Attempt to update program yields error message: "Something went wrong..."

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’m prompted that my Avast program is out of date, but when I go to the option for updating it,
the little line moved back and forth for several minutes as if it’s trying and then I get:
“Something went wrong and the update failed. Please try again.”
I’ve been trying for weeks. Rebooting my laptop (Win7) doesn’t help.
I can update to the latest virus protections with no problem but the main program updates fail.
Please advise. Would hate to have to leave avast over this.

2

Repairing Avast Antivirus >> https://support.avast.com/en-eu/article/Repair-Antivirus

FAQ >> https://support.avast.com/

3

Followed all of your steps, thanks, and at the end of the repair, it forced me to reboot, which I did.
After that, I went back to Avast, tried to update the app (as it still said i needed to) and got exactly the same error.

4
  • Which Avast…? (Free/Pro/IS/Premier)
  • Which version…?
  • Other security related software installed…?
5

Fair questions! :wink:

  1. Free version.
  2. I don’t think I have any other security on this computer.
  3. All the info on Version from the “About” page is listed below.

Program version: 19/22364 build 19.2.4186.0
Virus def: 190507-4
Nubmer of definitions: 6,955.622
UI Version: 1.0.335

6

It may be best to do a clean reinstall.

  • Download the latest version of avast, 19.4.2374 see https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=226462.0, download the avast free off-line installation file and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.

  • Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, avastclear.exe http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avastclear.exe and save it to your HDD.

    1. Now uninstall avast! - using add remove programs/Programs & Features, if you can’t do that start from the next step, reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, it will request it be run from safe mode (and will handle the boot into safe mode), once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.
      Note: save the copy of avastclear.exe so it can be reused as some users are reporting that after running it, it is self-deleting.

  • avast cleaner - http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility.

7

Just making sure I follow your logic, David (and thank you for the time you took to write it all out.
Are you saying I should download the uninstall utility first in case the one on Add/Remove programs fails during step one?
And if step 1 works fine, I should skip to step 3?

8

It is just getting all of the tools together before starting the job (the new off-line installation file and the uninstall utility).

Then do the normal uninstall, backed up by doing a secondary clean with avastclear.exe (given the Repair didn’t work) to ensure all is removed before installing the new (saved) off-line installation file.

9

If you need additional help with the Clean Install, watch this:
https://youtu.be/p-h3myRD51A