Idle time full system scan never runs?

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Hello,

 

Ever since the NIS 2012 was released I don't think the idle time full system scans have ever run! I have the latest NIS on three pc's at home, two desk tops and one laptop and on each of them I have noticed the same behaviour which makes me think this is a bug. I remember reading from one of the Symantec employee posters on here saying he preferred the monthly schedule as opposed to the weekly full scan as the weekly one was more thorough so I gave that a go and set all the pc's to monthly. I almost forgot about the full scans but when it went to about 5 weeks, I checked the history and there were no full scans when there should have been. I have since set them all back to weekly and my last full scan which was done manually was on 8th. November. There have been many times I have left the pc idle since then but still the scans don't kick in. All other tasks seem to be running ok!

 

My pc is W7 Home prem 64 bit SP1, IE9, only Malwarebytes free installed, the other desk top is the same as mine but 32 bit, the laptop is W/ 64 bit IE 8.

 

Everything else in NIS 2012 (latest version) works as it should without issue.

2

Hi brummie:

 

Quick question...

 

Do you have Full System Scan turned "ON" in Settings -> Computer -> Computer Scan?

 

Atomic_Blast :)

3

Hello,

 

Ever since the NIS 2012 was released I don't think the idle time full system scans have ever run! I have the latest NIS on three pc's at home, two desk tops and one laptop and on each of them I have noticed the same behaviour which makes me think this is a bug. I remember reading from one of the Symantec employee posters on here saying he preferred the monthly schedule as opposed to the weekly full scan as the weekly one was more thorough so I gave that a go and set all the pc's to monthly. I almost forgot about the full scans but when it went to about 5 weeks, I checked the history and there were no full scans when there should have been. I have since set them all back to weekly and my last full scan which was done manually was on 8th. November. There have been many times I have left the pc idle since then but still the scans don't kick in. All other tasks seem to be running ok!

 

My pc is W7 Home prem 64 bit SP1, IE9, only Malwarebytes free installed, the other desk top is the same as mine but 32 bit, the laptop is W/ 64 bit IE 8.

 

Everything else in NIS 2012 (latest version) works as it should without issue.

4

Hi twixt,

 

I know I don't have background tasks running, in fact recently, the more I became aware of this situation, I was making sure I was leaving the pc in an idle state, even leaving the countdown to idle one minute and all the other various stuff was doing it's thing except an idle full scan? I even tried this on the other pc's with same result!

 

One thing I should mention, when you click the 'scan now' button, and then 'custom scan', I see listed the last time quick and full scans were last run, there is a ticked box next to the full scan. Not sure if this should be there, I experimented by unchecking this but all it does is disable full scan, where it shows 'off'. I then enable weekly full auto scan and go back to 'scan now' button, 'custom scan' and the ticked box next to full scan is there again? Not sure if this is correct as 'quick scan' is left unticked and that always runs correctly. I checked out the other desktop pc and it is the same.

 

I have never used the schedule for a full system scan.

 

Will have a read of the thread in the link you provided for me, thanks.

5
brummie wrote:

Hi twixt,

 

I know I don't have background tasks running, in fact recently, the more I became aware of this situation, I was making sure I was leaving the pc in an idle state, even leaving the countdown to idle one minute and all the other various stuff was doing it's thing except an idle full scan? I even tried this on the other pc's with same result!

 

One thing I should mention, when you click the 'scan now' button, and then 'custom scan', I see listed the last time quick and full scans were last run, there is a ticked box next to the full scan. Not sure if this should be there, I experimented by unchecking this but all it does is disable full scan, where it shows 'off'. I then enable weekly full auto scan and go back to 'scan now' button, 'custom scan' and the ticked box next to full scan is there again? Not sure if this is correct as 'quick scan' is left unticked and that always runs correctly. I checked out the other desktop pc and it is the same.

 

I have never used the schedule for a full system scan.

 

Will have a read of the thread in the link you provided for me, thanks.

Hi, brummie.  You have a variant of the problem mentioned in that other thread.  When you take out the checkbox for the full system scan, you disable the automatic idle-full-system-scan procedure.  As discovered by the gurus in the other thread, this brings to the surface a bug in NIS where once the idle-full-system-scan is disabled for any reason - it cannot be re-enabled again (even if you do put the checkmark back in the box).

 

There are two possible solutions:

 

1. Schedule a weekly scan using the NIS scheduler. This will run weekly, as you wish.  However, with this scenario, the system will not wait for an idle period.  The scan will start when scheduled, no matter what the user is doing at that time.

 

2. Uninstall and reinstall NIS.  This gets a bit trickier.

 

Because your NIS is working fine other than the problem mentioned, it is tempting to just remove and reinstall using Add/Remove Programs.  However, if the bug is part of your NIS configuration, then this will not solve the problem because the standard Remove process keeps your old configuration for reuse by your new install.

 

If you try the above, and still have the problem, you will have to remove using the Norton Removal Tool, ensuring that you select the option to completely remove all traces of the product, including all your old configuration data.  Then, when you reinstall, the default configuration - which includes the idle Full Scan on a Monthly basis - will be re-enabled.  You can then try changing that to weekly (which was the old default in 2011) and see if that works without tripping the bug.  If so, you are in business.  If not, you'll have to make do with a Scheduled Full System Scan until Symantec get the bug fixed.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

6

Hello again Twixt,

 

I read something more or less on those lines in the other thread provided, I think what I shall do, is wait till Symantec get out a fix, don't fancy a scheduled scan starting up when I am in the middle of doing something. I can always do a manual one when I think the time is right as the quick scans seem to run  enough in the mean time. Also, as I mentioned, apart from this 'bug', everything is running fine on all my pc's here at home.

 

Thanks for taking the time out to let me know. Have a good one.

 

Brummie 

7

Sorry Atomic_Blast,

 

I did mean to answer you but got distracted earlier. Yes, I do have full system scan turned 'on'. This goes for the other two pc's in the home.

8

Am late to the party on this issue--I just updated to NIS 2012 from 2011--but I wonder if all of this was intentional by the programmers.

 

In essence, the programmers may have thought that if you schedule a full scan on your own specific timing schedule, there was no need for an idle full scan to run (especially as the quick time scans are more powerful now).  And so, that option under Settings/Computer Scan/Full System Scan just didn't stick, if you tried to set it.  Of course, better would have been for that option to be grayed out--so that this "system" did not seem like a bug--or, better, for one to be able to set manual full scans as well as have idle full scans--allowed under NIS 2011 (and what I personally had).  And/or, some actual, well, explanation in the settings screens.  And, an explanation in the user manual is always nice.   ;)  

 

Also, I noted that a programming bug remains:  if you set a custom full scan to an interval but choose hours over days, you get the idle full scan option back under Settings/Computer Scan/Full System Scan--so far, so good.  But if you then choose weekly, for example, under Full System Scan, the Custom Scan changes to 7 hours as the time interval, not 7 days; likewise, a Full System Scan setting of monthly gets you a Custom Scan interval of 30 hours, and a quarterly Full System Scan setting gets you a Custom Scan interval of 120 hours.  (I didn't try out whether you then get both an interval custom full scan as well as an idle full scan--conceivably, the more frequently occurring custom full scan will knock the idle full scan out.)  The programmers and designers have some clean-up work here . . . .

 

By the way, many thanks to all for their contributions to this thread and to the "Norton Internet Security 2012 Will Not Do Idle-time Full Scans" thread--this issue was driving me a bit batty, including as an academic matter, and Chat assistance had no real suggestion/solution.

9

Hi rufustel,

 

Just to clarify - it is by design that a scheduling a scan will disable the Automatic IDLE scan. This was more clear in 2011 when Norton leveraged the Windows scheduler to do this. In 2011, when you scheduled a scan it would inform you explicitly that the IDLE full scan must be disabled.

 

In 2012 the line is more blurred since Norton now has its own scheduler.

 

So I agree there are probably some kinks to be worked out still. :smileywink:

 

Best wishes.

Allen

10

Thanks for the clarification.  Interestingly, I still was able to have a weekly scheduled full scan and full idle scans under NIS 2011--I may have accomplished this by diabling the idle scans, scheduling the full scan, and then re-enabling the idle scans. 

 

I guess now with NIS 2012, I'm a bit less scan-crazy and am content enough with a weekly full scan done in idle time (or just to schedule a weekly full scan during sleeping hours--it comes down to the same thing, essentially, it appears to me). 

 

One thing I was happy to see is, the full scan now seems to take substantially less time on my system than under NIS 2011.  :)

11
rufustel wrote:

Thanks for the clarification.  Interestingly, I still was able to have a weekly scheduled full scan and full idle scans under NIS 2011--I may have accomplished this by diabling the idle scans, scheduling the full scan, and then re-enabling the idle scans. 

 

I guess now with NIS 2012, I'm a bit less scan-crazy and am content enough with a weekly full scan done in idle time (or just to schedule a weekly full scan during sleeping hours--it comes down to the same thing, essentially, it appears to me). 

 

One thing I was happy to see is, the full scan now seems to take substantially less time on my system than under NIS 2011.  :)

Hi rufustel,

 

Yes I had seen this too (the highlighted portion above). When scheduling a full system scan NIS 2011 would inform you that you need to disable the IDLE full scan. But if you then re-enable the IDLE full scan it would not inform you that you need to disable the scheduled scan. :smileysad:

 

I would recommend that you use one or the other and not both however. There is too much chance of an overlap by attempting to use both.

 

Best wishes.

Allen

12

Interesting.  I never had an overlap with scans with NIS 2011, as far as I can tell--perhaps because if a scheduled full scan was being run, NIS would see something happening and not run an idle-time full scan?

 

With NIS 2012, it seems that Symantec is trying to avoid this issue by disabling (albeit imperfectly) the idle full scan option when you've scheduled a precise time for a full scan.

13

HI rufustel,

 

By overlap I just meant a conflict, no they would not be running at the same time.

 

Again, the intent and design has always been to not let scans be scheduled along with an IDLE full scan being enabled. This is not new to 2012. What is new with 2012 is that Norton now uses its own scheduler instead of the Windows scheduler.

 

Best wishes.

Allen

14

Perhaps the good folks/programmers at Symantec might be seeing these posts and cleaning up the idle full scan/scheduled full scan glitches and confusion, which I know always is part of their goal.