diff --git a/doc/whats_new.rst b/doc/whats_new.rst
index 9a44f5e0fb8..ea856dc5961 100644
--- a/doc/whats_new.rst
+++ b/doc/whats_new.rst
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ Changelog
 Bug
 ~~~
 
+- Fix side-effect where :func:`mne.viz.plot_ica_sources` and :meth:`mne.preprocessing.ICA.plot_sources` changed the ``ICA.exclude`` attribute even when users didn't interact with the plot by `Daniel McCloy`_.
+
 - Fix wrong assumptions about units in BrainVision montages and add test asserting units in "mm" or "auto", by `Stefan Appelhoff`_
 
 - Fix scaling issue with signals in mV in EDF files read with :func:`mne.io.read_raw_edf` by `Alex Gramfort`_
@@ -98,6 +100,7 @@ Bug
 API
 ~~~
 
+- Deprecate ``exclude`` parameter in :func:`mne.viz.plot_ica_sources` and :meth:`mne.preprocessing.ICA.plot_sources`, instead always use the ``exclude`` attribute of the ICA object by `Daniel McCloy`_.
 
 - Deprecate ``montage`` parameter in favor of the ``set_montage`` method in all EEG data readers :func:`mne.io.read_raw_cnt`, :func:`mne.io.read_raw_egi`, :func:`mne.io.read_raw_edf`, :func:`mne.io.read_raw_gdf`, :func:`mne.io.read_raw_nicolet`, :func:`mne.io.read_raw_eeglab` and :func:`mne.read_epochs_eeglab` by `Alex Gramfort`_
 
diff --git a/mne/preprocessing/ica.py b/mne/preprocessing/ica.py
index 359794c92d8..3a1edc371b3 100644
--- a/mne/preprocessing/ica.py
+++ b/mne/preprocessing/ica.py
@@ -1581,7 +1581,7 @@ def plot_properties(self, inst, picks=None, axes=None, dB=True,
                                    figsize=figsize, show=show, reject=reject)
 
     @copy_function_doc_to_method_doc(plot_ica_sources)
-    def plot_sources(self, inst, picks=None, exclude=None, start=None,
+    def plot_sources(self, inst, picks=None, exclude='deprecated', start=None,
                      stop=None, title=None, show=True, block=False,
                      show_first_samp=False):
         return plot_ica_sources(self, inst=inst, picks=picks, exclude=exclude,
diff --git a/mne/viz/ica.py b/mne/viz/ica.py
index 69cc2485a3c..ba6df6111dd 100644
--- a/mne/viz/ica.py
+++ b/mne/viz/ica.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 
 
 @fill_doc
-def plot_ica_sources(ica, inst, picks=None, exclude=None, start=None,
+def plot_ica_sources(ica, inst, picks=None, exclude='deprecated', start=None,
                      stop=None, title=None, show=True, block=False,
                      show_first_samp=False):
     """Plot estimated latent sources given the unmixing matrix.
@@ -47,9 +47,10 @@ def plot_ica_sources(ica, inst, picks=None, exclude=None, start=None,
     inst : instance of mne.io.Raw, mne.Epochs, mne.Evoked
         The object to plot the sources from.
     %(picks_base)s all sources in the order as fitted.
-    exclude : array-like of int
-        The components marked for exclusion. If None (default), ICA.exclude
-        will be used.
+    exclude : 'deprecated'
+        The ``exclude`` parameter is deprecated and will be removed in version
+        0.20; specify excluded components using the ``ICA.exclude`` attribute
+        instead.
     start : int
         X-axis start index. If None, from the beginning.
     stop : int
@@ -83,10 +84,12 @@ def plot_ica_sources(ica, inst, picks=None, exclude=None, start=None,
     from ..evoked import Evoked
     from ..epochs import BaseEpochs
 
-    if exclude is None:
-        exclude = ica.exclude
-    elif len(ica.exclude) > 0:
-        exclude = np.union1d(ica.exclude, exclude)
+    if exclude != 'deprecated':
+        warn('The "exclude" parameter is deprecated and will be removed in '
+             'version 0.20; specify excluded components using the ICA.exclude '
+             'attribute instead. Provided value of {} will be ignored; falling'
+             ' back to ICA.exclude'.format(exclude), DeprecationWarning)
+    exclude = ica.exclude
     picks = _picks_to_idx(ica.n_components_, picks, 'all')
 
     if isinstance(inst, BaseRaw):
diff --git a/mne/viz/tests/test_ica.py b/mne/viz/tests/test_ica.py
index 40b0463cdc7..6645202d51b 100644
--- a/mne/viz/tests/test_ica.py
+++ b/mne/viz/tests/test_ica.py
@@ -186,16 +186,21 @@ def test_plot_ica_sources():
 
     # dtype can change int->np.int after load, test it explicitly
     ica.n_components_ = np.int64(ica.n_components_)
-    fig = ica.plot_sources(raw, [1])
+    fig = ica.plot_sources(raw)
     # also test mouse clicks
     data_ax = fig.axes[0]
     _fake_click(fig, data_ax, [-0.1, 0.9])  # click on y-label
+    # `exclude` parameter is deprecated
+    with pytest.deprecated_call():
+        ica.plot_sources(raw, exclude=[1])
 
     raw.info['bads'] = ['MEG 0113']
-    pytest.raises(RuntimeError, ica.plot_sources, inst=raw)
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="Raw doesn't match fitted data"):
+        ica.plot_sources(inst=raw)
     ica.plot_sources(epochs)
     epochs.info['bads'] = ['MEG 0113']
-    pytest.raises(RuntimeError, ica.plot_sources, inst=epochs)
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="Epochs don't match fitted data"):
+        ica.plot_sources(inst=epochs)
     epochs.info['bads'] = []
     ica.plot_sources(epochs.average())
     evoked = epochs.average()
@@ -208,13 +213,13 @@ def test_plot_ica_sources():
     _fake_click(fig, ax,
                 [ax.get_xlim()[0], ax.get_ylim()[1]], 'data')
     # plot with bad channels excluded
-    ica.plot_sources(evoked, exclude=[0])
     ica.exclude = [0]
-    ica.plot_sources(evoked)  # does the same thing
+    ica.plot_sources(evoked)
     ica.labels_ = dict(eog=[0])
     ica.labels_['eog/0/crazy-channel'] = [0]
     ica.plot_sources(evoked)  # now with labels
-    pytest.raises(ValueError, ica.plot_sources, 'meeow')
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match='must be of Raw or Epochs type'):
+        ica.plot_sources('meeow')
     plt.close('all')
 
 
@@ -287,7 +292,8 @@ def test_plot_instance_components():
               max_pca_components=3, n_pca_components=3)
     with pytest.warns(RuntimeWarning, match='projection'):
         ica.fit(raw, picks=picks)
-    fig = ica.plot_sources(raw, exclude=[0], title='Components')
+    ica.exclude = [0]
+    fig = ica.plot_sources(raw, title='Components')
     for key in ['down', 'up', 'right', 'left', 'o', '-', '+', '=', 'pageup',
                 'pagedown', 'home', 'end', 'f11', 'b']:
         fig.canvas.key_press_event(key)
@@ -299,7 +305,7 @@ def test_plot_instance_components():
     fig.canvas.key_press_event('escape')
     plt.close('all')
     epochs = _get_epochs()
-    fig = ica.plot_sources(epochs, exclude=[0], title='Components')
+    fig = ica.plot_sources(epochs, title='Components')
     for key in ['down', 'up', 'right', 'left', 'o', '-', '+', '=', 'pageup',
                 'pagedown', 'home', 'end', 'f11', 'b']:
         fig.canvas.key_press_event(key)
diff --git a/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_40_artifact_correction_ica.py b/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_40_artifact_correction_ica.py
index 2aad8d95c34..99344532062 100644
--- a/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_40_artifact_correction_ica.py
+++ b/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_40_artifact_correction_ica.py
@@ -139,7 +139,9 @@
 # we can see that only one component is highly correlated and that this
 # component got detected by our correlation analysis (red).
 
-ica.plot_sources(eog_average, exclude=eog_inds)  # look at source time course
+ica.exclude = eog_inds
+ica.plot_sources(eog_average)  # look at source time course
+ica.exclude = []               # reset exclude list for now until we're sure
 
 ###############################################################################
 # We can take a look at the properties of that component, now using the
@@ -260,7 +262,8 @@
 # Which one is the bad EOG component?
 # Here we rely on our previous detection algorithm. You would need to decide
 # yourself if no automatic detection was available.
-reference_ica.plot_sources(eog_average, exclude=eog_inds)
+reference_ica.exclude = eog_inds
+reference_ica.plot_sources(eog_average)
 
 ###############################################################################
 # Indeed it looks like an EOG, also in the average time course.
diff --git a/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_45_ica_from_raw.py b/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_45_ica_from_raw.py
index 393eb4d66e6..ac69a3cf7ac 100644
--- a/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_45_ica_from_raw.py
+++ b/tutorials/preprocessing/plot_45_ica_from_raw.py
@@ -75,11 +75,12 @@
 
 show_picks = np.abs(scores).argsort()[::-1][:5]
 
-ica.plot_sources(raw, show_picks, exclude=ecg_inds, title=title % 'ecg')
+ica.exclude = ecg_inds
+ica.plot_sources(raw, show_picks, title=title % 'ecg')
+ica.exclude = []
 ica.plot_components(ecg_inds, title=title % 'ecg', colorbar=True)
 
 ecg_inds = ecg_inds[:n_max_ecg]
-ica.exclude += ecg_inds
 
 # detect EOG by correlation
 
@@ -88,22 +89,27 @@
 
 show_picks = np.abs(scores).argsort()[::-1][:5]
 
-ica.plot_sources(raw, show_picks, exclude=eog_inds, title=title % 'eog')
+ica.exclude = eog_inds
+ica.plot_sources(raw, show_picks, title=title % 'eog')
+ica.exclude = []
 ica.plot_components(eog_inds, title=title % 'eog', colorbar=True)
 
 eog_inds = eog_inds[:n_max_eog]
-ica.exclude += eog_inds
 
 ###############################################################################
 # 3) Assess component selection and unmixing quality.
 
 # estimate average artifact
 ecg_evoked = ecg_epochs.average()
-ica.plot_sources(ecg_evoked, exclude=ecg_inds)  # plot ECG sources + selection
+ica.exclude = ecg_inds
+ica.plot_sources(ecg_evoked)                    # plot ECG sources + selection
+ica.exclude = []
 ica.plot_overlay(ecg_evoked, exclude=ecg_inds)  # plot ECG cleaning
 
 eog_evoked = create_eog_epochs(raw, tmin=-.5, tmax=.5, picks=picks).average()
-ica.plot_sources(eog_evoked, exclude=eog_inds)  # plot EOG sources + selection
+ica.exclude = eog_inds
+ica.plot_sources(eog_evoked)                    # plot EOG sources + selection
+ica.exclude = []
 ica.plot_overlay(eog_evoked, exclude=eog_inds)  # plot EOG cleaning
 
 # check the amplitudes do not change