diff --git a/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/src/HandlerDispatcher.kt b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/src/HandlerDispatcher.kt
index d693e2bc25..b1ec8047dd 100644
--- a/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/src/HandlerDispatcher.kt
+++ b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/src/HandlerDispatcher.kt
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
 package kotlinx.coroutines.android
 
 import android.os.*
-import androidx.annotation.*
 import android.view.*
+import androidx.annotation.*
 import kotlinx.coroutines.*
 import kotlinx.coroutines.internal.*
 import java.lang.reflect.*
@@ -54,15 +54,22 @@ internal class AndroidDispatcherFactory : MainDispatcherFactory {
     override fun createDispatcher(allFactories: List<MainDispatcherFactory>) =
         HandlerContext(Looper.getMainLooper().asHandler(async = true))
 
-    override fun hintOnError(): String? = "For tests Dispatchers.setMain from kotlinx-coroutines-test module can be used"
+    override fun hintOnError(): String = "For tests Dispatchers.setMain from kotlinx-coroutines-test module can be used"
 
     override val loadPriority: Int
         get() = Int.MAX_VALUE / 2
 }
 
 /**
- * Represents an arbitrary [Handler] as a implementation of [CoroutineDispatcher]
+ * Represents an arbitrary [Handler] as an implementation of [CoroutineDispatcher]
  * with an optional [name] for nicer debugging
+ *
+ * ## Rejected execution
+ *
+ * If the underlying handler is closed and its message-scheduling methods start to return `false` on
+ * an attempt to submit a continuation task to the resulting dispatcher,
+ * then the [Job] of the affected task is [cancelled][Job.cancel] and the task is submitted to the
+ * [Dispatchers.IO], so that the affected coroutine can cleanup its resources and promptly complete.
  */
 @JvmName("from") // this is for a nice Java API, see issue #255
 @JvmOverloads
@@ -129,24 +136,33 @@ internal class HandlerContext private constructor(
     }
 
     override fun dispatch(context: CoroutineContext, block: Runnable) {
-        handler.post(block)
+        if (!handler.post(block)) {
+            cancelOnRejection(context, block)
+        }
     }
 
     override fun scheduleResumeAfterDelay(timeMillis: Long, continuation: CancellableContinuation<Unit>) {
         val block = Runnable {
             with(continuation) { resumeUndispatched(Unit) }
         }
-        handler.postDelayed(block, timeMillis.coerceAtMost(MAX_DELAY))
-        continuation.invokeOnCancellation { handler.removeCallbacks(block) }
+        if (handler.postDelayed(block, timeMillis.coerceAtMost(MAX_DELAY))) {
+            continuation.invokeOnCancellation { handler.removeCallbacks(block) }
+        } else {
+            cancelOnRejection(continuation.context, block)
+        }
     }
 
     override fun invokeOnTimeout(timeMillis: Long, block: Runnable, context: CoroutineContext): DisposableHandle {
-        handler.postDelayed(block, timeMillis.coerceAtMost(MAX_DELAY))
-        return object : DisposableHandle {
-            override fun dispose() {
-                handler.removeCallbacks(block)
-            }
+        if (handler.postDelayed(block, timeMillis.coerceAtMost(MAX_DELAY))) {
+            return DisposableHandle { handler.removeCallbacks(block) }
         }
+        cancelOnRejection(context, block)
+        return NonDisposableHandle
+    }
+
+    private fun cancelOnRejection(context: CoroutineContext, block: Runnable) {
+        context.cancel(CancellationException("The task was rejected, the handler underlying the dispatcher '${toString()}' was closed"))
+        Dispatchers.IO.dispatch(context, block)
     }
 
     override fun toString(): String = toStringInternalImpl() ?: run {
diff --git a/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/DisabledHandlerTest.kt b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/DisabledHandlerTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a1f0a03d4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/DisabledHandlerTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2016-2021 JetBrains s.r.o. Use of this source code is governed by the Apache 2.0 license.
+ */
+
+package kotlinx.coroutines.android
+
+import android.os.*
+import kotlinx.coroutines.*
+import org.junit.*
+import org.junit.runner.*
+import org.robolectric.*
+import org.robolectric.annotation.*
+
+@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner::class)
+@Config(manifest = Config.NONE, sdk = [28])
+class DisabledHandlerTest : TestBase() {
+
+    private var delegateToSuper = false
+    private val disabledDispatcher = object : Handler() {
+        override fun sendMessageAtTime(msg: Message?, uptimeMillis: Long): Boolean {
+            if (delegateToSuper) return super.sendMessageAtTime(msg, uptimeMillis)
+            return false
+        }
+    }.asCoroutineDispatcher()
+
+    @Test
+    fun testRunBlocking() {
+        expect(1)
+        try {
+            runBlocking(disabledDispatcher) {
+                expectUnreached()
+            }
+            expectUnreached()
+        } catch (e: CancellationException) {
+            finish(2)
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun testInvokeOnCancellation() = runTest {
+        val job = launch(disabledDispatcher, start = CoroutineStart.LAZY) { expectUnreached() }
+        job.invokeOnCompletion { if (it != null) expect(2) }
+        yield()
+        expect(1)
+        job.join()
+        finish(3)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun testWithTimeout() = runTest {
+        delegateToSuper = true
+        try {
+            withContext(disabledDispatcher) {
+                expect(1)
+                delegateToSuper = false
+                delay(Long.MAX_VALUE - 1)
+                expectUnreached()
+            }
+            expectUnreached()
+        } catch (e: CancellationException) {
+            finish(2)
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/HandlerDispatcherTest.kt b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/HandlerDispatcherTest.kt
index 55decde61b..5128a74caf 100644
--- a/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/HandlerDispatcherTest.kt
+++ b/ui/kotlinx-coroutines-android/test/HandlerDispatcherTest.kt
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ class HandlerDispatcherTest : TestBase() {
     fun mainIsAsync() = runTest {
         ReflectionHelpers.setStaticField(Build.VERSION::class.java, "SDK_INT", 28)
 
-        val mainLooper = ShadowLooper.getShadowMainLooper()
+        val mainLooper = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper())
         mainLooper.pause()
         val mainMessageQueue = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper().queue)
 
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class HandlerDispatcherTest : TestBase() {
 
         val main = Looper.getMainLooper().asHandler(async = true).asCoroutineDispatcher()
 
-        val mainLooper = ShadowLooper.getShadowMainLooper()
+        val mainLooper = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper())
         mainLooper.pause()
         val mainMessageQueue = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper().queue)
 
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ class HandlerDispatcherTest : TestBase() {
 
         val main = Looper.getMainLooper().asHandler(async = true).asCoroutineDispatcher()
 
-        val mainLooper = ShadowLooper.getShadowMainLooper()
+        val mainLooper = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper())
         mainLooper.pause()
         val mainMessageQueue = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper().queue)
 
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ class HandlerDispatcherTest : TestBase() {
 
         val main = Looper.getMainLooper().asHandler(async = true).asCoroutineDispatcher()
 
-        val mainLooper = ShadowLooper.getShadowMainLooper()
+        val mainLooper = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper())
         mainLooper.pause()
         val mainMessageQueue = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper().queue)
 
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ class HandlerDispatcherTest : TestBase() {
 
         val main = Looper.getMainLooper().asHandler(async = false).asCoroutineDispatcher()
 
-        val mainLooper = ShadowLooper.getShadowMainLooper()
+        val mainLooper = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper())
         mainLooper.pause()
         val mainMessageQueue = shadowOf(Looper.getMainLooper().queue)