My android app doesn't recognize my adapter. No adapter attached skipping layout

Question

I'm making a journal app and whenever I try to use the menu on the toolbar, it says:

o adapter attached skipping layout

A> nd doesn't allow me to add another journal to my journal list

(recyclerview).

package com.example.self;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.drawable.ColorDrawable;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

import androidx.activity.EdgeToEdge;
import androidx.annotation.NonNull;
import androidx.appcompat.app.ActionBar;
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar;
import androidx.core.graphics.Insets;
import androidx.core.view.ViewCompat;
import androidx.core.view.WindowInsetsCompat;
import androidx.recyclerview.widget.LinearLayoutManager;
import androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView;

import com.google.android.gms.tasks.OnFailureListener;
import com.google.android.gms.tasks.OnSuccessListener;
import com.google.firebase.auth.FirebaseAuth;
import com.google.firebase.auth.FirebaseUser;
import com.google.firebase.firestore.CollectionReference;
import com.google.firebase.firestore.FirebaseFirestore;
import com.google.firebase.firestore.QueryDocumentSnapshot;
import com.google.firebase.firestore.QuerySnapshot;
import com.google.firebase.storage.StorageReference;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.List;

import model.Journal;
import ui.JournalRecyclerAdapter;
import util.JournalApi;

public class JournalListActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private FirebaseAuth firebaseAuth;
    private FirebaseAuth.AuthStateListener authStateListener;
    private FirebaseUser user;
    private FirebaseFirestore db = FirebaseFirestore.getInstance();
    private StorageReference storageReference;
    private List<Journal> journalList;
    private RecyclerView recyclerView;
    private JournalRecyclerAdapter journalRecyclerAdapter;

    private CollectionReference collectionReference = db.collection("Journal");
    private TextView noJournalEntry;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        EdgeToEdge.enable(this);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_journal_list);
        ViewCompat.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(findViewById(R.id.main), (v, insets) -> {
            Insets systemBars = insets.getInsets(WindowInsetsCompat.Type.systemBars());
            v.setPadding(systemBars.left, systemBars.top, systemBars.right, systemBars.bottom);
            return insets;
        });

        ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
        if (actionBar != null) {
            actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.TRANSPARENT));
        }

        firebaseAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
        user = firebaseAuth.getCurrentUser();

        noJournalEntry = findViewById(R.id.list_no_thoughts);
        journalList = new ArrayList<>();
        recyclerView = findViewById(R.id.recycleView);
        recyclerView.setHasFixedSize(true);
        recyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(this));

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);
        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(@NonNull MenuItem item) {
        if (item.getItemId() == R.id.action_add) {
            if (user != null && firebaseAuth != null) {
                startActivity(new Intent(JournalListActivity.this, PostJournalActivity.class));
                finish();
            }
        } else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.action_signout) {
            if (user != null && firebaseAuth != null) {
                firebaseAuth.signOut();
                startActivity(new Intent(JournalListActivity.this, MainActivity.class));
                finish();
            }
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStart() {
        super.onStart();

        collectionReference.whereEqualTo("userId", JournalApi.getInstance()
                        .getUserId())
                .get()
                .addOnSuccessListener(new OnSuccessListener<QuerySnapshot>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onSuccess(QuerySnapshot queryDocumentSnapshots) {
                        if (!queryDocumentSnapshots.isEmpty()) {
                            for (QueryDocumentSnapshot journals : queryDocumentSnapshots) {
                                Journal journal = journals.toObject(Journal.class);
                                journalList.add(journal);
                            }
                            // Povikuvanje na RECYCLERVIEW
                            journalRecyclerAdapter = new JournalRecyclerAdapter(JournalListActivity.this, journalList);
                            recyclerView.setAdapter(journalRecyclerAdapter);
                            journalRecyclerAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

                        }else {
                            noJournalEntry.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                        }
                    }
                })
                .addOnFailureListener(new OnFailureListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onFailure(@NonNull Exception e) {

                    }
                });
    }
}

When I call setAdapter() on my RecyclerView, I get the error "No adapter attached; skipping layout." This happens even though I set the adapter in the onStart() method after fetching data from Firestore

I've made sure to call notifyDataSetChanged() after adding new journal entries and I tried setting the adapter with an empty list in onCreate(), but the issue persists.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

Answer 1

You are getting the following message, which is a warning and not an error:

E/RecyclerView: No adapter attached; skipping layout

Because you are setting the journalRecyclerAdapter inside the callback of the Firebase get() request, in a background thread.

To solve this, you have to set the adapter outside the callback and inside it, just notify it about the changes. So please move the following lines of code:

journalRecyclerAdapter = new JournalRecyclerAdapter(JournalListActivity.this, journalList);
recyclerView.setAdapter(journalRecyclerAdapter);

Right after:

journalList = new ArrayList<>();

And inside the callback only keep the following line of code as it is:

journalRecyclerAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

Besides that, please also stop ignoring errors. At a minimum, please add:

Log.d("TAG", e.getMessage());

Inside your onFailure. In this way, you'll always know of the operation of reading the data fails.