Audio renditions broken in ios 26

[0caspy]

Description

a simple HLS variant with alternate audios is incorrectly initialized on iphone with ios 26.3, thus unable to switch audio track.

it's appear to be random, non constant problem.
as much master m3u8 simpler - it often occur (original bipbop with a lot of subtitles - unable to reproduce. another foreign playlist with a few subtitles - able to reproduce)

ps:
seems like it can be ios 26 problem, but any workaround is needed.
also, i can't reproduce it with hlsjs demo page.

Reduced test case

https://vps1.caspy.ru/audio_track_test/bipbop_simple.html

Steps to reproduce

1. open url on iphone with ios 26.3, start play
2. see under player or in console.log, that audio tracks initialized with duplicating ids
3. tracks are unable to switch

if loaded in a good way, just reload. problem is not constant.

as much as master m3u8 is simpler - problem easy to reproduce.

Errors

console.log() of tracks from player.audioTracks()
as you can see - id is duplicated.

[Log] AudioTrack {labelchange_: function, id: "1", kind: "alternative", label: "BipBop Audio 2", language: "eng", …} (bipbop_simple.html, line 18)
[Log] AudioTrack {labelchange_: function, id: "1", kind: "main", label: "BipBop Audio 1", language: "eng", …} (bipbop_simple.html, line 18)

What version of Video.js are you using?

8.23.4

Video.js plugins used.

No response

What browser(s) including version(s) does this occur with?

Safari

What OS(es) and version(s) does this occur with?

iOS 26.3

[mister-ben]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=301928

[0caspy]

additional info:
ipad os26 - the same story. broken.
macos - ok

mister-ben's link -- yes, thats it.

also, if try to use plain m3u8 link on ios - problem appear as not being able to switch track, but no any debug info.

i understand that it is not a videojs problem, but may be videojs can somehow to workaround this issue?

[mister-ben]

I'm not sure that it could be fixed at the application level since if you use a plain video element and change the enabled property of the tracks, they don't switch. hls.js defaults to using ManagedMediaSource on iOS rather than native playback, with http-streaming you can opt in with the experimentalUseMMS option.
https://github.com/videojs/http-streaming/blob/main/README.md#experimentalusemms

[0caspy]

opt in with the experimentalUseMMS

"No compatible source was found for this media." ;(
( https://vps1.caspy.ru/audio_track_test/mms.html )

what am i doing wrong?

[mister-ben]

Try loading the video with player.src() in the ready callback or later.