CodexBloom - Programming Q&A Platform

Unexpected UI Lag When Using ConstraintLayout with Nested RecyclerViews in Android 14

๐Ÿ‘€ Views: 342 ๐Ÿ’ฌ Answers: 1 ๐Ÿ“… Created: 2025-06-17
android recyclerview constraintlayout kotlin

I'm having a hard time understanding I'm experiencing significant UI lag when scrolling through a nested RecyclerView structure within a ConstraintLayout in my Android app targeting API 34. The outer RecyclerView holds multiple items, each of which contains a nested RecyclerView. The issue occurs primarily when I scroll quickly, causing stuttering and unresponsiveness that wasn't present before. I've tried using `setHasFixedSize(true)` on both the outer and inner RecyclerViews, but the problem persists. Hereโ€™s a simplified version of my layout: ```xml <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent"> <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView android:id="@+id/outerRecyclerView" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" app:layoutManager="LinearLayoutManager" /> </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout> ``` And hereโ€™s how I set up the inner RecyclerView in the adapter: ```kotlin class OuterAdapter(private val items: List<OuterItem>) : RecyclerView.Adapter<OuterAdapter.OuterViewHolder>() { override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): OuterViewHolder { val view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.context).inflate(R.layout.outer_item, parent, false) return OuterViewHolder(view) } override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: OuterViewHolder, position: Int) { holder.bind(items[position]) } override fun getItemCount() = items.size inner class OuterViewHolder(view: View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(view) { private val innerRecyclerView: RecyclerView = view.findViewById(R.id.innerRecyclerView) fun bind(outerItem: OuterItem) { innerRecyclerView.layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(itemView.context) innerRecyclerView.adapter = InnerAdapter(outerItem.innerItems) innerRecyclerView.setHasFixedSize(true) } } } ``` I also enabled RecyclerView's item animations and tried disabling them, but it didnโ€™t help. The performance seems to improve slightly when the inner RecyclerViews are empty, which suggests that data loading might be a factor. Is there a recommended approach to optimize this setup to reduce the lag? Are there any common pitfalls I might be missing when nesting RecyclerViews? I'm working on a desktop app that needs to handle this.