Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[dunc-tt]

I just upgraded to NIS 2012.  I chose to use my identity safe online so it can be used on multiple computers.  Problem is, later on, I tried logging on and I can't .  I can logon to my norton account, but not the on-line safe.  When I moved the safe on-line, it asked me to make a strong password, which I did, and I know exactly what I set it to.  Problem is, when I enter this password now, I can hear windows telling me no more characters can be entered, so it is impossible for me to enter the correct password because it is too long for your software.  Can I get the old local safe back or fix the current issue?

On a side note, some of the security prompts for access to the network don't have an OK button!  So you can't do anything with it.  I can't attach the picture for you though.

[edit: Clarified subject.]

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi dunc-tt,

Welcome to the Norton Community.

How many characters long was your password? I find it odd that NIS would have accepted the password initially and then not let you log in later. Are you 100% sure you entered the password correctly? Sorry, don't mean this to sound negative. It is just that it is really easy especially if you followed the guideline of using upper case, lower case, numbers and special characters, to miss one little thing and perhaps mistake something like the letter 'l' for the number 1 and things like that.

Had you backed up your ID safe prior to moving it online? If you were able to log into your online ID safe it is easy enough to do an export and save to your local drive and then create a new ID safe profile locally and import the ID safe data back in. If you end up not being able to ever log into your online ID safe then you would not be able to do it this way.

However, if you exported (saved a backup) your ID safe before moving it online you can create a new profile locally and then restore with that backup.

Once you let me know how many characters your password is I will do some testing on my test laptop and if I am able to reproduce the problem I will report it to Symantec.

I am also asking the moderator to move your post to a thread of its own for better visibility. A link will be left here so you know where to find it.

Best wishes.

Allen

[viveksu]

Hi,

Did you provide any password Hint while you create the Strong Password for Online Profile?

If you did, can you please cross check whether you gave the right password while trying to login into Online Profile.

Please also check whether you had included any space character in your Strong Password, space is a valid password character

hence you need to include it while trying to login to Online Profile.

 If you had taken any backup of Identity Safe Data(in DAT or CSV or NPM format) prior to moving the Local Profile to Online then we can restore the backup file to a new local profile. The orginal local profile which we moved will be removed after successfull move to Online.

[dunc-tt]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  To answer your questions:

How long in the online vault password?  24 characters.  When I created it, I noticed that it said it was not strong enough, so I had to add an extra character at the end which the field permitted me to do.  It worked fine initially as I was logged on automatically, but when try logging on after logging off, it only permits me to enter 20 characters.

Are you sure you have the correct password?  Well, logically the situation implies that I can't remember it, so perhaps if someone else tests the above situation, you could confirm if it is a software issue, or human error!

Do you have a backup?  Yes, but it is a few months old, so I need to be sure it is not possible to retrieve from the vault before I commit.  I wish the product had suggested backing up the vault locally before going on-line, but you can't change the past.  I have not made added any new credentials to the vault since it went on-line.

Do you have a hint?  No, because I was quite sure I knew the password and was not going to forget it.  It also is too complex for a hint to actually work.

Did you use spaces?  Nope.

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi dunc-tt,

I have just reproduced the problem. Ironically yesterday I used a 20 character password and of course it worked.

Just one more character yesterday and I would have seen the problem then.

But now I tried 24 characters as you said and this is definitely a bug. I will report this to Symantec and update this thread when I have an update to share.

In the meantime you may wish to revert to local ID safe vault and restore the backup you had before. Hopefully Symantec can fix this quickly and then you can log into your online vault and get back to having the most up to date logins.

Again, I'll keep you updated on progress.

Best wishes.

Allen

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi dunc-tt,

One other possibility comes to mind. If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, then system restore makes backups of certain Norton files some of which is the ID safe data files.

Please see the following post for details of how to access the ID safe directory. Once you have access to that, proceed as indicated below.

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Where-are-the-NIS-logins-stored/m-p/4...

You probably won't be able to find the "IDDStore.dat" file mentioned in the above post because the vault has been moved online already. Actually it looks like the name has been changed for NIS 2012 to "IDDStor2.dat" anyway.

However, just underneath the "IdentitySafeDataStore" directory there should be a sub-directory with a bunch of numbers. Right click on the directory name and click Properties. There could be more than one directory at this level if you have more than one active user account for which ID safe has been set up in the past.

Then click the Previous Versions tab. With any luck a previous version of that directory has been created by Windows recently.

If you see a previous version listed for that directory, now to go NIS and click Settings. Then click the General tab at the top, then on the left hand side click on Product Security. On the right hand side where it says Norton Product Tamper Protection, set this to OFF and apply changes.

Now from Windows Explorer on the Properties/Previous Versions tab click on the previous version of the directory you would like to restore. Click the restore button on the bottom right.

This should restore your ID safe information from the Windows system restore point.

Be sure to turn Norton Product Tamper Protection back ON.

Now try to log into ID safe and be sure to select the LOCAL vault not the online vault which will probably be the default.

Please let me know how it goes.

Best wishes.

Allen

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi dunc-tt,

A minor change to the procedure in my last post. For some reason after restoring the ID safe directory via Previous Versions, NIS is not letting me log back into my local ID safe - keeps insisting that the password is wrong even though it is not.

So if after going through the procedure from my last post and if you are not able to log into ID safe then please try the following.

In the directory where "IDDStor2.dat" is stored, copy that file to your desktop or other convenient location.

Then from NIS Settings > Web Settings > Identity Safe. Click on the Configure button next to "Identity Safe Setup". If you get a screen saying that there is already a vault in your Norton Account, then click on the Create Local Vault button. Create your password which to be safe make sure it matches the password of your original ID safe when you stored it on the local computer.

If you get a warning message that a local vault already exists on your machine click YES to proceed.

On the screen asking if you want to import logins from IE, uncheck that box and click Done.

At this point your ID safe login data will be empty.

Now click on the Configure button next to Import Data from the Identity Safe settings.

Browse to the "IDDStor2.dat" file you copied and enter the password you have used for your local ID safe before moving the ID safe vault on line.

If the password is correct, it should now reimport your LOCAL ID safe data back into NIS.

Note that since you are restoring based on the IDDStor2.dat file from Windows System restore, your login and other information will be up to date as of the date of the previous version.

Create a fresh backup of ID safe so that you have it later if you need it.

Once you have done all this and confirmed your logins are restored in the Local ID safe vault then you can reset your online ID safe vault in your Norton Account.

Log out of the local ID safe then click "Configure" next to Identity Safe Setup". If you are not logged into your Norton Account make sure and click on "Login to Norton Account" at the bottom right of the window.Once you have done this you should get a message that there is already a vault in your Norton Account. Enter a wrong password and click Login. Enter the password wrong a second and third time. You should then be presented with a window offering to Reset Identity Safe. Choose this option.

You should now be able to move your ID safe profile back to your Norton Account. Of course this time make sure and stay 20 characters or less.

Please let me know how it goes.

Best wishes.

Allen

[bjm_]

Hello Topic et al

fwiw.. I have used 21 character ID Safe Password since ID Safe was added to NIS.

@ 21 characters you should hear a "ding" indicating max characters.   I do, fwiw. 

Alpha Numeric Case Sensitive with Special Characters

Caveat ~ there is a bug with Password Protect option w Identity Cards

$.02

NIS12

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

---

bjm_ wrote:

Hello Topic et al

fwiw.. I have used 21 character ID Safe Password since ID Safe was added to NIS.

@ 21 characters you should hear a "ding" indicating max characters.   I do, fwiw. 

Alpha Numeric Case Sensitive with Special Characters

Caveat ~ there is a bug with Password Protect option w Identity Cards

$.02

NIS12

---

Hi bjm_

There are two ways to do this. If you click on Identity Safe Setup > Configure then you are correct that NIS limits you to 20 characters and you won't see the problem.

However, if you click on the Configure button next to Move Data Online while logged into your Local ID safe, then this password entry box allows more than 20 characters and you will run into the problem described by the OP.

Sorry, should have clarified that earlier for the benefit of others. I knew the OP knew this because that was how the problem was encountered to begin with.

Also I don't see 21 characters being allowed. When I try to login into either Local or Online ID safe it starts beeping when I try to enter the 21st character. Start entering a character at a time and I think you'll find that it stops at 20. The reason it works for Local ID safe is because though you may paste in 21 characters, it is actually only taking the first 20.

The reason the problem exists with the online ID safe is because the Move Data Online option is allowing more than 20 characters and the Symantec server is taking the entire password length. Yet when logging into ID safe you can only enter the first 20 characters which the server invalidates because it is using the entire 24 or whatever.

Best wishes.

Allen

[bjm_]

Ignore Message 8  .... too late to edit.

Local and Online Vault ...I was not aware of 20 character max.  I have not moved my local vault online.

Thanks for info re 20 character max for online vault.

I stand corrected.... actual count for my ID Safe login is 20.  I've always typed 21 because Symantec advised me 21 was max because of the encryption app employed.   I wanted a longer password.  Symantec told me when ID Safe was first introduced that 21 is max.  I've always typed 21 and never had a problem.  Ignorance sure is bliss.  Maybe 20 vs 21 has something to do with Password Protect Identity Card bug.   I'll have to try 20 with Password Protect Identity Cards.  Symantec advised they reproduced the issue [..]

Again, I was only off by one.    I know close only counts in horseshoes.

But, apparently parts of ID Safe are forgiving if your one over and other parts are not.

Parts of ID Safe ding at max # characters and other parts....no ding.

You'd figure max characters would be clearly delineated for every login field. 

Apologies to all that pass this way....

Apologies to AllenM

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."