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Defender file scanning runs automatically

I could see that Defender File scanning is running automatically when I log into the back-end of my site and check the Defender dashboard. How is it initiated?

Wed, 8 Jan 2020 20:03:45
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Defender Pro
  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Steve ,

    This could happen if you had enabled “Automatic File Scan & Reporting” in the Quick Setup popup box which appears initially when the Defender page is loaded.

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    Enabling the option shown in the screenshot and clicking “Get Started” button will automatically initiate a new scan. Do you recall running such steps?

    Other than that, if the scan aren’t manually invoked or not manually scheduled under Defender Pro > File Scanning > Reporting it shouldn’t start running automatically.

    I hope this clears your query. If you still notice anomalies regarding this, please do enable support access to any of the websites where you still have Scan automatically running so that we could check further if needed.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin

  • Steve
    • Design Lord, Child of Thor

    How do I turn this off? OR Schedule Reports – I do not always have the time to start and finish a scan while logged into one site – I initiated a Scan (opened the Dashboard) on GJ Golf (gjgolf.net) and the scan was running for 3 days until I left the window open long enough for it to finish – The scan while open is pulling from the server and using resources. If several file scans run at the same time the server is taxed.
    I will attempt to Turn off auto and only run scans Ad Hock – or manually.

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Steve ,

    Option to disable would be under Defender Pro > File Scanning > Reporting. I could notice you have already disabled the mentioned option for the Golf website. I checked whether the website has to Automate and that seems to be disabled too.

    There isn’t any other instance where the scan would get invoked automatically other than that aspects. If you think you notice such anomalies again, then please get back via the following ticket.

    I initiated a Scan (opened the Dashboard) on GJ Golf (gjgolf.net) and the scan was running for 3 days until I left the window open long enough for it to finish –

    That’s really long runtime. I have applied the following attached patch on your golf website, by overwriting the /app directory of the plugin folder so that the files get overridden with the new patch. This patch will be made available in the next release of Defender.

    Once done, I ran a new scan, and it lasted around 1.5 hours. The big the website is the longer the scan would take.

    Other improvements you could try would be to increase the server resources, and then check whether that improves too:
    https://wpmudev.com/blog/increase-memory-limit/

    Please do check and see how it goes. Have a nice weekend ahead.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin