Stop handler after the fragment has been destroyed

You need to implement handler like this

private Handler myHandler;
private Runnable myRunnable = new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        //Do Something
    }
};

@Override
public void onDestroy () {

    mHandler.removeCallbacks(myRunnable);
    super.onDestroy ();

}

You need to store a reference to your handler and runnable in the fragment, and then when the fragment is destroyed you need to remove callbacks from the handler passing in the runnable.

private Handler mHandler;
private Runnable mRunnable;

@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                         Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    //boilerplate code

    mRunnable = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            assignAdapter();
            handler.postDelayed(this, 15000);
        }
    };

    mHandler = new Handler(mRunnable);
    mHandler.post();

    return v;
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    mHandler.removeCallbacks(mRunnable);
    super.onDestroy();
}

Another way of stopping the handler with the use of WeakReference to the fragment:

static final class UpdateUIRunnable implements Runnable {

        final WeakReference<RouteGuideFragment> weakRefToParent;
        final Handler handler;

        public UpdateUIRunnable(RouteGuideFragment fragment, Handler handler) {
            weakRefToParent = new WeakReference<RouteGuideFragment>(fragment);
            this.handler = handler;
        }

        public void scheduleNextRun() {
            handler.postDelayed(this, INTERVAL_TO_REDRAW_UI);
        }

        @Override
        public void run() {
            RouteGuideFragment fragment = weakRefToParent.get();

            if (fragment == null || fragment.hasBeenDestroyed()) {
                Log.d("UIUpdateRunnable", "Killing updater -> fragment has been destroyed.");
                return;
            }

            if (fragment.adapter != null) {
                try {
                    fragment.adapter.forceUpdate();
                } finally {
                    // schedule again
                    this.scheduleNextRun();
                }
            }
        }
    }

where fragment.hasBeenDestroyed() is simply a getter for mDestroyed property of a fragment:

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    mDestroyed = true;
}