SelfDef.log greater 60gb and i cant delete it! (vista 64)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi Pplz,

I turn on my computer this morning and it shows that my drive C is out of space… after some research, i found that the file selfdef.log is over 60 Gigabytes!!!
I went to the log UI for Avast and clearned all the logs I showed in there, none of them cleaned that file… i also tried deleting that file and I couldn’t (even with admin rights)…

Please anyone tell me how can i clean up that file… its taking 1/2 of my harddrive!!!

THanks,
Maclogic

2

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polonus

3

Well I don’t know what is going on with your system, my selfdef.log is 13KB.

To delete the log you would need to disable the self-defence module (program settings, troubleshooting), this log relates to the self-defence module, so it would be nice if you could copy and paste some examples of what is in the log.

This might give us some idea what is generating this activity as something is trying to access avast files with write permission, etc. and the self-defence module blocks that and creates an entry in the log.

In logging I also restrict the log file size, I don’t know what your settings are or if in reducing it that would keep it under control ?

4

Yes, please post a few lines from the log (I guess there will be a repeating pattern there).

5

HI Guys, i cannot open that file for reading since it says it is in use… i tried disabling it and still no luck…

at this point i would be glad in finding a way to delete this file… (disabling the self defense as mentined doestn unlock the file).

any other ideas?

BTW, I have a “limited” user acct that I use 99% of the time for day to day stuff (browsing, gaming, msging, etc)… I dont use my PC under admin acct unless i’m going to install something, or check/fix something wrong…

TO answer the question about the maximum log size, it seems to be set to max of 4Mb for all logs (onthe logs dialogs).

Thanks,
Maclogic

6

Whilst I don’t believe it is necessary to reboot after disabling the self-defence module, you could try that.

You could try (if you have space) copy to another location, that wouldn’t be in use.

The last thing we want is to delete the file before gaining any information on why this is happening or it will continue to happen.

7

I’m running Avast on Windows XP and I just had the same problem - the log file had grown to over 13GB and my Windows was starting to play up something chronic. I tried deleting selfdef.log, I also tried disabling Avast Self Defence and then deleting, all with no joy. I fixed the problem by doing a full uninstall and then a full reinstall of Avast. I will keep an eye on it for a few weeks and see if it grows again.

My A/V configuration is very straightforward (all default settings) so this wasn’t a big deal for me. Obviously for people who have quite intricate settings to reconfigure this would be a pretty poor solution. I’m guessing this is some kind of bug in the Max Log File Size implementation. Allegedly some bug to do with max log file size was fixed in the last version (according to my Googling) but it seems this isn’t absolutely the case. A new big-fix, Alwil?

Anyway, that’s my story, hope it helps someone!
jdt

8

I reinstalled avast a few weeks ago on Windows XP Pro SP3. My seldef.log is still 0Kb. If you have that log increasing in size like that then something is very amiss in your system and you would help yourself and possibly others by reporting the details.

I am not entirely certain that the log size maximum applies to that log. I suspect that it only apples to the logs that are viewable in the log viewer but we would need the avast team to advise on that. Hopefully if the newer logs are outside the scope of the maximum log size they will be brought within the fold in an upcoming release of avast.

9
  1. Right click the ‘a’ blue icon on system tray.
  2. Programs settings > Troubleshooting (tab)
  3. Disable self defense module
  4. Right click the ‘a’ blue icon and disable avast antivirus.
  5. Delete that file. Or use Unlocker to do it.
  6. Enable both avast and the self defense module again.
10

Please update to the latest version of avast (currently 4.8.1290). This new build doesn’t allow the selfdef.log file grow above a certain limit (4MB IIRC).

Thanks
Vlk