diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b3bdcd38bc4..42312126614 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Fixes
+
+- Release `MediaMuxer` when a replay segment has no encodable frames to avoid a resource leak ([#5583](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/5583))
+
 ## 8.44.1
 
 ### Fixes
diff --git a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/ReplayCache.kt b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/ReplayCache.kt
index 32e42dafac1..b3b9edae055 100644
--- a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/ReplayCache.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/ReplayCache.kt
@@ -199,6 +199,10 @@ public class ReplayCache(private val options: SentryOptions, private val replayI
 
     if (frameCount == 0) {
       options.logger.log(DEBUG, "Generated a video with no frames, not capturing a replay segment")
+      encoderLock.acquire().use {
+        encoder?.release()
+        encoder = null
+      }
       deleteFile(videoFile)
       return null
     }
diff --git a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/video/SimpleMp4FrameMuxer.kt b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/video/SimpleMp4FrameMuxer.kt
index 36741686701..e32af9bb44b 100644
--- a/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/video/SimpleMp4FrameMuxer.kt
+++ b/sentry-android-replay/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/replay/video/SimpleMp4FrameMuxer.kt
@@ -67,7 +67,11 @@ internal class SimpleMp4FrameMuxer(path: String, fps: Float) : SimpleFrameMuxer
   }
 
   override fun release() {
-    muxer.stop()
+    // stop() throws if the muxer was never started (e.g. no frame was ever muxed), so we guard it
+    // to ensure release() is always reached and the underlying resources are freed
+    if (started) {
+      muxer.stop()
+    }
     muxer.release()
   }