Alert Mode Switching Itself Off - AGAIN

Chris_Munday · 2025-01-26T15:39:20+00:00

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I find myself here because - YET AGAIN - Bit Defender has introduced a serious security flaw into its security software. Previous threads on the issue:

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/91674/alert-mode-switching-itself-off

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/336623/#Comment_336623

This time, it appears to be completely random and not as the result of a screen maximisation of a programme. I have captured a video of the issue which happens at 31 seconds, it just randomly switches off….!

Sometimes, it won't switch back on and I have to restart my PC to get it back on. As I write this it has happened again.

It honestly beggars belief that this serious security flaw has been introduced YET AGAIN. Alert mode is switched on by the user to have full control over what applications can and cannot access the internet. If Bit Defender overrides the user without authorisation and allows applications to connect to the internet without the user's authorisation, this creates a security breach.

My BitDefender build is: 27.0.46.231

My system is vulnerable. I want an immediate fix, unlike the months it took last time.

Failing that, please provide me instructions on how I can get my money back.

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Comments

Chris_Munday

@Alexandru_BD can you deal with this again please

Alexandru_BD

Hi @Chris_Munday,

Can you tell me if any Profiles are enabled when this happens?

Chris_Munday

no profiles applied

Alexandru_BD

That's curious. What's your configuration, are you using any other security solutions, extensions, anything that could interfere with the firewall settings, any programs you've installed recently, or this simply resurfaced after the latest Bitdefender update?

Thanks

Chris_Munday

I’m only using BD. Windows defender/firewall is off. I don’t use any other security software.

This appears to have happened only after the latest update.

Ive been caught out by profiles before so make sure they’re off. I’ve turned them back on and off again to see if it sorts it out. Will come back here with an update.

David25698

I had the same issue with Alert mode Switching Itself Off.

I solved this issue by turning all Bitdefender profiles off. This solution was recommended by a user in October 2024 (https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/94332/bitdefender-firewall-alert-mode-disabled-by-itself-any-suggestions)

This is not the best solution for me: I would like to have both automatic profiles and firewall alert mode. When will Bitdefender have this issue fix ?

Alexandru_BD

Hello @David25698,

I will elaborate a bit on the reasons why they don't work well together.

The Profiles assign more system resources to the running applications by temporarily modifying protection settings and adjusting system configuration, but they were also designed to provide an uninterrupted experience when playing games, watching a movie, or working on the device.

Bitdefender detects when you play, work or watch a movie, so it knows not to bother you with unnecessary requests. Depending on what you are doing, Bitdefender temporarily halts pop-ups, adjusts visual settings, and pauses unimportant background activities, so you can enjoy your device to the max. Enjoying an uninterrupted gaming experience for example, is all about reducing system load, halting pop-ups and diminishing slowdowns. While running in Game Profile, Bitdefender uses behavioral heuristics along with a list of known games to automatically detect running games and optimize your system resources so that you can enjoy your gaming break.

Since enabling most profiles means that Bitdefender alerts and pop-ups are disabled, this also applies for the Alert Mode pop-ups and this behavior is by design. An exception cannot be made solely for the Alert Mode pop-ups in this scenario. As such, the two features - Profiles and Alert Mode are antithetical in their functionality, because the Profiles halt pop-ups while Alert Mode shows alerts each time an app tries to connect to the internet. These notifications often steal focus and it's assumed that since you've enabled one of the profiles, you don't wish to be disturbed by them. 🙂

Therefore, this is not a dysfunction that needs fixing, it's what we call FAD.

Regards,

Alex

Chris_Munday

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/349348#Comment_349348

Hi Alexandru,

This appears to have been a glitch as switching the profiles on and back off seems to have stopped the issue.

On a side note, following David’s post, it may be a wise move in the next update to do something to warn users that switching profiles on will affect alert mode?

The only reason I knew profiles affected it was from seeing a forum post some time ago.

Thanks, Chris

Chris_Munday

It makes sense about not having alert mode popups when gaming etc. I need alert mode on so I have to put up with this coming on the screen and taking control of the mouse during a game. This is the trade off I have to make to retain full control over which applications can connect to the internet.

Perhaps profiles could include the option to queue alert mode items until the user has stopped gaming, working, watching a film etc.? Adding this as an option for the user means the profile can stop unnecessary bothering the user whilst the user can maintain full control of internet access.

Alexandru_BD

Hi @Chris_Munday,

This appears to have been a glitch as switching the profiles on and back off seems to have stopped the issue. - I actually wanted to suggest this, to fiddle a bit with these settings and check if the alerts resume afterwards.

Regarding your suggestion - it may be a wise move in the next update to do something to warn users that switching profiles on will affect alert mode? - I'll tag @camarie here for a more advised opinion. Perhaps this is something that can be specified in a confirmation window, when enabling a profile? How about when the profiles are set to enable automatically? I think this is where unsuspecting users may struggle to understand why the Alert Mode prompts are no longer being displayed..

I assume these profile setups are quite popular among users, since they are very effective when it comes to suppressing notifications, so this idea might be worth exploring.
The way I see it could work is this:
IF Alert mode is enabled and the user decides to ALSO enable one of the profiles, or chooses the automatic setup, when this condition is met, a pop-up window could be displayed informing the user that Alert mode pop-ups will no longer be displayed in the usual way.

Camarie, the stage is yours. 😄🎤

camarie

This time I can't be of much help, since I don't know the implementation in profiles regarding the logic. Let me ask the guys and come back with details.

Chris_Munday

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/349465#Comment_349465

That’s exactly it 👍🏻