Auto-Protect Greyed Out

Boot Time Protection and Real Time Protection are greyed out in the Norton 360 settings. After using the Norton Removal & Reinstall Tool, the settings worked again until the latest Live Updates were installed. Using Norton 360 v.22.20.5.39 on Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 20H2 build 19042.804 with Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0
Norton - Greyed Out Settings.png

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BJM - to your point, I found one of my installs with auto protect grayed out today (idling).  Clicking Security > Advanced it shows that there are pending protection analysis tasks preventing auto protect to be grayed out.  If trebiot sees the issue again it would be interesting to know what it says.

Norton Auto Protect Gray Pending Reboot.png

FWIW ~
I've had grayed Auto-Protect events that were easy to resolve.
I've had grayed Auto-Protect events that were stubborn to resolve.
I've had grayed Auto-Protect events that were hard to resolve.

I've had grayed Auto-Protect "easy to resolve" events that sorted with one or two machine Restarts.
I've had grayed Auto-Protect "easy to resolve" events that sorted after clearing Norton History with one or two machine Restarts.  
I've had grayed Auto-Protect "easy to resolve" events that sorted after waiting a day or two after one or two machine Restarts.  As if Norton needed more time for Norton Insight and Community Watch to gather/send telemetry. 

I've had grayed Auto-Protect "stubborn to resolve" events that seemed to be related to some new/recent file/s on my machine that Norton Insight had not seen before, had not rated or had rated with Low Reputation.  I needed to find and second opinion the file/s that Norton was still chewing on.  For the file/s that I was confident were safe.  I'd opt Norton Insight -> Trust Now against the file/s.  I'd refresh Norton Insight and call Community Watch.   

I've had grayed Auto-Protect "hard to resolve" events that were a pita to resolve. 

trebiot:

Thanks for the reply; I state that I had already tried several times to restart but the problem was not solved;
I was starting to carry out the instructions you gave me, but first I wanted to uninstall a driver for a USB smartcard reader that I had installed a few days ago; after doing this, I rebooted, and when the restart was complete I checked the system tray and saw that auto-protect has turned on again (it is no longer gray);
at this point I can think that in what I installed for the smartcard there was something that norton did not like;thank you

Sorry, for my comments regarding Fast Startup and machine Restart (not Shut down). 

Yes, as I wrote: 


Did you recently install any new software? 
Did any software program recently update? 
Please check Norton Insight for any Untrusted/Unproven Files?  
Please clear Norton History and Restart (not Shut down) machine. 


Thanks for posting back progress.  

Glad you got that fixed, that doesn't make that a smart card reader would do that - I can replicate the issue on a clean install by running live update multiple times, reboot, and after reboot it is grayed out, then subsequent reboot it's not grayed out.  Happens with or without a smart card.

Thanks for the reply; I state that I had already tried several times to restart but the problem was not solved;
I was starting to carry out the instructions you gave me, but first I wanted to uninstall a driver for a USB smartcard reader that I had installed a few days ago; after doing this, I rebooted, and when the restart was complete I checked the system tray and saw that auto-protect has turned on again (it is no longer gray);
at this point I can think that in what I installed for the smartcard there was something that norton did not like;thank you

If the PC has only been hibernated, and has not been restarted, there can be numerous updates for Norton, Windows, and any other software that gets auto updated that are waiting for a complete shutdown to complete. Until the software gets that compete shutdown, some features may not work correctly, or at all.

 

I’ve seen the same thing with hibernate/fast startup disabled - rebooting the pc fixes it but haven’t had time to troubleshoot further.

Please turn off Windows Hibernate.
Please turn off Windows Fast Start Up. 
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html
Please Restart (not Shut down) machine.  Repeat. 


Did you recently install any new software? 
Did any software program recently update? 
Please check Norton Insight for any Untrusted/Unproven Files?  
Please check that you run Windows Fast Startup = Off. 
Please clear Norton History and Restart (not Shut down) machine.
Please post back progress. 


Restore Auto-Protect feature if it is grayed out after Norton repairs a threat

This problem occurs after Norton detects and repairs a threat on your computer. After the threat is removed, you are prompted to restart your computer to complete the repair. After the computer restarts, the Auto-Protect feature in Settings (Settings >Antivirus > Auto-Protect) appears grayed out.

To resolve this problem, restart your computer again. If the problem persists, run the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool.

 

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v115916176


https://community.norton.com/en/forums/disable-autoprotect-grayed-out

https://community.norton.com/en/forums/auto-protection-grayed-out

https://community.norton.com/en/forums/auto-protection-grayed-outagain

https://community.norton.com/en/forums/norton-360premier-autoprotect-greyed

The new version of OSArmor 1.5.6 appears to have fixed the issue. Installed, rebooted, and the Norton 360 settings are not greyed out.

SecurePC:

1) They had me check for logs. I reinstalled OSArmor but no logs were made even though the settings in Norton were greyed out again.

2) Are you also having the issue? If so, then the problem should be reproducible on their end and not necessarily unique to my system configuration. I was thinking of trying OSArmor on one or more systems to see if it affected them in the same way.

1) and OSA is in Passive Logging to check Logs - when you Restart (not Shut down) machine. 
OSA Passive Logging survives machine restart. 
2) I'm not having the issue as you report.  I've not had a Norton event that grayed settings for some time.  


Have you checked Norton History > Resolved / Unresolved / Quarantine --- for related event?
Have you cleared Norton History? 
Have you checked Norton Insight for Untrusted Files?

They had me check for logs. I reinstalled OSArmor but no logs were made even though the settings in Norton were greyed out again.

Are you also having the issue? If so, then the problem should be reproducible on their end and not necessarily unique to my system configuration. I was thinking of trying OSArmor on one or more systems to see if it affected them in the same way.

SecurePC:

The problem appears to be OSArmor 1.5.5. 

I'm also running OSArmor 1.5.5 
We're interested what you hear from OSArmor?

I have an alternate setting not enabling, but will start a new thread as it appears unrelated.

Yeah, the forum kept queuing my replies for review before posting them and took quite a while before they were finally showing.

Thanks for the post back. I saw your post listed in "activity" duplicates, but couldn't get it to show when opened last night. Maybe a hiccup with the forums but seems to be resolved. Glad you have a solution.

SA

@SecurePC,

Good detective work.

@SecurePC

Do you care to share which 3rd party security program 's uninstallation cured your situation? 

That information may assist others who encounter the same situation later.

Found the cause (uninstalling a third party security program listed in my signature resolves the issue, even turning it off doesn't work). Tried replying twice before here but the forum is blocking my replies pending review...