Estou usando o suporte RecyclerView no meu aplicativo e vejo a coisa mais bizarra. Ele não exibe nenhum item até que eu toque para rolar. De repente, o RecyclerView é preenchido automaticamente. Eu verifiquei que a lista de backup do adaptador está preenchida e que onCreatViewHolder e onBindViewHolder nunca são chamados até um evento de toque.

Veja como eu configuro a recyclerview:

    @Override
    public void onViewCreated(View view, @Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Drawable divider = new ColorDrawable(ProfileInfo.getCurrentProfileColor());
        mInboxList.addItemDecoration(new DividerItemDecoration(getActivity(), divider, false));
        mInboxList.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(getActivity(), LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false));
        mInboxList.setAdapter(new InboxAdapter(getActivity(), new ArrayList<Conversation>()));
        new AsyncTask<Void, Void, List<Conversation>{

              public List<Conversation> doInBackground(...){
                   //load the conversations
                   return conversations;
              }

              public void onPostExecute(List<Conversation> conversations){
                   ((InboxAdapter) mInboxList.getAdapter()).clear(false);
                   ((InboxAdapter) mInboxList.getAdapter()).addAll(conversations);

              }

        }.executeOnExecutor(AsyncTask.THREAD_POOL_EXECUTOR);
     }

Aqui está uma essência do meu adaptador:

public class InboxAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<InboxAdapter.ViewHolder> {
    List<Conversation> mConversations; //initialized in contructor

    @Override
    public ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
        View v = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.inbox_item, parent, false);
        ViewHolder holder = new ViewHolder(v);
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "oncreateviewholder : " + viewType); //never called when I first bind the adapter
        return holder;
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(final ViewHolder holder, int position) {
        final Conversation item = mConversations.get(position);
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "binding " + position);
        ...
    }

    @Override
    public int getItemCount() {
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "item count: " + mConversations.size());
        return mConversations.size();
    }

    /**
     * Empties out the whole and optionally notifies
     */
    public void clear(boolean notify) {
        mConversations.clear();
        if (notify) {
            notifyDataSetChanged();
        }
    }

    public void addAll(List<Conversation> conversations) {
        mConversations.addAll(conversations);
        notifyDataSetChanged();
    }


}

Aqui está o arquivo de layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 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"
                android:paddingTop="?attr/actionBarSize">


    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/lv_inbox"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        ></android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView>
</RelativeLayout>

Estou usando o recyclerview-v7: 21.0.3 em execução em um Moto X com a versão 4.4.4.

EDITAR: A rolagem suave no final do onPostExecute parece resolver o problema:

if (mInboxList.getAdapter().getItemCount() > 0) {
    mInboxList.smoothScrollToPosition(0);
}