I have a similar problem. Sometimes after boot nm-applet is running but isn't shown in tray and wlan connection isn't established. After system reboot it works normally fine again.
I have restarted Network-Manager with "sudo /etc/dbus-1/event.d/25NetworkManager restart && sudo /etc/dbus-1/event.d/26NetworkManagerDispatcher restart" which lets nm-applet appear in tray for some seconds but then it was vanished again.
According to syslog there was a problem with wpa_supplicant and according to ps it was still running so I killed it. After another Network-Manager restart nm-applet was shown again in tray and connection was established fine. So at least for me it is no nm-applet problem but a Network-Manager and it seems to be for at least some others too.
I have a similar problem. Sometimes after boot nm-applet is running but isn't shown in tray and wlan connection isn't established. After system reboot it works normally fine again. 1/event. d/25NetworkMana ger restart && sudo /etc/dbus- 1/event. d/26NetworkMana gerDispatcher restart" which lets nm-applet appear in tray for some seconds but then it was vanished again.
I have restarted Network-Manager with "sudo /etc/dbus-
According to syslog there was a problem with wpa_supplicant and according to ps it was still running so I killed it. After another Network-Manager restart nm-applet was shown again in tray and connection was established fine. So at least for me it is no nm-applet problem but a Network-Manager and it seems to be for at least some others too.