[BUG] App crashes on background/foreground transition when using ViroVideo

[bhoken94]

Description
There is a critical issue where the application crashes consistently when a ViroVideo component is present in the scene and the app transitions to the background and back to the foreground.

In addition to the crash, we observed inconsistent behavior suggesting potential memory leaks or improper scene reference handling, as crashes sometimes occur even without active markers in the scene. This issue is distinct from the 16KB-alignment discussion currently ongoing.

Reproduction
A reproduction repository has been prepared here: bhoken94/expo-starter-kit-typescript

Steps to reproduce:

1. Clone the repository.
2. Add ar_marker.jpg and video_test.mp4 to the /assets directory (required for the demo scene).
3. Run the application on a physical device.
4. Navigate to the video scene.
5. Send the app to the background.
6. Bring the app back to the focus/foreground.

Note: The crash occurs even if the video is not actively playing; the mere presence of the component in the scene seems to trigger the failure during the lifecycle transition.

Expected Behavior
The app should handle background/foreground transitions gracefully, pausing the video or maintaining the scene state without crashing.

Actual Behavior
The app terminates unexpectedly (crashes) during the lifecycle change.

Environment
Library: ViroReact / Expo Starter

Version: Latest (tested against the most recent release)

Platform: Android

Additional Context
We suspect the issue might be related to how the scene context or the video player instance is managed by the bridge.

[oliedis]

A fix for this was within the 2.56.0 release which came out at the end of last week.

[EduardWayland]

@oliedis @doranteseduardo I tried the latest version and I think there's a regression with "autofocus" property. The same identical code used with previous version now crashes entirely due to "autofocus" property. Here a snippet of our code:

		<View className="flex-1 bg-black">
			{isNavigatorMounted ? (
				<ViroARSceneNavigator
					autofocus={false}
					occlusionMode="disabled"
					depthEnabled={false}
					worldMeshEnabled={false}
					initialScene={initialScene}
					viroAppProps={viroAppProps}
					numberOfTrackedImages={1}
					style={{ flex: 1 }}
				/>
			) : (
				<View className="flex-1 bg-black" />
			)}

			<AROverlay
				trackingState={cameraTrackingState}
				markerFound={markerFound}
				mediaLoadingState={mediaLoadingState}
				media={media}
				content={content}
				infoPanel={infoPanel}
				handleClose={handleClose}
				videoFinished={videoFinished}
				onVideoReplay={onVideoReplay}
			/>
		</View>
	);

The error on Android:

java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void com.viro.core.ViroViewARCore.setCameraAutoFocusEnabled(boolean)' on a null object reference
  com.viromedia.bridge.component.VRTARSceneNavigator.setAutoFocusEnabled(VRTARSceneNavigator.java:331)
  com.viromedia.bridge.component.VRTARSceneNavigator$StartupListenerARCore.onSuccess(VRTARSceneNavigator.java:113)
  com.viro.core.ViroViewARCore.notifyRendererStart(ViroViewARCore.java:604)
  com.viro.core.ViroViewARCore.-$$Nest$mnotifyRendererStart(ViroViewARCore.java:0)
  com.viro.core.ViroViewARCore$ViroARRenderer$1.run(ViroViewARCore.java:298)
  android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:1095)
  android.os.Handler.dispatchMessageImpl(Handler.java:135)
  android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:125)
  android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:296)
  android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:397)
  android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:9523)
  java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
  com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:575)
  com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:939)

I would add that if I disable the autofocus, the scene mounts and the detection of our model works, but then we have again the same crash on background/foreground transition. So I think this issue should be reopened...

Also, if I could make a suggestion aswel: it would be nice to have a small demo app with this exact use-case which I think it's one of the most common ones (having a scene with a simple overlay, then ViroVideo usage with a replay button or similar).