Antivirus on Mac: how to exclude /Volumes/.timemachine from scanning?

MrDoh

Using an M1-based mac with macOS Big Sur (of course) 11.2.3.

I apparently need to exclude the hierarchy /Volumes/.timemachine from scanning...it takes hours and hours to go through this. For all I know there are loops or something. But I don't see how to get this hierarchy into "Exclusions" since I can't enter a pathname, and I also don't see how to get there on the Finder window that comes up. It seems to be above the level displayed by the Exclusions Finder window.

Any ideas on how to exclude this hierarchy from scanning?

Thanks!

MrDoh

Started a scan last night before I went to sleep, and still running this morning, about 8 hours later. Bitdefender says that it has scanned over 18 milllion files at this point, still in the /Volumes/.timemachine hierarchy.

The only thing that I can think of is ejecting the time machine external disk while the scan occurs, and then plugging it back in. There must be a better way. Is there a way to enter an Exclusion via typing the pathname? I don't see it if there is.

I'm thinking that scanning may not be for me, I might just turn it off and hope for the best. This is ridiculous.