Sophos Slows down MoneyDance open

Sounds like it could well be the on-access scanner slowing down the software.  I'd be interested if you can post the following file (rename to .txt or compress as a .zip if required) to see how it's configured...

/Library/Preferences/com.sophos.sav.plist

If it's the on-access scanner then MoneyDance should be providing the list of files to exclude - 'switch it off' nor 'go see Sophos' are acceptable answers.  If you think about it: No one at Sophos knows about 'MoneyDance', nor how it works, where it puts files, where it calls files from on launch, etc.  Neither is SAV tested with MoneyDance so we cannot say 'do 1, 2, 3'.  Sophos can't test every application and provide a bespoke set of instructions.  The vendors know how their program(s) work and they should therefore offer a list of exclusions.

You've tried a few exclusions and these haven't worked (yet).  I'd keep on at MoneyDance support for a list to exclude so you can keep the on-access scanner on and poke just enough holes in your protection so the program doesn't slow down.  MoneyDance should be able to list all the things you need to exclude on Mac OS X - but not how to do it in SAV.  Once you have the list you can get help here to implement them if required.

That's why the article below has been written to explain how to go about excluding things to boost performance (while lowering security)...

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/35970.aspx

Hope that makes sense and do post that .plist file as wrong exclusions or on-access compressed file scanning could make a Java program really drag...

BTW:  SAV has Decision Caching^TM technology that provides performance-enhanced on- access scans by ensuring that only those files that have changed are scanned.

That probably explains the re-open being quicker.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I didn't mention that it WAS MoneyDance who suggested which files/folder (app and data) that I excluded. After I tried that they didn't know what else to suggest, as they have had some AV programs slow down but were better when those were excluded. I certainly agree with you that Sophos can't know every application that is out there. Not sure whether you mentioned this from knowledge or not, but MoneyDance IS a java program.

Attached is the plist. Hope it helps.

As a test, I just disabled scan inside archives and compressed files, and it opened immediately. I then re-enabled the scanning and the 30 second or more wait time returned. The database is a mac folder/package structure.

So to confirm: the checkbox in the screenshot I included before was checked and unchecking it resolves the issue?

The box being unchecked is the default and I'd recommend keeping it unchecked.  Maybe post the solution back to MoneyDance for future reference.

It's nice to have quick response back again! Of course this doesn't answer why Sophos checks the files if they're in the excluded list, but at least it works at speed now.

Thanks.