Android Emulator Not clickable on Top

Question

I'm using:

Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.4
Android Studio 3.1.1
Nexus 5X emulator with API level 27

On its top, the emulator is not clickable or draggable, I just cannot drop down the notification bar or click the back button in app. This is not happening at the bottom of the emulator...anyone experiencing the same issue? I don't know if this could be useful, but I'm using a double monitor (macbook + led panel).

EDIT: I think there's a problem with smaller devices. same problem with Pixel 2 (NOT XL). Works fine with Pixel 2 XL.

EDIT 2: Pixel 2 works fine on API level 25 (Nougat).

Answer 1

I thought that experienced exactly this issue with the Pixel 4 API 31 emulator running in AndroidStudio 2021.1.1 on Ubuntu today; however, it turned out to be user expectations of older APIs combined with a barely-readable notification icon in the bar.

I wanted to open the device settings; my own devices are older Android 9 and to do this, I just tap the notification bar, it expands, and I click on the gear icon which immediately appears in the notification bar area once the pane expands to show quick settings.

The API 31 UI acts differently - first of all, I thought there was a permanent settings gear already in the notification bar. I thought that was odd, but, okay, I'll click it to open... turns out that this is not the case: it's an actual notification icon that looks like a settings gear from the Google Setup program trying to complete the initial setup on the phone (this was a new emulator). Tapping it did nothing, of course, but was frustrating because I thought it was a setting gear. Strike one, and had me googling for "Emulator top bar not responsive" leading me here.

Secondly, clicking to "tap" on the notification bar in API 31 doesn't immediately expand it like it does on my API 28-based Note 8: I had to "click and swipe" down (awkward with the mouse) to open notifications. And in API 31, even this is not sufficient to see the actual phone settings gear either! You have to swipe down one more time to further expand the notification pane and finally you can see the gear to open settings.

These two things combined to make me believe that the emulator was non-responsive when clicking the notification bar at the top.

I hope this helps someone else realize what might be happening - took me more time to write this up than the actual "problem" cost me, but I was so annoyed at this "broken" emulator which wasn't opening the settings for me that I had to write it up!