Suddenly getting "can't create mutable bitmap with Config.HARDWARE"

[kelmer44]

My app has been out for a while, it's a playback app and I use coil as a BitmapLoader for media3:

internal class CoilBitmapLoader(
    val context: Context,
    private val coroutineScope: CoroutineScope,
    dataSourceFactory: DefaultDataSource.Factory = DefaultDataSource.Factory(context),
    private val dataSourceBitmapLoader: DataSourceBitmapLoader = DataSourceBitmapLoader(
        DataSourceBitmapLoader.DEFAULT_EXECUTOR_SERVICE.get(),
        dataSourceFactory
    )
) : BitmapLoader by dataSourceBitmapLoader {

    override fun loadBitmap(uri: Uri): ListenableFuture<Bitmap> {
        return loadWithCoil(uri)
    }

    private fun loadWithCoil(uri: Uri): ListenableFuture<Bitmap> {
        val request = ImageRequest.Builder(context)
            .data(uri)
            .build()
        return coroutineScope.async {
            val result = context.imageLoader.execute(request)
            (result.image as? BitmapImage)?.bitmap ?: dataSourceBitmapLoader.loadBitmap(uri).get()
        }.asListenableFuture()
    }
}

and

MediaLibraryService.MediaLibrarySession.Builder(
            service,
            myPlayer,
            librarySessionCallback
        )
            .setBitmapLoader(CacheBitmapLoader(CoilBitmapLoader(service, appScope)))
            .setId(sessionUidProvider.getUid())
            .maybeSetSessionActivity(service, pendingIntent)
            .build()

Now recently (as late as november 2025) i began seeing IllegalArgumentExceptions pertaining the Bitmaps produced by this loader:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: can't create mutable bitmap with Config.HARDWARE
    at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:1242)
    at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:1205)
    at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:1153)
    at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:1112)
    at android.media.MediaMetadata$Builder.scaleBitmap(MediaMetadata.java:997)
    at android.media.MediaMetadata$Builder.build(MediaMetadata.java:973)
    at android.media.session.MediaSession.setMetadata(MediaSession.java:512)
    at androidx.media3.session.legacy.MediaSessionCompat$MediaSessionImplApi21.setMetadata(SourceFile:2069)
    at androidx.media3.session.legacy.MediaSessionCompat.setMetadata(MediaSessionCompat.java:538)
    at androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionLegacyStub.setMetadata(MediaSessionLegacyStub.java:1171)
    at androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionLegacyStub.access$1700(MediaSessionLegacyStub.java:118)
    at androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionLegacyStub$ControllerLegacyCbForBroadcast$1.onSuccess(MediaSessionLegacyStub.java:1675)
    at androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionLegacyStub$ControllerLegacyCbForBroadcast$1.onSuccess(MediaSessionLegacyStub.java:1669)
    at com.google.common.util.concurrent.Futures$CallbackListener.run(Futures.java:1102)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:995)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:103)
    at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:248)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:338)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:9079)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:596)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:932)

Now my understanding is that this is due to Bitmaps being in hardware and thus not mutable, so this can be fixed by using .allowHardware(false), but I have not changed this code in months and only now I started getting crashes... What could be the underlying cause of this? Could this be a system update messing with it all?

Crashes happen only on Android 15 and 16 by the way.