Steps to reproduce:
- Create a new project using Universal 3D template
- Go to Window > Multiplayer > Multiplayer Center
- Set the "Genre of your Game" to "Adventure" and Players to "2" (or any other options)
- Click "Install Packages"
- In the Quickstart tab, click "Create and open scene with netcode setup"
- Open the Multiplayer Play Mode window (Window > Multiplayer > Multiplayer Play Mode) and enable "Player 2"
- Enter Play mode in "NGO_Setup" scene
- Press "Start Host" on both Editor instances
- Observe the Console
Actual results: "Failed to bind UDP socket because the address is already in use.", "Server failed to bind" and "[Netcode] Host is shutting down due to network transport start failure of UnityTransport!" errors and cannot select "Start Client" instead, Play mode has to be exited and re-entered
Expected results: The port-in-use exception is caught more gracefully and a clear, user-friendly warning is logged, the UI state resets cleanly so the user can simply click "Start Client" without needing to restart Play Mode entirely
Reproducible with versions: 2.9.0, 2.11.0 (6000.0.71f1, 6000.3.12f1, 6000.4.1f1, 6000.5.0b1, 6000.6.0a1)
Tested on (OS): macOS 26.3
Notes:
- On few occasions, exiting and re-entering Play mode did not reset the state and threw errors afterwards