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Although the solution below is not a fix to what seems to be a minor bug, you can use it as a workaround to automatically blacklist devices on startup (log in).

The solution

...is a small script that remembers your blacklisted items on log in. It runs with two arguments: get and set. The first is to read the current blacklisted items, the second will (re-) set the list to the last read version.

In practice

• Remove the devices from the Unity Launcher like you are used to.
• Run the command /path/to/remember_blacklist.sh get This will make a snapshot of the currently blacklisted devices.

Now the next time you log in or restart, the blacklisted devices are automatically removed. Of course you can add the command to a shortcut.

How to use / set up

• Copy the script below into an empty file, save it as remember_blacklist.sh

  #!/bin/bash
  
  arg=$1
  blacklist=~/.currblacklist
  key="com.canonical.Unity.Devices blacklist"
  
  if [ "$arg" == "get" ]
  then
   printf "$(gsettings get $key)" > $blacklist
  elif [ "$arg" == "set" ]
  then
    if [ "$(cat $blacklist)" == "@as" ]
    then 
      gsettings set $key []
    else
      gsettings set $key "$(cat $blacklist)"
    fi
  fi
  

• make it executable (!)

• Add the following to Startup Applications Dash > Startup Applications > Add. Add the command

  /bin/bash -c "sleep 10 && /path/to/remember_blacklist.sh set"
  

• Remove the devices from the launcher as usual
• To remember, run: /path/to/remember_blacklist.sh get

Explanation

If you remove a device from the launcher, it is blacklisted. You can read the current list of blacklisted devices with the command:

gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Devices blacklist

This will output something like

['0A444ED409660B91-intern_1', '2899FAA548C61099-intern_2']

What the script does is:

• when run with the argument get: it reads the current blacklist and saves the output in a hidden file: ~/.currblacklist

• when run with the argument set: it reads the content of the file ~/.currblacklist and sets the blaclist with the command:

  gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Devices blacklist <content_of_the_file>