Android – Correct use of invalidateOptionsMenu()

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invalidateOptionsMenu() is used to say Android, that contents of menu have changed, and menu should be redrawn. For example, you click a button which adds another menu item at runtime, or hides menu items group. In this case you should call invalidateOptionsMenu(), so that the system could redraw it on UI. This method is a signal for OS to call onPrepareOptionsMenu(), where you implement necessary menu manipulations.
Furthermore, OnCreateOptionsMenu() is called only once during activity (fragment) creation, thus runtime menu changes cannot be handled by this method.

All can be found in documentation:

After the system calls onCreateOptionsMenu(), it retains an instance
of the Menu you populate and will not call onCreateOptionsMenu() again
unless the menu is invalidated for some reason. However, you should
use onCreateOptionsMenu() only to create the initial menu state and
not to make changes during the activity lifecycle.

If you want to modify the options menu based on events that occur
during the activity lifecycle, you can do so in the
onPrepareOptionsMenu() method. This method passes you the Menu object
as it currently exists so you can modify it, such as add, remove, or
disable items. (Fragments also provide an onPrepareOptionsMenu()
callback.)

On Android 2.3.x and lower, the system calls onPrepareOptionsMenu()
each time the user opens the options menu (presses the Menu button).

On Android 3.0 and higher, the options menu is considered to always be
open when menu items are presented in the action bar. When an event
occurs and you want to perform a menu update, you must call
invalidateOptionsMenu() to request that the system call
onPrepareOptionsMenu().

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