Why Did I Have 92494 Skipped Items In BD Total Security System (Full) Scan?

DianaM · 2022-12-16T13:29:43+00:00

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I ran a full scan with Bitdefender Total Security. When it was done, it said that I had 92494 skipped items. I searched the community but all of the skipped items posts were in the archive and the links that they said explained this were dead. So, why did this happen?

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Accepted answers

Gjoksi

Hello.

Bitdefender has a feature called SmartScan, which decreases the duration of the scan by adding clean files to a cache so that they will be skipped at the next scan if the files have not been accessed or modified in any way. If a file that is already present in the cache is accessed, then it will be removed from the cache. This is what the Skipped Items from Bitdefender scan log represent.

The "cache" created by Bitdefender is the same for all types of scan, also for all the scanned files . Once you ran a scan, the clean files are moved to this cache. Also, Bitdefender is scanning all the files and processes accessed in real time. These are also added to the same cache if they are clean.

Only the clean files are moved to this cache. When you will start a scan, Bitdefender will first check this cache in order to know what files it will skip. Also, once a file from the cache is modified, it will automatically be removed from the cache list and Bitdefender will scan it again in order to make sure the file is clean.

Regards.

All comments

Gjoksi

Hello.

Regards.

Whatandwhy

Gjoksi, Does this apply even if the Scan Only New and Modified Files setting is set to OFF? Thanks

JamesH111

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/319213#Comment_319213

Then am I correct to assume the cache is used instead of the 'A' attribute being switched on/off? The reason I ask is because after a system scan, all of my 'A" attributes remain switched on. I have Bitdefender's sliders set (Advanced tab, as well as within Custom Scans) to "scan only new or modified", yet regardless, new scans still scan everything, as if that setting is being ignored. For example, after a new installation on a new device, I ran a full System Scan (all switches on) that took >20 hours. Afterwards I created a custom scan that would scan everything except backup images (again, all switches on). Your above explanation led me to assume a run of my new Custom Scan would be completed in mere minutes, but instead it is now going on 14 hours with no end in sight (a estimate of time and/or files left to scan would be a VERY nice feature to incorporate into future software updates). Could it be that I'm (inadvertently) doing something that is deleting that cache, or (Win11) settings preventing that cache from being written and/or read (perhaps running Disk Cleanup clears the cache)? Any suggestions? Anything that will knock down these excessive scan times.

Matrio

The skipped items in a Bitdefender scan typically refer to files that the software could not scan, which can happen for various reasons. Common causes include password protected files, system files that are in use, or files that Bitdefender considers safe, like backups or certain archives. If you would like more details, you can check the scan log to see which files were skipped.

Alexandru_BD

Yes, all files that appear as skipped in the scan report are clean. For increased performance, Bitdefender does not scan files that have not changed since the last scan.

Regards

DianaMont

I did see that it skips zipped files.

Alexandru_BD

Yes, well that most likely happens because of over-compressed items, elements which could not be extracted by the scanning engine or elements for which the decryption time would have taken too long making the system unstable. Overcompressed means that Bitdefender skipped scanning within that archive because unpacking it proved to take up too many system resources. The content will be scanned on real time access if needed.