diff --git a/Yattee/Services/Player/PlayerService.swift b/Yattee/Services/Player/PlayerService.swift
index bf541b47..3f2b47bc 100644
--- a/Yattee/Services/Player/PlayerService.swift
+++ b/Yattee/Services/Player/PlayerService.swift
@@ -2852,10 +2852,14 @@ extension PlayerService: PlayerBackendDelegate {
     func backend(_ backend: any PlayerBackend, didChangeState playbackState: PlaybackState) {
         LoggingService.shared.debug("Backend state changed to: \(playbackState)", category: .player)
 
-        // Clear the time-update gate once playback is ready/playing, in case the
-        // load flow exited before doing so (issue #956). Safe: stale updates from a
-        // previous video can only arrive before the new video's ready transition.
-        if playbackState == .ready || playbackState == .playing, loadingVideoID != nil {
+        // Clear the time-update gate once the new video is loaded, in case the load
+        // flow wedged before doing so (issue #956). Only .ready: it comes from mpv's
+        // file-loaded event, which only the new load can emit. The previous video
+        // (still playing on the reused backend during the details/streams fetch) can
+        // emit .playing via buffering recovery or unpause — healing on that would
+        // open the gate to stale time updates and break the stale-error check in
+        // play()'s catch, silently swallowing genuine load failures.
+        if playbackState == .ready, loadingVideoID != nil {
             loadingVideoID = nil
         }
 
diff --git a/Yattee/Views/Player/MPVRenderViewRepresentable.swift b/Yattee/Views/Player/MPVRenderViewRepresentable.swift
index b576ce8c..a4d00512 100644
--- a/Yattee/Views/Player/MPVRenderViewRepresentable.swift
+++ b/Yattee/Views/Player/MPVRenderViewRepresentable.swift
@@ -91,7 +91,11 @@ private class MPVContainerView: UIView {
             // deallocating container: otherwise SwiftUI keeps reconciling a
             // half-alive view and spins the main-thread trait update loop (100%
             // CPU hang when opening a settings detail during playback, issue #956).
-            playerView.removeFromSuperview()
+            // Guard by superview: currentPlayerView is a stale weak ref when another
+            // (not yet windowed) container has stolen the view — don't rip it out.
+            if playerView.superview === self {
+                playerView.removeFromSuperview()
+            }
         }
     }