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The problems were first noted on Symantec and Mozilla forums, with irate users logging a variety of problems from missing bookmarks and toolbars, to a removal of Norton's Identity Safe password manager after upgrading to the latest version of Firefox.

"Since upgrading to Firefox 3.0.1, Identity Safe is off the radar," notes Mozilla forum member Royal. "It had been automatically

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logged off during the upgrade process; so I logged it back on. However, there is no indication of Identity Safe, and when I log on to a site, I am not prompted to auto fill or to save the password."

Mozilla confirmed the accounts, claiming that older versions of Norton software that hadn't been updated were stopping the browser from terminating properly.

"When the user starts up Firefox the next time, the file that's used to store their bookmarks and history can't be read and, as a result, the back and forward buttons don't work and no bookmarks are shown," says Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director for Firefox. "This coincides with the Identity Safe feature not working as well."

The company says it is continuing to investigate the specifics of the problem, and in the meantime is encouraging users to download a Firefox 3 compatibility update through Norton's Live Update service, which should alleviate the problem for a majority of people.