Further investigation (see bug 708118, now duplicate and gnome#614800 (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=614800)) shows that this appears to be an issue in libappindicator: looks like it unrefs themed_icon too early or something (or too often, called by the theme/icon changed signals).
There are two possible fixes: getting rid of the g_object_unref of themed_icon in status_icon_changes() callback, or making the callback use icon names instead of a generated GIcon.
Further investigation (see bug 708118, now duplicate and gnome#614800 (https:/ /bugzilla. gnome.org/ show_bug. cgi?id= 614800)) shows that this appears to be an issue in libappindicator: looks like it unrefs themed_icon too early or something (or too often, called by the theme/icon changed signals).
There are two possible fixes: getting rid of the g_object_unref of themed_icon in status_ icon_changes( ) callback, or making the callback use icon names instead of a generated GIcon.