Android toolbar not showing overflow menu

Question

I'm new to android apps and I'm hoping someone with keen eyes can spot what I'm doing wrong. I've tried to follow the steps here, to create a toolbar for my application. However, it's not showing the three dots overflow menu (which I thought was automatic).

Here's what I see:

I'm using minSdkVersion 19.

MainAcivitiy.java

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;


public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@SuppressLint("ShowToast")
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    Toolbar myToolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.my_toolbar);
    setSupportActionBar(myToolbar);

layout\main.xml

<?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="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true">

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
    android:id="@+id/my_toolbar"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
    android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
    android:elevation="4dp"
    android:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.ActionBar"
    app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"/>

menu\main.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    app:showAsAction="never"
    android:visible="true" />

styles.xml

<resources>
<!--
    Base application theme, dependent on API level. This theme is replaced
    by AppBaseTheme from res/values-vXX/styles.xml on newer devices.
-->
<style name="AppTheme.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
</style>

<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <!--
        Theme customizations available in newer API levels can go in
        res/values-vXX/styles.xml, while customizations related to
        backward-compatibility can go here.
    -->
</style>

<!-- Application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
    <!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
</style>

Temikatemp

Answer 1

I Guess you missed this

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
    return true;
}

Kocher

Even as late as the end of 2016, this essential note is not in the training documentation. Perhaps an update is needed? – Africanize

command-line developers insert before: import android.view.Menu; – Copilot

Answer 2

if your phone has a physical menu button you can't see three dots

if you want to force to show three dots do as follow:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

<item
    android:id="@+id/menu"
    app:showAsAction="always"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_overflow"
    android:visible="true" >
 <menu>
    <item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"
    app:showAsAction="never"
    android:visible="true" />
 </menu>
</item>

Lithic

Answer 3

Solution: i've tried the following method and i've found the issue.

I think this is refering that theme to Theme.AppCompat.Light that's why this theme has a toolbar.

i just did this and it's working:

<resources>
    <!--
        Base application theme, dependent on API level. This theme is replaced
        by AppBaseTheme from res/values-vXX/styles.xml on newer devices.
    -->
    <style name="AppTheme.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
    </style>

    <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <!--
            Theme customizations available in newer API levels can go in
            res/values-vXX/styles.xml, while customizations related to
            backward-compatibility can go here.
        -->
    </style>

    <!-- Application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
        <!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
    </style>

</resources>

Results:

it's working. but,

With your codes and getSupportActionBar();:

Note that our Toolbar has a gray color like this:

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"
            android:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.ActionBar"
            app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" />

P.s: Also i want to make sure you'll do that perfectly, as doc said, we have to add this to Manifest:

<application
    android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar"
    />

and seems like it's not working or we've lost something.BTW, i didn't do that on my manifest and that fixed without above code on manifest.

Dipsomania

Answer 4

Call setHasOptionsMenu(true) in onCreateView.

In case you are inflating your menu from a fragment, e.g. by overriding onCreateOptionsMenu method.

Leffen

Answer 5

I had the same problem. I tried everything here and here, and nothing helped. Everything was just like it should be. After whole day of investigating, I found this statement in my onCreate method:

toolbar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);

When I removed it, geuss what happend: 3 dots menu appears now, just like it should.

Rusert

Answer 6

After following all the answer's suggestions, the overflow button was still not showing. This is how I solved it:

• Make sure to override both methods "onPrepareOptionsMenu" and "onCreateOptionsMenu" in your activity
• Return always true.

Check return comments for this methods on Activity.java :

@return You must return true for the menu to be displayed, if you return false it will not be shown.

Lorylose