If you make changes to /etc/sysctl.conf (which are permanent and not lost during reboot) but want them to apply with rebooting just use the following command:
sysctl -p
After that your changes will be enabled.........
I thought it was a GNOME problem because no matter what styles I applied Nautilus wouldn't change, but it was only Nautilus that wouldn't change/update anymore so I should have known.
The only fix/solutionI knew of other than rebooting is the following:
sudo killall nautilus
I tried closing all instances of nautilus that were visible and it had no effect.
And another thing to remember is that only will appearances/styles/themes not apply to N........