SharePoint file post-processing may take up to 24 hours

Dear @M, Baskar(Cognizant),

Thank you for posting your questions on the Microsoft Q&A forum. SharePoint Online uses Microsoft 365’s built-in anti-malware engine to scan files asynchronously after upload. This means scans are not immediate and can take time based on file type and system heuristics. Post-processing tasks (such as metadata extraction and OCR) may take up to 24 hours, which is expected behavior. 

Currently, there is no supported method to force an immediate virus scan on a file in SharePoint Online. Scanning is triggered automatically by Microsoft’s security services and cannot be manually invoked. If you need enhanced protection or near real-time scanning, we recommend enabling Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Safe Attachments for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. This adds advanced sandboxing and zero-day malware protection. 

For more details, please refer to these official Microsoft resources: 

• Built-in virus protection in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams 
• Post-processing of SharePoint files may take up to 24 hours 
• Use Microsoft Defender for Office 365 with SharePoint 

Please let me know if you need guidance on enabling Defender or configuring Safe Attachments. I'm happy to assist further. 

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