How do I block ads on YouTube?

ErikFontanel · April 2, 2018, 9:36pm

Based on the info in this thread I've put together a simple script. I don't use the YouTube app that often, so I'm not 100% this works perfectly. It also appends the urls with the r00---sn-xxxxxx.googlevideos.com pattern, which are not in the hackertarget list.

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/ErikFontanel/4ee1ab393b119690a293ba558976b113

filter-youtube-domains.sh

#!/bin/sh
# This script will fetch the Googlevideo ad domains and append them to the Pi-hole block list.
# Run this script daily with a cron job (don't forget to chmod +x)
# More info here: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-ads-on-youtube/253/136

# File to store the YT ad domains
FILE=/etc/pihole/youtube.hosts

# Fetch the list of domains, remove the ip's and save them
curl 'https://api.hackertarget.com/hostsearch/?q=googlevideo.com' \

This file has been truncated. show original

Place it somewhere convenient, add execute permissions (chmod +x filter-youtube-domains.sh) and add it to your cron jobs.

Edit:
I have noticed some ads still (although less than I used to). I'm not sure yet if the domains provided by hackertarget are incomplete or that I need to run my cron job more often (now it runs every 24h). I did find a longer list on Wolfram Alpha (click on subdomains) but they don't seem to have an easy way to get those in plain text.