If you want it to scan "channels", you have to be in the memory mode, not VFO mode. VFO mode stores absolutely nothing. The channels to be scanned have to be stored in the memory channel "slots" and not locked out of the scan list.
Your difficulties lie in the fact that you don't understand how a radio with VFO and memory modes works. Nothing unusual there. First thing anybody needs to know about ham radios is that if there's a way to make it as difficult as possible to program and operate, ham radio designers will figure out a way to make it even more so.
Carry the manual with you at all times. You'll understand why when you inadvertently push the wrong button while driving at night. Your stop on the roadside trying to figure out how to get the radio out of the "impossible" mode will be shorter if you have the manual and your interior light works.
The radio manual is easy enough that some school kids who got their ham licenses were able to figure it out in about 10 minutes of using the manual and playing with the club radio, so it can't be that hard. Hell, even I figured it out, so it definitely can't be that hard.
My advice is quit trying to program all the parameters by the suck method and revert to the mindset that programming software rules. Don't walk, run to the nearest software source and just do it. Even the worst versions of software make it a simple matter, comparatively speaking.
Anyway, here's some quickie mentoring. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
To store a frequency in the memory, you first have to be in VFO mode to dial in the frequency and all its parameters like TX offset, subtones, alpha tags, etc, and then you do the "three finger quick flick" memory storage drill to put that particular combo into a memory slot.
Starting scan in the VFO mode starts the scan ascending or descending through the receiver's range from the frequency it was on in the VFO when you started the scan.
Starting scan in one of the edge scan modes starts scan at one edge and scans to the other edge, then starts over. You can change the edge frequencies.
Starting scan in memory mode scans all the memory channels. If you don't want a channel scanned, you can use the "Set" mode to lock it out of the scan list or restore it.
If you want the channels divided into banks, you can elect to put the memory channels in banks.
When a bank is selected, the channel selector will only select channels in that bank, and scan mode only scans the unlocked channels in that bank, so a bank can be used as a "scan list."
On a 208, a channel can only be placed in one bank, but you can link the banks together. That means you can link the "scan lists", so to speak. Or you can duplicate the channel in more than one bank.
And yes, I'm a ham and I too own a 208, but I have the software.