Android toolbar menu is not showing

Question

I'm trying to add a menu to the ToolBar. onCreateOptionsMenu method of my Activity is called, but no menu appears.

This is dashboard.xml (from menu folder)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"       xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"       tools:context="com.app.android.ui.dashboard.DashboardActivity">      <item         android:id="@+id/action_scan_qr"         android:icon="@drawable/ic_drawer"         android:title="@string/menu_scan_qr"         app:showAsAction="always" /> </menu> 

NOTE: icon of this menu is darker than the background color of the action bar, so it should be visible.

Inflating menu in Activity:

public class DashboardActivity extends ActionBarActivity {  @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {     getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard, menu);      return true; } 

And the main theme for the application:

<style name="Theme.Application.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">         <item name="colorPrimary">@android:color/white</item>         <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@android:color/white</item>         <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>         <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>         <item name="drawerArrowStyle">@style/Theme.Application.DrawerArrowStyle</item>         <item name="android:textColorSecondary">@android:color/darker_gray</item> </style> 

Why onCreateOptionsMenu is called but menu doesn't appears. I'm using appcompat-v7:21.0.3

EDIT:

    @Override     protected void onCreate(final Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(getContentViewId());          toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.tool_bar);         if (toolbar == null) {             throw new Error("Can't find tool bar, did you forget to add it in Activity layout file?");         }          setSupportActionBar(toolbar);         getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);         getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);     } 

Answer 1

I was also facing the same problem, but the actual error was, i forgot to introduce toolbar in java activity

under AppCompactActivity, under on create method define your toolbar by id and call setSupportActionBar(ToolBar);

Example is below:

public class secondActivity extends AppCompatActivity {          @Override     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);          Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);         setSupportActionBar(toolbar);         toolbar.showOverflowMenu(); 

Answer 2

I'm not sure why, but when i place everything related menu inflating in onPrepareOptionsMenu method, everything works fine.

@Override public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {     getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard, menu);      return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); }