Android toolbar menu is not showing

Try the following:

<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.example.lolipoptest.MainActivity" >

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="@string/action_settings"/>
</menu>

and the Java Code:

@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;
}

Do you have Toolbar in your dashboard layout ?. Call setSupportActionBar(toolbar) in your activity. Use Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar theme for the activities (If you are using toolbar in it)

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.view.Menu;

public class DashboardActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
  setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
  getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
  getSupportActionBar().setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
}

@Override
 public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
  getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard, menu);
  return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
 }

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    int id = item.getItemId();
    if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
        return true;
    }
    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
}

Check your styles.

<resources>

<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/white</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
</style>

<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppTheme.Base">

</style>

<style name="ToolbarTheme" parent="AppTheme" >
</style>

<color name="light">#FFBB33</color>
<color name="colorPrimary">#FFBB33</color>
<color name="textColorPrimary">#FFBB33</color>
<color name="colorPrimaryDark">#FF8800</color>
<color name="colorAccent">#ff9977</color>
<color name="white">#ffffff</color>

</resources>

Check your layout.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent">

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
    android:id="@+id/toolbar"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
    app:titleMarginStart="20dp"
    android:paddingRight="10dp"
    android:background="@color/colorPrimaryDark"
    app:theme="@style/ToolbarTheme" />

<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="15dp"
    android:text="Hello Toolbar" />

</LinearLayout>

Add theme in your activity in manifest

android:theme="@style/AppTheme"

I was also facing the same problem, but the actual error was, i forgot to introduce toolbar in java activity

under AppCompactActivity, under on create method define your toolbar by id and call setSupportActionBar(ToolBar);

Example is below:

public class secondActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);

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

I'm not sure why, but when i place everything related menu inflating in onPrepareOptionsMenu method, everything works fine.

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(final Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dashboard, menu);

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}