[BUG] [iOS] Using the new recreatePlayerWithConfig with a fullscreen video causes a black screen

[jmurth1234]

Describe the bug
When a video is fullscreened and the video switches to a new one via the new recreatePlayerWithConfig API, a black screen remains and the new video presumably starts playing underneath it.

There seems to be no way of exiting this state except for killing and restarting the app.

To Reproduce
Here's our reproduction code https://gist.github.com/jmurth1234/428058538a67c5c553eefe6f3519de3d

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Load a video with one of the buttons
2. Hit Start Repro

Expected behavior
The video transitions to a new one

Screenshots / Visual evidence

ScreenRecording_10-31-2025.mov

Device(s) affected

• Device: all iOS
• OS: iOS 26

[edougher]

@jmurth1234
Could you provide a more detailed use-case for what you are trying to achieve? Also, do you expect the player to remain in fullscreen while the player is recreated?

[jmurth1234]

@edougher In our application we have a "global player" similar to the YouTube app, whereby whilst the user is navigating around the app they can have the player in a small toolbar at the bottom of the screen or in a PIP player window. We also have functionality similar to many streaming platforms that when watching episodic content, at the end of the episode we seamlessly transition to the next episode in a season, without leaving the users current view e.g. if they're fullscreened it should stay fullscreened, etc.

We recently had a bug whereby when the player was in PIP mode and the user switched between videos, sometimes the video would begin playback but no video would appear (#165) which after some back and forth resulted in PR #180, and it's under this new method to recreate the video that this issue occurs.