Android 5.0 makes unselected checkboxes invisible when background is white

Just change the

android:buttonTint="YOUR COLOR"

It works.

I couldn't get the theme working, but what did work for me was the following:

android:button="@drawable/abc_btn_check_material"
android:buttonTint="@color/red"

Put this into your CheckBox XML layout.

Make sure you are using a Material theme for Android 5.0 devices - this will ensure you're styling remains consistent with other components. Look for an android:theme element in your AndroidManifest.xml file (either on your application or on an individual activity), then look up what style is set there and check the parent attribute for the style.