UPDATE 12/2024
Though increasingly rare, we do still hear from Xojo users who get false positives from their anti-virus software when downloading Xojo or running Xojo applications. We’ve even heard of this occurring when users are debugging apps from the IDE. To get around this, you can refer to the documentation for your anti-virus software on how to exclude Xojo from scans. To fix these issues for yourself and future Xojo users, we ask that you report these occurrences to your anti-virus software makers.
If you are on Windows, you may also be interested in Avoiding False-Positive Virus Detection in Windows Apps
We’ve occasionally heard from Xojo users that their anti-virus software gives them a warning about Xojo. All of these have been false positives and we ask that you report these to your virus software makers if it happens to you.
Occasionally, Norton Internet Security will flag Xojo debug apps and can prevent you from being able to debug your Xojo apps. If you use Norton and encounter this issue there is a simple solution.
1. Open Norton
2. Go to Settings
3. Go to Antivirus and SONAR settings
4. Select “Items to exclude from scans”
5. Click add Folder, type in the full path to your work files, Click “Apply”
6. Click “Add File” and type in c:usersuser_meappdatalocaltempdebugmy applicationdebugmy application.exe – apply (change “user_me” to your username)
7. REPEAT Steps 5 and 6 for “Items to exclude from auto-protect, SONAR and download intelligence detection”
8. Norton may have removed and quarantined some of those files, so you’ll need to restore them via the “Advanced” section in Norton, or you can re-download Xojo and Norton will now leave it be.
If you get a message from your anti-virus software about Xojo feel free to contact me about it and please report false positives to the company. Your reports will help fix these issues.