Ubuntu – Adding a indicator / panel in unity panel

What I have used in the past is the following from this link: How to easily hide the username in the Unity panel

Steps:

1. Install dconf-editor: apt-get install dconf-tools

2. Open it and navigate to apps-->indicator-session and on the right-side, uncheck show-real-name-on-panel

3. Reboot

Additionally, you can open a terminal and type the following:

gesettings set com.canonical.indicator.session user show-menu false

Or download and install Ubuntu Tweak from here: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/ and follow these steps to turn off Fast User Switching which will hide the list of other users:

1. Click on Tweaks
2. Click on Miscellaneous
3. Check the box next to Disable "Fast User Switching"

It happens to me to from time to time. I don't know the cause.

To make the missing panel indicators reappear without rebooting you can restart the indicators manually by running the following command in a terminal or with Alt+F2

restart unity-panel-service  

The panel indicators will blink off for a second, and then all of the panel indicators will restart and immediately reappear.

In Ubuntu 15.04 and later restart the panel indicators manually by running the following command:

systemctl --user restart unity-panel-service   

In Ubuntu 17.10 and later GNOME has replaced Unity as the default desktop environment. To make the missing panel indicators reappear without rebooting in Ubuntu 17.10 and later run the following command:

setsid gnome-shell --replace # Press Enter again before closing the terminal.