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How To Remove Ads From Cydia In iPhone/iPod Touch

For iPhone/iPod users, advertisements can become a real problem when using Cydia. While the package installer itself isn’t the fastest one around, it gets even slowed down much more due to the ads mostly sponsored by Google or Fastclick. Although most users are not aware of it, it is relatively easy to get rid of these annoying ads in Cydia once and for all.

Today we present to you two methods that can fix this issue.

Method One

SSH into your iDevice, and find the navigation path /Applications/Cydia.app/package.js

Search for the following line of code (usually this is line number 209)

if (depiction == null)

Replace this line with the one given below. Note that you will need terminal or WinSCP to perform these steps.

if (depiction == null || true)

That’s it. Save and you’re done.

Some users have reported that they have been unable to view screenshots after using this method. For this reason we present the better, safer method two below.

Method Two

For this method two work, you need to edit the hosts file found in /etc by SSHing into your iPhone/iPod Touch. Note that you must not have performed the steps above (or reversed them if you have already) for this second method to work.

Locate the hosts file as specified above, open it for editing and insert the following lines of code.

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 media.fastclick.net

Again, that’s it. Reboot your device and no more annoying Google or fastclick ads in Cydia for you!

The second method is advisable as it will also disable or block ads from the description page of a package appearing from Google and Fastclick on all applications of your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Tell us how these methods worked for you through your comments below.

20 Comments

  1. When I go to /var/stash/Applications/Cydia.app I don’t find “package.js” but I only find “package.png”
    Please tell me if I have this missing file and if anyone has the “package.js” please upload it to eg. mediafire etc. so I can download it and place it in that directory
    PLEASE HELP 🙁

  2. My MobileTerminal keeps crashing, is there a special thing I need to do before opening? CrashReporter detects it and has no suspects.

  3. Host file:
    http://jamesisbored.com/iphone/content/hosts.php

    ———- EDIT ———-

    Place host file in private/etc. Rename the orginal host file to hosts.bk

  4. any news about this “problem”, cus i think there are way more ads than apps in cydia… :-/ and it is a pain to use this software.

  5. none of the methods work anymore for the new cydia.

    instead, in the package.js file, change (just search and replace) “package.depiction” with “null”.

    credits to otosan for this

  6. Thanks for the tutorial.

    Method 2 worked very well for me but in the beginning it was a bit tricky to edit the hosts file. I tried to do it only with iFile, it doesn’t work. But with Cyberduck and my Mac it worked very well.

  7. If you were on a local network you could also set up privoxy on a local box, enable local network connections, then connect through privoxy under http proxy settings in settings | connection. This blocks out almost all ads in any mobile app while you are accessing your home network.

  8. How to remove Adserving.cpxinteractive.com

    http://www.tips29.com/2009/01/how-to-remove-adservingcpxinteractiveco.html

  9. *******************************************************************
    Method One works for me + I can see screenshots!!!! 😀
    Thanks

    Search for the following line of code (usually this is line number 209)

    if (depiction == null)

    My is in line number 198.
    You can hit Ctrl+F (on Windows) in your text editor to find this line….
    Once again, Thanks!
    Cydia now is like 8 times faster than before!

    ————-Could you tell me the command to delete ads from (Cydia) More Info—————-
    Thanks!

  10. You should note that Cydia now uses an additional ad network. Add these lines to your host file along with the ones for the Google and Fastclick ads.

    127.0.0.1 cpxinteractive.com
    127.0.0.1 adserving.cpxinteractive.com

  11. For ppl who accidentally already did method 2:

    to fix this go to Manage>Packages, and then reinstall “Cydia Installer”

    for problems email me at yordikoolhout@hotmail.com

  12. True, but the removal of ads make the browsing experience so much quicker.

  13. I don't really mind the ads. I've used Cydia before to jailbreak my iTouch. Great app, free and it opened up my iTouch for a lot of free and wonderful apps. Now I don't have to buy from iTunes anymore. 🙂