With macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), Apple has begun the transition from the Mac's old file system (HFS+) to its new one (AFS). Right now, when a user upgrades to 10.13, if the Mac has an SSD internal drive (as most newer Macs do), it is automatically upgraded to AFS. Over time Apple intends to move all users to the new file system.
I've run tests on multiple machines and the results are consistent: While Avast Mac Security works fine with Dropbox folders on HFS+ volumes, it radically increases sync times when a Dropbox folder is located on an AFS volume.
With a small Dropbox this may not be very noticeable, but with a medium-to-larger one, it has a huge negative impact. For example, I have a Dropbox that's approximately 60GB with 90K files. With Avast running, on an HFS+ volume, full sync (the one that happens right after Dropbox starts up, and sometimes at other points in time) time is about a minute. With the folder on an AFS volume, however, full sync time jumps to 16 minutes!
As soon as I turn off Avast's file shield, full sync time drops back to a minute.
This is a huge problem for Dropbox users, and it's going to get worse as more Mac users migrate to AFS. Are Avast developers aware of it?
Thanks.