Real-time file system protection is disabled by the user. The computer is not currently protected against threats. Enable Real-time file protection.

[KyleBrown 0]

ESET Cyber Security Pro - Version: 6.7.900.0
MacOS High Sierra - 10.13.6 iMac, I can't remember the year, at a guess 2010/2.

 

Ok so the issue I'm having is the customer was having issues with Norton Anti-virus which was suffering from a common bug that looks like it hasn't been patched since 2017ish, so I removed it and replaced it with a fresh install of ESET Cyber Security Pro - Version: 6.7.900.0 thinking that would be a job well done oh I was wrong! 😕

Once ESET had finished installing and loaded up instead of everything being all systems go It showed "Real-time file system protection is disabled by the user. The computer is not currently protected against threats. Enable Real-time file protection." I thought to myself hang on a second, I haven't disabled anything, this is a fresh install of ESET!

No matter how many times I clicked "Enable Real-time file system protection." or I uninstalled/reinstalled ESET or rebooted the Mac, I could not get the program to start up at all.

I spend hours looking through the file system for any shreds of Norton antivirus as well as another antivirus program the end-user did mention to me (can't remember the name).

While that unknown antivirus wasn't installed on the machine, it appeared there was still bits of it lingering in directories which I removed thinking that was could have been stopping it from running, but this had no effect at all, and I landed up having to leave then with an unusable mac while I went away top do some research into it. If anyone here has any idea's for a fix i would really appreciate it, otherwise i'm going to have to contact ESET Support and open a case with them.

 

TL;DR Removed Norton AV found out there was files of another AV in directories of the Mac, binned them and installed ESET thinking that would be it. Landed up looking like an incompetant twat!

 

[itman 1,659]

Appears this Symantec utility will remove all traces of Norton on a Mac: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080427024142EN

Likewise for whatever other AV traces you found, there should be a stand-alone uninstall/cleaner vendor utility for it.

Here's an Eset knowledge base article on how to uninstall and reinstall Eset on a Mac: https://support.eset.com/kb3239/?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

Edited July 19, 2019 by itman