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I'm trying to pause and resume VideoView with MediaPlayer in activity onPause() and onResume() methods, but in onResume() method MediaPlayer throws java.lang.IllegalStateException. I didn't release MediaPlayer but I think MediaPlayer automatically released after activity paused. How should I handle it?

private MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
void prepareVideo() {
    videoView = new VideoView(context.getApplicationContext());
    String path = "android.resource://" + getPackageName() + "/" + 
    R.raw.my_video;
    videoView.setVideoPath(path);
videoView.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
    @Override
    public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
        mediaPlayer = mp;
        mediaPlayer.start();
@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    if (mediaPlayer != null) {
        mediaPlayer.start();
@Override
protected void onPause() {
    if (mediaPlayer != null && mediaPlayer.isPlaying()) {
        mediaPlayer.pause();
    super.onPause();
The exception:
    Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException
    at android.media.MediaPlayer._start(Native Method)
    at android.media.MediaPlayer.start(MediaPlayer.java:1194)
    at co.myapp.app.reborn.myappTestActivity.onResume(myappTestActivity.java:370)
    at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnResume(Instrumentation.java:1259)
    at android.app.Activity.performResume(Activity.java:6347)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performResumeActivity(ActivityThread.java:3110)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleResumeActivity(ActivityThread.java:3152) 
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1400) 
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102) 
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148) 
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5530) 
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:734) 
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:624) 
Take a look at the mediaplayer state diagram on android documentation
MediaPlayer state diagram
According to the diagram you have to call setDataSource() and prepare() before calling start().
Probably something wrong happened before. Your logcat should point you in the right direction.
My guess is that your mediaplayer is not in paused state but in stopped state. So you have to call prepare and then start, not just start. 
Unfortunately in this way your playback will restart from scratch.
You can use seek command for resuming a position saved during the activity pausing.
                I'm using VideoView, I never use setDataSource(currentConext, url), this method is called internally in VideoView class.
– Shervin Gharib
                Jun 25, 2018 at 11:48
We just need to implement MediaPlayer.OnSeekCompleteListener interface and set MediaPlayer in onSeekComplete method.
private MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
@Override
public void onSeekComplete(final MediaPlayer mp) {
    mediaPlayer = mp;
                I don't remember but it was working. probably by trial and error. Is there any problem with this approach? @VadimKotov
– Shervin Gharib
                Nov 19, 2020 at 2:15
I was facing this issue yesterday and I'd like to share my experience facing this issue, the root cause and the fix in my particular issue; this might be helpful for someone else.
This is what I found in my particular issue.
I´m running MediaPlayer in Fragment
When the phone goes to sleep (black screen), in the fragment-life-cycle the stop() function is call.
MediaPlayer recommends to release() MediaPlayer resources on STOP state.
When the phone resumes, it complains with illegal-state-exception because there are no MediaPlayer resource available, remember it was released in the STOPE state.
So, to fix it. I overrided start() state and I got another instance of MediaPlayer if it was null at that specific point in time. START state is called at resume time.
sample code
public class xMediaPlayer extends MediaPlayer
    private static xMediaPlayer instance = null;
    public static xMediaPlayer getInstance( )
        if( instance == null )
            instance = new xMediaPlayer( );
        return instance;
Override start() on fragment
@Override
public void onStart() {
    super.onStart();      
    mMediaPlayer = xMediaPlayer.getInstance( );
        
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