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Multiple scans running at the same time - MacOS Monterey 12.0 (21A344)

When I wake my machine up, or it is has been running for some time, if I click on the WebRoot SecureAnywhere menu bar at the top, I see multiple scans running. It looks something like the image below, and all scans are updating, rather slowly however. The problem here is that WSA is now using a lot of the  processing power and  a large quantity of memory running all these scans. It is slowing other things badly.

It seems to me that if a scan is in progress, then maybe you should not start a new one? 
 

Running MacOS 12.0 (21A344) on a MacBookPro 14-inc 2021 Apple M1 Max, 32 GB memory

Is there a way to stop this behavior other than constantly stopping scans in progress, which means they never finish, so I do not see the results. 

 

Thanks

 

16 replies

ProTruckDriver
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Userlevel 7

Hello @MajorHavoc 

I would get in contact with Webroot Support on this problem.

I’ll also ping two of Webroot Employee Mac Experts to see if they have an answer for this problem.

@ChadL @macdonaldj 

Webroot Support:

Submit a ticket

Call 1-866-612-4227

Note: When submitting a Support Ticket, Please wait for a response from Support. Putting in another Support Ticket on this problem before Support responses will put your first Support Ticket at the end of the queue.

Late 2015 ~ 5K ~ 27 inch iMac ~ macOS Catalina 10.15.7 ~ Clone & Backup with: SuperDuper - Time Machine & iCloud. PWM: RoboForm.  "An Apple a Day, Keeps Microsoft Away." 
TripleHelix
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Hi @MajorHavoc  can you tell us the version of Webroot as well?

 

Thanks,

Daniel - Windows 10 Pro x64 for Workstations 22H2 on my Alienware 17R2 and Alienware 17R5 Laptops with Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete Beta Tester for PC & Android Moto G9 Plus OS 11. "Take Them to the Train Station"
MajorHavoc
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Oh, my bad. I meant to put that in the message. Sorry. 

9.5.1.135

Thanks

 

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
MajorHavoc
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Hello @MajorHavoc 

I would get in contact with Webroot Support on this problem.

I’ll also ping two of Webroot Employee Mac Experts to see if they have an answer for this problem.

@ChadL @macdonaldj 

Webroot Support:

Submit a ticket

Call 1-866-612-4227

Note: When submitting a Support Ticket, Please wait for a response from Support. Putting in another Support Ticket on this problem before Support responses will put your first Support Ticket at the end of the queue.

 

Thanks. I thought I would ask here first just in case this was already a known problem.  I’ll go ahead and submit a support ticket tomorrow. 

 

Cheers

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
MajorHavoc
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Strangely,  all these scans (I left them running) seem to have all ground to an almost halt.  This is one day later with the machine sitting idle for almost a whole day. The first scan only scanned 4 files, the second 35 files, the third 4 files, and the last scan only 5 files. So there is more here than just multiple scans it seems. The whole program has gone into some kind of slow motion. The interface is still responsive, but the scans are not running well at all it seems. 

 

 

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
TripleHelix
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@MajorHavoc  Thanks! I assume your a Business user and your using there support?

 

All business protection products

Mon - Fri 7 AM to 5:30 PM (MDT)

Open a support ticket

Tel: 1-866-254-8400

 

Thanks,

Daniel - Windows 10 Pro x64 for Workstations 22H2 on my Alienware 17R2 and Alienware 17R5 Laptops with Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete Beta Tester for PC & Android Moto G9 Plus OS 11. "Take Them to the Train Station"
ChadL
Userlevel 5

If you shutdown Webroot SecureAnywhere via right clicking the tray icon, and then restart are you still seeing the scans? You might have to restart the Daemon. This is an issue we’ve seen before and its something we plan on fixing, but typically it can be resolved by rebooting the Daemon / Application. 

Support will more than likely be able to resolve your problem, and just know it is something we have on our roadmap to try and fix to prevent this from happening. 

Team Lead / Sr. Software Engineer for MacOS Webroot SecureAnywhere. If you need some insight feel free to tag me in a post, and I'll do my best to help!
MajorHavoc
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Thanks Chad. I have killed the app and deamon a number of times, as well as full restarts. The scans can be made to go away, but after a short time, there will be 4 again. So they come back, but I do believe they are new ones. 
 

As a quick fix, perhaps an automatic  scan should not  start if a scan is already running? Seems that would be an easy fix. 
 

Thanks for the response. 

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
ChadL
Userlevel 5

@MajorHavoc Having re-read your comment about the scans only scanning x number of files, like 4 or 5. That’s caused by the Daemon and the UI dropping connection from one another and causing the scan to hang. Then the agent detects an initial scan needs to happen so it runs again. So its not actually a scan that’s happening, but a stalled out UI issue. It might cause performance issues because its trying to communicate and not hearing anything back. This is a bug we are working on resolving so a fix in the near future should be expected. 

Team Lead / Sr. Software Engineer for MacOS Webroot SecureAnywhere. If you need some insight feel free to tag me in a post, and I'll do my best to help!
MajorHavoc
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@MajorHavoc Having re-read your comment about the scans only scanning x number of files, like 4 or 5. That’s caused by the Daemon and the UI dropping connection from one another and causing the scan to hang. Then the agent detects an initial scan needs to happen so it runs again. So its not actually a scan that’s happening, but a stalled out UI issue. It might cause performance issues because its trying to communicate and not hearing anything back. This is a bug we are working on resolving so a fix in the near future should be expected. 

Ah, that would make a lot if sense. Thanks ChadL. I will look for an update. Thank you

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
MajorHavoc
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So @ChadL , thanks for the answer, but watching this a bit more closely, I am not sure that is entirely the case. When I see multiple scans, the number of files scanned is still changing in all 4 scan lines, just very slowly. So I am not sure this is 100% the cause you suggest. If it is a disconnect, it iOS reconnecting occasionally and scanning another file. 

There is something else going on here. In addition, those “stalled” scans are eating up large quantities of RAM. I am on a 32 GB M1 MacBook Pro Max, and I am constantly being told I am out of memory. I force quit WSA, and the memory slowly comes back (yea, MacOS not great on garbage collection.) This is a bigger problem than suggested. And I have NEVER since moving to an M1 machine, had a scan finish. That is a much bigger problem IMO.

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
kleinmat4103
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Just reinstalled on my Mac running Monterrey and am seeing the exact same thing as @MajorHavoc . I’m not even on an M1 machine. My Mac is not as powerful, so it pretty much unusable when it gets a few scans in.

MajorHavoc
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@kleinmat4103 Well, I am not sure to be thankful or sorry. Thanks for showing it is not just my machine, and I am sorry it is happening to you at the same time.  Good luck Webroot. Happy to presets any releases. 

- Owen Rubin,  Apple Expert. Worked in Vision Pro team and early Mac HW and OS engineer at Apple. Machines: 2017 iMac Pro 27" 5K 3GHz 10-Core Xenon Sonoma 14.x. 2023 14" MacBookPro M2 Max Ventura 13.x, 2018 16" MacBookPro Ventura 13.x, and a dozen or so older machines for testing. iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 6.
kleinmat4103
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The other thing that’s odd is that it’s not universal. We support a decent chunk of Macs and it only impacts a small number of them. The issue only shows up on Big Sur or later, though.

 

I know we’ve opened a few support ticket over the last year or so. Uninstalling and reinstalling works sometimes. And sometimes it just works for a little while before the scanning issue starts again.


My Mac is not my primary machine anymore. I might just try wiping it and starting over. See if that helps.

russell.harris
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Not actively using Monterey on our fleet yet apart from macs that came with it. Haven’t yet discovered this issue but will keep and eye out and report back

"The only problem with troubleshooting is that sometimes trouble shoots back!"
rupertsland
Rank

Hello from Canada.

I am also experiencing this problem on my MacBook Pro 13 inch with macOS Big Sur 11.6.8.

What I noticed is that when Webroot releases an update to the software, the user is sometimes (not always) confronted with the message to allow for full disk access. The message popped up again this summer. This problem has been around for the last several years and I find this step is the most confusing and problematic during any upgrade or update. It shouldn’t be.

Also, the instructions for installing Webroot appear to be long outdated (with ancient screenshots of versions that are more than 5 years old). Following the instructions causes the multiple scanning problem.

So, it seems the only solution is to completely uninstall the software, and then reinstall it again. Until the problem occurs again.

 

Rupertsland,
Canada

 

Windows 10 | macOS Big Sur 11.x

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