This is Debian-bug #781325:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=781325

Debian-GNOME maintainers are an extremely busy bunch, they only have time to package the upstream binaries, so please do deliver bug-free source-code, there is some policy in the Debian-world, that emphasises, that every detail matters, but well, on the other hand there is the social-contract, so you cannot make people do work, they do not like, or if they are already busy enough otherwise.

For this reason, I finally forwarded the issue upstream although, I am currently not using GNOME. Hope this helps.

The original post was:
> Package: nautilus
> Version: 3.14.1-2
> Severity: minor
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> I have been using GNOME3.4, and the settings from there are still in my home-directory.
> Setting the behaviour of the file-manager to opening items/objects
> with double-click does not have any effect.
> 
> 
> 
> - -- System Information:
> Debian Release: 8.0
>   APT prefers testing-updates
>   APT policy: (500, 'testing-updates'), (500, 'testing')
> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> 
> Kernel: Linux 3.16.7-ckt7edtp (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
> Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
> Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
> 
> Versions of packages nautilus depends on:
> ii  desktop-file-utils         0.22-1
> ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas  3.14.1-1
> ii  gvfs                       1.22.2-1
> ii  libatk1.0-0                2.14.0-1
> ii  libc6                      2.19-15
> ii  libcairo-gobject2          1.14.0-2.1
> ii  libcairo2                  1.14.0-2.1
> ii  libexempi3                 2.2.1-2
> ii  libexif12                  0.6.21-2
> ii  libgail-3-0                3.14.5-1
> ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0         2.31.1-2+b1
> ii  libglib2.0-0               2.42.1-1
> ii  libglib2.0-data            2.42.1-1
> ii  libgnome-desktop-3-10      3.14.1-1
> ii  libgtk-3-0                 3.14.5-1
> ii  libnautilus-extension1a    3.14.1-2
> ii  libnotify4                 0.7.6-2
> ii  libpango-1.0-0             1.36.8-3
> ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0        1.36.8-3
> ii  libselinux1                2.3-2
> ii  libtracker-sparql-1.0-0    1.2.4-2
> ii  libx11-6                   2:1.6.2-3
> ii  libxml2                    2.9.1+dfsg1-5
> ii  nautilus-data              3.14.1-2
> ii  shared-mime-info           1.3-1
> 
> Versions of packages nautilus recommends:
> ii  eject                      2.1.5+deb1+cvs20081104-13.1
> ii  gnome-icon-theme-symbolic  3.12.0-1
> ii  gnome-sushi                3.12.0-2+b1
> ii  gvfs-backends              1.22.2-1
> ii  librsvg2-common            2.40.5-1
> 
> Versions of packages nautilus suggests:
> ii  brasero                3.11.4-1.1
> ii  eog                    3.14.1-1
> ii  evince [pdf-viewer]    3.14.1-2
> ii  totem                  3.14.0-2
> ii  tracker                1.2.4-2
> ii  vlc [mp3-decoder]      2.2.0~rc2-2
> ii  vlc-nox [mp3-decoder]  2.2.0~rc2-2
> ii  xdg-user-dirs          0.15-2
> 
> - -- no debconf information
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