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As a yearly customer of webroot since the PrevX Edge Days, (Probably 10 or 11 years now), I have lost so much confidence in WR over the past couple of years. It got so terrible on Windows that I completely did away with all my microsoft desktop computers in our home, (we had 7), and once webroot was able to be used on Mac we switched to Mac products & a few android products. For awhile things were great, seemed like the good ole days when WRSA would run in the background and I rarely had to look at it, but it was there and keeping everything nice and protected.

 Now I can’t power up a macbook without going through webroot chaos. Sometimes it wants me to enter my KC - which still has 200 days left on it - then once KC is entered it begins “Preparing for scan” which never progresses. I’ve uninstalled and installed fresh disk image and whole 9 yards multiple times only to have the process seem fixed, then repeat the same series of problems then next day.

 These are the type of issues, combined with the plague of stand alone microsoft issues that have nothing to do with WRSA, that drove me away from Windows OS in the first place, and now the only thing that is making my Macs undesirable.

 I have not spent allot of time researching security software because I’ve really wanted to keep WRSA as my primary, however it is getting to the point where I’m leaning towards cutting the strings. 

Right now, the only way I’ve found to actually get WR to scan the macbook is to start the scan process manually. When it gets stuck I then go into activity monitor, find WR and Quit that process. Once the process it killed I can then restart the WR application, and it’s a 50/50 shot that it will actually scan. Sometimes I have to repeat the process a time or two before it actually scan proper. I question whether or not I can actually trust this scan once I get it going, because the crazy process that is required to achieve such a mundane task that should be so very simple.  I spend around $80 per year for this service, and lately I feel like I should be on the payroll because of all the work required to get what I’ve paid for. 

 Does anyone know if WR is actually going to address and repair this problem or should I start looking for a replacement? I don’t want to go through this for another year. Matter of fact I don’t want to go through it for another week if I can find a way to make this all work proper.

 Any suggestions are much appreciated. And please do not tell me to open a support ticket. I have opened support tickets so many times that they all look the same, (broken record that does not address the actual problem).

Hello @quick 

Let me ping a few employees here:

Mac Software Development Manager @macdonaldj 

Also @coscooper 

Hopefully they can help you with this ongoing problem.

HTH,

Dave.

@quick - I’m actually on the business side and use a Mac daily, so I have felt your pain. (Yes, I work for Webroot and have for some time.)

In a nutshell, yes the problem was/is fixed. I’m not sure which versions you’re referencing as the past few months have seen some issues crop up both with Catalina and BigSur (I have both and test all the time.) The latest version, 9.3.077 has many of these performance issues fixed. I would double check that this version is available to you in your console. The MacDev team is feverishly working on several fronts to get the performance issues resolved and stable. They’re also working on a ground up rewrite. No time frame, but it will greatly improve a lot of the 10 year old code and modernize some of the threat analysis to get on par with the Windows agent.

Quick note on past year and Mac “issues” - Apple actually threw us and most vendors a curve ball with Catalina FDA and now BigSur, so the agent had to be completely rewritten (sorta) on short order to address the changes Apple forced upon us, mostly around how the agent and the kernel communicate so the agent can monitor activities properly.

Some performance issues crept in and did cause some scan issues as well as confusion with the Keycode(s) not taking. All of this was fixed.

Not an excuse, just offering some color/background on situation. 8-)

And, to be frank, they plagued use Webrooters who drove Macs every day, so we were screaming as much as our user base, so they worked tireless on getting them resolved.

 

Lastly, if the latest version still causes you heartburn, it could be that some of the components are still hanging around. I would suggest giving support a jingle as they have fixes for these situations.

As of today, I’m running 9.3.077 on both my test Macs (one really old guy still running Catalina and a newer test BigSur) as well as my daily driver and things are much more calm. 

Hope that helps.

Hello @quick ,

Our 9.3.0.77 release indeed contains several improvements to scanning performance. This includes shorter scan times, less memory usage on scan, and resolution of instances where scans seemed to be stuck. 

Additionally, we have several core improvements in the pipeline that are aimed at improving scan efficiency and efficacy.

One option that you may be able to try is to ensure that you’re installing 9.3.0.77 directly, versus an older version that eventually updates itself to 9.3.0.77. This version is accessible here:

https://mac.webrootmultiplatform.com/production/wsa-mac/11.3/9.3.0.77/WSAMAC.dmg

This should be able to be installed over your existing installation without uninstallation, but if you run into further issues, our Support team has a utility that may be used to ensure that your system is clean prior to a reinstallation.

When you install this version, you may also need to verify that Full-Disk Access is granted in the System Preferences → Security & Privacy screen

 

Hello @quick ,

Our 9.3.0.77 release indeed contains several improvements to scanning performance. This includes shorter scan times, less memory usage on scan, and resolution of instances where scans seemed to be stuck. 

Additionally, we have several core improvements in the pipeline that are aimed at improving scan efficiency and efficacy.

One option that you may be able to try is to ensure that you’re installing 9.3.0.77 directly, versus an older version that eventually updates itself to 9.3.0.77. This version is accessible here:

https://mac.webrootmultiplatform.com/production/wsa-mac/11.3/9.3.0.77/WSAMAC.dmg

This should be able to be installed over your existing installation without uninstallation, but if you run into further issues, our Support team has a utility that may be used to ensure that your system is clean prior to a reinstallation.

When you install this version, you may also need to verify that Full-Disk Access is granted in the System Preferences → Security & Privacy screen

 


I’m running Catalina 10.15.7, and my WRSA version is 9.3.0.77: 1595  

WR automatically keeps itself up to date so I can’t say exactly when the new version was installed, but I know it was on here last week, and I’ve went through the uninstall and reinstall process so many times I can do it blindfolded. I can restart my mac and get one scan out of it, sometimes I may have to restart 2 or 3x before it actually scans. After that, then it’s right back to “preparing for scan”. Today it stuck on that for over 90 mins as of right now. WRSA has the permissions granted that it needs. I’ve made sure of that at each fresh install.

im having the same problem, i can't get it to scan at all though .WR version is up to date, im also on Catalina . not sure what to do at this point...

Hello @djdizone 

 

Please contact Webroot support directly!

 

Webroot Support:

Submit a ticket

Call 1-866-612-4227 Mon - Fri 7 AM to 7 PM (MDT)

 

Thanks,

im having the same problem, i can't get it to scan at all though .WR version is up to date, im also on Catalina . not sure what to do at this point...


Yep, mine won’t scan either like it was doing. I fooled with it late into the night then started again this morning and haven’t been able to even get a scan, just stuck preparing for scan. I’ve removed the entire program through cmd prompt and I’m thinking about what to do next. I’m not sure I want to invest more time or money in to WR. I’ve dealt with customer support in the past and while I have no complaints with any particular person there the process in which they go about dealing with this type of issue is not appealing to my schedule or my desire to not speak to them on the phone while troubleshooting the problem. WR has been a great security program for me for a long time, I’m just not sure WR is up to keeping up with Mac’s software. I’m personally just gonna do a little research and see if I can find something else that may suite my needs so I can stop pulling out my hair - baldness runs in the family so I don’t need to keep all the hair I can. :slight_smile:

Hello @quick 

 

Have you tried to contact Webroot Support on this issue? If not please do so again as they are the only ones that can help you.

 

Sorry,

Hello @quick 

 

Have you tried to contact Webroot Support on this issue? If not please do so again as they are the only ones that can help you.

 

Sorry,


Hi, Yes I have contacted support regarding this issue.  It turns into the same thing every time. They want me to do all these long processes of scanning, saving logs, converting them to a particular file type, then uploading the logs so they can view them. Then when they say “I didn’t received it, can you try sending it again?”, then it feels like I should be on payroll rather than contributing to their payroll. Looking back at my own exchanges with them, it looks like this pattern began a couple of years ago, when Open Text purchased them. I’m sure they will say that nothing changed with how the program works or is managed, but my experience has went to hell in the past 2 years, so I’m done.

 I removed WR from everything this morning and will try out something else for awhile. Best of luck to those of you who can keep it and make it work for them, but I have just had enough of doing the technical troubleshooting myself.

 

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