach/detach.

Observed logs (verbatim):

2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ... onPlayerErrorChanged: ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK, message: Unexpected runtime error
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ... onPlayerError: ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - errorCode: 1004
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - message: Unexpected runtime error
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - cause: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Stacktrace excerpt (verbatim):

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    at android.media.MediaCodec.native_setSurface(Native Method)
    at android.media.MediaCodec.setOutputSurface(MediaCodec.java:1954)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.mediacodec.SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.setOutputSurface(SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.java:193)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutputSurfaceV23(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:2405)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutputSurface(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:2393)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutput(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:1267)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.handleMessage(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:1175)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.RendererHolder.setVideoOutput(RendererHolder.java:817)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.ExoPlayerImplInternal.setVideoOutputInternal(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:1910)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:739)

Repro steps:

1. Use PlayerSurface in Compose with SURFACE_TYPE_TEXTURE_VIEW
2. Show videos in a scrolling list (fast scroll triggers frequent attach/detach)
3. Observe intermittent IllegalArgumentException in setOutputSurface

Code sample:

@Composable
fun VideoPlayerContent(...) {
    PlayerSurface(
        player = player,
        surfaceType = SURFACE_TYPE_TEXTURE_VIEW,
        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()
    )
}

Analysis:
We inspected PlayerSurfaceKt.class (1.9.0) and found:

• DisposableEffect onDispose only removes Player.Listener (no clearVideoSurface/stop)
• AndroidView is used but there is no onRelease hook to clear player before view detaches
• clearVideoView happens via LaunchedEffect (not ordered before view removal)

This can cause MediaCodec.setOutputSurface to receive an invalid or already-destroyed surface.

Expected:
PlayerSurface should guarantee that player is cleared/stopped before the underlying TextureView surface is replaced/detached, or provide a hook to enforce this order.

Potential fix ideas:

• Provide onRelease/onDispose hook to clear surface before AndroidView detaches
• Ensure clearVideoView is called synchronously before view removal
• Allow custom SurfaceTextureListener or a “defer release” option for TextureView

Devices that reproduce the issue

Samsung Galaxy S8 running Android 9

Devices that do not reproduce the issue

Samsung Galaxy S24+ running Android 16

Reproducible in the demo app?

No

Reproduction steps

Repro steps:

1. Use PlayerSurface in Compose with SURFACE_TYPE_TEXTURE_VIEW
2. Show videos in a scrolling list (fast scroll triggers frequent attach/detach)
3. Observe intermittent IllegalArgumentException in setOutputSurface

Expected result

Expected:
PlayerSurface should guarantee that player is cleared/stopped before the underlying TextureView surface is replaced/detached, or provide a hook to enforce this order.

Actual result

When using PlayerSurface with TextureView, we intermittently hit
ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK (1004) with IllegalArgumentException from
MediaCodec.setOutputSurface(). This seems to happen when the surface is
replaced/invalidated during rapid attach/detach.

And the video did not play.

Observed logs (verbatim):

2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ... onPlayerErrorChanged: ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK, message: Unexpected runtime error
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ... onPlayerError: ERROR_CODE_FAILED_RUNTIME_CHECK
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - errorCode: 1004
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - message: Unexpected runtime error
2026-01-15 15:22:13.250 ...   - cause: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Stacktrace excerpt (verbatim):

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    at android.media.MediaCodec.native_setSurface(Native Method)
    at android.media.MediaCodec.setOutputSurface(MediaCodec.java:1954)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.mediacodec.SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.setOutputSurface(SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.java:193)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutputSurfaceV23(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:2405)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutputSurface(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:2393)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.setOutput(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:1267)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.handleMessage(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:1175)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.RendererHolder.setVideoOutput(RendererHolder.java:817)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.ExoPlayerImplInternal.setVideoOutputInternal(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:1910)
    at androidx.media3.exoplayer.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:739)

Media

Not applicable.

Repro by any video url

Bug Report

• You will email the zip file produced by adb bugreport to android-media-github@google.com after filing this issue.

[tonihei]

DisposableEffect onDispose only removes Player.Listener (no clearVideoSurface/stop)

This is working as intended because calling player.setVideoSurface moves the responsbility for the surface to the Player. ExoPlayer listens to TextureView events here to disconnect the surface internally when needed.

The fact that you say it only happens for TextureView, only on the Galaxy S8 on API 28, but not the S24+ on API 36 and that it's not reproducible in the demo app, makes me wonder if there is some device or API specific issue here we need to workaround.

• You say it's not reproducible in the demo app, but describe steps that sound like it should be. Would you be able to update the demo so that we can reproduce the issue ourselves. Alternatively, you could share another Android Studio project (on GitHub, or by sending a link to android-media-github@google.com with "Issue PlayerSurface (media3-ui-compose) can trigger IllegalArgumentException in MediaCodec.setOutputSurface #3011" in the subject). This would help us a lot, because we otherwise have to guess the issue and can't verify any fixes.
• Did you test on any other devices or API versions by any chance? One useful way to verify that device/API dependency is to use the repro steps you have on an emulator on various API levels to see if it reproduces.

Some hypotheses for what could be happening without any proof/verification:

• Maybe we somehow end up setting an already released surface on a player. While we listen for surface releases while the surface is attached, I'm not sure we'd handle it well if the surface is already released when set on the player.
• Maybe there is some issue on older API versions where the release callback may race with registering a new listener and not arrive reliably.

[google-oss-bot]

Hey @chosc0410. We need more information to resolve this issue but there hasn't been an update in 14 weekdays. I'm marking the issue as stale and if there are no new updates in the next 7 days I will close it automatically.

If you have more information that will help us get to the bottom of this, just add a comment!

[google-oss-bot]

Since there haven't been any recent updates here, I am going to close this issue.

@chosc0410 if you're still experiencing this problem and want to continue the discussion just leave a comment here and we are happy to re-open this.