diff --git a/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/PlaybackService.kt b/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/PlaybackService.kt
index 5f66c76b93..3fc1117733 100644
--- a/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/PlaybackService.kt
+++ b/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/PlaybackService.kt
@@ -57,14 +57,13 @@ class PlaybackService : MediaLibraryService() {
     release()
   }
 
-  override fun onGetSession(controllerInfo: MediaSession.ControllerInfo): MediaLibrarySession? {
-    return session.takeUnless { session ->
-      session.invokeIsReleased
-    }.also {
-      if (it == null) {
-        Logger.e("onGetSession returns null because the session is already released")
-      }
-    }
+  override fun onGetSession(controllerInfo: MediaSession.ControllerInfo): MediaLibrarySession {
+    if (session.invokeIsReleased)
+      rootComponentAs<PlaybackComponent.Provider>()
+        .playbackComponentFactory
+        .create(this)
+        .inject(this)
+    return session
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/search/BookSearchHandler.kt b/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/search/BookSearchHandler.kt
index ddf30b419c..11d856b35f 100644
--- a/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/search/BookSearchHandler.kt
+++ b/playback/src/main/kotlin/voice/playback/session/search/BookSearchHandler.kt
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class BookSearchHandler
 
   // Look for anything that might match the query
   private suspend fun searchUnstructured(query: String?): Book? {
-    if (query != null) {
+    if (!query.isNullOrBlank()) {
       val foundMatch = findBook {
         val bookNameMatches = it.content.name.contains(query, ignoreCase = true)
         val authorMatches = it.content.author?.contains(query, ignoreCase = true) == true