 <p>For some reason theming using the "searchAutoCompleteTextView" wasn't working for me either. So I solved it using the following code when setting up my SearchView:</p> <p>Note: This is all done with the android v7 support/AppCompat library</p> <pre><code>public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.search_menu, menu); MenuItem searchItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_search); SearchView searchView = (SearchView) MenuItemCompat.getActionView(searchItem); // Theme the SearchView's AutoCompleteTextView drop down. For some reason this wasn't working in styles.xml SearchAutoComplete autoCompleteTextView = (SearchAutoComplete) searchView.findViewById(R.id.search_src_text); if (autoCompleteTextView != null) { autoCompleteTextView.setDropDownBackgroundResource(R.drawable.abc_search_dropdown_light); } } </code></pre> <p>There are two search drop down resources provided by the compatibility library, they are </p> <ul> <li>R.drawable.abc_search_dropdown_light (Light background)</li> <li>R.drawable.abc_search_dropdown_dark (Dark background)</li> </ul>