VisualBrush in DataTemplate doesn't redraw?

I think you are missing the DataType property on the DataTemplate. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.datatemplate.datatype.aspx . I'd be surprised if this was not giving you a binding error on the line where you're binding button Visibility.

You can set x:Shared=False in appbar_close and also you should use PresentationOptions:Freeze, RenderOptions for performance.

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