What is lifecycle for RecyclerView adapter?

I think the best way to do that would be to:

1. Keep a subscription reference in the SiteAdapter.ViewHolder
2. unsubscribe the subscription object in onBindViewHolder (it's called when the ViewHolder is reused)
3. Keep the CompositeSubscription object in your adapter
4. Use the onDetachedFromRecyclerView method of your Adapter to unsubscribe the compositeSubscription

Like so:

public class SiteAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<SiteAdapter.ViewHolder> {

    private CompositeSubscription compositeSubscription = new CompositeSubscription();

    // other needed SiteAdapter methods

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(SiteAdapter.ViewHolder holder, int position) {
        if (holder.subscription != null && !holder.subscription.isUnsubscribed()) {
            compositeSubscription.remove(holder.subscription);
            // this will unsubscribe the subscription as well
        }
        Site site = sites.get(position);
        holder.siteName.setText(site.getName());
        requestHolderLogo(holder, site.getLinks().getLogoUrl());
    }

    private void requestHolderLogo(final SiteAdapter.ViewHolder holder, final String logoUrl) {
        holder.subscription = presenter.bitmap(logoUrl)
                .subscribe(
                        bitmap -> {
                            holder.siteLogo.setImageBitmap(bitmap);
                            holder.siteLogo.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                        },
                        error -> {
                            holder.siteName.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                        });
        compositeSubscription.add(holder.subscription);
    }

    @Override
    public void onDetachedFromRecyclerView(RecyclerView recyclerView) {
        compositeSubscription.unsubscribe();
    }

    public static class ViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {

        public Subscription subscription;

        // some holder-related stuff

        public ViewHolder(View itemView) {
            super(itemView);
            // init holder
        }
    }
}

For others which have the same problem: viewDetachedFromWindow in the adapter is only called when the adapter is set to null in the onPause (Activity, Fragment) or onDetachFromWindow (Activity, Fragment)

recyclerview.setAdapter(null)

Then you get viewDetachedFromWindow(...) where you can release your internal states and subscriptions. I would setup your subscriptions in on bind, make sure before every bind call you relase old subscriptions as a view can be recycled.

Another possibility is to inflate a custom view instead of only a layout in your factory. Then you can make the cleanup in the custom view onDetachFromWindow(). You get the onDetachedFromWindow also without setting the adapter to null.

One can call public void onViewRecycled(@NonNull VH holder)