Streaming shows "Check your Internet connection" error when device storage is full

[zachspears]

Description

When device storage is nearly full, attempting to stream (not download) a podcast episode shows "Check your Internet connection and try again" instead of a storage-related error. The download path correctly surfaces a storage error ("Unable to save episode, have you run out of space?"), but the streaming path does not distinguish between network failures and disk-space exhaustion.

AVPlayer requires disk space for its streaming buffer. When the disk is full, the buffer write fails and iOS surfaces this as an NSURLError or AVPlayer item failure. The error classification in DefaultPlayer.checkIfPlayerFailed() has no branch for storage-related error codes (e.g., NSFileWriteOutOfSpaceError / code 640 from NSCocoaErrorDomain), so the error is misclassified as a network connectivity issue.

Related: #37, #2736

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Fill the device's storage until only a small amount remains (e.g., < 100 MB free)
2. Open Pocket Casts and try to stream any podcast episode
3. Observe: "Check your Internet connection and try again" error appears
4. Try streaming a different episode — same error
5. Try downloading an episode — a storage-related error appears instead (correct behavior)
6. Free up device storage by deleting an app or files
7. Streaming now works again, confirming the issue was storage, not connectivity

Screenshots or screen recording

None, I freed up my storage before I discovered the issue. Its standard "Check your internet connection" banner errors.

Did you search for existing bug reports?

• I have searched for existing bug reports.

Device, Operating system, and Pocket Casts app version

iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 27.0 Beta 2, Pocket Casts 8.15.0.3

Please note: This issue was investigated and drafted by Happiness Copilot based on my report from personal experience. I am Woo HE and user, so I am not familiar with PocketCast support approaches. Thanks!