You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Unable to access Security and privacy

Hi, this is my first interaction in the community.

I am using a 2019 intel macbook pro 16". I am having issues accessing the security and privacy from my system preferences.

My laptop was running the OS Catalina and I had an organisation maintained symantec installation. The issue started when the policy in symantec was modified.

However the issues still persists, after i have uninstalled the symantec application and migrated to the latest BigSur update.


Thanks

Amlo

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 1, 2021 5:44 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 1, 2021 8:40 AM

Symantec has a device management solution, but they also do antivirus (they are far more known for the latter). Many organizations use Apple's MDM for device management and deploy a separate AV solution like Symantec, Sentinel One, etc. (since Apple doesn't offer one other than macOS itself). You may have uninstalled Symantec AV, but your device is still a managed device.


Generally, users cannot uninstall device management software on their own, devices can only be unenrolled centrally (else, what would be the point of device management?). Even if you wipe the internal drive and reinstall macOS, the device remains managed. If the employer is giving/selling the device to you, they should unenroll it first.


The bottom line is that some form of MDM is operating on your Mac, that's why you cannot access the security settings. If you feel that you need to access them, you need to contact the organization that provided you with the computer.

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 1, 2021 8:40 AM in response to amlo4u

Symantec has a device management solution, but they also do antivirus (they are far more known for the latter). Many organizations use Apple's MDM for device management and deploy a separate AV solution like Symantec, Sentinel One, etc. (since Apple doesn't offer one other than macOS itself). You may have uninstalled Symantec AV, but your device is still a managed device.


Generally, users cannot uninstall device management software on their own, devices can only be unenrolled centrally (else, what would be the point of device management?). Even if you wipe the internal drive and reinstall macOS, the device remains managed. If the employer is giving/selling the device to you, they should unenroll it first.


The bottom line is that some form of MDM is operating on your Mac, that's why you cannot access the security settings. If you feel that you need to access them, you need to contact the organization that provided you with the computer.

Mar 6, 2021 7:08 AM in response to amlo4u

I thought you might be the same person who e-mailed me about an identical issue. But that person was using an iMac, not MacBook Pro. I have to say though, that was one of the best EtreCheck solutions I've ever seen. In that case, the user had Symantec installed and had also installed some other antivirus tool. But then, they incorrectly uninstall the other tool, which caused the remaining portions to repeatedly crash. That crash caused a cascading crash within the sysextd process that managed Symantec's system extension. I'm very confident that all of this eventually led to System Preferences hanging when trying to display the Security & Privacy tab.


Alas, due to Apple policies, that's all the help I can provide on the topic.

Unable to access Security and privacy

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.