Android overflow menu positioned above actionbar/toolbar?

Question

I'm trying to get my overflow menu to appear below the top bar in my app. When I was using the Holo theme it did this just fine, but I'm trying to get my app to use material design using the appcompat v7 library.

So my theme now extends from AppCompat:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
    <style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
           parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/ucla_blue</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/caldroid_white</item>
        <item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">@color/caldroid_black</item>
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
    </style>
</resources>

And this properly does apply the material design theme to my toolbar in this layout:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/linearlayout_root_main"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_width="match_parent">
    <!-- A DrawerLayout is intended to be used as the top-level content view using match_parent for both width and height to consume the full space available. -->
    <android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        tools:context="com.ucla.ieee.app.MainActivity">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
                xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
                xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
                android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
                android:id="@+id/toolbar"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
                app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"
                app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"/>
            <!-- As the main content view, the view below consumes the entire
             space available using match_parent in both dimensions. -->
            <FrameLayout
                android:id="@+id/container"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"/>
        </LinearLayout>


        <!-- The navigation drawer -->
        <fragment
            android:id="@+id/navigation_drawer"
            android:layout_gravity="start"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_marginTop="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:layout_width="@dimen/navigation_drawer_width"
            android:name="navigation.NavigationDrawerFragment"
            tools:layout="@layout/fragment_navigation_drawer"/>

    </android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>
</LinearLayout>

But for some reason, the menu I inflate in onCreateOptionsMenu appears in the wrong place. Apparently I can't post images but basically the overflow menu covers the toolbar instead of appearing just below the toolbar. This started happening when I use "Theme.AppCompat" first in a normal ActionBar and even now with a Toolbar.

Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
            switch (selected) {
                case FRONT_PAGE:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.main_settings);
                    return false;
                case ANNOUNCEMENTS:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.refresh_settings);
                    return false;
                case MEMBERSHIP:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.edit_member);
                    return false;
                case CALENDAR:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.refresh_settings);
                    return false;
                case POINTS_REWARDS:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.main_settings);
                    return false;
                case HELP:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.main_settings);
                    return false;
                default:
                    toolbar.inflateMenu(R.menu.main_settings);
            }

Couldn't seem to find anyone experiencing this as well.

Here's an example of one of my menus:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    tools:context="com.ucla_ieee.app.MainActivity">
    <item android:id="@+id/action_refresh"
          android:title="@string/action_refresh"
          app:showAsAction="never" />
</menu>

ianhanniballake ianhanniballake · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-29T19:37:18

Per the Material Design specifications (see the Menus section):

A menu is a temporary sheet of paper that always overlaps the app bar, rather than behaving as an extension of the app bar.

Menu overlap app bar

So what you are seeing is the correct Material design for menus.

Android overflow menu positioned above actionbar/toolbar?

4 Answers