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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T14:04:34+00:00

I’m trying to style the CheckBox-elements I’m using in my layout. Since I want

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I’m trying to style the CheckBox-elements I’m using in my layout.

Since I want the style consistent across different Activities, I’ve created a custom Theme that I apply in the manifest.

The styles.xml file looks like this:

<style name="LightTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">
   .
   .
   <item name="android:checkboxStyle">@style/CustomCheckBox</item>
   .
   .
</style>
.
.
<style name="CustomCheckBox" parent="@android:style/Widget.CompoundButton.CheckBox"> 
    <item name="android:button">@drawable/btn_check_selector</item> 
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/mainTextColorLight</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">15dp</item>
</style> 
.
.

The selector, which is basically identical to the CheckBox selector found in the SDK, looks like this:

<!-- Enabled states -->        
<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_window_focused="false"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_window_focused="false"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off" />

<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_pressed="true"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on_pressed" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_pressed="true"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off_pressed" />

<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_focused="true"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on_focused" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_focused="true"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off_focused" />

<item android:state_checked="false"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off" />
<item android:state_checked="true"
      android:state_enabled="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on" />


<!-- Disabled states -->

<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_window_focused="false"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on_disabled" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_window_focused="false"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off_disabled" />

<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_focused="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on_disabled_focused" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_focused="true"
      android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off_disabled_focused" />

<item android:state_checked="false" android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_off_disabled" />
<item android:state_checked="true" android:drawable="@drawable/btn_check_on_disabled" />

The selector is stored in the ‘drawable’ folder of my project, and the density specific resources are stored in the drawable-{l|m|h|xh}dpi folders.

The weird thing is that this worked very well for a long time. But today, its suddenly not working anymore. The CheckBox-elements are now showing up without the box-part. Only the text is visible.

All the other custom styled elements works as intended, while the CheckBox displays this strange behavior.

I’ve tried to apply the style directly to a CheckBox with xml, with no luck. Also done the usual ‘Clean Project’. The only way I can get this to work, is to copy the selector to all the drawable-{l|m|h|xh}dpi folders in my project. I was under the impression that it was not necessary to have a copy of the selector in every drawable folder, and it certainly is not necessary for my other custom selectors.

Can anyone spot any obvious flaws in my code?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Finally solved it, and the problem seemed to be some sort of name conflict.

    Renamed my selector from ‘btn_check_selector.xml’ to ‘selector_check.xml’, and did a corresponding change in my CustomCheckBox style:

    <style name="CustomCheckBox" parent="@android:style/Widget.CompoundButton.CheckBox"> 
    <item name="android:button">@drawable/selector_check</item> 
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/mainTextColorLight</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">15dp</item>
</style>

    The selector is in the ‘drawable’ folder of my project, and the density specific resources are in their respective drawable-{l|m|h|xh}dpi folders.

    This is a bit strange, as I do not have any other files named ‘btn_check_selector’ anywhere in my project. My only guess is that Eclipse was acting up!

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