Avast program auto-update failure problems

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Got 2 home machines running Avast free and 15 work machines running Avast pro.

All the machines are set to auto-update BOTH definitions and program. Over the last few program updates including the update to 7 from 6 some of the machines have failed to update without manual intervention. This machine is running XP on an AMD and updated automatically from 6 to 7, but has failed to update to 7.0.1426 from 7.0.1407. One of the Pro machines running Windows 7 on a Core i3 has never auto-updated even after leaving it two weeks. All the machines not auto-updating have indicated a new version is available.

The other machines vary. The other Pro machines are all still XP and most of them are locked down to user mode (not admin) and require admin to manually trigger an update.

Under what circumstances should we expect a program auto-update to happen or require manual?

2

There’s a random spread of the updates - i.e. in general there’s nothing wrong about some machines having not updated yet, that’s as expected.

3

Random spread is expected, but all the machines not updated are flagging that an update is available. I have seen machines being 2 months over without updating.

So, how long is random? My main Windows 7 is running Pro and was almost 3 weeks over when I updated to see if the update would fix a minor problem with an over enthusiastic Heuristic block on some obscure file types. This machine is on from 9-5 Mon-Fri.

4

Sorry, I don’t know the current spread. But yes, I believe that when you open the UI and check the update page, it would say that a new version is available, that information is not hidden.

5

Ok - thanks for that Igor. So to sum up, Avast (program) knows about new version but is in random queue for downloading and auto-update. No problem with that, it makes perfect sense, just need the random delay limit to determine if there is really an update problem. Just rechecked the dates and 6 may have had a problem, but 7 hasn’t been around long enough to make that comment.

Well I have a Windows 7 64 bit Pro machine running Avast 7 Pro which was running Version 6.0.1289 (with auto-program update switched on) from last September, until I manually updated on 5 March (that surely counts as a fail). I will leave this as is 7.0.1407 (unless my voice mail problem is fixed in an update) for the next 8 weeks - say 1 May 2012 and see if it updates, either way I will report it here.