Extension causes Chrome to freeze while starting videos on YouTube

[rjtupas]

Describe the bug
With the extension enabled, if I select a video to watch on YouTube (using the Chrome browser), the browser freezes for 10 - 30 seconds (completely unresponsive). Eventually the video will play in the browser and the extension will indicate that I am playing something on Chrome. If I left-click the extension, it shows me a thumbnail of the YouTube video.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Have the extension enabled
2. Go to YouTube in browser and select a video to play
3. The browser freezes (completely unresponsive) as well as the desktop for up to 30 seconds
4. The video then begins to play, usually the audio first and then eventually the video.
5. The extension shows that something is being played on Chrome from the icon

Expected behavior
I expect the video to start playing (audio and video) immediately with no freezing of the browser and desktop

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Environment:

• Gentoo
• GNOME version 48
• Extension Version 2.2.0

[sakithb]

Is this reproducible in 2.4.1?

[rjtupas]

Yes it is, but the behavior is different: It takes longer to happen, maybe 3 hours or so. When it does, it freezes starting a video on YouTube, the system becomes unresponsive for about 10 seconds, then the user session is closed, causing me to re-login to my desktop session. "Journalctl -xb -p err" reports an OOM condition and crash of the gnome-shell. When it does work, it is awesome! All the best, Randy

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On Thu, Dec 11 2025 at 09:00:29 PM -08:00:00, Sakith B. ***@***.***> wrote: *sakithb* left a comment (sakithb/media-controls#265) <#265 (comment)> Is this reproducible in 2.4.1? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#265 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BZOWPQ376A42KE5G4S2IX3L4BJDW3AVCNFSM6AAAAACKTBBZGKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTMNBUHEYTGNZWGM>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[HassanIsmail16]

I am on 2.4.1.

Switching media source from spotify to brave for example or vise versa causes a freeze.

When a media source is closed entirely, like when i close brave, the system freezes.

When a media source appears then disappears for some reason, for example, when I play a whatsapp voice note, which appears as a new media source under brave, it freezes, then when the note ends, its associated media source disappears, which causes another freeze.

I checked the logs, and I see that when freezes happen, there are too many calls to callOnChangedListeners()

callOnChangedListeners@file:///home/bogz/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/mediacontrols@cliffniff.github.com/helpers/shell/PlayerProxy.js:233:25
callOnChangedListeners@file:///home/bogz/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/mediacontrols@cliffniff.github.com/helpers/shell/PlayerProxy.js:233:25

I showed only two calls, you can check the entirety of the logs in the pastepin link below.

This happens after 30 minutes of usage or so, but I can trigger it if I play then pause media frequently. I used this for testing

for i in {1..100}; do playerctl play-pause; sleep 0.1; done

You can then manually click play on a whatsapp web voice note and you'll notice a freeze.
Whatsapp web voice notes cause the heaviest freezes, other media sources cause it though, but less severe.

This is all I've gathered till now about this issue.

Additional context:

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• GNOME Shell version: GNOME Shell 46.0
• The freeze duration increases the longer the system has been running
• After a reboot, the issue takes about 30 minutes to reappear
• Rebooting is the only way I found to restore normal function

Logs showing the recursive calls:
https://pastebin.com/zuQheut6

[ulrich-barnstedt]

I have the same problem on Ubuntu 25.10 (gnome 49, latest extension version from extensions.gnome.org), where starting/pausing a video in chrome causes everything to freeze for 3-30 seconds (with time frozen getting longer by how long gnome has been running).