NavigationViewItem does not render MenuItems beyond the 2nd nesting level
Author: SimonGVVCreated Aug 12, 2026Updated Aug 12, 2026
Labelsbug
Describe the bug
When nesting NavigationViewItem.MenuItems three or more levels deep in a NavigationView with PaneDisplayMode="Left", only the first two levels are rendered and expandable. Level 3+ items are never displayed, even though they are correctly present in the data (MenuItems.Count confirms this via debugging), and even when IsExpanded = true is explicitly set on the level-2 parent item.
To Reproduce
new NavigationViewItem
{
Content = "Level 1",
MenuItems =
{
new NavigationViewItem
{
Content = "Level 2",
MenuItems =
{
new NavigationViewItem
{
Content = "Level 3", // never rendered
TargetPageType = typeof(SomePage),
}
}
}
}
}Expected behavior
NavigationViewItem should support at least the same nesting behavior recursively at any depth, or the limitation should be explicitly documented.
Screenshots
OS version
Windows 11
.NET version
.NET 8
WPF-UI NuGet version
4.3.0
Additional context
No response
Source: lepoco/wpfui