'Add to Favorites' does not add to favorites

[themusicgod1]

1) click on activities
2) type 'b' for blender (or anything really)
3) click on blender -> add to favorites
4) "Blender has been added to favorites"
....

nothing happens.
I can go back to look at the favorites pane and...nothing has changed.

Similarly
click on firefox in my favorites under activities in gnome...
'remove from favorites'...
results in a message
"firefox has been removed from your favorites"
and momentarily disappears from my favorites list...

but I click out and then back into activities again...and it's back as if nothing happened.

Ubuntu: Zesty 17.04

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: gnome (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-19.21-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Thu Apr 13 13:16:51 2017
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-07-09 (1008 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Alpha amd64 (20140708)
SourcePackage: meta-gnome3
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-04-13 (0 days ago)

[themusicgod1 (themusicgod1)]

this didn't work in zesty, but does seem to in artful for me.

[themusicgod1 (themusicgod1)]

regression in bionic though.