File counts from scan vary wildly day to day

aboutq · 2024-10-02T11:43:45+00:00

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aboutq

I run a scheduled scan daily. It reports a vastly different number of files scanned day to day:

day 3: 1804800
day 2: 4950324
day 1: 2993581

And of course, the time it takes for the scan to run varies, too.

Why the variation?

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Alexandru_BD

Hello @aboutq,

That's rather unusual. The speed of a System Scan depends on many factors such as system specifications, large volumes of data, the computer resources in use by another software, if it’s the first scan since installing Bitdefender, and most importantly, the number of archives & over-compressed files/backups. With every system scan, Bitdefender will index the files that have already been scanned, and the scan time will greatly decrease.

You can try to run the scan in high priority mode, if system resources are not a concern.

This will instruct Bitdefender to compete for system resources on equal terms to other programs and decrease the time needed for the scan process to finish.

Click the Protection menu on the left side of the Bitdefender interface.
In the Antivirus panel, click Open.
Click the ••• button next to System Scan, then choose Edit.
In the Manage Scans window, use the drop-down menu to change Scan task priority from Low to High.
Click Next, then click Save.
Press Run Scan and wait for the system scan to end.

Let us know how it goes for you.

Regards,

Alex

aboutq

Thanks for your response, Alex. However, I'd imagine the amount of time it takes is directly proportional to the number of files being scanned, which I view as the root of the issue and therefore the issue needing to be resolved. (I don't think some kind of algorithm might have logic something like, "I'm going to run for this long today, and however many files I can scan in that time is what I'll scan.")

My key question is whether this might be indicative of malware infection.

Alexandru_BD

Personally, I don't think this behavior could suggest a malware infection. If there's something malicious in there, Bitdefender should be able to find it during the scan. You can also tweak the scan settings on a more granular level, for example you can choose not to scan archives, or to ignore archives greater than x mb, or to scan only new and modified files, and I think this would also contribute to reducing the number of files scanned and the overall duration of the scan. You can find various scan settings under Protection → Antivirus → Advanced, and you can configure them according to your preferences, usage and available system resources.