How to disable scanning Recycle Bin of portable drive

I asked this before and thought that the instructions I received fixed it. But, it didn't. The next time I plugged in the portable WD My Passport drive, Bitdefender began scanning the recycle bin of the portable drive. Following is a screen capture of the settings to turn off the scanning of the recycle bin of the portable drive, which has the drive letter F:. What did I miss in the settings? Thanks.

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Answers

  • Flexx
    Flexx mod
    edited December 8

    Original post: https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/102426/how-to-disable-scanning-recycle-bin

    @Alexandru_BD, can you check this?

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • Hello,

    If it's a portable drive, try disabling the Scan flash drives feature and check if it still scans that portable drive afterwards. You'll find this option in Protection → Antivirus → Settings.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • I want Bitdefender to NOT scan the recycle bin only of the portable drive. I do want the other files to be scanned.

  • I understand. As far as I know, exceptions are deleted for paths that no longer exist. So if you keep taking that portable driver out and putting it back in, the exception may not be kept because the path no longer exists.

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • After I reconnect the portable drive to my computer and Bitdefender launches to scan it, I check the settings for exceptions and see that the path to the Recycle Bin of the portable drive still displays. Is that not enough to make Bitdefender skip scanning the Recycle bin of the portable drive?

  • I'm unsure if this is how it works in the scenario you described, so I don't wish to steer you in the wrong direction. But I'm sure the Support teams can clarify this aspect. You can use the link below to get in touch with them and check if there's any workaround you can use for this specific scenario:

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

    State your contact reason / choose request category, then choose from the available contact channels, chat, phone and email/ticket. Chat would be the fastest way to reach them.

    Let us know how it goes, I'm also curious to find out the resolution here.

    Much appreciated.

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Thank you. I submitted my question to the support staff. I shall share any solution that I find to work.

  • Thank you @ubose 👍️

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • The "Exclude from scanning" setting for the F:\Recycle Bin isn't working. Double-check the exclusion list - make sure there are no conflicting rules. Also, try excluding the entire F:\ drive. If that doesn't work, reach out to Bitdefender support.

  • The "Exclude from scanning" setting for the F:\Recycle Bin was the only exclusion I had. Now, I added the entire F:\ drive (WD My Passport portable drive) to the Exceptions list. Next, I unplugged the portable drive and plugged it back in. Within moments, Bitdefender began scanning it. So, for some reason, the exceptions rules are not working.

    I have submitted this question to the Bitdefender support.

  • Scott
    Scott ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hello, if while you're waiting for a reply you could try this to see if it works.

    Delete your Exclusion, then in Antivirus/Advanced/disable BD Shield for 15 minutes (it shouldn't take you to long).

    Then in Protection/Advanced Threat Defense/Open/Settings disable ATD.

    Now go back to adding your WD drive into Exclusions, re-enable Antivirus and ATD and see if that helps. Otherwise, continue to wait for Supports follow-up.

    Kind regards.

    All Bitdefender Home Product User Guides: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/user-guides/ Using BD Antivirus Plus along with Glasswire free.

  • I followed the steps Scott wrote. However, I was not able to disable the Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) because the switch is greyed out. I have attached two screen captures. One shows the greyed out toggle switch of the ATD. The other one shows the exclusions that I added.

  • Flexx
    Flexx mod
    edited December 12

    Advanced Threat Defense in Bitdefender blocks only executable (.exe) files, not the complete folder itself. Kindly have a look at the two links provided below to understand how Bitdefender's exclusion works.

    https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13427/

    https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2393/

    As far as your image goes, you have successfully blocked the Recycle Bin folder in your "F" drive from being scanned by Bitdefender. Additionally, since the Recycle Bin itself is not an executable file, you will not be able to set an exclusion in Advanced Threat Defense.

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • Scott
    Scott ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 12

    Hello,

    It looks like you may be one step ahead of the option to disable ATD. The first image on my AV Plus shows that setting, the 2nd image as to where you are will not show, allow the option to enable ATD from there, as that is for .EXE Exceptions (as Flexx mentioned). So maybe back up and try disabling the first setting, without worrying about the ATD Exception setting, and try the steps again. It's up to you, as in the past that workaround has worked for some here.

    Cheers :)

    All Bitdefender Home Product User Guides: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/user-guides/ Using BD Antivirus Plus along with Glasswire free.

  • I have gone back and made the "exception" settings as shown in these screen captures. Unfortunately, Bitdefender still started scanning the portable drive's Recycle Bin.

  • Scott
    Scott ✭✭✭✭✭

    Time to wait for support to get back to you, but at least it was worth a try, and maybe learned a little bit more about the app itself? :)

    All Bitdefender Home Product User Guides: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/user-guides/ Using BD Antivirus Plus along with Glasswire free.

  • Flexx
    Flexx mod
    edited December 13

    Try modifying the "Scan Flash Drive" settings as per your requirements and see if it resolves the issue.

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • "Scan Flash Drive" does not let me stop scanning just the recycle bin. It gives the option of stopping scanning of the drive all together, which will prevent scanning of the regular folders and files on the drive. Using that option is like firing a cannon to kill a fly.

  • Flexx
    Flexx mod
    edited December 14

    Well, that’s true. Despite extensive troubleshooting, it seems there’s no viable solution for this issue. Every possible option has been tried, and unfortunately, none have worked. It appears there’s nothing more that can be done at this point.

    @Alexandru_BD, @Scott, do you have anything to add here?

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • Scott
    Scott ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 14

    @Flexx no I don't. I think we're trying to do something that is out of Bitdefender reach, as far as its normal scan path for Exceptions.

    All Bitdefender Home Product User Guides: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/user-guides/ Using BD Antivirus Plus along with Glasswire free.

  • @ubose, well, we all tried our best, and there’s nothing more anyone can do here.

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • Alexandru_BD
    Alexandru_BD admin
    edited December 16

    I also exhausted all possible steps I could think of, hence my recommendation to contact Bitdefender Support for further assistance. But I would like to hear from @ubose once they receive a response from the Support teams, because I'm curious to find out what was the resolution here, if this could be solved by them.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user