SecureVPN will not start (running macOS Catalina)

Similar to others on the forum I am having repeated problems with SecureVPN.

Short history:

1. Purchased and Installed the Norton package (10 license bundle. Installed on 2 Macs and a couple of Windows PCs)

2. On BOTH Macs experienced the following:

- SecureVPN can be started by clicking "Turn on". Works fine. Suddenly, after a reboot, the "Turn On" button no longer starts the VPN.

3. I did contact the very capable support, who re-installed the entire package on one of my Macs. After reboot the VPN started working again.

4. However, a few days after the re-install it stopped working again. 

5. I re-installed it myself, and it started working for a few days.

6. BUT today, again, it has stopped working.....

My conclusion: Re-installing solves the problem, but it stops working after a few days. Clearly this is NOT acceptable in the long run.

Anyone who solved the problem permanently?

Technical info:

MacOS 10.15.2 (19C57)

Norton 8.5.3 (build 115)

My VPN has been running without issue since the update pushed out on 20 January. I am running Norton 360 version 8.5.4 build 6 on macOS Catalina. 

I noticed today that when I went to turn on the VPN on my iMac, that it was now there and did turn on.  It appears that this has been fixed in build 6 of Norton 360 8.5.4, details are available on the announcement blog. 

I too have same issues.  Purchased MacBook Pro in November 2019, same Catalina 10.15.2 with Norton 360 8.5.3.  I cancelled mySurf Easy VPN because of being included in Norton 360 - wish I had kept it.  Still waiting for Norton to respond to all the issued being stated by the multitude of users.  Have uninstalled and reinstalled Norton 360 several times.  I agree, when is this being FIXED????

 

It may not be an issue for some, yet it is still one for me.  I went through the entire remove, download, and reinstall process on Jan 21, and by Jan 24 I could not connect with VPN  :(  

Quick status update: It has been almost a week since Norton pushed an update out to my Catalina MacBook... good news... the VPN has been solid since. No issues. If this keeps up for another week I will consider the issue closed and turn my auto-renew back on.

motorcycleguy, glad to hear the patch is working...  progress it seems.  I'm happy to see your beta testing is giving hope.

The promised tech callback was not received this morning.

- MacBook Air that was manually patched by the tech is still working

- iMac that received the push update worked for a day then quit - reload has it working again

- MacPro running Mojave is still working after my last reload

 

Not sure where we're at with this promised update push.  I only found it announced on the iMac.  The manual patch is still working so it seems that the issue is known but no releasable update has been pushed.  I can appreciate the need to ensure a new patch does not break other things but the lack of transparency has me concerned.

Let us know officially that this is a known issue and the fix is on its way.  This would go a long way toward customer confidence.

 

 

The problem apparently is NOT fixed, even for Catalina.  While Norton/VPN on my High Sierra system failed yesterday requiring the uninstall/reinstall, the Catalina systems continued to work.  HOWEVER, this morning at least one of my Catalina systems failed the same way.  VPN is unavailable and won't start and will apparently require the uninstall/reinstall.  My second Catalina system took a hard crash this morning, which I'm not sure is due to Norton.  After it restarted VPN came up as per normal. Norton has more work to do.

 

I received the same update notification on my Catalina MacBook that StatGuy mentioned a few posts back... and I have experienced zero VPN problems since. My fingers are crossed and I hope this is the fix we have been waiting for (for Catalina at least)... but only time will tell. If the problem does not rear its ugly head over the next couple weeks I will consider it fixed and turn my auto-renew back on. No matter what happens I will report back here with a status... positive or negative.

Hi StatGuy.  Thanks for your input.  See if you can get a refund.  The more of us that hit them financially, the quicker Norton will attend to their faulty product.

Well, looks like things are not resolved for High Sierra.  As the parting shot from my previous note stated, the fact it was stable for several days apparently was a fluke.  The VPN (on High Sierra) disappeared again, right after I wrote my note.  The version on the Catalina systems still seems stable for now.

I have experienced most of the problems described by others on this forum.  Like many of you I was so frustrated with Norton that I turned off auto-renewal.

On or about Jan 17 I received a Norton 360 notification (small box in the upper right screen corner) for both of my MacBook Air Catalina (10.15.2) systems that an update was pending a restart.  I performed the update.  Thus far the problems I was having on the Catalina machines seem to be gone.  VPN is always available and will startup when desired.  What I also noticed is that the Norton version did NOT change from 8.5.3 Build 115, so there was no easy way to verify that something had changed except for the fact that I haven't experienced the previous problems.  I looked at some of the file dates in the system for Norton related files and did notice dates of Jan 17.

I have another system, an iMac, running High Sierra (10.13.6) which was having the problem worse than the Catalina machines.  I never got any notification that an update was pending.  Since I was at the point where I was going to have to remove and reinstall anyway, I completely removed Norton and did a full download (previously I reinstalled from copies already on my machine) from the Norton site.  I was hoping that the binaries had been updated with the corrections.  So far this has worked with no issue with the VPN.

I've now probably cursed myself, but as of today and several days of use, I haven't seen the problem on any of the 3 systems.  It might just be a fluke, but so far so good.

Welcome bjvande.  No lasting solution from Norton yet delivered to this august group. 
I escaped (removed, turned off auto-renew, sought and received a refund) from Norton 360.
As more of us walk away, Norton will gain a sense of urgency.

I am in the same situation, came here hoping there was a solution.  MACOS 10.15.2 and Norton 360 8.5.3 build 115. 

TBSmith...did Norton 360 ever work perfectly for you?  What versions have you used?  8.5.3 seems to be the common buggy dud on this thread.  I had mine for about 6 weeks and got a full refund.

I've had to reinstall twice today... the VPN works fine for a while and then, after a re-boot (or even just going in and out sleep mode from shutting the mac book for a while) the VPN is gone... not connected... and greyed out on the menu... and won't start if you open the dashboard and try to start it. And get this... sometimes the VPN simply vanishes from the dashboard. Hard for me to believe Norton did proper QA on this. Sounds as if they might be working the issue now (from above postings)... however if they pushed an update lately, it had no effect on my Mac. My subscription expires in a few months and I've turned auto-renew off. If the problem is not fixed by then I'm going elsewhere... and not looking back.

So  about six hours later the VPN works on the tech-patched MacBook Air and the reloaded MacPro.  The iMac, not so much.

Still haven't seen an update push.  Hope it happens this weekend otherwise I'll be talking to the tech on Tuesday.

Did the Cloud Backup function work for any of you on Macs? 
I went through Support and they told me Macs didn't support the cloud backup. 
Support told me to use my iCloud....  

8.5.3 was the last and only Norton 360 version (running on Sierra 10.12.6) I wrestled with before I got my refund.  Waiting to see how you gents fare with anything newer than 8.5.3 before I consider buying again.