Navigation drawer: How do I set the selected item at startup?

Question

Use the code below:

navigationView.getMenu().getItem(0).setChecked(true);

Call this method after you call setNavDrawer();

The getItem(int index) method gets the MenuItem then you can call the setChecked(true); on that MenuItem, all you are left to do is to find out which element index does the default have, and replace the 0 with that index.

You can select(highlight) the item by calling

onNavigationItemSelected(navigationView.getMenu().getItem(0));

Here is a reference link: http://thegeekyland.blogspot.com/2015/11/navigation-drawer-how-set-selected-item.html

EDIT Did not work on nexus 4, support library revision 24.0.0. I recommend use

navigationView.setCheckedItem(R.id.nav_item);

answered by @kingston below.

You can also call:

navigationView.setCheckedItem(id);

This method was introduced in API 23.0.0

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
      tools:ignore="UnusedIds">

    <group
        android:id="@+id/group"
        android:checkableBehavior="single">
        <item
            android:id="@+id/menu_nav_home"
            android:icon="@drawable/ic_home_black_24dp"
            android:title="@string/menu_nav_home" />
    </group>
</menu>

Note: android:checkableBehavior="single"

See also this

For me both these methods didn't work:

• navigationView.getMenu().getItem(0).setChecked(true);
• navigationView.setCheckedItem(id);

Try this one, it works for me.

onNavigationItemSelected(navigationView.getMenu().findItem(R.id.nav_profile));

Example (NavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener):

private void setFirstItemNavigationView() {
        navigationView.setCheckedItem(R.id.custom_id);
        navigationView.getMenu().performIdentifierAction(R.id.custom_id, 0);
}

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setFirstItemNavigationView();
}

@SuppressWarnings("StatementWithEmptyBody")
@Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    FragmentManager fragmentManager = getFragmentManager();

    switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.custom_id:
            Fragment frag = new CustomFragment();

            // update the main content by replacing fragments
            fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                    .replace(R.id.viewholder_container, frag)
                    .setTransition(FragmentTransaction.TRANSIT_FRAGMENT_OPEN)
                    .addToBackStack(null)
                    .commit();
            break;
    }

Tks

There are always problems with Googles "oh so great" support libs. If you want to check an item without downgrading your support libs version, just set checkable before setting checked state.

MenuItem item = drawer.getMenu().findItem(R.id.action_something);
item.setCheckable(true);
item.setChecked(true);

It might also work if you set checkable in the menu xml files