Ubuntu – How to disable Online Videos in the Unity Dash

lensesunity

Recently, I discovered that, Unity lenses can access Internet to fetch information. Such as Video lens. But I want to disable that feature, since It is no use to me.

Can I disable access to Internet by Unity Video lens? If yes, How?

Best Answer

I have found a solution recently, though not very glorious enough, but it works.

Disable the file responsible for accessing Internet:

  • First Open a terminal, go to "/usr/lib/unity-scope-video-remote" by the below command:

      cd /usr/lib/unity-scope-video-remote

  • Disable the "unity-scope-video-remote" file there by this command below:

      sudo mv unity-scope-video-remote unity-scope-video-remote.bak

  • Logout and Login again, to see that the video lens is unable to access the Internet.

If you want to re-enable the feature:

  • Just do the opposite of the above process, Go to "/usr/lib/unity-scope-video-remote" by the command:

      cd /usr/lib/unity-scope-video-remote

  • Re-enable the file by following command:

      sudo mv unity-scope-video-remote.bak unity-scope-video-remote

  • Logout and Login again, to see the effect

13.04 (64-bit)

  • In 13.04 the file is in a different directory. Using bash's brace expansion, the command is:

      sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/unity-lens-video/unity-scope-video-remote{,.bak}

  • Re-enable the file by following command:

      sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/unity-lens-video/unity-scope-video-remote{.bak,}

  • As an alternative to logging in and out just press Alt+F2 and type unity --replace

Will it disable the local video searching?

No, In this procedure, the local videos will always be visible. So, no worry !

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