We often like to keep Antivirus software on our computers more for peace of mind. Few people will find themselves on parts of the internet where they may actually be exposed to malicious content, so you may go months or even years without Avast bothering you at all.
This can make it a little unnerving when suddenly Avast is giving you frequent pop-ups telling you an infection has been blocked.
In this article, we will cover what this means, how to identify if it’s something you need to be concerned about, and how to address it so the pop-up no longer bothers you.
Why does Avast infection blocked keep popping up?
The first thing to understand about Avast is that it’s a little bit more than just a simple Antivirus program that scans your computer’s files.
It’s a suite of tools that are designed to protect your computer from all potential threats, whether this is malicious local executable files that Avast Antivirus will catch, unwanted data transfer from a third-party hacker with Avast Firewall, or a potentially risky website/URL with Avast Web Shield.
This pop-up will contain crucial information that tells us the name and location of the suspicious URL or software that it has blocked so we can investigate further to determine if it’s a real threat or not.
Malicious virus/URL
As alarming as it may be to receive this message, it’s actually a good thing. It means that Avast has caught some unwanted process and is preventing it from doing any harm to your computer.
We can then use the tools within the Avast software to address this, using the Avast Chest to quarantine the file if it’s a piece of software, or Avast Firewall to block internet data transfer to the website if it’s trying to gain access to your personal information.
If you are using Avast Premium, you can also send this information to the Avast Lab, where an employee at Avast will take a look into it further and provide you with additional details on what’s happened.
The “false-positive”
This is actually the more common scenario. Sometimes Avast will believe a piece of software or website is malicious when it’s actually not.
This can cause problems if it’s a website we use very often, with some users reporting well-known and trusted sites such as Gmail and even YouTube being blocked.
Once we have determined that the suspected threat is actually trusted, we can manually tell Avast to ignore these websites so we can continue using them untroubled.
A temporary bug that needs hot fixing
On occasion, users report that they are receiving this notification regardless of the Antivirus exceptions or Firewall rules. This usually occurs straight after a new update to the Avast software.
In this case, Avast will acknowledge it as a bug on their forum and usually issue a hotfix for the bug within a few days.
How to stop Avast infection blocked from popping up
How we decide to go about addressing this pop-up will depend on what kind of issue has been flagged and whether it’s a legitimate threat or a false positive.
Read through this section carefully to determine what kind of threat you have and how you should go about addressing it.
Update virus definitions
We have seen from users of Avast Antivirus that after Avast has been updated, there may be an issue relating to the virus definitions making it believe that something is a problem when it’s actually not.
Avast is quick to issue out hotfixes for these once a bug has been reported and confirmed on their user forum. Therefore, ensuring the virus definitions within Avast are up to date can often fix this issue before we even need to bother about adding any rules or exceptions.
- In the Avast software, open the settings menu and navigate to the General tab at the top.
- Then click the second tab down called “Update’.”
- Here you have two options: one is to update the software itself and the other is to update the virus database. Click that option.
- Give it time to download and install.
- Restart your PC, and check if the notification has been fixed.
Check-in with the Avast forum
It’s also possible that, if this is a false positive, it’s been brought up on the forum and confirmed as a bug, which they will address soon.
Head on over to the Avast forums and use the search function to see if anyone has encountered the same pop-up as you. If they have and a moderator has confirmed it as a bug, then a fix will be issued shortly.
What you can do in the meantime is manually disable the pop-ups temporarily by following the steps mentioned below.
Turn off pop-ups or lower pop-up frequency
This can be a bit of a risky thing to do because if there are threats that Avast has intercepted, you want to know about them so you can investigate further.
However, for some users, dealing with the constant pop-ups is too troublesome, and they want to get on with their work uninterrupted by incessant notifications.
Avast offers the ability to both lower the frequency in which pop-ups are allowed to appear, as well as the option to completely disable them.
In the Avast software navigate to Settings, General, and then click the Pop-ups tab.
Here, you can lower the duration time for each pop-up to 0 seconds, or enable silent mode so the software won’t bother you anymore. Just remember to check in every once in a while to see if it’s flagged anything.
Full system scan
Of course, we can’t always assume that this is a false positive and dismiss it. We should investigate any pop-ups that occur to make sure that if it’s a threat, it can be quarantined in the Avast Chest as soon as possible.
To do this, open the Avast software and run a full system scan. If Avast detects anything it deems a threat, you will be given the option to quarantine the file from the Avast GUI.
Send to Avast to check
If you are an Avast Premium user, you will be given access to the Avast Threat Labs. This is where you can send any files (or URLs) that have been flagged by Avast to the company themselves, who will investigate it further to determine if it’s a real threat or not.
If they get back to you, and the website or file is malicious in nature, then leave it blocked and just disable the pop-ups.
If it’s a false positive, you can add an exception within the Antivirus software and Windows Firewall to prevent the pop-up from occurring again in the future.
Manually check if the website is trusted
We mentioned previously that Avast will sometimes flag some unusual things shortly after an update has been issued. Some users have reported very commonly used and widely trusted websites such as Gmail, YouTube, and eBay being flagged.
When you receive the infection blocked pop-up, it will tell you what the URL of the website is. If you read it and are absolutely sure it’s a trusted website and Avast has made a mistake, you can proceed with adding exceptions within the Antivirus and Firewall modules.
Add an exception in Avast Antivirus
If you no longer wish for Avast to give you a notification about a particular website or piece of software that you are sure is safe, follow these steps to add an exception within the Avast software:
- Open the Avast Antivirus module and navigate to Menu and then Settings.
- Click General and “Add exception.”
- Type in the URL of the trusted website and click “Add exception.”
- If you are trying to exclude a particular file or piece of software, you can also click the browse button, which will open up an exporter. Locate the .exe file for the process you wish to allow and click Ok.
Just to reiterate, you must be completely confident that the pop-up is a false positive before doing this.
Add a new rule within Avast Firewall
You may also need to add a new rule within Avast Firewall so it doesn’t intercept any traffic or data transfer between you and the trusted website.
To do this, within the Avast software, navigate to Protection and Firewall. Click the settings button on the top right indicated by the small gear icon.
Click View Firewall Rules and then “Add new rule.”
Here, you can add the URL of the website you wish to allow, and the Avast firewall will no longer try to intercept data transfer between you and the suspected website.
