Unable to scan attachments

[fire]

Sorry if this post is in the wrong forum,,I'm not very good with computers to begin with so please bear with me. Lately it seems I'm getting alot of attachments that when i go to download, the following avast warning comes up,,"Unable to scan attachments",,,"the attached file has not been scanned because it may be password protected or corrupted". It then gives the option to continue downloading the file)s). The reason I ask about this is that it usually never happened before. Now it doesn't happen all the time,,just more frequently it seems. I'm using the latest avast version (the free one) and it automatically updates itself. I've opened the attachments if there from someone i know,,but I was just wondering why, in laymans terms, they can't be scanned. Thanks

[DavidR]

Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.

Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn't know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it).

When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can't be scanned.

By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to. You may need to expand the column headings to see all the text.

If you can give some examples of those file names, the locations and reason given why it can't be scanned might help us further ?

Never open attachments in emails, even if you think you know who sent them as the from address is easily faked. Attachments should be saved to your hard disk and scanned, if password protected (obviously that can't happen), you would need the password from whoever sent it. If in the body of the email you should confirm with whoever is meant to have sent it that they actually did send it.

[fire]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll look into your recommendations, although as I stated previously,,when it comes to computers I'm a total novice concerning these things.

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

Welcome to the forums.