Android Question Menus not working in Android 4.x; any alternatives?

[Tirs]

Hello, everyone. I was looking through the forums, but I couldn't find this exact issue; only similar ones, and in old threads, so I start a new one. My question/problem is:

I'm developing an app for a group of about 150 members (a human towers team - think of it as an amateur sports club), and I'm using the "Menu" to access the different functions. The app is almost finished and we are testing it. The thing is, two new users entered the test group, but the menu doesn't even appear for them, so they are stuck at the initial screen. They are using Android 4.1 and 4.3. So my question is: Any idea about how to make a working menu for all versions of Android? We may add new functions in the future, so buttons or tabs may eventually run out of screen space. The best solution would be some "Menu-like" object which works everywhere. Any suggestions? I was looking at Toolbar, but I'm unsure it will work in 4.x, and also it looks like it has many other functions which might confuse the users (and me!)

Thank you for your help!
Tirs

 

[lemonisdead]

My 50 cts (take it like that, please) : a separate activity (or a panel) with a listview where each menu item is listed ?

 

[ilan]

With menu do you mean the menu button next to the home button?

On later android you have to press and HOLD on the menu button to show the menu.

A short click will do a different action.

Anyway a simple button in the app and a listview or list dialog could also be an alternative

 

[Erel]

The standard menu should work in all versions. Are you hiding the title?

 

[Tirs]

@lemonisdead: Not a bad idea, but only if I cannot get the "real" menu to work.

@ilan: Not the physical buttons but the "three vertical dots" icon on the top right corner of the app display (see screen capture).

@Erel: I'm not hiding the title; the parent activity has the "Show Title" property checked, and in other devices with newer Android the title is visible (again, see screen capture).

These captures are from an Android 7.0, where everything works fine.

First capture shows where the button is, so it's clear what I'm talking about (hopefully).
Second capture shows the unfolded menu, once the button marked in red in first capture has been short-pressed.

(Of course, the texts shown are irrelevant to the problem).

Thank you all for helping!

 

[Erel]

I think that the issue is related to what Ilan wrote. The three dots menu will only appear if the device doesn't have a physical menu button.

There are many alternative options. You can add the menu items to the action bar with Activity.AddMenuItem3.
You can add a sliding menu with this library: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/36482/#content

See this example: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/appcompat-with-toolbar-minimal-example.79896/

 

[Tirs]

Thanks a lot, Erel! I will ask the users if their physical menu button works. Probably they didn't think of it.
On the other hand, the alternative options are worth exploring, even if the physical button works. Thank you very much!