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Scan gets stuck

HowardBrazee

My Mac has been very slow the last month or so, with a lot of beach ball use.   I have fairly slow cable Internet, but it's slow other times as well (although more apparent with my browsers).

So I installed Sophos and tried to scan.    After a couple of hours I discovered it was stuck.   I shut down my computer, rebooted, and tried again, this time with "Caffeine" to stop my computer from sleeping.   I let it run over night, and it was still running.   A few hours later I was doing other stuff on my computer and it was stuck again.     I tried again and shut down after it got stuck the next day.    

This time I tried it lasted long enough to find a Troj/DocDrop-BM.    Yesterday the Quarantine Manager pulled it up and says "Cleanup in progress", with the little in-progress icon to the right of it.    A few times I clicked on the "lock to make changes" icon and gave my password.   But the next time I checked that was locked again.    Last night that was the status, with the scanning moving.    This morning that was the status, but the "Items remaining" is not moving.    It gets stuck with different numbers each time.

Looking up this trojan, I see that it is a Windows trojan, so it must not be why my Mac is so slow.    My OSX is 10.9.2, my processor is 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.   My disk has 55.84 GB free out of 499.25.

:1016319


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    It may seem like the scan is stuck but it's more likely it is scanning files but doing slowly.  Obviously if the scan takes all day and night it can be judged to have basically become 'stuck' rather than arguing it's just really really (really) slow. :smileywink:

    There are a few ways of handling this and they all focus on reducing the amount of files SAV has to get through for a particular scan.

    • Have a clear out of old files: In Finder click through folders (like Downloads, etc.) and delete things (esp. large files) that you don't need anymore.  Having a general tidy up can help with the Mac's performance overall - for example less stuff for Spotlight to have to index.  You mentioned you have 55GB free out of a 500GB hard drive.  Maybe all that space is taken up by important files, and I'm not suggesting you delete those.  However with 445GB of files to scan maybe there are somethings you can clear out now (even empty the Trash).  If you have loads of personal files you cannot remove, and this is just a general file management suggestion...maybe move all those files to a USB drive and keep them on there rather than the main hard drive.  I know this idea may not appeal so moving on...

    • If running a 'Scan This Mac' scan exclude volumes like Time Machine etc. and compressed files.  See the scanning your Mac video for how to exclude volumes and prevent compressed files from being scanned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3SUJFozC2Q.  Time Machine scanning isn't generally required because the files are wrapped up inside a backup and can't harm the computer.

    • If you have tried the point above and/or are running custom scan: Try limiting the folders for the scan - break down the whole 445GB drive into small parts.  For example set up a custom scan to scan just your Home folder.  Run that, see how it goes and expand the items to be scanned list.  Chances are at some point you will hit on a folder with a ton of large files (or compressed files if still scanning those) and the scanner will get stuck again.  Once it's clear where the problematic folder/files are a resolution can be worked out.

    • Finally you can run a sweep scan and output what is being scan as the scan goes.  If or when a sweep scan (of the whole hard drive) slows down, you can record the files causing the problem and from there a solution can be worked out.  See: http://openforum.sophos.com/t5/Mac-tools-help/See-what-files-are-being-scanned-with-the-sweep-tool-in-Sophos/td-p/16329
    :1016331
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  • 0

    It may seem like the scan is stuck but it's more likely it is scanning files but doing slowly.  Obviously if the scan takes all day and night it can be judged to have basically become 'stuck' rather than arguing it's just really really (really) slow. :smileywink:

    There are a few ways of handling this and they all focus on reducing the amount of files SAV has to get through for a particular scan.

    • Have a clear out of old files: In Finder click through folders (like Downloads, etc.) and delete things (esp. large files) that you don't need anymore.  Having a general tidy up can help with the Mac's performance overall - for example less stuff for Spotlight to have to index.  You mentioned you have 55GB free out of a 500GB hard drive.  Maybe all that space is taken up by important files, and I'm not suggesting you delete those.  However with 445GB of files to scan maybe there are somethings you can clear out now (even empty the Trash).  If you have loads of personal files you cannot remove, and this is just a general file management suggestion...maybe move all those files to a USB drive and keep them on there rather than the main hard drive.  I know this idea may not appeal so moving on...

    • If running a 'Scan This Mac' scan exclude volumes like Time Machine etc. and compressed files.  See the scanning your Mac video for how to exclude volumes and prevent compressed files from being scanned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3SUJFozC2Q.  Time Machine scanning isn't generally required because the files are wrapped up inside a backup and can't harm the computer.

    • If you have tried the point above and/or are running custom scan: Try limiting the folders for the scan - break down the whole 445GB drive into small parts.  For example set up a custom scan to scan just your Home folder.  Run that, see how it goes and expand the items to be scanned list.  Chances are at some point you will hit on a folder with a ton of large files (or compressed files if still scanning those) and the scanner will get stuck again.  Once it's clear where the problematic folder/files are a resolution can be worked out.

    • Finally you can run a sweep scan and output what is being scan as the scan goes.  If or when a sweep scan (of the whole hard drive) slows down, you can record the files causing the problem and from there a solution can be worked out.  See: http://openforum.sophos.com/t5/Mac-tools-help/See-what-files-are-being-scanned-with-the-sweep-tool-in-Sophos/td-p/16329
    :1016331
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