NullPointerException in Google Play Services When Calling play() on RemotePlaybackClient

Question

This sample application of mine used to work just fine.

Somewhere in the past few months, though, Google updated Google Play Services (and Chromecast itself), and now when I call play() on RemotePlaybackClient for the Chromecast, Google Play Services itself crashes with:

E/AndroidRuntime﹕ FATAL EXCEPTION: main
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.google.android.gms.cast.media.aq.a(SourceFile:96)
        at com.google.android.gms.cast.media.n.i(SourceFile:1856)
        at com.google.android.gms.cast.media.u.run(SourceFile:2092)
        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:730)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5103)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:737)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:553)
        at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Note that the play() call itself has the desired effect, in that the Chromecast plays the media. But sometime after it calls the ItemActionCallback with onResult(), the aforementioned crash in Google PLay Services occurs. That, in turn, causes the connection to the Chromecast to collapse, so my MediaRouteActionProvider vanishes and I have to re-run my app to connect again, despite the Chromecast actually playing the media that I requested.

I have tested this with two devices (Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus) with the same results.

I have even created a new app, trying to just show an image (instead of play a movie, as with the original sample), and I get the same crash.

Has anyone seen this and found some workaround/fix/whatever?

Answer 1

As noted in the comment chain, this was caused by a bug in Google Play Services, which is now fixed. Many thanks to Ali Naddaf for his assistance!