Missing menuBar in PyQt5

Menubar isn't visible in PyQt5

bar = self.menuBar()

bar.setNativeMenuBar(False)

file = bar.addMenu("File")

file.addAction("New")

NativeMenuBar property specifies whether or not the menubar should be used as a native menubar on platforms that support it. If this property is true, the menubar is used in the native menubar and is not in the window of its parent, if false the menubar remains in the window.

Sample program

import sys

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QAction, qApp, QApplication

from PyQt5.QtGui import QIcon


class Menu(QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.initUI()


    def initUI(self):               

        exitAct = QAction(QIcon('exit.png'), ' &Quit', self)   

        exitAct.setShortcut('Ctrl+Q')
        exitAct.setStatusTip('Exit application')
        exitAct.triggered.connect(qApp.quit)

        self.statusBar()

        menubar = self.menuBar()
        menubar.setNativeMenuBar(False)
        fileMenu = menubar.addMenu('&File')
        fileMenu.addAction(exitAct)

        bar = self.menuBar()
        file = bar.addMenu("Edit")
        file.addAction("New")

        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 200)
        self.setWindowTitle('Simple menu')    
        self.show()


if __name__ == '__main__':

    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = Menu()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

It's not a Qt and PyQt5 Bug.

I think your code is zetcode pyqt5 menubar tutorial. I experienced the exact same problem on Mac OS.

First solution is a trick. Use ' &Exit' instead of '&Exit'. Insert a space at the beginning of '&Exit' like this:

...
# exitAction = QAction(QIcon('exit.png'), '&Exit', self) # Not shown
exitAction = QAction(QIcon('exit.png'), ' &Exit', self)
...

The system-wide menubar of macOS reserves keywords such as "Exit", "Quit", and etc. For the same reason, yurisnm's example code shows only the menu items except "Quit" on Mac OS. Actually "Quit" has TextHeuristicRole, so overrides "Quit " behavior in the Application menu. When you click "Quit python" in "Python" menu, it does not quit and just print "quit triggered".

If you must use that name in other menu(e.g. File, Edit), you need to change the action name like above or use QAction::setMenuRole(...) like this:

...
exitAction = QAction(QIcon('exit.png'), '&Exit', self)
print(exitAction.menuRole()) # It prints "1". QAction::TextHeuristicRole
exitAction.setMenuRole(QAction.NoRole)
...

Please read the following, it will be help you.

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/11387977/5362866

• http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qmenubar.html#qmenubar-as-a-global-menu-bar

If your program is running on Ubuntu, you may find your menu bar on the top of the screen.

If you want to move menu bar to window's title bar, you can toggle the setting at "System setting / Appearance / Behavior / Show the menus for a window / In the window's title bar".