An AVPlayerItem cannot be associated with more than one instance of AVPlayer in iOS 8.4

Question

After updating to iOS 8.4 I am getting the infamous exception with MPMoviePlayerController that says:

An AVPlayerItem cannot be associated with more than one instance of AVPlayer

I have seen several workarounds that mainly consist of reinitialising the player before reusing it. However, for me the crash doesn't happen when I try to play a new video, but rather when I turn off fullscreen for the player by rotating to portrait mode.

This is my code:

@implementation MoviePlayerViewController  -(void)viewDidLoad {     [super viewDidLoad];      self.moviePlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded;      [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(moviePlayerWillEnterFullscreenNotification:) name:MPMoviePlayerWillEnterFullscreenNotification object:nil];     [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(moviePlayerWillExitFullscreenNotification:) name:MPMoviePlayerWillExitFullscreenNotification object:nil]; }  - (void) moviePlayerWillEnterFullscreenNotification:(NSNotification*)notification {     [[UIDevice currentDevice] beginGeneratingDeviceOrientationNotifications];     [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(deviceOrientationDidChange) name:UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification object:nil]; }  - (void) moviePlayerWillExitFullscreenNotification:(NSNotification*)notification {     [[UIDevice currentDevice] endGeneratingDeviceOrientationNotifications];     [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification object:nil]; }  - (void)deviceOrientationDidChange {     UIDeviceOrientation orientation = [[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation];     if (orientation == UIDeviceOrientationPortrait) {         [self.moviePlayer setFullscreen:NO animated:YES];     } }  @end 

The change to fullscreen happens in the UIViewController that has the MoviePlayerViewController as u subview:

-(void)didRotateFromInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)fromInterfaceOrientation {     if (!self.moviePlayerViewController.moviePlayer.fullscreen &&         UIInterfaceOrientationIsPortrait(fromInterfaceOrientation)) {             [self.moviePlayerViewController.moviePlayer setFullscreen:YES animated:YES];     } } 

There is no problem when I go in or out of fullscreen manually using the fullscreen-button in the player. Also I can rotate the player into fullscreen just fine. However, when I try to rotate it out of fullscreen (i.e. from landscape to portrait) I get the exception, seemingly in the line:

[self.moviePlayer setFullscreen:NO animated:YES]; 

Here is my stack trace when the exception occurs:

Thread : Fatal Exception: NSInvalidArgumentException 0  CoreFoundation                 0x00000001865e02d8 __exceptionPreprocess 1  libobjc.A.dylib                0x0000000197f3c0e4 objc_exception_throw 2  AVFoundation                   0x0000000184db4b50 -[AVPlayerItem _attachToFigPlayer] 3  AVFoundation                   0x0000000184da7770 -[AVPlayer _attachItem:andPerformOperation:withObject:] 4  AVFoundation                   0x0000000184dc8f00 -[AVQueuePlayer insertItem:afterItem:] 5  MediaPlayer                    0x00000001889d1d30 -[MPQueuePlayer insertItem:afterItem:] 6  MediaPlayer                    0x000000018893de7c -[MPAVQueueCoordinator _syncPlayerItems] 7  MediaPlayer                    0x000000018893d8a4 -[MPAVQueueCoordinator _syncItems] 8  MediaPlayer                    0x000000018893c68c -[MPAVQueueCoordinator reloadItemsKeepingCurrentItem:] 9  MediaPlayer                    0x000000018899fd38 -[MPAVPlaylistManager setPlaylistFeeder:startIndex:keepPlaying:] 10 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018899fb4c __67-[MPAVPlaylistManager reloadWithPlaybackContext:completionHandler:]_block_invoke 11 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018889fa5c -[MPArrayQueueFeeder reloadWithPlaybackContext:completionHandler:] 12 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018899f9b4 -[MPAVPlaylistManager reloadWithPlaybackContext:completionHandler:] 13 MediaPlayer                    0x00000001888b7550 -[MPAVController reloadWithPlaybackContext:completionHandler:] 14 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018888d114 -[MPMoviePlayerControllerNew _prepareToPlayWithStartIndex:] 15 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018888a988 -[MPMoviePlayerControllerNew _moviePlayerDidBecomeActiveNotification:] 16 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001865862c4 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ 17 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001864c3450 _CFXNotificationPost 18 Foundation                     0x00000001873f2a80 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] 19 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018888d530 -[MPMoviePlayerControllerNew _postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] 20 MediaPlayer                    0x000000018888d494 -[MPMoviePlayerControllerNew _postNotificationName:object:] 21 MediaPlayer                    0x00000001888878dc -[MPMoviePlayerControllerNew setFullscreen:animated:] 22 myApp                          0x000000010004ddf8 -[MoviePlayerViewController deviceOrientationDidChange] (MoviePlayerViewController.m:36) 23 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001865862c4 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ 24 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001864c3450 _CFXNotificationPost 25 Foundation                     0x00000001873f2a80 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] 26 UIKit                          0x000000018b059b34 -[UIDevice setOrientation:animated:] 27 UIKit                          0x000000018b0597f0 -[UIApplication handleEvent:withNewEvent:] 28 UIKit                          0x000000018b059080 -[UIApplication sendEvent:] 29 UIKit                          0x000000018b0c52c4 _UIApplicationHandleEvent 30 GraphicsServices               0x000000018fdc9194 _PurpleEventCallback 31 GraphicsServices               0x000000018fdc8c84 PurpleEventCallback 32 CoreFoundation                 0x0000000186597a54 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE1_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ 33 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001865979b4 __CFRunLoopDoSource1 34 CoreFoundation                 0x0000000186595934 __CFRunLoopRun 35 CoreFoundation                 0x00000001864c12d4 CFRunLoopRunSpecific 36 GraphicsServices               0x000000018fdc76fc GSEventRunModal 37 UIKit                          0x000000018b0bef40 UIApplicationMain 38 myApp                          0x000000010002b2dc main (main.m:16) 39 libdyld.dylib                  0x00000001985e6a08 start 

Answer 1

The solution is:

Don't use MPMoviePlayerController, sorry. Refactor to use AVPlayerViewController instead. This is a more modern API; the one you are using has been deprecated so it is not shocking that it has a strange mysterious crash on a newer version of iOS.