Memory Leak with AVPlayer playing online audio streaming - swift

Question

I am making an app for playing podcasts.
the problem is when creating an AVPlayer with URL or AVPlayer item. a memory leak happens but deinit works well with no problem.
weak var presenter: AudioPlayerUpdaterProtocol?
private var audioSession: AVAudioSession?
private var audioPlayer: AVPlayer?
private var audioURL: URL?
private var playbackTimeUpdater: Timer?
deinit {
self.audioSession = nil
self.audioURL = nil
self.audioPlayer = nil
self.playbackTimeUpdater?.invalidate()
removeEndPlayingObserver()
print("deinit audio")
}
private func setupAudioPlayer(){
guard let url = audioURL else {
return
}
let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(url: URL)
// when comment the avplear init no memory leaks found.
audioPlayer = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
addEndPlayingObserver()
startPlaying()
}
when debugging with instruments I got this
enter image description here
I tried to debug this malloc 16 bytes on Xcode but I failed on this because the object is not at any memory graph.

Answer 1

This is because setting an AVPlayerItem on an AVPlayer creates a hidden strong reference between the two, so persisting the AVPlayerItem will hang onto the AVPlayer, causing a memory leak.
make share the AVPlayerItem and AVPlayer have a 1:1 relationship by creating a new AVPlayerItem when it needs to be assigned to an AVPlayer.
guard let url = audioURL else {
return
}
let originalAsset = AVAsset(url: url)
audioPlayer = AVPlayer(playerItem: AVPlayerItem(asset: originalAsset))
If the above approach doesn't help you try this on your viewDidDissapear:
func viewDidDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidDisappear(animated)
self.audioPlayer?.replaceCurrentItem(with: nil)
}