I’ve been a long time user of Norton Security and Norton 360 for many years, but recently in the last few months, I’m having problems with Norton Safe Web causing certain websites on Chrome, like Instagram, Facebook and Amazon, not to load correctly on my PC. They will load maybe half the pictures etc in a few seconds, and then maybe take up to 10 to 20 minutes to load the rest.
I know that it not a PC or an internet issue (I’m running an Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9GHz chip, 32 GB DDR4 RAM with a 500mB internet connection). Also whilst the page is trying to fully load, I can readily access other websites like the BBC and read the news or watch TV with no issues. So the issue is only hitting certain websites.
I tried to just disable the Auto-Protect and the Smart Firewall features, but it didn’t really make much of a difference. But when I fully uninstalled Norton and rebooted, the PC then operates perfectly and fully loads each of the websites in seconds and the websites are fully usable. Reinstall Norton 360 from the Norton website and reboot, and the issues return making the websites unusable.
Did some reading on the issue and Norton suggested disabling the Norton Safe Web feature. Did that and the PC works perfectly again. Re-enable Safe Web and the issues return. I’ve tried to list all 3 websites under Exclusions, and the issues still occur.
Of note, the issues are the same across Chrome and Edge for the same websites, and ultimately it is starting to make the PC unusable for certain sites, particularly something like Amazon where I can eventually select something, but when I go to pay, the screen just hangs for maybe 30 minutes doing nothing.
Is there a fix for this because at this rate, the issue is making the PC unusable on certain sites and I’m going to have to start looking at other security apps to replace Norton?
It sounds to me that Norton Safe Web might be clashing with the security protection set in the browser.
Both Chrome and Edge can be set to high security within the browser so you might find that setting and disable. Find the security setting for “enhanced protection” in the browser and lower it.
Essentially it is doing a similar job that Norton Safe Web is doing.
That’s a good theory and I tried to back off the Chrome setting from Enhanced Protection to Standard and then No Protection and allow Norton to provide the protection.
Instagram is slightly better but there are still some elements that don’t load, and it still seems to be continually trying to load the page (the swirly symbol keeps turning on the tab). . Amazon is better and usable, but the pages whilst loaded, still appear to continually trying to load. Facebook as before is a total non-starter and won’t load.
If I knock of Norton Safe Web, everything returns to normal and all pages load quickly and correctly, with no swirly symbol to show that the page is struggling to load. I asked Norton about leaving it off, but they don’t advise it because it is risky.
What I can’t understand is that I’ve done clean install of Chrome and Norton 360 from their respective websites and not changed any of the settings, and I get these loading issues. Knock Safe Web off and everything is great. Put it back on and the site loading problems return. Chatted with the Norton Helpdesk and they said that they would have a fix within 72 hours and were going to call me the other day, but that never happened.
So if everything is a standard install, why am I getting these issues and apparently no one else is? I’ve done standard installs and don’t have any web extensions running on Chrome (a possible problem apparently with this) and I trying to use popular websites and struggling to access them.
Maybe the workaround is to just remove the Norton Safe Web Extension and browse without it. When software goes loopy like this I usually just uninstall and I am happy to be done with it. There is more hype than muscle to most software.
I hope Norton support can find the answer for you.
Thank you for posting this. I am having the same issue too. I also found toggling the HTTPS scanning option under Safe Web fixed the problem (but I would prefer to keep that on). I have noticed this issue with websites since the last Norton software build/update (26.5.10994 for Windows).
I have used the Norton uninstall tool/reinstall. I have also gone through steps on the browser side to clear it and reinstall extensions and browsers. Nothing has worked thus far.
Sorry i can’t help, but i’m having the exact same problem. It’s ever since i uploaded a new norton 360 subscription, about 5 days ago. The only way i can use the internet is to turn off safeweb. I can’t even use the Norton website (it just spins)
Question!! Are all of you running Windows 11 25H2? Just a passing thought for something common going on. I don’t see the issue on my Windows 11 machines.
~ my understanding:
Norton released a backend fix for this Website loading issue.
Please run LiveUpdate and Restart the machine and check if websites are loaded as expected.
I have the same problems. From when I installed Norton (yesterday), I started to have problem with my Microsoft Entra admin where the pages are stuck until I hit F5; plus, I notice this problem on other sites.
As soos as I disable momentarily Safe Web, all works.
Maybe this is why Norton offered 1-year free subscription.
I have been having the same issue with the loading of Facebook, Amazon, and some other sites. I uninstall Norton 360 and everything works perfect. I reinstalled Norton 360 and the sites are slow loading if they load ata ll. I dont appear to have the safe browsing extension installed in chrome. Looking for some advise berfore I switch to another antivirus package
I forgot to add to my above comment that if I use Wi-Fi instead of my 2.5Ghz cable connection my browsing was normal and not slowed down. After reviewing other messages above I turned off ‘Safe Web’ in the Norton app, rebooted and now everything loads normally. Load time are now excellent on all web sites. Even better than when I was using Wi-Fi. The only downside it that Norton keeps complaining that I am ‘Unprotected”
I hope Norton can fix this issue.
Try just turning off the HTTPS scanning within the Safe Web feature. From the main Norton interface click Security on the left side, then click on Advanced Security. Scroll down to and click on the Safe Web feature. Click on the down arrow beside the button to turn on/off the feature and then turn off HTTPS scanning. Then test your website access again.
I spoke too soon. After a reboot it went back to being slow. I guess it takes a reboot for the safe web changes to take affect. I am going to try turning off QUIC/HTTP3 scanning like in your example and see if that works.
