Google Chrome Ignoring Hosts File

Question

Google Chrome is ignoring the settings in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts file. Both IE11 and Firefox are installed on the same machine and work as expected.

I've tried all the solutions I could find online including:

Open chrome://net-internals/#dns and click the Clear Hosts Cache button.
Go in Settings, Show Advanced Settings and uncheck the following three options: (X) Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors (X) Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar (X) Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly
Go in Settings, Show Advanced Settings, click the Clear Browsing Data button, selected Cached Images And Files from the beginning of time, and click Clear Browsing Data.
Restart Chrome.exe.
Restart the computer.
Make sure to add http:// to the front of the web address.
Make sure proxy settings are turned off
Run cmd.exe and run ipconfig /flushdns
Uninstall and reinstall Chrome

I'm at a loss... Is there anything I missed that I can try or check?

Make sure you add both the 'naked' and the 'www' domains as separate entries to the hosts file, and then clear cached redirects: https://superuser.com/q/304589/143613. That plus restarting the browser did the trick for me. — Mahn, Mar 28 '19 at 12:24
I have the same problem on Chrome for Ubuntu Linux. I'm using a proxy, and instead of checking /etc/hosts, Chrome prefers to check the proxy's DNS. — Jean-Marc Leroy, Mar 16 '17 at 16:06
This just happened to me working with a client. I tested with Firefox and it worked immediately. — Luis Alvarado, Dec 05 '17 at 20:28
I have same problem on oracle linux using a proxy on Version 63.0.3239.132 (Official Build) (64-bit) — Don, Mar 14 '18 at 04:04

score 39 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 22 '22 at 09:55

39

Seems that Chrome doesn't likes the following extensions for that kind of stuff:

.dev
.localhost
.test
.example
.app

Use .local and the problem seems to disappear.

edited Sep 22 '22 at 09:55

Pool

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answered Aug 11 '18 at 16:22

Vixed

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Include `.app` too! – George Udosen Sep 23 '18 at 18:13
This worked for me. I changed to `.local` (from `.localhost`) and Chrome was happy to follow `etc/hosts`. After some research, it looks like that's intentional behavior. However, I'm really confused how all my coworkers in my office are not experiencing the same behavior with the same version of Chrome. It seems like there has to be a way to get `.localhost` to work. – Nick Petrie Jan 22 '19 at 16:52
I use .local but Chrome still ignores the hosts file. – theking2 Feb 02 '21 at 14:17
1

Same happens with Firefox in certain Linux distributions, eg. in Ubuntu 20.04 I don't have problems using `*.localhost` domains, but in Xubuntu 20.04 either Chrome or Firefox don't accept connections from these domains, and changing to *.local solved the issue in both browsers. – Mariano Ruiz May 11 '21 at 14:25
1

I don't understand what is .localhost and .local here? In my hosts file I mention 127.0.0.1 youtube.com to block youtube. Where is .localhost to be mentioned? – KurioZ7 Aug 24 '21 at 14:18

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 11 '21 at 20:49

19

If anyone stumbles on this problem in 2021, for me the fix was to disable Use secure DNS option from chrome settings. After disabling that, all the options in the hosts file started working.

The option is located under Privacy and Security > Use secure DNS

Link to get there faster:

chrome://settings/security

answered Oct 11 '21 at 20:49

vilvai

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This is the correct answer to this problem. "Secure DNS" is a euphemism for DNS over HTTPS (DoH). It is enabled by default now and it causes the browser to ignore all local DNS settings and do its own DNS lookups using a provider configured in the browser (by default probably Google) over a secure HTTPS channel. This will prevent eavesdroppers or your ISP from tracking what sites you visit by monitoring your DNS lookups, but gives that tracking ability to the DNS provider specified by the browser. – Stephen Ostermiller Feb 10 '22 at 10:25
2

I actually want to use the DoH feature and also be able to use the local DNS only for developing my application. Is there any workarounds for this on Chrome or is it not possible? – Diki Ananta Sep 24 '22 at 05:00
This worked for me, and the good thing is, i could just enable it after wards again, cause i dont want the DNS from my provider, so just disable it, load the desired page once and reenable it. – FlexXx Jun 27 '23 at 08:28

Karl Wilbur · Answer 3 · 2021-01-23T05:54:34.757

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This has been identified as a "bug" in Chrome, but it appears to be absolutely intentional behavior. Google Chrome does not honor /etc/hosts when connected to the Internet. It always does a DNS lookup to determine IP addresses.

While my references below mostly relate to my expereinces with this on Linux, it is not confined to Linux.

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/net-dev/iKXqyc40tW0

https://superuser.com/a/887199/75128

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=117655

edited Jan 23 '21 at 05:54

answered Jan 16 '19 at 18:43

Karl Wilbur

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I'm on linux and the solution in google groups worked for me. Thanks! – Baha Dec 01 '19 at 16:37
Second the above comment, I tried most of the solutions listed here and elsewhere without luck initially (on Windows 10). It's the next day, and Chrome seems to be respecting my hosts file. I've seen a lot of sites stating that Chrome doesn't respect etc/hosts but it isn't strictly true. – haymansfield Mar 21 '22 at 12:20
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@haymansfield Wireshark tells another story. I have actually seen Chrome making DNS requests for items that were in my hosts file. It was not honoring `/etc/hosts` and rather making a DNS request when there was a network connection. Without a network connection (Pulling the ethernet cable, or turning off WiFi), Chrome would honor the hosts file. When I discovered this in Linux, there was a config option that could be used as a workaround. That option was removed. This is most definitely a bug. Actually read the notes of the Chromium bug report. – Karl Wilbur Mar 22 '22 at 17:31
@karl-wilbur Apologies, I make no judgement on Linux, I'm purely talking about Windows 10. – haymansfield Mar 23 '22 at 08:54
Hi guys, it started happening on Windows 10 for me this week. :( – vothaison Nov 13 '22 at 03:42

score 10 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 06 '22 at 16:27

10

Okay I faced the same problem but then I found the solution. Try this: Go to history (Ctrl+H) -> In the left pane click on Clear browsing data In the new window that opens go to Advanced tab Set Time Range to All Time -> check Cached Images and Files -> click on Clear data Restart your computer, It should start redirecting addresses mentioned in Hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)

Note: This Solution is only for Google Chrome

edited Dec 06 '22 at 16:27

Liam

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answered Aug 21 '18 at 18:04

Ghazali

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I think the only thing missing from this list is, burn computer, buy a new computer. I'm pretty this is totally over the top – Liam Dec 06 '22 at 16:27
Hey man, I am just here to help. If you have a better solution, you are welcome to post it. And I don't see whats the big deal with clearing cache, it's actually a good thing to keep clearing it every once in a while maybe 6 months or so. – Ghazali Dec 07 '22 at 17:32

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 06 '17 at 22:41

5

Try clearing the DNS Cache:

1) run cmd.exe as administrator

2) type: ipconfig /flushdns

answered Mar 06 '17 at 22:41

jfatal

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Sorry, missed that one. I had already tried that too. I just tried again though, but no luck. I'll add that to my original post. – Nick Petrie Mar 07 '17 at 13:57
On Ubuntu it seems like I had to run `resolvectl flush-caches` – Jespertheend Feb 20 '23 at 15:44

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 14 '22 at 17:03

5

Running Chrome 105 on Windows 11, nothing seemed to work until I added ::1 (i.e. ipv6) in addition to 127.0.0.1. For example:

127.0.0.1           local.foo.com
::1                 local.foo.com

answered Sep 14 '22 at 17:03

Tim Schmidt

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This did it for me, where literally everything else failed. I'd tried clearing host cache (chrome://net-internals/#dns), flushing dns (cmd: ipconfig /flushdns), changing the top level domain, from the one I'd been using (.com) to .local. Nothing worked, until I just wrote in my C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts file "::1 mydomain.com", and that did the trick. – felipeheld Nov 23 '22 at 15:55
This is the only solution which worked for me. – vcaz konzam Jul 27 '23 at 14:50

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 10 '20 at 01:55

I just encountered this tonight and none of these options worked. I discovered that Chrome now hides "www" (https://www.howtogeek.com/435728/chrome-now-hides-www-and-https-in-addresses.-do-you-care/). Chrome was using my hosts file, but I had to add "www." to my hostname in my hosts file since that's what the browser is actually requesting, even if it doesn't show it.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 13 '17 at 14:52

While it was stated that no proxy is being used, I have had the same issue on OS X while using a proxy and the eventual solution was to add a proxy-exception for this domain.

What the OP could try is turn off async DNS via command-line switch as mentioned here in 2015:

Async DNS: Remove toggle from about:flags

Async DNS is fairly stable at the moment, so we don't really need the toggle in about:flags anymore. (Note that the --enable-async-dns and --disable-async-dns command-line flags will still work for now.)

This, however, seems to have no effect in my case, as chrome://net-internals/#dns still displays the internal DNS-client as enabled with no obvious way to turn it off.

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 06 '19 at 12:00

A little late, but after hours i find a solution. It seems that Google Chrome sometimes has problems on recognize the name of the hosts defined en /etc/hosts.

I'm using linux and i'm behind a proxy.

Try adding at the end of the name server: .localhost

Example:

At: /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1       myservername.localhost

On the virtual-hosts of your server configuration you'll need to rename the server name. In my case, i'm using apache so at /etc/apache/sites-enabled/myserver.conf rename the line of the old server name with:

...
ServerName:  myservername.localhost

If you are behind a proxy, you can except all the hosts just adding to the no_proxy vars:

$no_proxy= "localhost"

Finally don't forget to restart the server and try to access on the browser with the new server name.

TechDogLover OR kiaNasirzadeh · Answer 10 · 2021-11-26T14:32:30.057

simple answer
there are 3 workarounds about this:
1- deleting Visited Links binary file (beauty)
2- using .local or .app instead of your desired TLD (standard & preferred by chrome docs but i don't like it)
3- restarting your computer (ugly)

deleting Visited Links binary:

kill all chrome tasks (close all chrome windows:))
delete C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Visited Links binary

you can define a function in your shell profile to perform this fast and just by a command whenever you face this issue: e.g:

function respectHosts () {
    $path = $HOME + "\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Visited Links";
    Remove-Item $path;
}

important Note:

it is suggested that first time after deleting Visited Links binary file, also delete your history cause if you use a url from history, actually you are using the cached dns of that url too:

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 20 '23 at 14:56

The answer from @tim-schmidt is the only thing that worked for me. The site was working on both wsl and windows command-line (curl) but not in chrome.

Adding both IPv4 and IPv6 domains in hosts file solved it.

::1 www.mysite.local
127.0.0.1 www.mysite.local

Current setup: Windows 11 + WSL2 Ubuntu + Google Chrome

What didn't work for me:

dns flush in windows
reboot
adding only one between IPv4 or IPv6
disabling chrome Async DNS flag (chrome://flags/#enable-async-dns)
disabling chrome secure DNS security option (chrome://settings/security)

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 17 '21 at 19:12

Had a similar issue working from a windows based server that had proxy settings. In the proxy advanced settings there are 2 options that can help. Ignore proxy setting for local hosts which is a check box; as well as a list of addresses set off my semi-colons where you can except out certain IP destinations. This fixed my issue.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 08 '23 at 01:51

0

For me

chrome://net-internals/#sockets

Flush socket pools work wonder, credit: https://superuser.com/a/611712

answered Feb 08 '23 at 01:51

Ng Sek Long

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 17 '23 at 05:19

0

Chrome recognizes the URLs mapped to IP ::1 and you must also specify the subdomain example www.

Example: You need to insert the following line for blocking www.youtube.com:

::1      www.youtube.com

answered Aug 17 '23 at 05:19

Saptadeep

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Google Chrome Ignoring Hosts File

14 Answers14

important Note:

Linked