Set preferences

Open Preferences with Ctrl+,. Most app preferences and exclusions save immediately. Scheduled Scans need Save & Apply to persist their settings and provision the scheduler; changes to host freshclam.conf or clamd.conf also need Save & Apply and elevated host access.

Choose the right page

Task	Page
Language, close behavior, tray startup, live progress	Behavior
Select ClamAV mode and socket	Scanner
Schedule recurring scans	Scheduled Scans
Definition update settings	Database
Global exclusion records	Exclusions
Mounted-device scanning	Device Scan
On-access ClamAV monitoring	On-Access
VirusTotal API key	VirusTotal
Debug logging	Debugging

For every raw key, default, location, and host boundary see Configuration.

Host configuration warning

Database, Scanner, and On-Access settings change host /etc/clamav, not Flatpak files. They need a trusted version-matched privileged helper and polkit approval. If the helper is unavailable, saving fails without modifying host configuration. Exclusions and normal application settings remain local to ClamUI.

Safe defaults

Use Auto backend unless you know you need daemon-only behavior; leave notifications on for scheduled scans; prefer narrow exclusions; and preserve finite archive limits. On-access scanning requires clamd, careful include paths, and exclusions for the scanner account to prevent loops. Start with a small path such as ~/Downloads.

VirusTotal keys use the system keyring when available, not settings.json; plaintext fallback requires explicit consent. Do not submit private files or hashes you are not authorized to share.