Search view close icon appearing disabled rather than white

Question

Whenever I type into my search view the close button (X) appears to be disabled for some reason rather than appearing in the colour white. How can this error be resolved so that it appears white?

@Override
public void onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu, MenuInflater inflater) {
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_search_list, menu);
    MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(item);
    searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(this);
    searchView.setQueryHint(getResources().getString(R.string.station_search_hint));
}

menu_search_list.xml

<?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" >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_search_light"
        android:title="@string/action_search"
        android:orderInCategory="100"
        app:showAsAction="always"
        app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"/>
</menu>

Answer 1

Clean solution hiding the close icon when is empty.

Use "collapseActionView|always" in app:showAsAction attribute.

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_search"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_search"
    android:title="@string/menu_action_search"
    app:showAsAction="collapseActionView|always"
    app:actionViewClass="android.support.v7.widget.SearchView"/>

Answer 2

Your code seems fine. Try out the following code:

final MenuItem search = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search);
    if (search != null) {
        SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(search);
        search.expandActionView();
        searchView.setOnQueryTextListener(new SearchView.OnQueryTextListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextSubmit(String query) {
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onQueryTextChange(String newText) {
                // Your Logic
                return false;
            }
        });
        MenuItemCompat.setOnActionExpandListener(search, new MenuItemCompat.OnActionExpandListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onMenuItemActionExpand(MenuItem item) {
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onMenuItemActionCollapse(MenuItem item) {
                finish();
                return true;
            }
        });

One more tweak: Try the same above code in onPrepareOptionsMenu with following extra lines at the top

menu.clear();
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_search_list, menu);
...
// Above code