can't move to chest

[goonybird]

every scan comes up with a gif file in outlook.bak & says unable to scan an unexpected error occurred.  When I try to move this or any other file avast can't scan to the chest I get another unexpected error occurred message.  Outlook keeps crashing on send & receive & I wonder if it's the gif file causing the prob. Help - and apologies if you've already covered this - I've searched the forums and not found anything that helps yet.

[Lisandro]

This is a problem when a virus is found in a file 'packaged' into another archive file, in this case, the outlook file.
avast should be able to allow the processing of all the package and not only the infected one.
Of course, in this case, you could lose all your Outlook settings and data: email, your agenda, etc.
But if this happens only with the backup (.bak) file, can't you manually delete it and stay only with the original one (.pst)?

[goonybird]

couldn't get into bak folder to delete file so took deep breath & deleted whole .bak folder.  problem solved, computer runs faster, no error messages & outlook no longer crashing - thanks!  remaining misgiving is how many other files avast can't scan are hosting viruses ... are there any tell tale signs in the scan report i should be looking out for??

[Lisandro]

is how many other files avast can't scan are hosting viruses ... are there any tell tale signs in the scan report i should be looking out for??

Indeed no one should be there... I'm quite sure inside of that .bak file there was an infected email...
If you enter into the Report settings of avast you can configure which files will be displayed in the report.