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TomL
Contributor
Message 1 of 7

VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

I have McAfee Internet Protection for Mac installed.  I noticed that a VShieldScanner process is constantly going to 100% CPU and makes my Macbook Pro sound like a jet engine.  I have re-installed it multiple times and it ALWASY goes back to doing this.  I have disabled scheduled scan to eliminate that as the culprit.  I only have Real-Time Scanning enabled (as well as automatic updates).  I have the following settings for Real-Time Scanning:

Scan files while: Write

Maximum Scan Time (in Seconds): 10

Set to clear and quarantine any virus or spyware, then I have none of the "Also scan" options checked. That means it won't go into archives or scan Apple mail messages or Network volumes.

I have Excluded:

/Users/tpl/Library/Mail

/Volumes

/Users/tpl/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized

/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots

 

When VShieldScanner is at 100%, I ran a dtruss against that process and I see it is scanning every single file in /System/Volumes/Data/Users/tpl/Library/Mail/* .  Unless Mail.app is writing to every single one of the 7.8G of emails I have on my system, there is no reason the scanner should be looking at those files.  I just looked at a few of the ones I saw from dtruss and those files haven't been modified since 2019, so it should NOT have even been looked at. 

 

I would like to exclude those files from being scanned, but McAfee doesn't seem to be able to add the overlay filesystem (/System/Volumes/Data/) to the Exclude list or how to tell it to ONLY scan files that are being written.  How can I do that so my system isn't constantly scanning.  I would remove McAfee but my work requires that an anti-virus be installed to connect to our VPN.  Or of someone knows of a better AV solution that doesn't push CPU usage to 100% most of the time, I would be glad to check that out. 

6 Replies
Magesh
McAfee Retired
McAfee Retired
Message 2 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

 Hi @TomL 

If you have already disabled scheduled scan feature, Have you tried re installing the application. 

Also please let us know the McAfee version  and OS version.. 

HDD storage space to further look in to this

Thanks,

TomL
Contributor
Message 3 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

Yes, my third sentence already stated I have re-installed multiple times and it always reverts back scanning all the files I have told it to exclude even though it should ONLY be scanning files that are being written to.  There are numerous threads about this same issue (high CPU), many without a satisfactory resolution.

markeakin
Contributor II
Message 4 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

I'm had this issue on Big Sur and continue to have this issued on Monterey. My RAM + Swap is constantly running out of memory space, bogging down the computer. VShieldScanner is using up over 12GB of memory and 35-75% of CPU continually. That's crazy. VShieldManager is using up another 2.5 GB of memory.

 

 

markeakin
Contributor II
Message 5 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

Why should we have to disabled scheduled scans? That is one of the reasons I run a virus checker. Does McAfee not work on Macs any more?

MrMasterMind
Contributor
Message 6 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

I'm also very disappointed in this software construction and function. Will not recommend until this functionality is massively improved. 

markeakin
Contributor II
Message 7 of 7

Re: VShieldScanner high CPU on Mac Big Sur

I spent an hour with a tech support last week who installed a new version from scratch. Guess what? A scheduled scan started 11:00 pm on Friday night. Now, on Sunday afternoon there is a 34GB instance (one of many) of VShieldScanner clogging my CPU. Nope. Problem not fixed.

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