[BUG] Android implementation of MediaElement raises unexpected Stopped state change when playing using AutoPlay

[KeithBoynton]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Did you read the "Reporting a bug" section on Contributing file?

• I have read the "Reporting a bug" section on Contributing file: https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/Maui/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#reporting-a-bug

Current Behavior

The Android implementation of the MediaElement raises an unexpected Stopped state change when playback starts. This is the state change you would expect raised when playback stops. The Windows, Mac and iOS implementations work correctly.

Here the flow of state changes right now for the Android implementation:
Opening
Stopped
Paused
Buffering
Playing

Expected Behavior

This is the flow that is expected:
Opening
Paused
Buffering
Playing

Steps To Reproduce

1. Open and run the project from the reproduction repository
2. Make sure you are target at an Android device/emulator
3. Click the button and observe the state changes in the bottom label

Link to public reproduction project repository

https://bitbucket.org/KeithBoynton/android-mediaelement-playstate-issue

Environment

- .NET MAUI MediaElement: 8.0.0
- OS: Any Android
- .NET MAUI: 10.0.31

Anything else?

This issue is actually resolved in this PR: #2897 however that PR has yet to be merged and is still in a draft state.

[ne0rrmatrix]

Is this causing issues for you? Ty for reporting the bug. I am looking at it as I type this. I have looked at your sample. You do not need to add any permissions for android when using media element at all anymore. Disabling the service and then adding support for Foreground service does not make any sense. In the manifest you have added support for a foreground service and foreground service with media playback? There is no need for you to do this unless something other than media element needs that. You also need to set the min android API to 26. Neither of those settings will have any impact on what you are describing though. The issue you are having is in fact a bug that needs to be fixed.

[KeithBoynton]

Thanks for the quick response @ne0rrmatrix , I'm sure you're right, I wasn't paying too much attention to the permissions as I know it's not particuarly relevant to this issue. It may have been that I started on v7 and it complained about the permissions at first.

This bug does cause an issue because the app relies on the Stopped state to deal with playing through a playlist so it incorrectly thinks that the source has finished playing. I've been building from your android service update PR (linked in the "Anything else?" section) for a while now because the bug is resolved there. But obviously I can't do that forever, as soon as I need anything from stable for the Android build I'm going to be screwed. Luckily that new crash for iOS (#3066) is not Android so I'll be able to get away with keeping the PR for now.

[ne0rrmatrix]

There is an issue with the PR #3066 where it only supports a single MediaElement at one time. If someone loads a MediaElement in a collection view or creates multiple instances it has issues. I have talked about it a few times on monthly meetings but it looks like the team wants it supported with more than a single instance. I have been working on finding a new solution that works with that. Unfortunately it has been much harder than anticipated to make that work.

[KeithBoynton]

Yeah I saw that, I thought multiple instances wasn't supported on one of the platforms

[KeithBoynton]

@ne0rrmatrix I can confirm that the PR you've linked does indeed fix the issue for me and makes it consistent with the other platform behaviours. I'm having to build and release my app based on this PR right now. Is there anything I can do to help get it merged so I can switch back to using a stable nuget?