Why does installing gnome shell extensions from extensions.gnome.org fail silently?

On a fresh Ubuntu install (12.04, 64-bit), after installing gnome-shell, I've tried to install some extensions from extensions.gnome.org but got no result. I've tried with Firefox and Chromium and got the same issue.

1. Open any extension page on extensions.gnome.org.

2. Switch extension to "ON". Agree with confirmation about installation.

3. Nothing happens and nothing has been installed (.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions is empty).

I've checked .xsession-errors, Firefox's javascript console, gnome-shell console errors (Alt-F2 + looking glass). There isn't any trace of any error.

I had a similar problem myself and I tried resetting GNOME settings and it worked for me. After resetting GNOME settings, try logging out and back in (and to be safe, try rebooting as well) and now, you should hopefully be able to install the GNOME extensions.

• How do I reset GNOME to the defaults?

You must have unzip in order to install extensions from the website.

sudo apt-get install unzip

I am having the same problem, but this started only a few days ago.

Also running the 64 bit install. Gnome-shell was installed using ricotz and gnome3-team ppa. Choice of browser (even epiphany-browser) makes no difference.

Maybe this helps in closing in on the error?

What does work is to go to the extension homepages, download them, and put them in the .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ folder manually.