Question: Our UX asks for a button to start multi-choice mode. this would do the same thing as long-pressing on an item, but would have nothing selected initially.

What I'm seeing in the code is that I cannot enter multi-choice mode mode unless I have something selected, and if I unselect that item, multi-choice mode exits (contextual action bar closes).

I've also tried this in other apps (gmail), and it works the same way.

Is there a way to be in multi-select mode, with no items selected?

Answer: 
Just call: 

```
mListView.setItemChecked(-1, true);

```

ListView's actionMode will be started without selecting any list element.

Make sure you've properly set your ListView before call:

```
mListView.setMultiChoiceModeListener( ...  )
mListView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_MULTIPLE);
or
mListView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

```
You just have to use :

```
listView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_MULTIPLE);
listView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

```