Non-Scheduled Smart Scan Starts Automatically: Resolved

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-26T04:03:55.000Z

Avast Free Anti-Virus
Version: 24.9.6130

Hello.

The Smart Scan runs automatically ‘outside’ of the Scheduled date and time parameters.

Glitch correction?

DavidR · 2024-09-26T09:43:52.000Z

Well I and many others had Smart Scans disabled, but after a recent update this was changed (without user input) to run once a month at a day and month not of our choosing.

I suspect that also happened in your program update, given you have the Smart Scan set in Custom Scans, that may have caused the duplication.

Check the Menu > Settings > Protection > Smart Scan and set to Manual.
Check your other Custom Scan Settings - that too may be active causing duplication.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-26T15:43:24.000Z

DavidR:

Thank you for the answer.

DavidR · 2024-09-26T16:11:54.000Z

Yes - they set it by default after a program update - it upset lots of people (topic in the forums) why have the Smart Scan set to manual.

Disabling the Smart Scan in the settings I gave should reduce the frequency to one (e.g. the Custom scan you created). Or you can change the date and time of the Monthly Smart scan (set by Avast after the update).

What confused me is how you managed to set a Smart Scan to run under your Custom Scans, as that option doesn’t appear to be an option in the New version of Avast for Custom Scans. See attached image of my option for creating a custom scan.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-26T16:29:16.000Z

A scheduled SS ran monthly.

DavidR · 2024-09-26T18:45:48.000Z

Just open up the actual Smart Scan - Check the Menu > Settings > Protection > Smart Scan and change the date and time to ‘Monthly 1st, 1am’ changing what is currently there.

Or if you want to run the Smart Scan you created using the ‘Create A New Scan,’ just leave that alone.
Set the actual specific smart scan to manual.
Check the Menu > Settings > Protection > Smart Scan and set to Manual.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-26T18:59:16.000Z

DavidR:

There are no details to ‘change.’

DavidR · 2024-09-26T23:44:52.000Z

If you don’t set the actual Smart Scan (the reason I post images) to manual then it would also run monthly along with the manual scan you set up.

I admit to being completely lost as I can’t see what you can see, the very reason I use screenshots for clarity.
So I can’t see the Two scans that you refer to.

Regardless of that you need to choose one and remove the other, so you don’t have multiple scans. The choice is yours.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-28T18:00:25.000Z

With me so far?

DavidR · 2024-09-28T19:25:28.000Z

As I said I don’t see what you see.

From what you are saying you have it running twice, so you have to find the duplicate (the one you created manually or the one created by a recent Avast Update) and remove one of them.

As I mentioned:
Check the Menu > Settings > Protection > Smart Scan and set to Manual.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-29T03:40:39.000Z

Maybe someone else understands.

Rundvleeskroket · 2024-09-29T05:13:36.000Z

I also had Smart Scan suddenly set on a monthly schedule I didn’t ask for.

I disabled it through Settings → Protection → Smart Scan → set it to Run Manually.

If you set it to Monthly there, you can then change the date and time when it will run.

So maybe delete the Smart Scan you created and change the date and time of the automatically set one to your liking.

This should result in 1 (one) monthly Smart Scan, I would guess.

If that is what you already did, and despite that Avast runs a secondary Smart Scan whenever it pleases that isn’t configurable somewhere in settings, then yes wait until they hopefully fix it.

I will say this though: If you have a monthly full scan scheduled, running a scheduled Smart Scan before it is useless. As I understand it, it basically is a subset of the full scan, so it would be wholly redundant.

You might also consider not running any scheduled scans at all, and only occasionally scan manually. Unless you regularly disable Avast for whatever reason. If it is always running in the background, it should have checked every file as it was created or modified. And if the virus definitions have changed to include a file after it was already downloaded and stored, it will flag/block it whenever a program tries to access it.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-29T17:35:17.000Z

There is nothing to delete.

Rundvleeskroket · 2024-09-29T18:41:51.000Z

OK first off, some things you really need to understand:

1: We don’t work for Avast. We’re just users like yourself, trying to help each other.
2: I did read your entire posts and I don’t appreciate the tone of your comments.

When I go to my Avast Free, these (see picture) are my options under ‘Protection’, and right at the top is ‘Smart Scan’.

I’ve never set up a scheduled smart scan, so for this screenshot I’ve set it from manual to monthly, and as you can see, you can customize date and time.
This, if I remember correctly from when it happend to me, is also the date and time when the Smart Scan runs that Avast had enabled without user consent. I set it back to manual.

This is not the same menu as when you create a custom scan. This menu exists even if you’ve never created a custom scan.

Rundvleeskroket · 2024-09-29T18:45:54.000Z

This is my version of Avast: 24.9.9452 (build 24.9.9452.875)

Yours is older

DavidR · 2024-09-29T18:59:54.000Z

Rundvleeskroket post:14:

OK first off, some things you really need to understand:

1: We don’t work for Avast. We’re just users like yourself, trying to help each other.
2: I did read your entire posts and I don’t appreciate the tone of your comments.

When I go to my Avast Free, these (see picture) are my options under ‘Protection’, and right at the top is ‘Smart Scan’.

I concur.

I also posted images to indicate where these might have been set (two in my case) - yet despite asking for screenshots of what he sees - it is just a fight to get this information.

I too sought information but it wasn’t clear or forthcoming, just a fight to get that information.

The best plan is to delete all occurrences the smart scan so there are none - restart the system and set the one that you want. Eventually people give up trying to help if it isn’t a two way street.

Spiritual2016 · 2024-09-30T17:20:31.000Z

Resolved.

Rundvleeskroket · 2024-09-30T18:54:03.000Z

Great. You do realize that by not telling us what you did to fix it, this whole thread is of no use to other people with the same problem, right? That’s kind of the point of forum posts like this. They’re not just for you.

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