Android PopupWindow does not show shadows when the elevation is set. It appears to support it from the documentation. I am using 5.0 Lollipop.
Creating the popup as follows:
popupWindow = new PopupWindow(context);
popupWindow.setOutsideTouchable(true);
popupWindow.setFocusable(true);
popupWindow.setElevation(10);
popupWindow.setContentView(rootView);
popupWindow.showAtLocation(anchorView, Gravity.NO_GRAVITY, xPos, yPos);
As answered by an Android developer.
If the inflated view doesn't have a background set, or the popup window itself doesn't have a background set (or has a transparent background) then you won't get a shadow.
which was my case and seems to be yours, since you are not using setBackgroundDrawable.
This worked for me
popupWindow.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.WHITE));
I've opened a new issue suggesting that they update the documentation (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=174919)