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Internet connectivity lost after Norton uninstall - Solved

The symptom is as described in the title.


I know this has been asked and answered before and there are lots of people struggling with it.


I had stopped using Norton a long time ago since my "free" subscription from Comcast had expired. I was getting Norton nag screens to renew frequently but sort of ignored them until they got too bothersome, so I decided to permantly uninstall it.


I followed all the recommended procedures, including using the "official" Norton uninstall script and searching for remnants of Norton files. No luck. I then tried running the uninstall script with system integrity protection disabled (this has to be done in Recovery Mode) thinking that there were some files locked by the system. Still no luck. In desperation, I even re-installed Big Sur.


Despite all that, Norton Security was still popping up in network preferences - attempting to start but failing.


The answer (for me at least) was to restart in safe mode, examine network preferences, select Norton in the list, and click on the minus (-) symbol to remove it.


After a reboot, all is well - Norton disappeared from Network Preferences and is no longer blocking internet connections.


Hope this helps others. As has been stated many times, Norton is not great on Macs, a fact which I wish had known a couple of years ago when I installed it.

Posted on Sep 22, 2022 2:31 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 8:04 AM

Do not install third party apps that claim to protect, clean, manage, etc. They use system resources while providing no benefit, and they may cause problems.

Some useful info:

macOS - Security - Apple

Security features for MacBook Pro - Apple Support

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community


8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 25, 2022 8:04 AM in response to whit178

Do not install third party apps that claim to protect, clean, manage, etc. They use system resources while providing no benefit, and they may cause problems.

Some useful info:

macOS - Security - Apple

Security features for MacBook Pro - Apple Support

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community


Sep 25, 2022 7:29 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

With all due respect, what constitutes "junk"? One of my requirements is to run Android Studio for Android app development. Since this requires Java (which can potentially open a vulnerability hole on a Mac), what should I be doing to protect myself?


There are other developer tools and apps which are highly useful but not officially blessed by Apple. Installing these potentially exposes a Mac to malware, so I feel I need some sort of protection.


I suppose I could install virtual machines to firewall these off, but that adds a lot of complexity and has a performance hit.


Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

Internet connectivity lost after Norton uninstall - Solved

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