menu button doesn't show on nexus 7

Question

so I am facing this problem for long time. I've got Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 both running Android 4.3, and i've got application with targetSdkVersion="11"("I use 11 because any target sdk below 11 doesn't support multitouch for me). And the problem is that 3-dot menu shows on Nexus 4 but doesnt show on Nexus 7. 3 dot menu button on nexus 7 works only if I put targetSdkVersion="8" but then multitouch doesnt work

Nexus 4:

Nexus 7 :

code :

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="8"
    android:targetSdkVersion="11" />

screenshots : nexus 7

nexus 4:

Answer 1

In case you are specifically wondering why the button is not being shown the following rules apply when Android determines if a legacy menu button is needed:

• If target API version is less than 11 it is shown on all devices
• If target version is 11, 12, or 13 (i.e. tablet-only Honeycomb) Android assumes that your app has been designed for tablets and won't show a legacy button on tablets, but will on phones
• If target is 14 or above (ICS and above), Android assumes your app is designed for tablets and phones and so the legacy button isn't shown.

But like the other answers say, you shouldn't be using this menu button. If you don't want an entire ActionBar, another option would to have a three-dot button in your activity which shows a menu using PopupMenu.

Answer 2

You should not be using that menu anymore. From the Menus documentation:

On Android 3.0 and higher, items from the options menu are presented by the action bar as a combination of on-screen action items and overflow options. Beginning with Android 3.0, the Menu button is deprecated (some devices don't have one), so you should migrate toward using the action bar to provide access to actions and other options.

Use an ActionBar.