Some files could not be scanned Error: The system cannot find the path specified

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’ve been getting this error the last couple of times when my Avast automatic scan runs:

Some files could not be scanned

Under File name it indicates:

C:\Users\Jeff’s Desktop\AppData\LocalLow\Siber Systems\RoboForm\UserData

Under Status:
Error: The system cannot find the path specified(3)

I’m using RoboForm Pro with all updates current in Avast Free Edition (vs. 5.1.889 with definitions as of 110131-0) and RoboForm. Can anyone shed any light on this and how to fix it?

Thanks,

Jeff

2

Files that can not be scanned are just that, it does not mean they are infected…
This happens all the time, there can be many reasons why files can not be scanned. They can be password protected / encrypted / protected by another security program…

example
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=70367.0

3

I have the same issue, however, when I want to “Apply this action” (do nothing, for example), the “Apply” button does nothing.

I know these are password protected files but I’d like to not have the “Some files not scanned” every scan.

Don’t mean to hijack your thread! ;D

4
I have the same issue, however, when I want to "Apply this action" (do nothing, for example), the "Apply" button does nothing.
The what to do buttons are for files infected.....antivirus programs does nothing with files not infected
5

OK, thanks! I was thinking the “do nothing” would cause the AV to ignore this from that point on or the like.

6
I know these are password protected files but I'd like to not have the "Some files not scanned" every scan.
What type of scan was that ? the default quick/full with default settings ?
7

This has happened to me for the past 3 days on both of my computers using avast free. I do a full system scan every night at 1am. How come this is just starting to happen? It never did this before. It’s kind of annoying waking up to this error message every morning. :frowning:

8

Thanks for posting, Pondus.

Files that can not be scanned are just that, it does not mean they are infected…
This happens all the time, there can be many reasons why files can not be scanned. They can be password protected / encrypted / protected by another security program…

Well, I’m not disagreeing with you, but this is something I haven’t seen before and I’ve been using Avast for about 18 months. I don’t know if it makes any difference but the identified path that Avast said it could not scan: (C:\Users\Jeff’s Desktop\AppData\LocalLow\Siber Systems\RoboForm\UserData), is not even in a user profile that I actively use, and also ends in a UserData subfolder that has one of those ‘shortcut’ symbols on it even though the other folders higher in the tree do not.

Anyway, since this is a new behavior in my experience, I didn’t understand what activated it.

Jeff

9

I found, thanks to the advice on this forum, that the “some cannot be scanned” mssg could be a thing of the past. All I did was uncheck the “all Packers” box and use the default settings. Some files, mainly packers are inert by nature. Files such as set-up files and archive files are usually password protected by the authors ie, avast, mbam and so on. These set-up files can not do anything until you open them. They are not executable files and can do no harm to your pc. My advice, use the default settings as far as the “packers” go.

10

Thanks for posting, Para-noid. I don’t think your answer solves my issue, though, as I did not have “All Packers” checked; what is checked is the first three items and the “NTFS streams”. I’m assuming that’s the default because I have no memory of changing this option.

Jeff

11

This is my first post here and while I have exactly the same error message as this thread
“Some files could not be scanned Error: The system cannot find the path specified”
The files concerned are all avast dlls with path shown as
in c:\program files\alwil\awil software\avast5\defs\11060201*.dll
where *.dll =

algo.dll
aswcmnbs.dll
aswcmnis.dll
aswcmnos.dll
aswcengin.dll
aswscan.dll

Having scanned the posts associated with this thread from 2004 until now

My questions are:
Q1 How can avast use them if avast cannot scan them?
Q2 How come avast can tell me the path name if that is the error message
Q3 Does it matter?
Q4 Do I need to do anything?

Thanks in advance for any replies

12
  • Nothing to worry about, those are old virus definitions folders and avast is doing some housecleaning to keep the size used on the hard disk to a minimum. This just happens to have occurred between the time you started the scan and it reaching that old defs folder.
13

Thanks, David - this is good to know.

14

You’re welcome.