I wasted several hours too and tried all kind of stuff before I found out it was Norton causing the problem. It’s just not worth it when there are so many other options out there. Just annoying because I already paid for the next half year.
Have any of you received the latest version release from Norton? If so please advise if anything has changed regarding the issues being reported.
SA
Are you all logged into Norton via the UI or logged out via the UI? Wondering whether that would make any difference. I am personally logged IN and not seeing nor can I duplicate the issues you are all seeing.
SA
Oh, so it’s not only me. Norton UI CONSTANTLY steals the focus and it’s really really annoying. I am also using the latest version (25.10.10528 (build 25.10.10528.957)
Logged in. The issue comes and goes. Regardless of what exactly triggers it: it should not be difficult for Norton’s developers to review their code and make sure that a background process dose not take focus.
It is not always that easy as it is not affecting all Norton users. I have not seen this issue, and if it were widespread, we would see many more posts than we have.
It may come down to an incompatibility with some other software or hardware that is common to the users in this thread. The only way for Norton to diagnose something like this is for users to send logs for diagnosis. Send Norton product debug logs with Norton Support Tool
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Same problem here, Nortonui.exe is stealing focus every few seconds. Typing a message is a chore like this:
I have updated Windows 11 to 25H2 and Norton to 25.10.10528 (Build 25.10.10528.0).
If the Norton 360-Window is open, the problem disappears, at least for a while, although the focus stealing is sometimes still happening according to the focus-monitor.exe, especially directly after switching apps.
The (a) problem here is that it is not immediately clear that Norton is the culprit. If it even is - maybe some other Windows-process is handing over focus erroneously.
Well, some people probably don’t realize that it’s Norton causing the issue and took other measures that made it go away, at least temporarily (like updating some other software). Yes, you’re probably right, it is probably triggered by some other software. It’s still Norton’s issue to solve though. They already got logs from users and replicating the issue has failed.
So if something happens at random, and you can’t replicate the issue, then my next step would be to review my code, rather than inconveniencing users further or endlessly looking through logs to find a commonality. I’d check at what points the process takes over focus and at what point it returns focus. Then I’d look at the code in-between. It could be that the process is getting ready to pop up a message for the user but then branches off into a check that kills that message and returns focus to windows. In that case you move said check(s) up in the code to the spot before the focus is taken away. I’d also look into what part is not executed if the user has the UI open.
I know these seemingly random bugs are the most difficult to solve and if this would be an expensive system, then I would work with Norton on it. But for a consumer software that I can easily change, I’m not willing to spend a lot of time with support if others have already done that without result.
I totally agree this should be fixed - we still have a years’ worth of subscription, running on 4 devices (only one of which has the problem, but on that system both Windows-users (local, non-Microsoft-account-connected) are affected) but this makes me look around for alternatives after being pretty happy with Norton since using it on Windows 98.
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Another impacted user here. It’s been happening infrequently for months but today, after it installed the latest update (25.10.10528 (build 25.10.10528.0), the focus is being robbed a few times a minute. Logged in/out, UI open/closed, no difference. I am going to try a reinstall, but if that doesn’t work I will need to find an alternative because correcting typos due to missed keystrokes is unacceptable - shame on you Norton
Today it’s gotten worse - even with the UI open the active app loses focus multiple times per minute:
I’ve sent in some feedback throught the button in the UI, pointing at this thread.
Hi @Tarin, and those similarly affected. I’ve managed to stop this focus theft here, but I’m currently unsure of the consequences of my ‘fix’. @Salty was on the money wrt http://ipm.avcdn.net/ .
Turns out, from limited research I’ve done, that our AV now uses the Avast engine. The Avast firm has been fined for tracking and selling customer data. avcdn.net is Avast.
I tried to block that url on my pc by adding it to my hosts file, resolving it to localhost - every time I tried the AV undid my change (cheeky!).
I now have that url blocked by my router and the focus theft has gone. I’ve written this post without once having to backtrack 
The NortonUI now takes a little while longer to load, but no longer tells me there are 1mill+ fixes I could apply by upgrading.
LiveUpdate runs ok but I’m waiting for some updates to apply before being ‘happy’ with my ‘workaround’.
@smokin365 I have tested a little as well - starting/logging into Windows once with our pi-hole inactive (temporarily not blocking anything, so sort of the opposite of your blocking the avast analytics/telemetry stuff) might have helped a bit? At least after rebooting and switching off and on the computer, Norton didn’t immediately start grabbing focus, even when working online for a couple of minutes. There are quite a lot of calls to avast/avcdn being logged/blocked, so this could definitely be related to the issue.
Maybe it needed some data from ‘home’ which it could not get, and calmed down somewhat after being allowed to phone home once.
Here’s to hoping this fixed things - the system affected belongs to my wife, and she has very little tolerance for software misbehaving like this, being a software developer herself.
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Interesting….I’m not blocking Avast though. I’m wondering if it’s more broadly an issue with blocking any applications from “calling home”. I do block several Microsoft sites to prevent automatic Windows updates (I unblock them periodically for updates on my terms). Windows is trying to phone home constantly.
The last few days I did not have the focus issue anymore, but the next time it happens I will test if unblocking the Microsoft sites stops the behavior. It’ not really a solution though because I want to keep them blocked in-between Windows updates.
Interesting. I’ve tried to add some hosts file lines for that. But I can’t see that my PC tries to access those avast-related addresses. But your point is really interesting because I’ve been using Norton I don’t know maybe 10 years in a row and didn’t have any problems and now when Avast has been used as an engine - welcome to such problems like losing focus. It’s really annoying and I’m already thinking about refund and erase it forever.
Found out that it has been trying to access multiple addresses like analytics .avcdn.net, avcdn. net, overseer. tools. avcdn. net, etc. I’ve disabled it on my DNS, disabled it at my router but it doesn’t seem to fix the issue with NortonUI stealing focus for 1 second. As far as it seems - the only way to fix it is to uninstall it.
Norton Security 25.11.10580 for Windows is now available!
https://community.norton.com/t/norton-security-25-11-10580-for-windows-is-now-available/469184
============================================
UI Version: 1.0.111 has been released to fix the issue of “Norton360 Makes Keyboard unusable - constantly grabs focus”. Please run Norton LiveUpdate and Restart the system to check if the fix is working.
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Everyone: The latest version release notes state this has been fixed. Have any of you ran live update with Norton, received the latest release and retested as Guru bjm suggested?
SA
Yes, email popups fixed. Finally !
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