I know that this is a topic that’s been addressed before. And so, I’m aware that often files are grayed-out for perfectly benign reasons. My question is somewhat otherwise.
First, a slight background. I had a long string of files that couldn’t be scanned and, of course, kept showing up, so I created an exclusion for that location. Fine, they went away.
Then, another single file showed up, which appears benign, something in the Documents folder. And then the next day, a dozen files showed up that couldn’t be scanned – all in the Avast folder! And all seemingly related to definition files.
I’ll attach a screenshot below. But my question is really not so much what in the world are these files? (Though I’m certainly curious.) But rather how can I make them “disappear”? The problem with these and other such files is that when they keep appearing every single day, your mind starts ignoring the warning that “Some Files Could Not Be Scanned,” and that becomes a risky thing to do.
Here’s the screenshot. The file at the bottom is that one oddity in the Documents folder. (I’ve never attached a graphic file here before, so I hope I’m doing it properly and it shows up…)
Those are streaming update files. What probably happened is that sometime during your scan a “regular” definition" update occurred.
When that happens avast does a little housekeeping and cleans out all of the streaming updates up to that time. Then avast will start
streaming updates anew. Nothing to be concerned with.
Thanks very much to all. To be clear, I wasn’t particular concerned about whether any “dangerous” was showing up, but more that the same unscanned files would keep appearing every day. Over time, that would make one stop paying attention, which is problematic.
I took the advice, re-booted and re-scanned, and everything appears cleared up. I’m pleased, of course, but surprised, but some of the files seemed to have re-appeared a few times. But that might be a hazy memory, where I’m blurring past scans. Or…well, things happen.
Again, thanks. And here’s hoping they don’t re-appear. If they do – I will, as well…
The files in the Avast folder stayed disappeared, but that one, odd file in Documents did reappear.
It doesn’t seem like the file is problematic, but if anyone has a suggestion about how to either remove it or exclude it (the “//?Volume…” at the beginning of the filename has me stumped), that would be appreciated. I’ll attach it below. Just know that the "(from Home PC) " at the end of its filename just comes from SugarSync adding it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I might try that – though, honestly, at the moment, I’m not sure if I want to uninstall SugarSync. (Though, yes, I know I can then re-install it.) We’ll see how big an annoyance it is, or if I can come up with another way.
