alert "not updated viruses definition"

[Robert1431]

Hi,
Since 4 days I get alert "not updated viruses definition" , when I press update now I see progress bar but after a while I recieve the same message in red. However publishing date changes every day. My question is this publishing day is the information about date of succesfuly updated virus definition? If so perhaps I should not worry about alert?
Kris

[DavidR]

What does your defs folder look like as there are different sub-folders, one for the full defs and one for the streaming updates.

See attached image of mine, as a new Virus Definitions (VPS) update occurs older streaming updates are cleared.  This happens periodically, so if you are seeing an adversely large number of streaming updates, then it is an indication that the regular Virus Definitions aren't occurring.

What does yours look like ?

Also check the About Avast (right click the tray icon) and if that is saying they are out of date, but the defs folder is showing the latest VPS, then it could just me a synchronisation/communication issue.  In which case try an Avast Repair.

[Robert1431]

First of all many thanks for Your help. In folder def I have total 112 sub-folderd and about 40% are stream folders.
I did reparation but it didn't help.
When I check the About Avast (right click the tray icon) it is not  saying they are out of date. It just gives info about version of viruses definition : 201020-0

[DavidR]

Did you reboot after the Repair, that I would say is essential.

Remember these are folder/s names you are viewing not files as such, so won't much information other than the folder name is the Year/Month/Day-and number of that VPS update e.g. 20/10/20-0 So that is only the first one of yesterday so that isn't really out of date. 

But what is not happening is the housekeeping to prune/remove the old streaming update and VPS folders.

The stream updates should be cleared when (or shortly after) the next VPS update is received as all of those streaming updates would be included in the latest VPS version.

[ozboomer]

I am having the same problem, of virus definitions being out-of-date and nothing being changed when the 'Update Now' button is pressed.  Thus, I'm running 'unprotected'.

The defs directory contains a total of 111 directories, 79 of which are .stream ...and they seem to have names that are only in "October" (2010nnnn).

>But what is not happening is the housekeeping to prune/remove the old streaming
>update and VPS folders.
>
>The stream updates should be cleared when (or shortly after) the next VPS update is received
>as all of those streaming updates would be included in the latest VPS version.

...and so how do we resolve that?

In my case, the "Virus Definitions" are described as:-

Virus definitions are not up to date.
Release date was October 23, 2020 1:13 PM
(ver. 201022-0)

...and the "Application" is described as:-

Release date was May 4, 2020 5:13 PM
(ver. 20.3.2405 - build 20.3.5200.575)

Note that the "Virus Definitions" release date always changes to the time the update was attempted.

The Avast icon in the System Tray shows "You are unprotected" when the mouse pointer is floated over it.

What are our next steps?

I'm running the application under Windows 8.1.

[DavidR]

Have you tried the Avast Repair followed by a system restart as previously suggested in Reply #1 ?

[ozboomer]

Have you tried the Avast Repair followed by a system restart as previously suggested in Reply #1 ?

Thanks.. but yes.  I've gone through the processes shown earlier in this topic... but nothing has changed. 

There are extra .bin files in the 'daily' .stream directory, which seem to be associated with each update attempt. 

Also, the aswdefs.ini file is NOT being updated - it contains "Latest=20100500"...

[Asyn]

...and the "Application" is described as:-

Release date was May 4, 2020 5:13 PM
(ver. 20.3.2405 - build 20.3.5200.575)

Update to the latest version (20.8.2432): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=238421.0

[ozboomer]

Update to the latest version (20.8.2432): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=238421.0

That's one of the things I've tried before but it would always fail.

Another installation attempt now gave me some more clues.  Issues with disk space, so I'll try and resolve that.

To that end, there is currently ~5GB of data in the 'defs' directory (see attached).  Can any of these directories just be removed to free up the space they are using?

[Asyn]

To that end, there is currently ~5GB of data in the 'defs' directory (see attached).  Can any of these directories just be removed to free up the space they are using?

1. Download Avast Free Antivirus: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
2. Follow instructions: https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed Avast versions..!!)
3. Reinstall Avast with the downloaded installer from point 1.
4. Reboot.

[DavidR]

<snip quote>
That's one of the things I've tried before but it would always fail.

Another installation attempt now gave me some more clues.  Issues with disk space, so I'll try and resolve that.

To that end, there is currently ~5GB of data in the 'defs' directory (see attached).  Can any of these directories just be removed to free up the space they are using?

Disable the Avast Self-Defence Module AvastUI > Settings > Troubleshooting.  That should allow the deletion of defs and streaming update sub-folders.  Don't go bonkers and try to delete absolutely all of them.  Leave at least the last two (recent chronologically) VPS Update folders and any streaming updates related to those VPS folders (by date).

[ozboomer]

I downloaded the new version and tried running it (instead of using the 'Check for Updates' button inside the application, which always appeared to do nothing).  The installer failed, recommending that 2GB free space was needed.  After a couple of iterations, I had eventually freed-up disk space to be ~5GB.

Running the installer this time led to a 'successful installation' and after rebooting the computer, the system tray icon still reported 'Your are unprotected!'.

I did nothing more than rebooting the computer 2 more times and upon restarting, THIS time the tooltip on the system tray icon showed 'You are protected'.  I also checked the 'defs' directory and there were only a couple of 'today's date'-directories in there, instead of the 100+ directories that were there previously.

Getting back into the GUI for the application, it showed the Definitions were Ok.. but I clicked the "Check for updates" button (for the Virus Definitions) and again it shows the 'release time' for the updates was the most recent time I clicked the 'Check for updates' button.. so maybe the wording of the message is incorrect... or there's still something wrong...

...but the behaviour of the application is now the same as it has been for the last few years.

Many thanks to everyone for your help.

[DavidR]

You're welcome, thanks for your feedback.