Are you stuck with the error “freshclam locked by another process”? We will help you with it.

Usually, this error occurs when we try to update the virus databases in antivirus software like ClamAV.

At Bobcares, we often receive requests to fix this error as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let us discuss how our Support Engineers resolve the ClamAV errors easily for our customers.

A brief look at ClamAV

Before discussing the error in detail, let’s first have a look at ClamAV.

As we all know, malware can cause damages from loss of files to a total loss of security.

So, protection against malware using antivirus software has become a mandatory security measure nowadays. Usually, we check the downloaded files for virus signatures.

And, Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is an open-source antivirus software that scans downloaded files, emails, pdf, etc for virus detection.

Moreover, we can install it on all major operating systems like Linux, Windows, BSD and many more.

How we fixed the error “freshclam locked by another process”?

Having a decade of experience in managing servers, our Dedicated Engineers deal with the ClamAV frequently.

Now, let us discuss how our Support Engineers easily fix the errors related to it.

Recently, one of our customers approached us with a ClamAV error.

He installed ClamAV and he tried to update the virus database using the command,

sudo freshclam

But, he got the below error,

Our Support Engineers checked the error in detail. Usually, the freshclam is a virus database update tool in ClamAV.

On checking, we found that the freshclam services were set to run automatically. And, the error occurred as it was already running in the background.

So, we first stopped the daemon using the command,

systemctl stop clamav-freshclam.service

Then, we ran it manually as,

freshclam

This resolved the error and then updating the virus database worked fine.

Similarly, to resolve the error we can also run the below command,

lsof | grep freshclam

And, this will return one or more entries with the process number that is using the file.  So, we can kill the process my mentioning the processid or pid as below.

sudo kill -9 pid

[Need more help to resolve this error?- We are available 24/7 to help you.]

Conclusion

In short, the error “freshclam locked by another process” occurs due to the already running freshclam instance. In today’s writeup, we saw how our Support Engineers resolve this error easily.