Hey guys.
I remember that the defs folder referring to the image below, before when the antivirus database was updated it was removed, leaving only a single folder, because now it is accumulating!
Is it an avast bug or do I need to configure something, what do I have to do at this point?
It is normal, old folders are usually removed after restart.
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I recall this as being normal rather than the exception, though they never get to excessive amounts and are generally only for that day, occasionally the last one of the previous day. Though yours go back further, but it’s still only 3 instances. My guess would be to allow fallback to a previous version if required.
Only two of mine have any content with the earliest one 0 bytes, 0 Files - The two most recent are 247/248MB respectively. So I would check yours to see if are old but unpopulated.
Mine also includes streaming updates, which yours doesn’t appear to show.
As TheOwner mentions they are pruned on a restart - I don’t do frequent system restarts.
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This is the current content of my defs folder:
24112704
24112800
24112802
24112802_stream
24112804_stream
aswdefs.ini
The first folder is from yesterday, and from the second on they are all from today.
All folders from today contain data. Only the one from yesterday is empty save an empty subfolder.
So for me at least it retains several older definitions, but it seems to be a rolling set.
Hello, that’s really what happened. I rebooted the machine and now see what the folder is like.
Thanks!
What you said is true, I did what the friend above said, I restarted and it went back to normal.
You are right about your explanation.
I believe there must be a minimum time for Avast to remove it automatically.
Or it could be the limit of 3 folders and then it will remove it by itself.
But anyway, thanks.
About streaming, mine doesn’t appear because I set it to update manually. That’s why it doesn’t appear.
You clarify my doubts well, I’m grateful!
Hello friend, now for those who have these settings as my image shows.
Even if I manually install the update and leave the checkbox below to activate the update checked, it still doesn’t create streaming updates.
To tell you the truth, will I have problems if I leave streaming updates disabled?
What exactly is it for? If you know, could you give me a lesson on what it does, I would be grateful.
You’re welcome.
I have streaming updates set to Auto along with VPS updates, so that would explain the difference in our images.
As for your question relating to streaming updates, since the streaming updates keep the VPS Virus Signatures up to date. I’m not sure if/how this will work/integrate, as the streaming updates work in conjunction with the VPS (to keep it up to date), so I don’t know how this integration would work when you have VPS updates set to manual.
As for risk, I would say it is limited (not completely risk free) if you have VPS updates set to Auto. Though I don’t know why you are going for that setup as I don’t feel it should impact your system as streaming updates are very small and unlikely to adversely impact system performance.
I have a petty old win10 laptop with what now would be called slow, lacking resources 8GB Ram and Intel Core i5-7200U processor.
I understood what you explained to me!
Now I’m going to tell you why I set the updates to manual.
I do this in all the products I’ve used that have this option to do manual updates, because I’ve come across several times when I used automatic updates that damaged my operating system or even crashed.
I’ve had a problem where my PC was fine, but when I updated the database without waiting a few days, the computer had a problem.
I don’t know if this happens today, but there are several people who think the same as me, doing the update manually to avoid several problems.
I don’t know if I can explain it to you, but I appreciate your attention in listening to my story.
Thank you, if you have any questions, I always come here to the forum to clear them up, even if they’re silly for experienced people. 
Glad I could help.
Each person uses their system depending/according on their needs.
Me, I’m possible more strict - for a program to get installed it has to be what I consider absolutely necessary.
I have two drives on my laptop a small 256GB SSD, only 70.8GB used and a larger 1TB HDD (data drive) only 66.1GB used).
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Hello, I’m curious and I’m going to ask a question.
Have you ever had a problem with an Avast database update?
I’m asking this question because I know you’ve been using Avast for several years.
Thank you!
No
But I have only been using Avast Free for 20+ years 
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The removal of those definition folders is a bit complicated… the content is normally removed quite soon - unless “someone” is still using it. There may be a component which didn’t reload the previous definitions yet - some of them do that periodically after tens of minutes, or the previous definitions may really be used for a long time if e.g. a long scan is running, using them.
But, there’s one thing - even if the content gets removed, the empty folder may sometimes remain (and gets removed on the next restart). That’s kinda unfortunate - but that’s caused by a leak in Windows code and we can’t do much about that (unless we wanted to change the way the modules are built - which would cause an increase in size). Seems it’s not happening lately though - so this actually may have been fixed in a Windows update and only affects older versions.
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Thank you for the clarification, I didn’t know it was this complex.
Now it’s easier to understand the subject with everyone here who shares their knowledge.
Historically, only the first “old” folder remains until a restart, but the others would be removed when they weren’t needed. It looks like they changed some things to have it as two “old” folders.
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