Thanks for your very thorough reply. The extension doesn't show up in Preferences... I will try the next step, to download the extension.
I am sorry, but I know little about systems "stuff" so I would not attempt the rest. I hope I can download and install the extension.
Hi gdfarkas,
System Extensions became mandatory with macOS 11. macOS 10.14 was when Apple started showing notifications of legacy extensions. But it could be that on your system, Norton still uses kernel extensions. I'm not familiar with how Norton handles their extensions, sorry. The equivalent would be com.symantec.internetSecurity.kext.
For Kernel Extensions, the location where most are found is: /System/Library/Extensions
For System Extensions it is: /Library/System Extensions
Another way to find out what extensions are present, including those by Symantec/Norton, would be to use Terminal which you can either search via Spotlight or find in Applications\Utilities
To list all Kernel extensions (excluding those from Apple) enter: kextstat | grep -v com.apple
To list all System extensions enter: systemextensionsctl list
If you want to check if the Safari extension is installed, open Safari, click on the menu bar on Safari > Preferences... Then a window opens. In the top row click on Extensions. Then you'll see all installed extensions. If you see Norton there, but it is not activated with a checkmark before the extension, do that.
If Norton isn't there, then open Norton 360 and click on Settings which is top right in the bright part of the window, just below the dark colored accent stripe at the top. Then click on Safe Web and then the arrow next to Safari which should bring you to the download page of the extension.
In case the extension is said to be installed, but not visible in the Browser UI or in the Extension Menu of Safari preferences, you can try to rebuild macOS launch services. This should usually not be necessary, but I don't know the conditions of your inherited Mac and I'd rather give one tool too many than too few.
For that open Terminal. Close Safari and enter in the Terminal window following command (with best thanks to kaitlyn from 1Password):
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -f -R /Applications/Safari.app
As said: It should not be necessary, but it could help if Safari has trouble recognizing and displaying the extension.
Best,
Crwmy
Hi,
I have a similar question. I inherited a Mac (10.14.6) with Norton installed on it. I am trying to figure out if the browser extensions have been installed or not and if they are protecting me. I use Firefox and Safari. I can see in Firefox that Norton Safe Search and Safe Web are installed. But I could not figure out how to check the same for Safari. Following the prior post I see that the Activity Monitor shows Norton 360, Norton and nortonaggregator and I do see SynDaemon, but I do NOT see com.symantec.mes.systemextension.
How can I check reliably if the Norton extension is installed for Safari? Regardless what I tried in Norton or in Safari, I could not find any place to see that. Please let me know what to do, if possible with some screen shots as I am a beginner user for this. Thanks in advance.
Hello peter paulsen,
it sounds like you're good to go. I assume that after you installed Norton 360, have you restarted your Mac and followed the final setup instructions (allowing Norton 360 system extension, allowing Norton 360 to manage Network traffic and give the Norton System Extension Full Disk Access)?
You do not need to have the Norton 360 window open to be protected. It even should not be visible on every system start. Do you keep it open until shutting down your Mac and have the tick box activated to restore windows?
If you're not sure if everything is running, you can open Activity Monitor (which is a macOS Utility to see all running processes, their CPU, network, RAM and Disk read/write usage) and look for "Norton" via the search panel in activity monitor. Even if the window is closed, the process should be running. Additionally, you can look for "Sym". There should be a com.symantec.mes.systemextension, and SymDaemon which are two important background processes (among other) providing security for your Mac.