After restoring the pc with Acronis True Image (something I rely on) to 22 days earlier, NIS 2013 fails to update with the live update "X Completed" red box and "Service is expired". NIS screen confirms last live update was 22 days ago.
My product is good until Jan 2014, rebooting the pc doesn't help, the subscription checks OK with the Norton server (322 days left).
Checking other posts my cmos battery is OK (no time / date problems) and checking / confirming the subscription status doesn't help.
This failure by NIS to update leaves the customers pc vulnerable and is thus unacceptable for a supposed security program. In order to use my pc I've had to undo the restore.
This is the first time NIS has behaved this way (I've been using NIS and Acronis for many years). What's changed and how to fix? I can send Word doc with screen prints if it helps.
Try Autofix first and if it does help : reinstall after removing first. Sometimes after restore, also system restore, NIS comes in a state which cannit be recovered anymore.
Thank you Hugo, but that's not really an acceptable solution. If the product requires removal and re-installation after a restore I suggest the product is not fit for purpose as a security program. You say "sometimes ...NIS comes in a state which cannit be recovered anymore" but it only requires a live update and I've been doing this for years without this problem. It seems a Norton fault to me.
Food for thought - if you reimaged back to 22 days in the past - that is in fact 22 days of live update, virus and other definitions that Norton (after the reimage) does not have. There are certain updates that must be installed sequentially, an example being the two part upgrades that occur.
We have been through a FF add-on update, and perhaps (dependent on if you installed it from a PM link from Tony, or while it was available for the couple of brief periods from LU) in the last 20+ days. That may also impact what has changed for your reimage to require a reinstall.
BTW, there have been recent posts in regards to seeing the RED X for LU on laptops that are seldom used. The timeframe for them to be off-line in order for the RD X to appear seems to be in the neighborhood of 2 weeks - thus the 22 days could also cause this situation to occur.
The bottom line is Norton did warn you that you needed to take action to remain protected. I'm not sure what more you expect it to do - you are the one ripping the updates, defs, etc out of the program by restoring???
Regarding the 22 days I've restored much longer than this using Acronis in the past with no problems, and in cases requiring updates of Firefox, msft, etc. (I assume this is what you meant by FFadd-on update). Normally NIS updates itself OK without problems. I have no idea what you mean by "installed it from a PM link from Tony" - I just do a (manual) live update as I have always done.
I too saw the problems with "RED X for LU on laptops" that have been off for a while. This shouldn't happen either - it seems to me to confirm there's a problem with the product compared to how it operated in the past.
Regarding what I expect it to do - well I expect it to work and do a live update! A product that causes unreasonable hassle to the user (and a remove and re-install to get it to live update is way too much) isn't going to last long before it gets a very bad name indeed.
"ripping the guts out by restoring" is a bit rich - doing an Acronis full partition restore is no more than leaving the pc switched off for a period and expecting it to work again. Just warning me I am unprotected is not what I purchased the product for!
In the past where Norton has "been problematic" Norton have corrected the bugs / problems within a day or so. I'm hopeful they will get the product to work as it has in the many years I have been using it.
Are your backups offline backups, also called bare metal backups, made with a standalone Acronis or are you making them 'on the run' in Windows?
If on the run, you can expect inconsistencies in data, as files are reserved for backup on the fly one by one.
You cannot call a product defective, if this is the first time your problem occurs. You just did not experience this before. It can well be a procedural or an Acronis problem too, if you do not make 'bare metal' backups.
As for the red X : this is normal behaviour in the newer releases to warn you that you did not LiveUpdate and/or run fast scan the last 5-6 days on less-used computers. If you then click the X, both actions are normally executed and Norton will return to green. You may not like it as an experienced user, but it is important for less experienced users, as i see regularly with the variety of people I support.
This does not solve your problem now, as I am aware. It's your choice for further action.
If the product has gone into an expired state you can go to: Support > Subscription Status
(I'm not using the current version, it may be in a different place on yours).
Once the product resyncs with the license server it should operate normally.
As for applying the updates, your correct it is the same as if the system was off for 22 days, just run live update until no more updates are availible.
Dave
Edit- I forgot to mention the most important part.
The product was not behaving correctly because it was supposed to silently check the license statis before putting up that warning or causing the system to expire.
This has now been fixed in the 20.3 update so in the future it will not happen unless you once again restore an image of version 20 prior to the update.
Thank you for your well informed and very helpful post; that makes sense and helps my problem.
Actually I didn’t get the “check your Norton subscription” message in your post – I got the "Completed" “Service is expired” message with no option to re-enable the live update and I couldn’t make it update. As I mentioned in my first post I “checked the subscription status” and it was confirmed OK, but it didn’t enable live update. Hence my post.
Following your explanation of the issue I tried restoring and updating again, but this time checked the “subscription status” but this time before attempting a live update. It went ahead just fine as it normally does.
Hopefully your help and the above point may help someone else.
I had noticed NIS has been “ more touchy than usual” updating in the last few months on another system which I use only intermittently. Following your links the “recent feature” of disabling NIS (including the firewall) if it’s unconnected for ~ 2 weeks I find worrying in principle. A pc can still be connected to a network (e.g. a separate media network as I use), have USB devices plugged in, etc without being connected to the internet. Norton seem to have lost useful functionality and added complexity (and bugs).
I do hope Norton doesn’t go the way of some “once great” programs and loose their way (e.g. recent Acronis) and push once loyal users to free alternatives.
I do hope Norton doesn’t go the way of some “once great” programs and loose their way (e.g. recent Acronis) and push once loyal users to free alternatives.
The word is "lose," for starters. Secondly, Norton has already lost its way.
