diff --git a/ios/Video/Features/RCTPlayerOperations.swift b/ios/Video/Features/RCTPlayerOperations.swift
index 9c80c85f3e..d1ca88a9e4 100644
--- a/ios/Video/Features/RCTPlayerOperations.swift
+++ b/ios/Video/Features/RCTPlayerOperations.swift
@@ -15,11 +15,15 @@ enum RCTPlayerOperations {
         let trackCount: Int! = player?.currentItem?.tracks.count ?? 0
 
         // The first few tracks will be audio & video track
-        var firstTextIndex = 0
+        var firstTextIndex = -1
         for i in 0 ..< trackCount where player?.currentItem?.tracks[i].assetTrack?.hasMediaCharacteristic(.legible) ?? false {
             firstTextIndex = i
             break
         }
+        if firstTextIndex == -1 {
+            // no sideLoaded text track available (can happen with invalid vtt url)
+            return
+        }
 
         var selectedTrackIndex: Int = RCTVideoUnset
 
diff --git a/ios/Video/RCTVideo.swift b/ios/Video/RCTVideo.swift
index 2e405c76a8..3aaf532c8a 100644
--- a/ios/Video/RCTVideo.swift
+++ b/ios/Video/RCTVideo.swift
@@ -613,6 +613,10 @@ class RCTVideo: UIView, RCTVideoPlayerViewControllerDelegate, RCTPlayerObserverH
             textTracks: self._textTracks
         )
 
+        if validTextTracks.isEmpty {
+            DebugLog("Strange state, not valid textTrack")
+        }
+
         if validTextTracks.count != self._textTracks.count {
             self.setTextTracks(validTextTracks)
         }