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excessively long scan time

  • 26 November 2019
  • 13 replies
  • 1147 views
J
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I have a Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Both have small hard drives and don’t have many files as I mainly use them for web browsing. Both have WSA IS Plus installed and I have excluded scanning mounted drives and removable media (Time Machine backups are on the removable media). I had an issue when I upgraded to OS Catalina but WSA tech support uninstalled and reinstalled the compatible version (9.1.0.144:1283)  2 days ago. Scans are taking over 7 hours and sometimes over 80 hours! This has been happening before and since WSA was reinstalled by tech support. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this? I would rather not switch from full scans to quick scans.

Thanks!

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Best answer by JDARGIE 1 December 2019, 14:40

You can mark this issue resolved. I have switched to another product that seems to work well. Scan time was just under 30 minutes using the new a/v product on both my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Malware was detected in several email attachments which were in my Spam folder. Webroot never detected them but maybe it was because it could never finish scanning. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions but I had to move on with another product that works.

View original
-Joe

13 replies

ProTruckDriver
Rank
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Hello Joe @JDARGIE Welcome to the Webroot Community Forum. :relaxed:

Webroot is having some problems with macOS Catalina. The best I can recommend is to go back to Support and tell them about your scan times. I haven’t upgraded to Catalina yet but I do know from starting out with WSA on macOS El Capitan my scan times were around 15 minutes. The scan time increased every time I upgraded my Mac. Now with macOS Mojave it’s about an hour to scan. You might want to try a uninstall / Reinstall of WSA. If that doesn’t fix the problem, contact Support again.

Uninstall WSA on Mac Computer
Make sure you have a copy of your 20 Character Alphanumeric Keycode! Example: SA69-AAAA-A783-DE78-XXXX

Be sure you add your Keycode to your Online Console: Webroot SecureAnywhere Online Console

1. Shut down SecureAnywhere by clicking the Webroot icon in the menu bar and selecting Shut Down SecureAnywhere.

2. If prompted, confirm that you want to shut down SecureAnywhere.

3. Open the Applications directory.

4. Click and drag the Webroot SecureAnywhere program icon into the Trash in the dock.

5. A confirming window appears. Click Uninstall.

Webroot SecureAnywhere is now uninstalled. Reboot the computer.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

To install the Mac software:

  1. Click here to download the SecureAnywhere installer to your Mac.
  2. Make sure you have a copy of your 20 Character Alphanumeric Keycode! Example: SA69-AAAA-A783-DE78-XXXX
  3. Be sure you add your Keycode to your Online Console: Webroot SecureAnywhere Online Console
  4. To install Webroot from Best Buy Geek Squad click here
  5. Double-click wsamac.dmg to open the installer.
  6. Drag the Webroot SecureAnywhere icon into the Applications folder.
  7. In the first activation window, enter your keycode and click Activate.
  8. If prompted, confirm the installation by entering your Apple system password and click OK.
  9. Let Webroot complete the scan.

HTH,

Dave.

(I’m moving your thread to the Mac Forum ~ PTD)

 iMac (Retina 5K, 27 inch, Late 2015) macOS Catalina Version 10.15.5  This Mac is Ready For The "Big Sur" :)
J
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I don’t know how this message got assigned “Solved”. I have uninstalled/reinstalled and it didn’t help. I contacted support and have pasted their response below. WSA doesn’t seem to be a good choice of anti-virus software for a Mac. I have disabled scanning of archive files (per tech support suggestion) and rebooted to see if that helps.

I purchased my MacBook Pro (2018) in June 2019 with Retina display, 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel i5 proc, 256 GB SSD (168GB free), 8 GB 2133MHz LDDDR3. My MacBook Pro was still scanning and had been for the last 36 hours until I just rebooted it.

I purchased my Mac Mini (2018) in July 2019 with Intel UHD Graphics 630 w/1536 MB, 3.6 GHz quad-core Intel i3 proc, 128 GB SSD (53 GB free), 8 GB 2667 MHz DDR4. My Mac Mini was still scanning and had been for the last 67 hours until I just rebooted it.

Not only are scans taking an excessively long time but the browser extensions for Chrome and Safari don’t work either. I purchased a 3 year license exactly 1 week ago today and may ask for a refund if this can’t be resolved soon. Waiting for them to resolve this in the next update, assuming it’s resolved in the next update, doesn’t help me right now and I have no idea when there will be an update.

From tech support:

Hello,

Unfortunately the Mac platform doesn't allow for the same kind of scanning that our Windows agent does. This results in substantially slower scans. Quick scans operate a bit more intelligently in that it scans items currently running and their associated links. This is greatly compounded by other aspects of a system outside of our control items like CPU speed, Hard Drive type, file system, and the number of files on the machine.
Another optimization can be made by disabling Archived Files. Scanning these kinds of files can be particularly taxing since it requires the agent to unpack these files to a temporary location, then perform analysis on the contents before removing the temporary location. We continue to advance and improve the scan engine in the Mac product, however the architecture and operating system prevent many of the optimizations we've been able to perform on Windows.

Thanks,
Lucas Moore
Webroot Sr. Global Escalation Manager
 

-Joe
ProTruckDriver
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hello @JDARGIE I don’t know how it was marked “Solved” either. I’ll take the “Solved” off this thread.

Thank you for posting the reply from Support.

Dave.

 iMac (Retina 5K, 27 inch, Late 2015) macOS Catalina Version 10.15.5  This Mac is Ready For The "Big Sur" :)
B
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[...] I purchased a 3 year license exactly 1 week ago today and may ask for a refund if this can’t be resolved soon. Waiting for them to resolve this in the next update, assuming it’s resolved in the next update, doesn’t help me right now and I have no idea when there will be an update. [...]
 

@JDARGIE 

 

I am not, repeat not, suggesting that you ‘give up’ on Webroot. However, if you decide that your purchase is not ‘working’ for you, details on the return policy can be found here.

 

Highlights:

  • Webroot offers a 70-day money back guarantee, and you are currently in this ‘window’;
  • The refund process differs depending upon where you purchased your software (i.e., Webroot.com versus retail). 

 

Good luck.

J
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Thanks, I just requested a refund.

-Joe
B
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@JDARGIE 

 

I am truly sorry that Webroot did not ‘work out’ for you.

 

Please consider keeping a copy of your Webroot key code for future reference. You may need to contact support again. Say, for example, you need assistance with the uninstall, or removing Webroot remnants. For details, see this post.

 

 

J
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Badge +5

Will do, thanks.

-Joe
J
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Badge +5

I just finished removing it from both my computers. I had a heckuva time getting into safe mode with the T2 chip security but I managed to remove it. I had to use terminal to delete all the remnants I could find lurking around the file system. I’m sorry it didn’t work out but I have to move on to another product that works better, assuming I can find one! It looks like the change to Catalina messed up a lot of a/v software.

-Joe
J
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I have this issue too. From my testing, it seems Webroot on Catalina scans mounted drives even when “Scan Mounted Drives” is unchecked. Webroot will scan in a reasonable amount of time only if I eject my other drives.

J
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Userlevel 2
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I have tried with the external drives ejected and still the scans apparently go on forever...35 hours, 62 hours...and if I reboot the scans just start again.

-Joe
J
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +5

You can mark this issue resolved. I have switched to another product that seems to work well. Scan time was just under 30 minutes using the new a/v product on both my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Malware was detected in several email attachments which were in my Spam folder. Webroot never detected them but maybe it was because it could never finish scanning. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions but I had to move on with another product that works.

-Joe
ProTruckDriver
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hello @JDARGIE sorry that you were having all these problems with WSA on your Mac computer and had to move on to another product. You are the Thread starter on this post and you have the privilege of marking this thread as “Best Answer” to who’s ever post answer’s the question. IMHO, if it were me, I would mark your last post as “Best Answer” that you moved on to another product. This may give a hint that Support has to work harder to get all these bugs fixed on WSA for Mac or members will be moving on to another product. Of course the decision is yours on the correct answer.

Dave.

 iMac (Retina 5K, 27 inch, Late 2015) macOS Catalina Version 10.15.5  This Mac is Ready For The "Big Sur" :)
M
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I got an amber warning yesterday to update my software. “Update Now” button is unresponsive.

A scan started yesterday, and 29 hours later my Mac is still being scanned.

This is unacceptable. I have “Scan mounted drives” UNCHECKED so this is not the issue.

I have projects that are due for clients and don’t feel safe going on the web without security software.

Submitted a help ticket but no response.

I am getting ready to cancel my subscription and move on to a more reliable protection program.

 

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