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implementing RecyclerView Item Animation When Updating Data in Android with DiffUtil

👀 Views: 83 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-15
android recyclerview diffutil kotlin

I need help solving I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I tried several approaches but none seem to work... I am experiencing unexpected behavior when using `DiffUtil` with a `RecyclerView` in my Android app. I have implemented the `DiffUtil.ItemCallback` to efficiently update the list of items when the underlying data changes, but the animations are not playing as expected. Specifically, when I replace an item in my list, it sometimes leads to items disappearing and reappearing instead of smoothly animating the change. Here's the relevant part of my code: ```kotlin class MyAdapter : ListAdapter<MyItem, MyViewHolder>(MyDiffUtil()) { override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): MyViewHolder { val view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.context).inflate(R.layout.item_layout, parent, false) return MyViewHolder(view) } override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: MyViewHolder, position: Int) { val item = getItem(position) holder.bind(item) } } class MyDiffUtil : DiffUtil.ItemCallback<MyItem>() { override fun areItemsTheSame(oldItem: MyItem, newItem: MyItem): Boolean { return oldItem.id == newItem.id } override fun areContentsTheSame(oldItem: MyItem, newItem: MyItem): Boolean { return oldItem == newItem } } ``` When I update my list in the `ViewModel` like this: ```kotlin val updatedList = currentList.toMutableList() updatedList[index] = newItem adapter.submitList(updatedList) ``` I notice that sometimes the animations don't trigger properly, and I get this behavior in the logs: ``` E/RecyclerView: No adapter attached; skipping layout ``` I've checked that the adapter is properly set on the `RecyclerView`, and I'm calling `submitList` on the adapter from the main thread. However, the animation issues continue. I've also tried using `ListAdapter.submitList(updatedList, null)` to see if that would fix my question, but it didn't help either. Has anyone else faced similar issues with `RecyclerView` animations when using `DiffUtil`, or is there something I might be missing in my implementation? I'm using AndroidX libraries version 1.5.0 and targeting API Level 31. What am I doing wrong? This is part of a larger microservice I'm building. Thanks for any help you can provide! I'd be grateful for any help.