Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, 2nd Edition

For the More Curious: Alternatives to AsyncTask

If you use an AsyncTask to load data, you are responsible for managing its lifecycle during configuration changes, such as rotation, and stashing its data somewhere that lives through them. Often, this is simplified by using setRetainInstance(true) on a Fragment and storing the data there, but there are still situations where you have to intervene and code you have to write in order to ensure that everything happens correctly. Such situations include the user pressing the Back button while the AsyncTask is running, or the fragment that launched the AsyncTask getting destroyed during execution by the OS due to a low-memory situation.

Using a Loader is an alternative solution that takes ...