Toolbar, onCreateOptionsMenu() returns false, 'up' navigation not working

Question

I'm using the new Toolbar on Lollipop (no support library). My activity has a list and if the list is empty, I don't want to show any options menu. My implementation looks like this:

in onCreate():

setActionBar((Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar));
getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

And the menu method:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    if (tasks.isEmpty()) {
        return false;
    }

    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_tasks, menu);

    return true;
}

When the method inflates the menu and returns true, the 'up' navigation arrow works file; when the method returns false, the arrow is there, but clicking it doesn't do any thing. Is this some kind of an Android bug?

Answer 1

As a work around you can just skip inflating the menu altogether and return true.

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    return true;
}

That being said, the documentation for onCreateMenuItems(Menu menu) suggests returning false as you initially tried to do should work. There is a bug tracking this issue right now: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=118700