Norton for Mac

[Pilot]

Dear Community Members and the Norton Tech Support Team,

Having purchased the latest NAV 11.1 update last night as a download for my dual core Intel Mac Mini running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, I find that LiveUpdate 5.1.2 gives me the following dialog box, "Updating error, there was an error performing the update".

Having searched the internet for answers, my mind is in a complete whirl.  It would appear that there have been compatibility problems with Snow Leopard for some time, most of which people have solved by installing LiveUpdate 5.1.2 (which, of course, I already have).

With apologies if I have somehow missed finding the solution to my problem, could someone please have the patience to tell me how to make LiveUpdate work.  Many thanks.

Pilot.

[ryan_mcgann]

Did your copy of Norton AntiVirus come on a CD, or did it come as an electronic download? I ask because some older CDs that are still available do not have a version of LiveUpdate that is compatible with newer Symantec servers. We released new CDs to fix this issue, but some vendors did not replace their CDs it sounds like.

You can solve this problem by downloading the new version of LiveUpdate manually:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?ct=us&lg=en&product=home&pvid=...

Although the version it downloads is the same version, it may actually be different because it contains a new certificate file that is compatible with the Symantec servers.

If that does not fix the problem, please post your LiveUpdate log file here to the forums. The LiveUpdate log file can be found at /Library/Application Support/Symantec/liveupdat.log

If you could post that file (or a significant portion of that file, if it is too large to post here) on the forums, then we can see what exact problem it is encountering.

Sorry for the problems.

[Pilot]

Many thanks Preetha_G for moving my posting to the correct forum (I'm rather new to this business!).

Thank you too to Ryan for your prompt and most helpful response.

My copy of NAV was bought last night as an electronic download.  I have since downloaded the latest version of LiveUpdate as you suggested but, sadly, to no avail - I still get the same error message.

The LiveUpdate log file is enormous, with the first date being Sept 15 2011 with entries taking up about a third of the log file.  The next date is Sept 22 2011, Sept 29, Oct 6, Oct 13, Oct 20 etc ....... weekly until April 5 2012, which suggests to me that it was obtaining weekly virus definition updates and everything was fine.  The last few lines of log read as follows:

ActionScript.sh
Apr 5, 2012 11:01:31 AM
Apr 5, 2012 11:01:31 AM The Java LiveUpdate session has completed successfully.
Apr 5, 2012 11:01:31 AM Return code = 0
Apr 5, 2012 11:01:31 AM

Strangely, that is the last log entry, despite all yesterday's  to'ing and fro'ing installing NAV and today's reinstallation of LiveUpdate.  I have checked the computer's date/time settings and it knows that today is 19 June so the last entry really was April 5.  This said, the computer's Hard Disk developed some bad blocks about a month ago and refused to boot, resulting in my having to recover everything from the backup via Retrospect and install it on a new Hard Disk.  Could the bad blocks or the subsequent recovery process have corrupted LiveUpdate in some way that even a fresh install cannot rectify?  Do I need to uninstall and then carry out a fresh install?

If the fault lies with my Mac, I'm sorry to be such a nuisance!  Thanks again for your help.

John.

[ryan_mcgann]

Please compress the log file, and send it to me via email. Contact me here on the forums via a private message and I will send you my email address.

In the mean time, you can always try uninstalling and reinstalling. If LiveUpdate cannot find a piece of software that it requires, it can become very confused and throw up a not-so-useful error message like you are seeing. It's possible that is what happened as a result of the recovery process.

I'm a little confused--you say that you bought the product last night, but you have entries dating back to 2011. Did you have a previous version of the product installed already, and then you bought it again?

Ryan

[Pilot]

Thanks Ryan.

I did indeed have a previous version of NAV installed and the subscription claimed to be valid until around October/November 2012.  However, when I could not get LiveUpdate to work, and in view of the data recovery that had resulted from the bad block incident, I thought that it would be safer and simpler just to buy the latest NAV and start again.

Later today when I have some time, I shall try uninstalling and reinstalling.  If that fails, I'll send you the log.

Fingers crossed!

John.

[Pilot]

Hi again Ryan,

I tried uninstalling and then reinstalling but without success.  NAV works just fine but exactly the same error message when trying LiveUpdate.

I should have thought more before doing this though because the uninstall has removed completely the original contents of the LiveUpdate log.  Sorry, it's obvious to me now that that would happen!  Interestingly though, the log is now absolutely blank, despite having just reinstalled NAV from the download image.  Does that tell us anything?  It is perhaps worth mentioning that my Mac Mini was originally a server model that a friend configured to operate as a desktop machine.  Could this explain the problem?

If all else fails, is there any way that I can download the virus definition updates from time to time direct from the Symantec website, bypassing LiveUpdate?

Thanks again for your interest.

John.

[ryan_mcgann]

I'll have to ask our LiveUpdate team for osme more guidance and get back to you. Sorry for the problems.

[cswertfager]

Hi Pilot,

Sorry for all the trouble. Is there a proxy being used? Does LiveUpdate show that message immediately or does it show progress for a bit beforehand? You can download virus definitions from:

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/definitions/download/detail.jsp?gid=nmc

Corey Swertfager

Symantec Macintosh QA Engineer

[Pilot]

Thanks Guys, sorry to be causing you so much trouble.

I'm not using a proxy server; the connection from the Mac Mini goes via a Netgear wireless router and a broadband connection to my ISP (I am in the UK, if that could have a bearing on things).

When I ask LiveUpdate to 'Update everything now' or 'Update virus definitions', for less than 1 second I see a small LiveUpdate window with a yellow background and a black bar across the top that says, "Determining what's available", followed immediately by a grey box with the yellow LiveUpdate icon and the message, "Updating error There was an error performing the update".  At no time do I see a progress bar.

I have downloaded and apparently successfully installed the virus definitions using the Symantec link Corey suggested, and NAV is showing Last Product Update "Never" and the liveupdt.log is still completely blank.  Surely there should be some entries in the log by now?  Is this a clue?

If I can be sure that the latest virus definitions are properly installed using this direct download method from time to time, perhaps that is the way I shall have to go.  I wouldn't want you guys spending days chasing hares if the problem lies somewhere deep within my Mac.  On the other hand, if you like a challenge, I'm happy to keep on trying to get to the bottom of the problem.

Thanks again,

Pilot.

[Hans54]

Two weeks ago I posted the following message under »Updater log«:

I am using MacBook Pro, System 10.7.4, Norton Antivirus 12.2. (76) and Updater 6.1.1 - Live Update History stays empty, as well as AntiVirus/Statistics/History/Updates...... All other events show up! I have uninstalled and re-installed AntiVirus Software and run Updater - seemed OK, but log remains empty. So, I am not sure if updates have been installed successfully. When trying to update manually, msg is »your software is up to date«.

So far I did not get a reply.

After reading comments to your post I noticed that my problem is similar: I looked up the LiveUpdate log file at /Library/Application Support/Symantec/liveupdat.log and here I found plenty of history.... and plenty of updating errors... which means, my Norton Antivirus has not been updated at all!!!

Attached is the liveupdat.log file, one LiveUpdateLog which was in the same folder and one LiveUpdateLog.txt which contains updater logs from recent days copied into txt-file

Maybe this contributes to your posting or helps solve my original posting