The problem here appears to be lack of communication between vendors, with absolutely no communication to the consumer. Somehow the customer got left out of the loop and was left high and dry by both Mozilla and Symantec. Because we the end users were not considered, shame on both of you! Not Cool!

My solution is to default back to IE9 for now until I decide whether either company is worth the headache.

I feel like Mozilla has made a big mistake here with FF4 . They promote the upgrade but downplay the risks. I went to 4 and back to 3.6 and lost my bookmarks. Something is hosed up now and I can't even restore bookmarks backups brought in from another location. Yes, Norton is responsible as is everyone that makes add-ons but Mozilla should be smart enough to realize this is hurting them and they need to warn customers about known risks. I will be reviewing my browser choice and Ie and Chrome are looking much more attractive to me lately.

So, go to chrome already - Chrome does not, and evidently never will, support any add on tool bars, including norton Toolbar.

The problem is not Firefox. FF designs an API for plugins and extensions. Due to changes in their technoloogy they have changed the API. They published the final changes over 5 months ago. Norton was aware of this at the time (I know, because I for one sent an email and communicated directly with a manager on their beta team - the very same person who posted on the Norton site that the are working on a fix).

(( I should mention here that I have nothing to do with FF - I don't work for them and am not a volunteer support person. I only contacted Norton because of the problems they had updating their toolbar during the last 3 FF upgrades - and I was hoping they would be more proactive this time. ))

This same problem has occured with Norton every time a new version of FF has been released in the past (at the least, I'm positive this problem occured when updating from FF 3.0 to 3.5, and from 3.5 to 3.6 - I wasn't using Norton toolbar prior to FF 3.0.).

I would understand Norton's reticence if FF came out with a change in their API with no warning, but - as noted - at least 5 months notification was given.

There may be a reasonable discussion about whether or not it is really necessary for FF to change their extension API with each major upgrade. Harping on FF for something that is not their responsibility is not sensible behavior. There are many thousands of FF extensions. It is not reasonable to think that FF is responsible for testing all of these.

One final point - the first thing that happens when upgrading to a new version of FF - before any code is installed - is to display the extensions that you have installed that are not compatible with the new FF. The notice says that after the installation FF will check to see if new, compliant versions are available. If you have Norton Toolbar installed it was on the list of non compliant installed extensions. You had an opportunity to back out of the installation at that point.

Sorry to be so long winded, but software newbies who post about stuff they are ignorant about just pushes my buttons.

what is chrome anyway. i dont think at all chrome can beat firefox. the only equivalent now is IE8.

maybe IE9 will beat firefox (4) i dont know because i didnt try IE9 and i uninstalled (4) till May ..

The new IE9 and Norton work seamlessly. I guess some people have all the answers, huh? Like some companies coordinate their efforts better.

Maybe FF should release the new versions to advanced users only since we don't want to push anybody's buttons.

franquephertur First of all thank you for such a long reply and wasting everyone's time as your reply have nothing but false information.

First of all I would like to keep chrome a side as we are here to discuss FF only.

1) All previous FF never bothered or conflicted with Norton; 2) While installing FF4 it shows that following toolbars are not compatible but never gives option to revert back or cancel the installation process.

We are not complaining why FF does so but our main concern is FF must have given option to cancel installation process while displaying toobar in-comparability.

I am a IT professional having around 24 years experience and using FF almost since last 5 years (thanks to my friends) and Norton since past 15 years. I never even knew that this place (FF Support Forum) even exists. Cause I never felt need of any kind of support from FF. This is first time I felt seeking help and I am here.

There were 3 apps on my system to update without asking with full trust:-

1) OS; 2) Norton; 3) FF.

Sorry but FF is no more in this category.

As far as being noobs is concern I am admin, co-admin, S-Mod and Mod in many reputed forums and know minimal rules of respect. But, it does not mean if someone use insulting language we should keep quite. Being volunteer does not give any authority to give useless, shameful and insulting replies.

We all are here writing all these words as we love FF otherwise we have not even bothered even to use it. Moreover, bottoms are too precious don't push them too hard.

@ graphitindia Thanks, but, i'm a girl. lol And It's fine, i was happy with the answer. Norton says they're fixing the problem, so please, everyone calm down and just wait for it to come out. Please stop being rude to TonyE, He was just trying to help. It is not fair if you tell him off and not tell off some of those that are cussing for no reason. This is not a teen site, this is a site made for those that are civil, not brutal. If you do not have anything civil to say, do not post.

Iceflame14 thanks for the information that you are a girl. Does it make any difference? In 21st era most of educated people do not bother about sex but intelligence.

As far as TonyE is concern I am not against him or his efforts. My concern is only he/she must be polite and help people in respected way. And FF is a great browser I appreciate FF team efforts and concern of updating our lovely browser for our benefit. Anyhow, I think I have written what I wanted to convey. Let's hope FF will take care these small things in future.

If I was wrong why 34 out of 45 people found my reply helpful and only 21 out of 64 people found TonyE reply helpful ?

Anyhow, after reading your words I felt that I am not civil if so (but I know I am civil), I will not post anymore in this thread.

Just few last words Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

Tony E. You're absolutely right regarding Norton 360 5.5 toolbar & Firefox 4.0! This IS Norton's problem, they know it, and it won't resolved until May. We do need to revert back to Firefox 3.6.5 to have the Norton 360 5.5 toolbar,it's there and everything works just fine. However I tried Norton support this week-end and they were not helpful at all!! I used "chat room"and it was a miserable experience, took way too much of my time to simply find out when Firefox 4.o users could expect a resolution . My success with support for this problem was with the Firefox Forum. THANK YOU, Tony E and forum contributors!!!!

I agree with these posts! I had just installed Norton 360 ONE DAY before updating to FF4 and now Norton does not work! SHAME on FF for not anticipating this.

I myself APOLOGZE to TonyE for putting the blame on him that he was supporting FF against Norton.

In fact it is the responsibility of Norton in this matter and should have been prompt by finding a solution to this matter.

Big respect to Norton but they are in default on this matter hundred per cent.

Again TonyE, sorry !

I will reiterate for those of you with learning disabilities... Any developer that cannot come out with a new version of an established product and provide, at a minimum, a compatibility mode for older version plug-ins and add-ons, has no business calling themselves a developer.

I DO THIS FOR A LIVING and would be FIRED if I release a program that was this bad. If anyone who worked for me released something this bad into production and did not fix it immediately (like yesterday!), they would be looking for another job!!!

It is not the responsibility of every software vendor in the world to accommodate your product. When you have an installed base as large as that of Firefox 3.X, it is YOU that should be accommodating your installed base (i.e. where is the compatibility mode for older plug-ins and add-ons?). You can spout all you want that it is Symantec's problem that they are not compatible with version 4.0 of Firefox, to which I will say, BULL****!!!! YOU BROKE IT, YOU FIX IT!!!!

At the very least, you (meaning the Mozilla Firefox development team) should have a fully automated means of reverting a 4.0 installation to version 3.6 that will not lose or corrupt any plus-ins, add-ons or settings during the reversion process.

I will publicly challenge the Mozilla team to provide this solution, and if you expect anyone to ever try using your products again, you had better be quick about it!!!

I totally agree with you! sooo there is no answer to this simple question? I wished I would have had an option to cancel the fire fox down load....... I sooo regret it.

Bottom line is that Norton makes an extension to work within Firefox, so they have to follow Mozilla's rules for Firefox. You can argue all day and all night whether Mozilla is right or wrong with the manner in which they handle changes with each new major version that is released or argue about Mozilla demanding that add-on developers follow their rules, but when all the arguments are done - Norton chose to create two extensions for Firefox and they aren't properly supporting their paying customers by not being prepared for the release of a new version of Firefox.

In conclusion, let me say that IMO Norton pulls this crap of being two months late with their Firefox extension updates on purpose! Their way of supporting their benefactor - Microsoft. IMO, Symantec / Norton wouldn't even exist if Windows and IE was secure to begin with!

I agree with most here. You didn't inform anybody that the Norton Toolbar was incompatible with 4.0. Something integral with web surfing like Norton should have been on your compatibility list before launching 4.0. Going back to 3.6 is a non starter. They never work. What a disappointment.

Norton has a fix. See: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Norton-Toolbar-5-5-incompatible-with-Firefox-4-RC1/td-p/411556/page/2

mdisante, I take it you have not used Firefox for very long to have ranted like that.

For every Major update, the main reason a Extension is not compatible is due to the maxversion set in Extension and some Extensions truly does need updates in its code to work due to changes or additions or such in Firefox code as one cannot expect a new Major release to have a backwards compatible mode.

Some of the companies like Roboform used to drive their Firefox Extension users nuts because they updated for every little minor security update instead of for the version in general. People used to blame Firefox versus Roboform and had to be told to just wait a bit for the update each time.

TonyE: My specific objection is to the message that Firefox flashes on one's desktop indicating that the desktop has an outdated version of Firefox. If a new version is in BETA mode, which means it has incompatibility or other issues, then this message should NOT yet appear. OR the message should contain a caveat and link to known incompatibilities, BEFORE suggesting that a user upgrade their version.

I will join those who intend to uninstall Firefox and possibly reinstall the previous version (or go to a competitor's browser), but first want to convey that my high regard for Firefox has fallen to new, very low depths!!

I agree with you wholeheartedly! If I can, I am going to the way things WERE. No matter WHOSE fault (error?) it is, we should not lose our Norton toolbar!

I had the same problem and contacted Norton tech support and I was told there would be a patch coming to address this incompatibility in early May. It can't come soon enough for me. I miss Firefox!!!