Android toolbar menu items remain empty

Question

My Android App has a Toolbar to which I want to add menu items. The Toolbar is displayed correctly, but when expanding the menu the menu items are void.

The menu structure is defined in toolbar_menu.xml:

toolbar_menu.xml

<menu 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
    <item
        android:id="@+id/about"
        android:title="About"
        app:showAsAction="never"/>
</menu>

The activity defines the toolbar in the layout file activity_layout.xml

activity_layout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:visibility="visible"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
        android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
        android:theme="?attr/actionBarTheme"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:title="Welcome"/>

    <!-- other widgets follow -->

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

And the activity class where I set the Toolbar is MainActivity.java

MainActivity.java

// import dependencies

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(final Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        this.setContentView(R.layout.main_activity);

        final Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) this.findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        this.setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
    }




    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {
        this.getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.toolbar_menu, menu);
        return true;
    }
}

you can check if the text is white by using `app:showAsAction="always"` — Shay Kin, Apr 06 '21 at 19:16
@GabrieleMariotti in the `` I set `android:theme="@style/Theme.Deck.NoActionBar"` and on the `Toolbar` itself I set `android:theme="?attr/actionBarTheme"`. It turns out that indeed, as @ShayKin suggested, the text color of the menu Items is white. The text color turns black if I remove the theme on ``, but this affects not only the text color of the drop-down items, but also of the menu itself. Any idea where I can set the text color in the drop-down menu? — JCvanDamme, Apr 06 '21 at 22:39
@GabrieleMariotti `Theme.Deck.NoActionBar` is a theme that inherits from `Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.DarkActionBar`. I could solve the problem as I posted in https://stackoverflow.com/a/66977475/4275167 . Many thanks — JCvanDamme, Apr 06 '21 at 22:56
@JCvanDamme You can also use [app:popupTheme](https://stackoverflow.com/a/66977611/2016562). In this way you are changing only the popup in the Toolbar. — Gabriele Mariotti, Apr 06 '21 at 23:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 06 '21 at 23:11

The issue is the text color in the popup menu.
Add the app:popupTheme attribute in your Toolbar.

    <androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar
        app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay" 
        ../>

with:

<style name="AppTheme.PopupOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.DayNight.ActionBar" >
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/...</item>  
</style>

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 06 '21 at 22:53

Thanks to the comment of @GabrieleMariotti below I realized that the issue and the solution are the same as https://stackoverflow.com/a/63279563/4275167.

I am using a custom theme Theme.Deck.NoActionBar that inherits from Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.DarkActionBar.

themes.xml

<style name="Theme.Deck" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.DarkActionBar">...</style>

<style name="Theme.Deck.NoActionBar">
    <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
    <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="android:itemTextAppearance">@style/menuItem</item> <!-- added to solve the problem -->
</style>

styles.xml

<!-- added to solve the problem -->
<style name="menuItem" parent="Widget.AppCompat.TextView.SpinnerItem">
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/black</item>
</style>

Android toolbar menu items remain empty

2 Answers2