Why does "Exclusions" do nothing and why are customers not being answered?

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/

Hello @jleid and welcome to the Community!

I regret the inconvenience you have encountered.

I know for a fact that Bitdefender and mining or crypto-related apps don't get along nicely.

In the event a solution is not found in the Community, usually more information is required for troubleshooting, such as logs coming from the product and in some cases, remote intervention must be carried. This will help the engineers obtain a better understanding of the context and the circumstances involved. Such specific operations cannot be carried in the public forum, thus it is recommended to contact the Bitdefender Support Teams, for a detailed investigation.

You can get in touch with our engineers by choosing one of the contact methods available here:

To connect to a Technical representative, scroll down to the bottom of the Support Page and choose between the two live channels, chat or phone, or fill in the contact form which will create a ticket for the engineers and this will also provide you with a reference number. The usual response timeframe for an open case varies between 24 to 48 hours, depending on the workload and business hours.

Kindly let us know how it goes and if the situation was resolved in a positive manner.

Stay safe.

jleid I feel your pain man.

For me bitdefender just ignores/changes back any setting I make. Here's a section from an email I just send back to support. I've had enough, I'm out. I just uninstalled Bitdefender and I'm only a few months into a 3 year sub :( more fool me for paying for this crap.

"Just a single example I have the profiles settings set to manual ( not auto ) and game profile. Whenever I go back into Bitdefender has changed back to work profile all on it’s own. In work profile delay background tasks is disabled. I can’t enable it because the ****** program won’t fukking let me. So I change to game profile which already has delay background tasks enabled. Yet Bitdefender keep switching it back to work profile. AGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

The product does not let the user have control. When the user changes a setting Bitdefender changes the setting back. When Bitdefender wants to run a background scan it does not inform the user or let the user have any input. Bitdefender basically ignores user input. The only user input Bitdefender wants is my credit card."

jleid

Alexandru_BD, Hi.

I appreciate your response and that you are making an effort to get me some help, but here's the thing...

I did all of that months ago. I got with tech support, and if I remember correctly, they had me run some log-gathering program to get the specs and info from my machine with whatever else they needed. I don't think I even went to these forums, obviously, because I just created my forum account, for my main BD account that I started when I bought it. I just went straight to support. I did everything I could with them. And knowing that there wasn't going to be any solution that day, I had to change anti-virus software so I could keep using my computer and get my crypto wallet working again. I wasn't given any kind of time frame for how or when this matter would be fixed. I was basically left on an indefinite "waiting to hear back" resolve. As far as I know, I never got any notification that anything had been resolved.

When I said "I came back", I was referring to being back after months of basically carrying on with life and after paying for another anti-virus provider, which had it's own set of problems among a mass of people.. albeit, one of a completely different issue, making the internet slow as hell. But it didn't stop me from working and it didn't destroy my files. So I dealt with it until it just got annoying enough that I decided I should come back to BitDefender which I'd already paid a year for and was a waste if I wasn't using it. I had to assume the issue was dealt with, and for the first day or so I thought, maybe it was. Then I had to do an update on my wallet and... bam, the whole thing happened again just as before.

Like lechiffre expressed, above, it's super frustrating. It's REALLY in a league of its own to watch your trusted protection program, which you recently invested your money into, start ripping out and dismantling personally valuable or integral files as you're powerlessly trying to keep them from being destroyed. And THAT'S the real issue here. This isn't to do with just my crypto wallet. There are tons of people bringing up the same issue for different files and programs. Even the automatic quarantining and file deletion wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't for the fact that there's absolutely NOTHING the user can do about it.

I'll state it again.. the "Exceptions" list does NOTHING. Trying to restore anything is completely futile. BitDefender can reach into ProgramFiles and delete things but if and when I tell it to release or restore the files, it tells me it doesn't have permission.

IT doesn't have permission? ...or I don't have permission?

BitDefender obviously has permission to do whatever it wants, but I can't restore or tell it to do anything I want or keep it from harming my files. And then, BD gives the user the option to exclude files from the threat list but then just ignores it? I read somewhere someone saying, it's like being told the customer is too stupid to have control over their machine. And I mean it ignores EVERYTHING. It won't even stop doing it if I turn off and deactivate EVERY SINGLE SERVICE running! There's no way to shut BD down or get a break from it. The only solution is to uninstall it if I ever hope to restore or reinstall my stuff.

Anyway, I'm no longer looking for support for this. I mean, by all means.. let me know if anything ever changes but It is clear to me that this issue is not being addressed as there has been no change and there are only questions regarding this from so many people. And here you even have another person, lechiffre, saying the same thing in one day of this post. His issue isn't with a crypto wallet. There seems to be an issue with BitDefender's programing, where it is not being updated to know the difference between some types of harmless files and those that are a threat... at least the ones reported by the user. But if that's a difficult subject to address, then maybe it would be a good idea to fix the biggest problem which is BD not allowing the user to have any control over what BD does when it's made an error.

I've got to say though, there seems to be a trend here. Make the most solid anti-viral software possible by making it impossible to tamper with... even if that means the customer along with everything else. You know, there's another name for programs that take over your machine and destroys files without warning while blocking the user from having control over it...

I've already switched to something else, so thanks, but if support wants to do anything about it, I'm pretty sure they can find all the info they need right here. I just hope something IS done so that other people aren't forced to do the same which makes their purchase of your product become a waste of money for them. I can't keep a program on my machine that acts as bad as the programs it's "Defending" me from. BUT, at least I can delete it. :)

Have a nice day, and remember:

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

― Friedrich W. Nietzsche

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/

Hello,

@lechiffre the engineers will get in touch with you to schedule a remote session.

@jleid I am very sorry for the inconvenience you have encountered and I am doing my best to help you. The Support Team is aware of your requests and will provide further assistance.

Going forward, my recommendation would be to get in touch with the engineers and request a remote session.

Stay safe.

User345

Hi @jleid,

I've just moved from Kaspersky (for obvious reasons) to Bitdefender and I've immediately run into issues with the “Exclusions”. I’m a software developer and I need to be able to manipulate system files programmatically but I am unable to because of the lack of control I have over Bitdefender. I can’t even temporarily turn it off completely or, at least, I have not found the option yet. I suspect there isn’t one. I feel your pain with the lack of control over this AV product.

Can I ask what AV product you have moved to? I don’t think Bitdefender is going to work for me!

Ottoman

BitDefender support is absolute crap. I had to throw a temper tantrum to get someone to respond to get on a screen share, and after a while of waiting I just gave up.

Then when I emailed in to cancel my renewal, I got some information about cost, and something else completely UNRELATED to my issue. It seems like this company cannot do anything, as it has problems communicating to its customers. And that means it must have problems communicating internally. Which is why nothing gets fixed based on customer request.

poulsbo

It's now June 13, and these same issues are happening to me too. When I attempt to "Restore" an incorrectly flagged file, it gives me the message "the System does not have permission to this folder". When I look the folder has been deleted. Further, when I attempt to pick another folder, the dialog only allows me access to my profiles folder (and subfolders) on my system drive. I cannot pick any drive (E: for instance). Then when I used Explorer to recreate the folder, BD still would not allow the file to be restored. I had a few other problems before finally giving up and uninstalling BD, but now I find that it has deleted everything in the QUARANTINE folder WITHOUT ASKING!!! ARRRGG!!! I wanted some of that stuff. Can't believe your product does such inexcusable things!!

hairyareolas

February 2024 Update: It appears this issue persists. The challenge I'm encountering involves pulling and compiling code from GitHub, which seems like a foreseeable hurdle for engineers. Surprisingly, this problem has persisted for a decade. Implementing a simple solution, such as a pop-up alert saying, "Hey, I found a file that could cause problems with 'example.file'. What would you like to do?" could significantly mitigate this issue.

This might come off as a rant, but my intention is genuinely to offer assistance. I'm motivated by the desire to not render my investment in the app futile by simply deleting it over an issue that seems fixable with minimal effort.

To that end, I'm willing to contribute by creating the pop-up alert and the necessary functionality it suggests. I only require access to the specific part of the code that needs this feature. Alternatively, I can provide a generic menu code that accomplishes this task. If there's any difficulty in integrating this solution, feel free to contact me for support. I'm offering this help without seeking anything in return, aiming to save both my investment and potentially others' as well.

I'm presenting a viable solution to address this long-standing issue. The ball is now in your court.

arkamthebard

This seems to be a long standing issue that doesn't seem to be ever corrected. I really wanted to like this product, but when I can't even tinker with my own hardware because my OWN PowerShell scripts get flagged. I have added exclusion on top of exclusion only for them to get ignored, my scripts get quarantined, and the routine my scripts should be running getting cut and causing me to manually finish out steps. This is ridiculous. What's the point of having an exclusion list if it's only going to be ignored?

Yeah, I'm done with this.

[Deleted User]

@arkamthebard ,

Welcome to the Bitdefender Forums. I would recommend that you contact Bitdefender Consumer Support if you want to try and find a solution, but that is your choice.

You took the trouble to post, so I am hoping that you are indeed looking for a solution.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/335290#Comment_335290

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/335976#Comment_335976

Maybe @camarie can provide insight on this.

Regards

I am not aware of this issue. Can someone resume me in simple terms what is not working (or what is not working as expected)? because there are multiple various comments/opinions and I cannot quite extract the exact info.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/93016/bd-episode-2-the-return-of-the-forced-scans

Camarie

Perhaps this will jog your memory from over a year ago.

It looks like Bitdefender completly ignores user exclusions just as much now as it did over a year ago.

At this point it seems like you guys have no intention of ever changing this.

I did not read it until today. Well, now that I read, I will forward it to the team to ask for more details, and ask for a reason.

Edit: mail sent. Will get back with updates.

reedt

@camarie any update? Your ****** app is still doing it, and its ****** annoying, I am uninstalling it not even an hour after I installed it. I will also be actively telling people not to use it.

@reedt The issue the "Return of the forced scans" thread was referring to was caused by a bug in an internal component, and has been fixed since 2022.
For the exclusions: I will look personally when I get back (I will be back in office next Monday). Even if your comment mentioned you uninstalled it.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/343005#Comment_343005

Hi @reedt,

I think before anyone can answer and provide any information here, first we need to know what exactly is being blocked and by which security module, what is the task that you are doing on the PC (e.g. powershell, other apps) and how were the exceptions set in the first place, did you set an .exe exclusion for ATD for example, or what steps were previously followed in order to troubleshoot this, if any.

Jumping in on an older thread just to ask 'when something will be fixed', when clearly there has been no recent activity here and we have no idea what you are talking about won't help anyone provide a straight, relevant answer to what you are actually looking for.

So, any additional information, the full context of what's going on and more details would prove helpful.

Thanks.

reedt

@Alexandru_BD The application being blocked was a monero crypto wallet inside the program files folder. I got a bitdefender notification that it had detected a threat in an automatic scan (the wallet wasn't open and wasn't running in the background). I clicked the notification, and saw that it was that, and attempted to restore the files it had already deleted, which it said it "permission denied" (which is bs in itself, how tf did it even read or remove those files then??). The quarentined files said they were found by the antivirus (not cryptominer protection), so I attempted to add the folder to the antivirus exclusions (the folder being something like C:/program files/monero_wallet). I then opened the folder, to see what was left, and bitdefender then deleted even more stuff, completely ignoring the exclusion, and still wouldn't let me restore the files. I then restored all of the quarentined files to a different location that didn't require special permissions to write to, and uninstalled bitdefender, then moved the files back to where they belonged.

This thread is from 2022, and still had activity this year, 2 years after it was created, and there are still people with the same issues with the app. other people have also mentioned both of the issues I had in this thread.

Got it, thanks for sharing.

We'll wait for @camarie to do some checks on this.

Hairyone

Came here looking for answers…..After resetting the file blocked my BD I can not run the programmes anymore. Lost for words..it's now December 28th 2024 and I have the same problems.

The thing that annoyed me the most is looking for an answer and finding none…guess I will have to delete this crap of my PC aswell.

diakrioi

Having the same issue with Coffeecup Site Designer. Bitdefender quarantines the program and associated javascript files when I attempt to preview my code. I set up exclusions for the main program but some of the javascripts are in hidden folders that Bitdefender doesn't see when I look to add them to exclusions. I suppose I could go thru the many folders and unhide them but I think it will be easier just to uninstall Bitdefender.

vbfhg rh

Amazing to see how little effort Bitdefender continues to make when it comes to adding exclusions.

Why can't you just provide a one click option to add exclusions??? You know - something that would make it easier for users - who pay your wages.

btw - the "I understand the risks and want to continue anyway" never ever works for me. This is so useless and broken its not even funny.

@vbfhg rh

You can add exclusions, just the anti-virus completely ignores them.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/348605#Comment_348605

You mean the items added in Protection > Antivirus > Settings > Manage exceptions > Antivirus are still scanned/blocked?

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/348633#Comment_348633

@lechiffre that should not happen, exclusion preferences should be kept by design, however, if we are talking about crypto wallets, powershell scripts, and similar programs, I think their opration may still be blocked despite their exclusion, due to their nature and the security risks they often represent. I don't think this is necessarily a problem with the antivirus itself, but with the way it relates to such applications, so maybe it's not suitable with your needs in this case. Obviously, crypto wallets handle sensitive data like private keys, making them attractive targets for malware. Some wallets interact with blockchain networks in ways that the antivirus software may interpret as suspicious (e.g., accessing ports, creating outbound connections). As for powershell s.c.r.i.p.t.s, it's no secret that these can be used for legitimate automation or malicious activities like fileless malware. It could be that the software is designed to closely monitor powershell activity for signs of potential exploitation.

Modern antiviruses use behavior-based detection to identify threats in real-time. Even if a program is on an exclusion list, suspicious behavior (e.g., accessing sensitive files, modifying system settings) may trigger alerts or blocks. For instance, if a crypto wallet attempts to create outbound connections that resemble those used by malware, it could be flagged.
Going back to powershell s.c.r.i.p.t.s, they can perform privilege escalation or execute commands that mimic attacks. It's likely that the security solution will monitor these activities as part of advanced threat protection, possibly ignoring exclusions for security reasons.

Regards

NelloGen

I received the message 'chrome.exe attempted to establish a connection relying on an unmatching security certificate to api.areariservata.ing.it. We blocked the connection to keep your data safe since the used certificate was issued for a different web address than the targeted'.

I tried to add 'api.areariservata.ing.it. to the exceptions in the settings of advanced threat defence but it seems not working.

have you any suggestions ?

nekomancer

It is now End of March 2025. This means it is 3 YEARS!!!!! since this thread was initially created.
The issue of BitDefender ignoring Exceptions and being inept about restoring them is STILL a problem.

For me it was several exefiles for Installers in Regards to musicproduction. I set up the exception to the parentdirectory BEFORE even running a scan, BD simply ignored the decision during its scan.

Then when i tried to restore the files, it told me it cant restore them to their previous location because the RESTORETOOL does not allow/have access to secondary drives (while the Antivirusscanner clearly has) and when i restored them to %USER%\Downloads and attempted to copy them out of there, BDs Antivirus deleted them AGAIN while they were in my Clipboard (while i was attempting to copy them) - mind you, With both %USER%\Downloads and the Targetdirectory on the secondary drive being added to all kinds of exceptions Free Tier has access to.

This is unacceptable behavior, especially 3 years after the issue was initially reported. It seems nothing has happened, neither in terms of making exceptions or with how BD deals with them or with Restoring Falsely Flagged Files as all the issues described by me where already described in the same manner several years ago.

With all due respect, Sir, this should not be happening.

No AV should simply decide "any file of type X is actively dangerous to the system so i have to contain it".
No matter if it is a powershellscript, a Developmentrelatedfile like a .json or a cryptocurrencywallet.

ESPECIALLY the latter two can have realworldimplications for the User as BD messing with them means they might be actively hurt financially by BD. Who is gonna cover the costs of a Program malfunctioning during a Demonstration of some kind because BD deleted a crucial file and the User loosing out on a potentially lucrative contract? Is BD as a company gonna do it? Probably not.

You also seem to have forgot that in at least one of the Cases in this thread, the Wallet was INACTIVE and not even running in the background, as such it is VERY unlikely it displayed suspicious behavior - a software that is literally not running can not establish connections after all. And even if it did: an exception is an exception and as such should ALWAYS be treated as such. BD should not be allowed to simply overwrite my decision to exclude a directory and its contents. It should probably warn me (like someone else in this thread already mentioned) but it should NOT simply be able to overwrite my decision. I made that decision for a reason after all. If BD as a company feels like they have to protect the Layer 8 Problem from themselves, they should at least give me or anyone else here the option to still overwrite this protection because "I know what i am doing, i dont need you in this case."

To any other customer of BD coming across this in the future:

I was recommended BD over Malwarebytes by reddits community r/antivirus, as BDs Free Tier has realtimeprotection while Malwarebytes Free Tier does not. However, since the thread has being going on for so long, my guess is either the Devs dont care enough or are incapable of fixing this major issue - maybe i am overanalyzing this but Camarie not being in the mood to read for 5 minutes - thats how long it took me to reach the point where they wrote their first comment - could very well be interpreted as a lack of interest to whats going wrong, which in turn seems in line with what other comments in this thread were implying or explicitly suggesting. I get they seem to have been at home during their messages but if they really werent in the mood to do work they could have simply have stated from the getgo they were gonna address the issue they monday back in the office they mentioned.

Given how long BD as a company have been unable or unwilling to resolve this, I have decided I am not going to trust this Company with my data - how can i trust an AV who's Devs clearly do not have control over what it does or are unable to extend this control to me. I will not take the risk of it suddenly deciding it is not okay with over 10 years of musicrelated work and going ham on it, potentially destroying it irreversibly. (Yes i do have backups but i rather take precautions than having to restore my work from a backup.)

I am deleting BD and i recommend everyone else encountering this issue to do the same.

For everyone else in this thread i will keep my account open for discussion for the time being.