How to block Google AppsViewer
Operated by Google. Google AppsViewer is a bot operated by Google that fetches and renders content from websites to provide previews or display embedded content within Google Drive and related Google services.
nginx
In the server block, then reload.
# In the server block. 403 rather than 444: a closed connection tells the
# operator nothing, and an agent that gets a status code can log it.
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Google AppsViewer)") {
return 403;
}
Apache
In .htaccess or the vhost.
BrowserMatchNoCase "Google AppsViewer" bad_bot
<RequireAll>
Require all granted
Require not env bad_bot
</RequireAll>
Cloudflare
Security → WAF → Custom rules.
# Security → WAF → Custom rules, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "Google AppsViewer")
WordPress
A child theme's functions.php, or a small plugin.
// functions.php of a child theme, or a small plugin. Runs before WordPress
// builds the page, so a blocked agent costs one PHP process and no queries.
add_action('init', function () {
$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
foreach (['Google AppsViewer'] as $needle) {
if (stripos($agent, $needle) !== false) {
status_header(403);
exit('Blocked: Google AppsViewer');
}
}
});
A rule on the user agent is a rule on a string it chose
The server rules match on a header the requester sets, which stops the agent that says who it is and not the one that copies somebody else's name. Botscope verifies identity against DNS and published address ranges, records which check decided each request, and shows you the ones that lied.