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catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 21 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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Thank you for your input   Actually I had a Scheduled scan set to run 4/1/2017 myself, and can confirm it did not run as scheduled also? I asked my Colleague if his had done so, and he said yes. I made certain that I did not have my settings to "Wait till my PC is idle" also?

For the time being,I will unmark this as 'Correctly Answered'.

I will also monitor.

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
lnerenbu
Contributor III
Message 22 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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I don't know where there is a setting to 'wait until my PC is idle'.  Don't see it in McAfee.  In scheduled tasks there is only the mcafee maintenance agent.

I see from the link at the right of this post

 

which is from 2010, when I didn't have any problems with scanning, and outlines an 11 step method to initiate scheduled scanning in a scheduled task...which one shouldn't have to do to get the product to work and which still didn't seem to get solve the problem of the computer not scanning when not 'awake'.

I kicked off a custom scan after replying previously (at 11:30 or so) and just looked to see the progress and I see that it was 'paused' after 35K files.  Kind of seems like when it went into screen saver or HDD power down it paused.  I just did a C-A-Del to lock the machine and when I signed back in it wasn't paused.  So that would kind of rule out screen saver/lock as the cause of the pause.  I suppose if I find it paused again I can change the power option to not power down the HDD and see it it pauses again.

My HDDs are currently set to power down after 20 minutes - as they always have been back when scheduled scanning worked as 'advertised'.

Since that post linked above dates back to 2010 and windows XP, I hate to say it, but this seems like something McAfee's engineers should have solved.  To have messed this up so badly (i.e. removing the schedule option, putting it back, not starting on time, seemingly pausing when the computer is idle, no option for anything other than a quick scan etc) is just not the way to engineer software.  To have this not work correctly at this point seems to bespeak a failure of their QA.  After all this is not hard to test.  Set up a scheduled scan for 3 minutes from now and see what happens!!!  

catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 23 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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I ,m not going to go that far of being critical of the software. For there has to be an explanation as to why I wasn,t capable to do so. In any instance we always get an answer. To make sure you do not have your settings to *Scan only while your PC is idle*.

Simply open your McAfee UI/Navigation/General Settings and Alerts/Uncheck the box.

Because if you have that box checked, it will pause for 10 minutes. And check back every 10 minutes until your PC is idle before it will scan/check for updates and so on.

As a matter of fact that is most likely the culprit behind your scan being paused.

Hope this was helpful...

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 24 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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Uncheck the box to prevent the software from pausing.Capture.PNG

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
lnerenbu
Contributor III
Message 25 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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I unchecked the box - never had to do this before to the best of my knowledge.  maybe that accounts for why the scan was at 1% at 8:30 when it was to have started at 12:20 A.M... although I have to wonder why in those 8 hours in the middle of the night it never saw the machine as idle. 

Maybe I was being a bit too critical.  If so it is from 35 years of writing enterprise software.  I know better than most how difficult it is to do right.  But I also know what kinds of things you have to be very careful about doing - like deprecating functionality. When you remove something and then, after complaints, put some of it back in that seems like you misjudged things.  Regular scans are a very necessary evil in this minefield that the internet has become.  I don't know how they could conclude it wasn't necessary.

I just don't think this was well thought out. 

From my point of view they removed useful functionality and when they put it back they substituted functionality that is far less useful (i.e. quick scan and no choice but a manual scan if you want a full or custom scan).  It remains to be seen if even this works right (after unchecking the idle box).  I'll reserve judgement as far as scans starting on time and not pausing.

catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 26 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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The setting has (Always) been there. Again, I choose to be less opinionated in regards to the software.

Have a good one Mate. From a simple minion with over 40 years of computer knowledge.

Let's see what transpires.

All the BEST

CD

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 27 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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We are discussing the issue in regards to your scheduled scan not starting. Will be back momentarily.

OK...Our Tier 2.5 Technician will be reaching out to you in an attempt to resolve this issue.

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
lnerenbu
Contributor III
Message 28 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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Scheduled scan seems to have worked ok on this (w7) machine.  It ended at 12:44 A.M.  Start was scheduled for 12:20 A.M. so that makes sense.  Scanned 13K files on a quick scan.  So, as far as honoring the schedule, it did.  (I did uncheck wait until idle).  I expect that it will work OK on the W10 machine now that I have unchecked the wait until idle box on that machine.  The next scheduled scan is for Wed at 12:20 A.M. - not that it tells you when your next scheduled scan is anymore - it used to do that.  I looked at the schedule to determine this.

I did a full scan yesterday on the W10 machine and it took over about 15 hours to scan 520K files - which seems quite long and that machine has less files than this W7 machine.  The W10 machine runs an AMD athlon 3.00 GHZ processor with 8GB RAM. This W7 machine is an Intel I5-3570 @3.40 GHZ with 16GB RAM so I'd expect the performance to be better on this W7 machine despite having more files.

I'd like to know what exactly a quick scan does.  I know how I would program this if I were deciding whether to scan or skip a file in the interest of saving time on the scan.  I'd be interested to know the basic outline of the decision making algorithm - how it decides to scan or skip a file.   If I knew how the quick scan worked maybe that would suffice.  In the past scans on this faster W7 machine took 4-5 hours if I recall correctly.  I'll run one overnight to see if that is still the case.  I can live with 4 hours - when it gets to 8, 12, 15 hours then it doesn't make much sense on a regular basis. 

Peacekeeper
Message 29 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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I gather a rescan of same 520K files would take shorter can you check this as it remembers scanned files I think.

lnerenbu
Contributor III
Message 30 of 38

Re: Why does scheduled scanning no longer work

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Are you suggesting repeating the custom scan tonight to see if if does it faster than it did two nights ago?  it would be nice if that was the case.  I thought maybe the quick scan did that.  The other alternative for the quick scan would be to scan certain files only. 

I will repeat the custom scan to see if it does it faster.  I just excluded some folders (with large zip files and large monthly backup files).  I'll un-exclude them so it is an apples to apples test.

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