Permanently get rid of URL.db file

system · 2016-12-08T09:08:14.000Z

Hello all!

Some of my friends who use Google Maps on a regular (and a bit abusive ) basis (few hours a day) complained of performance issues.
I found out that Avast collects all URLs into URL.db and at startup it loads this file into memory. Since every zooming and panning you do on Maps will be transformed into a unique URL, the user generates thousands of URLs a day. Thus the URL.db file is huuuuge. In just a couple of months it grew to over 500 MB, but there were cases of 1.8 GB sized files, too. This resulted into intense HDD and RAM usage. Even where there is enough RAM, HDD will be used for reading in the contents of the file.
Deleting the file is just a temporary fix.
What is the definite fix for this?
Thanks!

PS: I want to disable only the (sub)component that is guilty.

DavidR · 2016-12-08T11:08:22.000Z

OK I have just found it in my XP Pro system
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software\Avast\URL.db
Or C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\URL.db in later OSes

But it is no where near the size yours is. Mine is a little over 38MB, even so that is relatively large, it was created on 1 December 2015 and last modified today. On my win7 netbook which isn’t so heavily used it is only 8.4MB and on my Win10 laptop it is only just over 6MB (but this is only 10 days old).

I’m not sure exactly what this is used for, at first I thought it could be related to checking DNS locations to confirm them. But why they could grow to that size is not good housekeeping.

So there certainly appears to be a problem.

Alikhan · 2016-12-08T11:30:02.000Z

I’ve just had a look at mines and it’s currently at 28mb.

Mines was created on the 15th November when I formatted Windows and installed Avast again. It was last modified today.

novakja · 2016-12-08T11:48:47.000Z

Hello,
thank you very much for reporting such possible regression. We will investigate further. In the meantime, could I ask you, csabi98, for sending us support package (and posting the file ID here)?

RejZoR · 2016-12-08T11:50:17.000Z

Would be nice to know the purpose of storing URL’s. For CyberCapture maybe?

Eddy · 2016-12-08T11:56:41.000Z

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=81400.msg665786#msg665786

novakja · 2016-12-20T17:11:28.000Z

@csabi98:
I tried to reproduce the behavior using custom web (and google maps) crawler. After letting it run for several days, the url.db did grow, but only up to few MB, so I am not able to reproduce the behavior you described. Anyway, it would really help us, if you could upload the big url.db file (and stadard avast support package) to our FTP for further analysis (once it grows in size again). Don’t forget to post the File ID here so we can find it. Thank you in advance!

p.gunold · 2018-12-21T08:22:00.000Z

I have the same Problem…
My URL.db File is 7.11 Gigabyte.

And in the last days the Avast Service takes extreme long to start (more than 30 Minutes).

Is there already know an solution for this Problem ?
Or Knows anybody a way to stop this file from growing to such a extreme size ?

bob3160 · 2018-12-21T12:48:40.000Z

Radon post:8:

I have the same Problem…
My URL.db File is 7.11 Gigabyte.

And in the last days the Avast Service takes extreme long to start (more than 30 Minutes).

Is there already know an solution for this Problem ?
Or Knows anybody a way to stop this file from growing to such a extreme size ?

Follow the request from Avast and send in the file.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=193999.msg1355342#msg1355342

rocksteady · 2018-12-21T14:10:21.000Z

I noticed the start of this thread was way back in 2016, so are Avast still looking at it?
I have checked both my XP and Win10 machines. XP has 3 files of which URL.db is just 9.90Mb.
Win10 machine has more and bigger files. See attachment.

p.gunold · 2018-12-21T15:02:02.000Z

bob3160 post:9:

Radon post:8:

I have the same Problem…
My URL.db File is 7.11 Gigabyte.

And in the last days the Avast Service takes extreme long to start (more than 30 Minutes).

Is there already know an solution for this Problem ?
Or Knows anybody a way to stop this file from growing to such a extreme size ?

Follow the request from Avast and send in the file.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=193999.msg1355342#msg1355342

Are you sure that I should upload a 7 Gigabyte file to this FTP ?

DavidR · 2018-12-21T15:40:11.000Z

Radon post:11:

bob3160 post:9:

Radon post:8:

I have the same Problem…
My URL.db File is 7.11 Gigabyte.

And in the last days the Avast Service takes extreme long to start (more than 30 Minutes).

Is there already know an solution for this Problem ?
Or Knows anybody a way to stop this file from growing to such a extreme size ?

Follow the request from Avast and send in the file.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=193999.msg1355342#msg1355342

Are you sure that I should upload a 7 Gigabyte file to this FTP ?

Whilst it is large, I would have thought this would have zipped down by quite a bit.

See what it compresses down to and report its size. Ultimately it is up to you on the size you are prepared to upload, internet connection speed or any data limits by your ISP, etc.

Also in the request from ‘novakja’ Reply #6 you run and also upload the standard support package.

Generate a support package https://www.avast.com/en-gb/faq.php?article=AVKB33#artTitle.

p.gunold · 2019-01-04T11:43:22.000Z

DavidR post:12:

Whilst it is large, I would have thought this would have zipped down by quite a bit.

See what it compresses down to and report its size. Ultimately it is up to you on the size you are prepared to upload, internet connection speed or any data limits by your ISP, etc.

Also in the request from ‘novakja’ Reply #6 you run and also upload the standard support package.

Generate a support package https://www.avast.com/en-gb/faq.php?article=AVKB33#artTitle.

The File is to Big, it cant be compressed with zip.
I tried it with winRAR, but the File is still 3.3 GB in maimum compressed format.

The only remaining option would be to try the Support Package tool.

DavidR · 2019-01-04T14:15:07.000Z

Hopefully the Support package could help the Avast Team

p.gunold · 2019-02-21T12:35:41.000Z

I have now opened the file myself in a sqlite editor, and executed:

SELECT COUNT(*), URL FROM URLs GROUP BY URL HAVING count(*)>2 ORDER BY 1 ASC, URL;

That showed the reason for the huge size…

In the results I saw 2 entries are very often in this File:


5245153	http://192.168.0.1:49000/upnp/control/WANIPConn1
30229249	http://192.168.0.1:49000/upnp/control/WANCommonIFC1

That means the major reason for this big size, is that avast stores millions of scanns from upnp connections to my router.

The question now is, how i could stop Avast from dooing this ?

rocksteady · 2019-02-21T16:20:55.000Z

After doing a clean install of Avast 19, I now only have just one instance of URL.db in
ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast
size is 220KB

bob3160 · 2019-02-22T01:28:28.000Z

Clean Install of Avast:
https://goo.gl/4Ptzkf
If you need additional help with the Clean Install, watch this:
https://youtu.be/p-h3myRD51A

p.gunold · 2019-02-22T13:42:18.000Z

bob3160 post:17:

Clean Install of Avast:
https://goo.gl/4Ptzkf
If you need additional help with the Clean Install, watch this:
https://youtu.be/p-h3myRD51A

Please don`t ignore the topic of this thread…

I am looking for a PERMANENT way to handle the problem that this DB File grows to such a big size.
I already know, that I can delete this File or reinstall Avast, but this fixes not the problem, that this file is growing again to such a huge size.

Cause I already discovered that the major reason for this size is, that avast permanent scanns all UPNP Connections between my PC and my Router, we need a way to tell Avast to NOT Scan UPNP Communication, or yust scan it, but not store it in this Database.

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