ViewModel onCleared not called in RecyclerView

Question

I have an adapter with code below. The problem is, that the onCleared()-Method of the ViewModel seems never being called for the ViewModels for the list items. Is there a special method / flag that needs to be set to clear these ViewModels?

class BaseRecyclerViewViewModelAdapter(
        private val lifecycleOwner: LifecycleOwner
) : RecyclerView.Adapter<BaseRecyclerViewViewModelViewHolder>() {

    var items: List<BaseRecyclerViewItemViewModel> = emptyList()
        set(value) {
            field = value
            notifyDataSetChanged()
        }

    override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): BaseRecyclerViewViewModelViewHolder {
        val binding: ViewDataBinding =
                DataBindingUtil.inflate(LayoutInflater.from(parent.context), viewType, parent, false)
        return BaseRecyclerViewViewModelViewHolder(binding)
    }

    override fun getItemCount() = items.size

    override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: BaseRecyclerViewViewModelViewHolder, position: Int) {
        with(holder.binding) {
            setVariable(BR.viewModel, items[position])
            setLifecycleOwner(lifecycleOwner)
            executePendingBindings()
        }
    }

    override fun getItemViewType(position: Int) = items[position].layoutId
}

Answer 1

And it won't be. According to the official documentation :

When the owner activity is finished, the framework calls the ViewModel objects's onCleared() method so that it can clean up resources.

If you want to clear some things in the list - you should do it manually.