Application icons don't appear in the tray unless I restart the extension

[Aravisian]

This seems to be a recurring problem. I remember it being asked about many times, usually frustratingly.

Gnome: tray icons gone

Ok... I found this response from ZorinGroup that relates, as well as several threads that remain unsolved on this issue. Here is the response from ZorinGroup:

How to skip Zorin taskbar

The following page has a few solutions that should work in GNOME: I’ve personally tested the Devilspie2 solution and it worked. The taskbar supports the skip_taskbar window parameter so any solution that can apply that parameter to a window is supported. Usually the parameter is set by the application itself when necessary which is in fact how the desktop background window avoids showing up in the taskbar.

Zorin 16 Taskbar/Notification bar Issue

I had the same issue when I started using Zorin os 16. I looked at some Ubuntu forums and found that running sudo apt-get remove indicator-* and rebooting fixed this. Now I don't have to lock/unlock to display app icons every time I open any new app. Before doing this, make sure to take note of which packages are removed, just in case. Hope this helps!