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  4. Totally Remove "localhost" entries from Google Analytics

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Totally Remove "localhost" entries from Google Analytics

Reporting & Analytics
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  • Robert-B
    Robert-B last edited by Nov 6, 2012, 8:12 PM

    Hello All,

    In Google Analytics I see a bunch of traffic coming from "localhost:4444 / referral".

    I had tried once before to create a filter to exclude this traffic source, but obviously I did it wrong since it's still showing up.

    Here is the filter I have currently:

    Filter Name: Exclude localhost
    Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude
    Filter Field: Referral
    Filter Pattern:  .localhost:4444.
    Case Sensitive: No

    Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong and give me a push in the right direction?

    Thanks in advance!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Saphera
      Saphera last edited by Jun 4, 2015, 9:41 AM Jun 4, 2015, 9:41 AM

      The filter I used a long time ago that worked at the time was a hostname one using (.?localhost.?)

      Filter Name: Exclude localhost
      Filter Type: Custom filter > Hostname
      Filter Pattern: (.?localhost.?)
      Case Sensitive: No

      Now I block via code so I'm not sure if this still works - feel free to try.  Also, I'm not sure why the filter uses both * and ? since the star should be inclusive of ? wildcard but I can no longer find the source.

      Good luck

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,2 years
      • Malx
        Malx last edited by Aug 18, 2013, 7:25 PM Aug 18, 2013, 7:25 PM

        Hi Robert,

        did you resolve this problem as I have exactly the same thing showing on my analytics too and it is driving me mad?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • topic:timeago_earlier,9 months
        • Robert-B
          Robert-B last edited by Nov 29, 2012, 4:06 PM Nov 29, 2012, 4:06 PM

          Does anyone have any ideas?

          I'm still totally stumped!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • topic:timeago_earlier,9 days
          • Robert-B
            Robert-B last edited by Nov 20, 2012, 5:32 PM Nov 20, 2012, 5:32 PM

            Does anyone have any ideas?

            Having this silly "localhost:4444" entry is skewing all of my numbers and no matter what I try, it won't seem to filter it out.

            Any help is very much appreciated!

            Thanks!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • topic:timeago_earlier,8 days
            • Robert-B
              Robert-B @mikecp last edited by Nov 12, 2012, 8:20 PM Nov 12, 2012, 8:20 PM

              Thanks Mike.

              At least I know I'm not alone in being totally & completely baffled!

              Hopefully someone else can give me a push in the right direction.

              Cheers!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • mikecp
                mikecp @Robert-B last edited by Nov 12, 2012, 8:08 PM Nov 12, 2012, 8:08 PM

                I'm sort of baffled, myself. I see no reason why this would be unfilterable. I'm marking this as an unanswered question, hopefully someone comes to our rescue here.

                Robert-B 1 Reply Last reply Nov 12, 2012, 8:20 PM Reply Quote 0
                • Robert-B
                  Robert-B last edited by Nov 12, 2012, 7:35 PM Nov 12, 2012, 7:35 PM

                  Putting the filter pattern of "localhost" did not work... sadly.

                  I still see "localhost:4444 / referral" in my reports.

                  There must be a way to filter this out.... I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem (or at least I hope not!)

                  Any other ideas?

                  Thanks in advance.

                  mikecp 1 Reply Last reply Nov 12, 2012, 8:08 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • Robert-B
                    Robert-B @Robert-B last edited by Nov 8, 2012, 5:31 PM Nov 8, 2012, 5:31 PM

                    There was no real reason I wasn't just trying localhost.

                    I just thought we needed some other parameters on there... but clearly those weren't working.

                    I just updated the filter now and I'll check tomorrow's data to see if the answer was really this simple.

                    Thanks!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • mikecp
                      mikecp @Robert-B last edited by Nov 8, 2012, 5:25 PM Nov 8, 2012, 5:25 PM

                      Was there any reason you're not trying just

                      localhost

                      as the filter pattern? No asterisks, quotes, backslashes or anything?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Robert-B
                        Robert-B @Robert-B last edited by Nov 8, 2012, 1:36 PM Nov 8, 2012, 1:36 PM

                        Unfortunately that did not work.

                        I still see this in my referral reports:

                        localhost:4444 / referral

                        Just to confirm, the filter I set is:

                        Filter Name: Exclude localhost
                        Filter Type: Custom Filter > Exclude
                        Filter Field: Referral
                        Filter Pattern: localhost*
                        Case Sensitive: No

                        Any other ideas? I'll try anything. 🙂

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Host1
                          Host1 @Robert-B last edited by Nov 8, 2012, 11:27 AM Nov 8, 2012, 11:27 AM

                          Do you have a update on this? Did it work?

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Robert-B
                            Robert-B @Host1 last edited by Nov 6, 2012, 9:12 PM Nov 6, 2012, 9:11 PM

                            If I put localhost then I get a "Regular expression is invalid" error.

                            I'll put: localhost*

                            I'll watch it for a couple days and see what happens.

                            Thanks!

                            Host1 Robert-B mikecp 4 Replies Last reply Nov 8, 2012, 5:31 PM Reply Quote 0
                            • Host1
                              Host1 last edited by Nov 6, 2012, 9:01 PM Nov 6, 2012, 9:01 PM

                              1: the "." in front of "*localhost" might break the filter i guess. The same goes for the "." after "4444".

                              2: Have you tried localhost*  or localhost ?

                              Robert-B 1 Reply Last reply Nov 6, 2012, 9:11 PM Reply Quote 0
                              • Robert-B
                                Robert-B last edited by Nov 6, 2012, 8:56 PM Nov 6, 2012, 8:56 PM

                                Thanks for the link... this is kind of what I had followed earlier, but it still doesn't work.

                                In my original question you can see the current filter I have setup.

                                Yet, for some reason this is not blocking what I need since I still see "localhost:4444 / referral" in my reports.

                                Any other ideas?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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