getActionBar returns null

Question

Calling getActionBar returns null. This has been frequently reported so I've made sure to include the solutions others have used: My minSdkVersion=11, I do have a titlebar, and I'm calling getActionBar after setContentView. Also, my activity is not a child activity.

setContentView(R.layout.main);

// experiment with the ActionBar 
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.hide();

Device is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Android 3.2

Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions!

See also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6867076/getactionbar-returns-null — Harvey, Nov 05 '14 at 21:02

score 58 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 05 '12 at 15:21

It seems you need to request having an Actionbar (!= titlebar) either via a Theme or via below code.

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

    // The Action Bar is a window feature. The feature must be requested
    // before setting a content view. Normally this is set automatically
    // by your Activity's theme in your manifest. The provided system
    // theme Theme.WithActionBar enables this for you. Use it as you would
    // use Theme.NoTitleBar. You can add an Action Bar to your own themes
    // by adding the element <item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>
    // to your style definition.
    getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);

    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    // experiment with the ActionBar 
    ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    actionBar.hide();
}

Code from [here]

Thanks. I thought I already had an Action Bar, but what I actually had was a "System Bar" — user316117, Apr 05 '12 at 15:53

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '14 at 13:29

It seems there are several conditions which need to be met in order for this to work. The one which stumped me for a long time was this:

Make sure your activity extends Activity (NOT ActionBarActivity).

public class MagicActivity extends Activity

Make sure your app manifest has something like

<application
    ...
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Holo" >

and make sure your activity layout has

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    ....
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.WithActionBar" >

-Mark

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 25 '14 at 07:30

10

I seemed to solve all my errors by switching getActionBar() with getSupportActionBar(). I had tried different themes, adding getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);, made sure the setContentView(view) was first and all the other things seen before.

answered Nov 25 '14 at 07:30

ContinuousError

125
2
9

Works perfect! Thanks – user2235615 Jun 29 '15 at 13:55

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 11 '13 at 11:13

Action bar needs theme or activity with app title to be there. Make sure you have not styled your application or activity as Theme.NOTITLE.

<application
    android:name="com.xxx.yyy.Application"
    android:debuggable="false"
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.NoTitle"> // remove this line if you have this in your code


<activity
        android:name="com.xxx.yyy.Activity"
        android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.NoTitle"  // remove this line if you have this in your code
        android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize|stateHidden" >

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 05 '14 at 18:18

I was trying to get the ActionBar from within a fragment inside an ActionBarActivity using the support library. I had to do this:

ActionBarActivity actionBarActivity = (ActionBarActivity)getActivity();
ActionBar actionBar = actionBarActivity.getSupportActionBar();

My next quest is to figure out how to make this generic. For example, this code feels dirty because it requires my Fragment to know both that it's being used by an ActionBarActivity and using the support library. I think it should be a method that checks getActivity().getActionBar() first followed by the code above catching the ClassCastException if the parent Activity is not an ActionBarActivity.

Only this answer works for me. Even thought I was extending ActionBarActivity, getActionBar() is returning null :( — Vivek, Jan 29 '15 at 11:02

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 04 '14 at 17:41

If you create an application project for API14 or above, there will be a values-14 folder. Make sure that folder exists and it has a styles.xml file with:

<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <!-- API 14 theme customizations can go here. -->
</style>

I got this error because I created a new project and I didn't want any extra values folders in my project, so I just kept the values folder and removed the values-v11 and values-v14 folders. But apparently the default theme for API14 and above requires an ActionBar in it's parent XML tag if you want to use the ActionBar. So I assumed I could do that incorrectly! Hope this helps somebody. Your most likely to resolve your issues with the above answers though.

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Jul 01 '16 at 12:01

2

This fixed my issue:

android.support.v7.app.ActionBar ab = getSupportActionBar();

edited Jul 01 '16 at 12:01

Fidel90

1,828
6
27
63

answered Jul 01 '16 at 11:26

Jayakrishnan

4,457
29
29

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered May 19 '14 at 06:48

The real answer should be combination of both @zapl and @Himanshu Virmani

For Android Manifest:

<application
    android:name="com.xxx.yyy.Application"
    android:debuggable="false"
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.NoTitle"> // remove this line if you have this in your code


<activity
        android:name="com.xxx.yyy.Activity"
        android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.NoTitle"  // remove this line if you have this in your code
        android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize|stateHidden" >

For Activity:

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

    // The Action Bar is a window feature. The feature must be requested
    // before setting a content view. Normally this is set automatically
    // by your Activity's theme in your manifest. The provided system
    // theme Theme.WithActionBar enables this for you. Use it as you would
    // use Theme.NoTitleBar. You can add an Action Bar to your own themes
    // by adding the element <item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>
    // to your style definition.
    getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    // Hide the status bar for Android 4.1 and higher
    View decorView = getWindow().getDecorView();
    // Hide the status bar.
    int uiOptions = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN;
    decorView.setSystemUiVisibility(uiOptions);
    // Remember that you should never show the action bar if the
    // status bar is hidden, so hide that too if necessary.
    ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    actionBar.hide();
}

For me the answer was to move the requestFeature call above the setContentView, thank you! — Rickard, Jun 19 '14 at 19:32

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 18 '14 at 05:46

1

Make sure you extend ACTIONBARACTIVITY and not ACTIVITY This should solve your problem

answered Nov 18 '14 at 05:46

Sagar Devanga

2,815
27
30

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered May 21 '15 at 09:27

1

just change two thing 1) manifest file edit android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Holo" >

2) Fragment file add android:theme="@android:style/Theme.WithActionBar"

answered May 21 '15 at 09:27

Kamal Bunkar

1,354
1
16
20

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 27 '15 at 13:01

Change the order of system request:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);    
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    // experiment with the ActionBar 
    ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
    actionBar.hide();
}

Antroid · Answer 12 · 2015-09-13T00:07:37.773

In case when you are developing an app which is targeting sdk>=14 , and you are extending AppCompat to support Material theme in previous versions also . When you want to hide the items from your action bar like the back button you need to do this : In your activity (not in the fragment class) If you will you use getActionBar() it will return null. as in Appsupport theme getSupportAcionBar() will return the action bar.

Here is the link if you want to follow from DevByte

 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    setContentView(R.layout.activity_detail);
    getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);




}

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 02 '17 at 15:36

0

maybe your activity's style is based NoActionBar

answered Nov 02 '17 at 15:36

perry

856
1
10
22

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 10 '20 at 19:01

Step 01:

change your class parent. Activity to AppCompatActivity

i.e:

public class BluetoothActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
//Your Code
}

Step 02:

Create a Global Variable as follows. (I am using androidx. So this is it import looks like)

androidx.appcompat.app.ActionBar actionBar;

Step 03:

Use dark Action bar as Follows.

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Your style -->
</style>

Step 04:

Assign getSupportActionBar(); to the variable, you created as a global in the onCreate method.

setContentView(R.layout.activity_bluetooth);
actionBar = getSupportActionBar(); //Create this After setContentView
actionBar.show(); //this is for Experimental process only

Step 05:

Now you can do whatever you want to do with your actionBar

i.e

actionBar.setTitle("Profile");

getActionBar returns null

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