Bitdefender Free Won't Restore Quarantine Files

I need help, as Bitdefender Free won't restore Quarantine files.


I have it installed on a Windows XP SP3 machine up to date as possible.

Comments

  • Means that these files Bitdefender considered very dangerous and you can not recover these files.

  • Means that these files Bitdefender considered very dangerous and you can not recover these files.


    I know what the files are, they are "NOT" dangerous.

  • I know what the files are, they are "NOT" dangerous.


    Hiya,


    If that is the case you should report the files to Bitdefender as false positives, use the Sample or URL Submit form.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/submit


    Ro.

  • Hiya,


    If that is the case you should report the files to Bitdefender as false positives, use the Sample or URL Submit form.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/submit


    Ro.


    Sorry, this is an exception, they are personal compilations for personal business needs only. So no need to report them.


    I just want to UN-quarantine them.


    I should NOT be forced to lose files.

  • I have run into the same problem on a WinXPSP3 system. You can view the directory location, delete the files, but not restore the file. Incidentally the restore function on BDF works perfectly on Win7 32/64-bit PC, so whatever is happening with the interface seems to be related to WinXP only. Whatever you do don't uninstall BDF as it will delete all files that have been quarantined, with no option for you to leave then alone. I'm still searching for a solution.

  • enduser99,


    Log on to Windows in Safe mode via F8. BDF in this mode will not work. Rename the file extension is locked .gzquar to the original. Then copy the file to a USB flash drive. Immediately, you can send the file to the lab with a diagnosis of "false positive" and wait for it will bring to the exceptions. In the case of confidential data it certainly should not.


    P.S. Hope that this will change the antivirus upward functions (eg easy to add files to the "white list"), I would not recommend it, that would not be upset. If wanted developers or marketers (more importantly), it would already have done.

  • I just had the same problem about an hour ago, when my MP3 player had all its content quarantined and 'restore' does NOT work. Using Win7 64-bit, btw.


    The fact that software like this can just simply lock potentially valuable files and the user has no direct means to change this besides sending the files to Bitdefender and hope for the best is, quite frankly, shocking.


    It seems to me that in this case the cure is worse than the disease and I will be uninstalling it as soon as the locked files are rescued.

  • Literally dealing with the SAME problem. BitDefender labeled all of my work files and family photos on two flash drives as a virus. That's almost 2,000 files. Have any of you called tech support? They have absolutely no idea how to address the issue. I called yesterday and explained that the restore button would not return the files to their orig. location. The ###### in tech support stated that he would need 24 hours to fix the problem. This morning, I received an email from a blogger website giving me instructions on how to use the restore button. WTF?


    I called again, this time more irritated, and was told that their first level of tech support could not fix the issue and that it would be elevated. Best part, there's no way to talk to the second level of tech support. They have no #. They may or may not contact you through email. I'm probably into about 5 phone calls and a half a dozen emails back and forth with BitDefender and still no resolution.


    This is absolutely insane.

  • have the same problem - some perfectly safe joke files I have had for almost 20 years have been 'quarantined' along with a load of my own personal files - all of which are fine.


    What is the point of a restore function which doesnt work? If BitDefender really didnt want us to have the option they surely wouldnt put a Restore button in? The fact they have but it doesnt work seems to me a bug rather than a design.


    Even more worrying is the fact that nobody from their team has bothered to reply on here after 6 months!


    I'd been considering purchasing the full version but having seen this I will now be uninstalling and using a different product - once I can get all 43 of my files back!

  • Same problem here. Windows 7, Bitdefender free edition, it quarantined valuable files which I need and know are safe: the button for 'restore' appears but nothing happens when I click on it. Other people have described BFD free edition as a Ransomware. They are right. The software locks your valuable files and the way to retrieve them is to pay for the pay version. Now I have to uninstall BFD, find another antivirus and hope the uninstall will not delete my files.


    The free edition is a scam: STAY AWAY FROM BITDEFENDER FREE VERSION!

  • Angryuser69
    edited October 2015

    First... I laughed, although it didn't surprised me, that I'm not the only angry user.... Then I really can't believe that a company offering a product to protect you files and your system will do exactly the same thing it is supposed to prevent, damage your files to the point of consider them gone, lost forever. I can't believe the cynicism of these people, even adding a restore button that just won't work. These people should be put in jail and the all their products retired from the market. I hope a bad A S S hacker gets into their system and teach them a lesson. This product S U C K S

  • Same problem here. Windows 7, Bitdefender free edition, it quarantined valuable files which I need and know are safe: the button for 'restore' appears but nothing happens when I click on it. Other people have described BFD free edition as a Ransomware. They are right. The software locks your valuable files and the way to retrieve them is to pay for the pay version. Now I have to uninstall BFD, find another antivirus and hope the uninstall will not delete my files.


    The free edition is a scam: STAY AWAY FROM BITDEFENDER FREE VERSION!


    Here's what I did: turned off BitDefender, renamed the file extensions on the files quarantined and they work just fine now. However, this is the first time I've had this problem and I'm uninstalling BD because of it. I'm not going to risk this on any other important files I have. This solution isn't practical if you have many files quarantined but hopefully it can help some of you out.. :unsure: Good luck!

  • Hello,

    It is August 2016 now, and I am using BitDefeender Free on a Windows10 x64 system.

    I have the same issue, in that some of my files that I know are good were quarantined, and I cannot use the button to revert them.

    If all I need to do is F8 safe-boot, or use a Linux LIVE CD to boot and get the files back, I am cool with that. Not what I would have liked, but I can resolve this myself by renaming the files. Ironically, the files it quarantined were files from my Sourcefire class, so I can see how they looked like bad files, one of the was a UDPflood.exe tool we wrote and use in-house to simulate a UDP floods for class exercises.

    Questions:

    Is there a way to exclude or whitelist files or folders? I could'nt find one?

    If I upgrade from free to paid, can I then recover the files without having to boot to something else? (good selling technique, however low and underhanded it seems)?

    Thanks, this is far from the worst thread NECRO I have done.

    David

  • one of the was a UDPflood.exe tool we wrote and use in-house to simulate a UDP floods for class exercises.

    Strange wonder that with such a functional application was sent to quarantine and not allowed to recover. As I understand it, that the policy of the vendor in respect of precisely such files, which can be used to perform malicious actions, it is this. In just a few years of use, I never had incidents where a clean file was entered into quarantine, but there were cases where applications like yours were placed in quarantine. Since this antivirus is positioned as the best automatic and even for the most inexperienced users, I believe that this is the optimal strategy.


  • I have the same issue. I installed the free version some minutes ago, and this put half of my Visual Studio to the quarantine, and deleted the onedrive.exe. The free bitdefender behaves like a blackmailer virus. I think, you will be able to restore your files, if you buy the real version. ****


     


     


     


  • no problem, just press "open folder" and rename the quarantized file it has after the normal endig like ".exe" just a dot, a number, another dot and the ending for quarantized files... 


    so rename for example the file "File.exe.234234.qrtzd" to "File.exe" and it will work again

  • zwaa
    edited May 2017


    On 1/4/2017 at 2:34 PM, Petrasilchen said:



    no problem, just press "open folder" and rename the quarantized file it has after the normal endig like ".exe" just a dot, a number, another dot and the ending for quarantized files... 


    so rename for example the file "File.exe.234234.qrtzd" to "File.exe" and it will work again



    For me, renaming the quarantined files is not possible. This is because Bitdefender is locking the files and causes an "access denied" response.


    I have devised a remedy for this that doesn't require rebooting Windows into Safe mode(via F8).


    1. First of all, Bitdefender does not block reading the files. Therefore, they can readily be backed up (preferably to a removable media like a usb stick) before moving on (unless the files are actually quarantined on removable media, in which case you just disconnect it before proceeding with step 2), should the following operation fail.

    2. Second, let the quarantined files be and uninstall Bitdefender. This should not delete the quarantined files, as has been suggested by enduser99, but rather leave them unquarantined i.e. unlocked but still renamed. This is verified by me on a WinXPSP3 system with Bitdefender 2013 free edition.

    3. Third, rename the files back to their original names. Replacing them with the backed up files should only be a last resort as that would in most cases break associations, dependencies and such, e.g. positions on the desktop, for files that reside there.


    Last, some good news for people that have lost control over huge amounts of files, like LawGuy007 who had almost 2,000 files quarantined.


    There is a free file tool named Total Commander that can find and reverse the names of all your quarantined files in one batch with very little effort. It can be found at https://www.ghisler.com/


    For those unfamiliar with its interface it can be a little bit overwhelming, but I'll give you what you need to know here:


    1. Navigate to wherever some or all of your quarantined files are. Use the left or the right frame, doesn't matter which one. Just pick whichever you're most comfortable with. Note that TC can operate on any level of subdirectories so to simplify things you can just move to for instance C:\ (C root).

    2. Find all of your quarantined files in the directory tree using Commands > Search... (Alt + F7). You can also search for quarantined files on all your media in one swoop by clicking the "Drives" button (Shift-click and Ctrl-click for multi-select just like in Windows Explorer). Search for: \d+\.gzquar (that's backslash, small d, plus sign, backslash, dot, gzquar [in small letters]). This is a so called Regular Expression, or RegEx for short.

    3. Check the "RegEx" box, make sure the "Search in subdirectories:" is set to "all (unlimited depth)" and click "Start search". If there are quarantined-style named files, they should show up in the Search results frame.

    4. Collect the search results by clicking "Feed to listbox". Mark all of the files found with Mark > Select All (Ctrl + A works on most systems, but Total Commander also uses the alternate shortcut Ctrl Num +, which means Ctrl and the "+" key on your numerical keyboard. On a laptop that typically would be Ctrl, Fn [for function/numerical], and the numerical "+" key).

    5. Use the Files > Multi-Rename Tool... (Ctrl + M). In the "Search & Replace" section, search for: \d+\.gzquar (same expression that you used for finding the quarantined files), replace with: <Clear> i.e. remove the quarantine name part. Check the "RegEx" box and you should see the "new" corrected names in the preview frame. When you're sure that your Search and Replace meets the requirements, click the "Start!" button to execute. The preview will go blank as the new file names no longer matches your search. You can study the log file by clicking "Result list". If it looks funny check that you're using Option > Unicode (hotkey: 6 [the number 6 key]).

    6. Click Close, and press Backspace. That returns you to the point of origin.


    That's it. Good luck.