I’ve randomly been losing focus of my current window since last month sometime and it has been driving me crazy, only happens for like a second then goes back to normal.
I ran a program that keeps track of what is taking focus on my PC and when it happens its Norton.
Is anyone else having this problem?
I’m on Windows 11.
Yes. This started with the most recent update. I also came up with a script to figure out what was happening. I noticed while typing that the cursor loses focus periodically. It happens more frequently the more active I am. And at idle it slows down in frequency. Then while playing Minecraft with my kids I keep getting pulled into the game menu. This happens if I hit Esc or if the window loses focus.
I first checked if my keyboard was sending erroneous keystrokes and it wasn’t. So then I came up with a Nodejs script that queries a Windows API to check which window has focus. See: Pastebin / z2Xjsrrs
And what I see happening is the following:
Focus changed:
Title : Minecraft
PID : 27904
EXE : C:\Windows\System32\ApplicationFrameHost.exe
Time : Mon Dec 23 2024 22:47:41 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)
Focus changed:
Title : Norton 360
PID : 19560
EXE : C:\Program Files\Norton\Suite\NortonUI.exe
Time : Mon Dec 23 2024 22:47:42 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)
Focus changed:
Title : Minecraft
PID : 27904
EXE : C:\Windows\System32\ApplicationFrameHost.exe
Time : Mon Dec 23 2024 22:47:42 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)
NortonUI.exe briefly takes focus before returning it to the original process.
This behavior persists with Auto-Protect disabled.
Seriously annoying and will cause me to rethink my AV if I have to put up with it much longer.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see this tread so I created a new yesterday about the same topic (with screenshots):
As a summary, same issue as the OP, I saw that lsass.exe and nllToolsSvc.exe create a spike on my C Drive whenever this happens and the most possible culprit is nllToolsSvc.exe and thus Norton.
I also posted both our threads to the v24.xx issues thread for a bit more visibility, as it seems it makes it easier to pass down issue reports:
I was able to resolve this issue by disabling Norton360 at startup. It re-enabled itself after rebooting, and the issue went away. I guess it re-enabling itself fixed whatever was wrong in my case.
That has been happening to me for the last too many months, usually an uninstall and reinstall fixed it for a couple of weeks, but today was the worse, NortonUI started to steal focus every couple of seconds, turning the computer unusable, it was not easy to uninstall and when reinstalled it start doing the same again, tried two more times and same result, cleaned registry, temporal files, etc.
I’m still waiting for a support agent to help.
I’ll post my results once I have fixed the problem or changed to another software.
I have the exact same issue and came here to find a solution. I had it a few month back, then it went away. Today the issue returned and now it happens every few seconds when I’m connected to the Internet. Have to disconnect to be able to type. Program version 25.8.10387 (build 25.8.10387.948)
And support team appears to know nothing about, they do a lot of stuff like uninstalling and reinstalling and etc. but nothing that actually tackle the problem, and that I haven’t tried multiple times before.
What I did notice is that when in remote assistance whit them as soon as I give access and background goes away, it suddenly stops. and comes back again when remote assistance is terminated.
So, I tried removing background and themes and at one moment stopped for a minute or two, and then it started again.
The other thing is that real problem started today, before it was not that fast and I thought it was just my machine, but then another computer had the same problem, today, surely caused by an update.
At the moment I need the computer to work so no Norton protection.
I just noticed that the issue goes away when I open the Norton app and leave it open.
I noticed that there is a processes “NortonUI.exe” that briefly pops up every few seconds in the task manager when:
The appearance of the “NortonUI.exe” process in the task manager coincides with the window losing focus. When I open the Norton UI the process does not pop up anymore and the window does not lose focus anymore.
So for right now my solution is to leave Norton open while I’m working.
I was able to solve it. The underlying issue was that Norton could not automatically sign me in. Apparently that triggered the NortonUI.exe to keep popping up, which caused my window to lose focus every few seconds.
The sign-in issue was odd:
When I opened the Norton UI there was a link on the top “You are not signed in. Sign in” even though everything was working fine. Pressing the link did not do anything. I did the following:
Ran live update to update to the latest version
Ran “Repair Norton” under Settings > Troubleshooting tab
I was eventually able to use the “sign in” link after disabling the Firewall and closing and opening the Norton UI repeatedly (not sure what exactly did the trick)
After signing in successfully the issue with losing focus finally went away. I hope this helps someone else.
Yup. I am experiencing this same thing, and have to leave the window open. Norton, please fix this issue. This is so annoying. For me, regardless of whether I am signed in or not, the other windows keep losing focus unless I leave the “Norton 360“ window open and minimized.
It’s been 2 months at least that I’m experiencing the same issue, this is annoying at the point I can’t work properly on my compter.
Norton, please fix this issue, otherwise I wil cancel my family subscription because it is not normal that you never fixed it since 2024.
It is a shame for an application at this cost.
I won’t continue paying if you can not insure the quality of your product and do something when user are complaining of a real issue like this.
You are going to loose a customer.
Experiencing this as well. It originally appeared to be related to a alert in the app (wifi kept being labled as public), but now it just keeps happening regardless of the alert or status. This is a horrible change, especially as users are left feeling they have a virus. Been a symantec customer for over 25 years and this is probably the most intrusive bug. Will switch if this continues.
Edit: I am fully signed in, so that’s not the cause
I may have an additional root cause, but it requires more time to be 100%. My network was blocking the tracking site of: ipm.avcdn.net and this site would trigger repeated queries when the norton UI was minimized or closed. Upon unblocking that site, it no longer had this issue.
HOWEVER, I DO NOT CONSIDER THIS A SOLUTION. The moment I unblocked it, MY PAID APP for norton gave me a popup for installing additional features I do not want. This is spyware behavior in a paid application.
The relief was temporary. This morning the issue is back. Seems I did not actually solve it (here I was all proud of myself 
). NortonUI.exe is popping up in the Task Manager again and the active window is losing focus. Not as frequently as before but it is still happening.
Ich habe das gleiche Problem auf zwei Computern mit Windows 11 (PC und Laptop). Ich kann mir nur behelfen, indem ich im der Taskleiste die Stummschaltung für einen Tag aktiviere. Dann habe ich einen Tag Ruhe. Fakt ist doch aber eins. Durch Norton wird die Benutzung der Computer unbrauchbar. Der im Sekundentakt auftretende Fokusverlust macht einen wahnsinnig. Man kann nicht einmal Internetseiten aufrufen, Dokumente schreiben usw. Das so nicht! Da bleibt einem wirklich nichts anderes übrig, als Norton zu deinstallieren und zu einem anderen Scanner zu wechseln. Anbieter, gibt es ja genug, auch wenn ich eigentlich nicht wechseln möchte.
I have the same problem on two computers running Windows 11 (PC and laptop). The only workaround I can find is to activate mute mode in the taskbar for a day. Then I have a day of peace and quiet. But the fact is, Norton makes the computers unusable. The loss of focus that occurs every second drives you crazy. You can’t even visit websites, write documents, etc. Not like this! There’s really no other option but to uninstall Norton and switch to another scanner. There are plenty of providers out there, even though I don’t really want to switch.
Finally, yesterday I’ve decided to reinstall Norton360 and give another try with support, but there was no need, it worked! I’ve been using the computer with no problem for the last 24 hours.
I don’t know if the problem is fixed in this version (screenshot), or if it was because as soon as the program finalized installing and before the setup window my internet failed, and I didn’t go through that setup because the window was blank.
Whichever happened, I have one thing less to worry about, at least for the moment.
Yes, something changed. I don’t have the issue either anymore. At some point I noticed that I wasn’t losing focus anymore despite the Norton UI being closed. I didn’t change anything after the last time it happened but maybe there was a background update that fixed it. Fingers crossed…
The issue came back today in full force. Same as before. I currently can’t type more than 3 letters unless the Norton UI is open. The computer becomes unusable. I don’t have time to troubleshoot with support. I will just keep the Norton UI open and minimized for now and look for a different software. It’s hard to believe that Norton can’t fix a simple bug like this after a year…
Same problem here on 2 separate PCs. Incredibly annoying. It has taken hours to just track that it was norton doing this. It goes away if I open the norton application. PC is basically unusable while it’s happening.
