AppCompat ActionBar theming spinner dropdown

Question

I'm upgrading an app to use AppCompat v7 21.0.0.

I haven't migrated to Toolbar yet and am instead trying to theme the Window decor ActionBar. I am using NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST and a ShareActionProvider in the action bar. The navigation mode is set like this:

getSupportActionBar().setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST);

However the spinner dropdown covers the spinner and is the dark. Here's an image of the issue: https://i.stack.imgur.com/kNwdm.png

I want the drop down to appear under the action bar and be larger than the spinner. I've tried to adjust the theme in many ways but nothing I do seems to have any effect on the spinner dropdown.

This is the theme

<style name="AppTheme.Blue" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
  <item name="colorPrimary">@color/theme_blue</item>
  <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/theme_blue_dark</item>
  <item name="colorAccent">@color/theme_blue_accent</item>
</style>

The ShareActionProvider in the same action bar shows the same issue as in this question about Toolbar so migrating to Toolbar won't solve both issues: AppCompat ToolBar popupTheme not used in the ShareAction MenuItem

Answer 1

With the api21 the method setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST) is deprecated, then be carefully to use it.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v7/app/ActionBar.html#setNavigationMode(int)

This answer doesn't resolve your issue, but it is another way to achieve it with the new Toolbar class. The Toolbar is a ViewGroup so you can use a Spinner inside it.

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar_actionbar"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:background="?attr/colorPrimary">

    <Spinner
            android:id="@+id/spinner_toolbar"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

Then you can use the toolbar as actionbar using:

Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar_actionbar);
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

Finally you have to disable the title inside the toolbar:

getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);