How to scan all files in OneDrive folder?

[REDACTED]

Hi guys

I am currently facing the problem that if I perform a scan that I get the error message "some files could not be scanned" for some files in my OneDrive folder (using Windows 10). I do knot exactly know, what these files are, but there seems to be one for every subfolder in the OneDrive-Folder, ending with ":ms-properties", e.g. "C:\Users\MyName\OneDrive\subfolder\subsubfolder:ms-properties" is displayed as filename. In the Status column: "File is offline - it is currently not available. (42006)"
I am aware of the fact that this does not necessarily mean anything bad. Nevertheless, I would still like to know that this folder is properly scanned and what these files are, as it is a folder kind of "directly connected to the internet" and it contains a lot of data in my case.
By the way, the data in that folder are not placeholder-files or anything, they are real files stored on my local drive and synchronized with the OneDrive from my Microsoft account.

Does anybody know, what exactly these files are? What is going wrong and how to fix it?

I would appreciate any help very much! Thanks in advance!

[DavidR]

I don't use OneDrive, so I'm taking a wild guess here.

Isn't the point of OneDrive to store files in the Cloud (not on your system as such) Microsoft server somewhare, so are the files in your local folder just a reference, links to the actual files on OneDrive.  If so there would be nothing locally to scan other than these references.

[REDACTED]

Unfortunately, no.

The files are not just references but the real files themselves, that take up a lot of space on my local drives. The only difference of this folder compared to all other ones is, that the OneDrive application I have installed is always synchronizing that folder with my cloud. Whenever something is added to the cloud, it is added to my local folder and I can access that file offline after synchronization, and vice versa.

[DavidR]

I suppose it is/was a little like my DropBox then.

I had no problem in scanning its local folder.

What on-demand scan are you doing ?
Have you made any changes to the settings ?

Do the Scan settings have Sensitivity > Links - 'Follow links during scan' option enabled ?

[REDACTED]

Yeah, I do not know DropBox too well but I guess because of the neat integration of OneDrive into Windows they might work a little differently.
I think I might have made some tiny changes in the past, like deactivating the signature in emails - should not be too big changes. Unfortulately, I cannot remember all of that, but tell me, if some specific setting are important, then I will check.

And hm, the error only appears, when I do a full scan, and not in the fast scan. And in the fast scan, the 'Follow links during scan' option is enabled, while in the full scan, it is not! Is this the key? What does this setting mean exactly?

[DavidR]

The fast scan is much less content.

Performs a scan of the areas on your computer most susceptible to malware infection.

The full scan does all drives and lots of stuff that would otherwise be inert/dormant.

Performs an in-depth scan of the system (thorough but slower).

I pretty much gave up on-demand scans other than in beta testing and related to enquiries in the forums.
- With a resident (on-access) scanner the need for on-demand scans is much depreciated. For the most part dormant/inert files are being scanned, the other active files are going to be scanned by the resident shields when they are activated.

[REDACTED]

Thanks for that information with on-demand scans, very interesting.

But I think I had a poor choice of words here: I meant what exactly does the 'Follow links during scan' do exactly? And why do you think, the error disappears, if a enable that option? (I did not mean the difference between fast and complete scan, sorry for that misconception)

[DavidR]

Thanks for that information with on-demand scans, very interesting.

But I think I had a poor choice of words here: I meant what exactly does the 'Follow links during scan' do exactly? And why do you think, the error disappears, if a enable that option? (I did not mean the difference between fast and complete scan, sorry for that misconception)

I don't know exactly what the 'Follow links during scan' does, I can only go by my best guess. It may mean that you would lose the performance benefit of the 'Speed up scanning by reading files in the order they are stored on disk' option if the file has references/links that would be followed.

This I would say would cause the scan to be constantly jumping to other locations. It could also have an issue if that reference/link wasn't available.

[Asyn]

But I think I had a poor choice of words here: I meant what exactly does the 'Follow links during scan' do exactly?

Go to the scan settings and click on "?" in the related menu there.

[DavidR]

But I think I had a poor choice of words here: I meant what exactly does the 'Follow links during scan' do exactly?

Go to the scan settings and click on "?" in the related menu there.

I keep forgetting about the bloody ? icon

[bob3160]

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=63325.msg535222#msg535222
I have no clue where that setting is located in the latest version of Avast. The answer goes back to 2010

[Asyn]

But I think I had a poor choice of words here: I meant what exactly does the 'Follow links during scan' do exactly?

Go to the scan settings and click on "?" in the related menu there.

I keep forgetting about the bloody ? icon

NP Dave, we'll keep reminding you (if needed).

[REDACTED]

Thanks for your patience guys! Long and last post of this thread, I promise:

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=63325.msg535222#msg535222
I have no clue where that setting is located in the latest version of Avast. The answer goes back to 2010

If you start a scan, the "follow links during scan" option is available in "scan settings" -> "sensitivity" -> "links".

Unfortunately it still did not work with a full scan, even with the "follow links" option enabled.
But some more searching yielded this thread: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=54379.0 and that was it, so the ScanOfflineFiles=1 variable in avast5.ini has to be set, and everything works fine
According to https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56835.msg479458#msg479458 if I understand if correctly, there is an "online/offline"-flag to all windows files, that (if set, which it normally is not) means the file can be stored purely online like first guessed above by DavidR. As also mentioned, this is not done in my case, but if so, then it could take a long time to scan them of course. So Avast is not scanning them.

Sorry to bother you altogether, I made a search before starting the thread of course but was obviously searching for the wrong things
I still do not really know, what these ":ms-properties"-files are, but I probably better ask that in a Windows-forum

Thanks again

[DavidR]

No bother, as you have come back informed us of the cause/solution and let some of us (me for sure) that with OneDrive files can be set to be off-line storage only.