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Old Man
1,333 PointsOverflow menu does not appear on screen
the 3 dots in the upper right of the main app page (inbox page) do not appear when i run the app in the AVD. the @Override code that appears to create it is present (onCreateOptionsMenu...). but no dots. no overflow menu. any ideas on how to make it appear?
6 Answers
Ernest Grzybowski
Treehouse Project ReviewerWhat version of Android are you running? Anything below KitKat (4.4) will not show the overflow items if there is a menu key present on your device/emulator.
This changed in KitKat because Google has been trying to kill off the menu button for a while (Since 2012 according to the Official Android blog), but Samsung (and others) would constantly add menu buttons to their devices instead of the "recents" button.
Check out the commit message on the Android Platform where they now enable the menu items even if the menu button is available!
This is a big deal to developers because, sometimes users would not find the options they were looking for, and had no idea that the menu button existed.
Harry James
14,780 PointsHello, make sure that your XML file in res >> menu >> main.xml contains this line:
<item android:id="@+id/action_logout" android:title="@string/menu_logout_label"></item>
and that your onCreateOptionsMenu() method looks like this:
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
return true;
}
If you are still having the issue after this, give me a shout :)
Old Man
1,333 Pointsthanks harry. yes, i seem to have both of those correct. i can get to the logout prompt by hitting the physical "menu" button on the right of the AVD and on the actual android tablet but still do not see the overflow menu dots in the app itself on the main tab (or any other screen.)
Harry James
14,780 PointsDo you have the action bar visible though? As in, you can see the Android Icon and the name of the application?
Old Man
1,333 Pointsyep, that's there. as well as the tab names which are "section 1", "section 2", "section 3" at this point.
Harry James
14,780 PointsOk. I've spent a while looking around the internet for a solution and seem to not be able to find one. If possible, would you be able to export your project (Right click >> Export) and I'll take a look at what you've written and see how to fix it.
Harry James
14,780 PointsIn the meantime, another thing you could try is adding this to your code:
<item android:id="@+id/action_logout" android:title="@string/menu_logout_label" android:showAsAction="never"></item>
(Adding the android:showAsAction and setting it to never).
Old Man
1,333 Pointsthanks guys. ernest, that explains it, thanks.
rll
4,166 PointsI ran into this with my actual phone, and I verified the problem with an AVD set for 4.4. You need to edit the AVD details you're working on by setting the Hardware setting, subsection "Hardware Back Home Keys" to NO. When you do this, you will then get the options menu on the emulator. Switch it back to YES, and you'll have to use the Menu button on the emulator.