We picked up on a series of rumours about a reboot issue with Apple Mac Pro Trash Can computers reported by Variety.com Rather than add to the wide speculation flying around, we have chosen to wait and get some facts including a statement from Avid CEO Jeff Rossica responding to the rumours.

We have updated this article with more information and advice from Avid and also news that Pro Tools HDX users could be affected if they have disabled SIP.

Avid has now confirmed the reboot issue is not related to Avid Creative Tools but is the result of a fault in a recent Google Chrome Update. See below for more details.

One of the sources for this alert was Matt Penn who is a New York City based Video Post Production Consultant. On Twitter, he has said….

Variety said…

“Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evening as their workstations were refusing to reboot, resulting in speculations about a possible computer virus attack. Social media reports suggested that the issue was widespread among users of Mac Pro computers running older versions of Apple’s operating system as well as AVID’s Media Composer software.”

There have been further conversations in the closed Avid Editors Facebook Group including some suggestions that the issue may be restricted to Mac Pro Trash Can computers running an older version of the macOS. See Marus Pun’s Tweet above for more on this.

Avid’s Statement From CEO Jeff Rossica

Avid CEO, Jeff Rossica has tweeted…

“To all @Avid customers/users. Please see the attached update from our team on the issues uncovered late yesterday by #Avid users regarding some models of Mac Pro. We're on it...and determining the cause and how to resolve it is a top priority for us! Stay tuned...”

and then adding this statement from Avid released at 10am EST today…

“Avid is aware of the reboot issue affecting Apple Mac Pro devices running some Avid products, which arose late yesterday. This issue is top priority for our engineering and support teams, who have been working diligently to determine and resolve the root cause. As we learn more, we will immediately publish information—directly to our customers and via our community forums and social media platforms—in order to resolve this issue for all affected customers and prevent any further issues.

The Avid Team”

UPDATE: September 25th 2019 - Avid Release Video With More Information

Avid CEO Jeff Rosica and CPO Dana Ruzicka talk about the reboot issue and offer some helpful advice for their creative tools users running Media Composer on Mac Pro.

The Problem

• A license Error message may appear during the launch of Avid Media Composer on a Mac computer.

• Customers who then reboot their system may get caught in a reboot cycle where the Mac will get partway through the boot-up stage and then reboot over and over.

Avid’s Advice If You Experience This Problem

• Some customers have reported that installing their current version of the macOS has fixed the issue. 

• Avid stress that you should take care NOT to reformat your drives during a macOS reinstall.

• Avid makes it clear that you should reinstall the same version of the macOS with the issue arose, there is no need to upgrade your macOS to a new version. 

• Avid is directing users to Apple’s advice on using macOS Recovery

Avid’s Advice On How To Avoid The Problem

• Do not reboot your Mac

• Do not update your system, including the macOS, Media Composer or anything else on your system

• If possible, back up your local files including Avid Bins, Projects, etc. as a safety precaution.

• Check periodically for notices from Avid. They will continue to issue regular notices with the latest information as they learn more about this issue.

UPDATE: Avid Pro Tools HDX Users Maybe Affected By The Reboot Issue If They Have Disabled SIP

All the information from Avid is directed to the issue being confined to Media Composer users. However, we understand that a 3rd party developer has identified that Pro Tools HDX users could be affected by the reboot issue if they have disabled SIP.

What Is SIP?

System Integrity Protection is a security technology in OS X El Capitan and later that is designed to help prevent potentially malicious software from modifying protected files and folders on your Mac. System Integrity Protection restricts the root user account and limits the actions that the root user can perform on protected parts of the Mac operating system.

Apps that you download from the Mac App Store already work with System Integrity Protection. Other third-party software, if it conflicts with System Integrity Protection, might be set aside when you upgrade to OS X El Capitan or later.

System Integrity Protection also helps prevent software from selecting a startup disk. To select a startup disk, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then click Startup Disk. Or hold down the Option key while you restart, then choose from the list of startup disks.

How To Check If System Integrity Protection Is Enabled On Your Mac

SIP is not something you can disable in the System Preferences You will need to use the Terminal app and type in some code. If you are not confident in ths area we advise extreme caution as mistakes in what you type into the Terminal app can be catastrophic. You have been warned….

• Before doing anything else this is how you can check if SIP is enabled or not on your Mac.

• Launch Terminal on your Mac.

• Type in "csrutil status" (or copy and paste it in from here).

• If SIP is ON, you'll get this message in response: "System Integrity Protection status: enabled."

• If SIP is OFF, you'll get this message: "System Integrity Protection status: disabled".

How To Enable System Integrity Protection On Your Mac

• Click on the  (Apple Logo) at the far left of your Mac's Menubar.

• Click on Restart.

• Hold down CMD + R during reboot to enter Recovery Mode.

• Click on the Utilities Menu.

• Launch Terminal.

• Type in "csrutil enable".

• Restart your Mac again.

UPDATED: September 25th 2019 - The Issue May Be A Google Related Problem

9to5 Google a sister site to 9to5 Mac has posted an article suggesting that Google Keystone may be the cause…

“Earlier today, Mac video professionals began reporting that their computers were crashing, and many attributed the problem to Avid’s Media Composer editor. The issue instead lies with a piece of Google software that helps keep Chrome up-to-date.

Version 1.2.13.75 of Google Keystone (Google Software Update) recently shipped with a bug that damages the macOS file system on computers where System Integrity Protection is disabled. Also known as SIP, the OS security feature helps “prevent potentially malicious software from modifying protected files and folders on your Mac.” This issue also affects Macs that do not support SIP (pre-OS X El Capitan).

Google tells us that it has paused the rollout of Keystone 1.2.13.75 until a solution is developed.”

They go on to say…

“Several Mac administrators have compiled a more technical explanation of what’s happening and the underlying issue that’s not related to Avid after all. Video professionals were particularly affected as System Integrity Protection has to be disabled to allow for third-party video card support. The majority of users should be unaffected as long as SIP is enabled, which is the default setting.”

So it may not be Avid’s fault after all. Thanks to community member ‘Lari’ for pointing us to this latest development.

UPDATE 25th September 2019 - Avid Confirms Reboot Issue Not Related to Avid Creative Tools

Avid has today confirmed that the root cause for a reboot issue encountered by some of our customers has been identified and is unrelated to Avid and its creative tools. Avid has announced that…

“Google has confirmed that a Chrome update “may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines.” Google has paused its release and provided instructions for affected users.

Avid is also pleased to share that it has received no reports of data loss by affected customers. From the beginning when this issue was made known to Avid, our teams actively worked with customers, Apple and partners to identify solutions and communicate them to customers. At this time, most affected Avid customers have recovered from this issue by reinstalling their macOS. Avid received no reports of incidents from customers running on non-Mac operating systems. To reiterate, this was not an Avid issue, as was reported in some early media coverage.

We are proud of the coordinated response by Avid, Apple and our partners and we jointly thank our customers for their patience, support and assistance as we worked to quickly resolve this issue.

Avid CEO Jeff Rosica stated…

“Avid is pleased that the reboot issue facing some customers is solved and while Avid products are not the root cause, we’re keeping an intense focus on bringing all of our customers back online and back to work. Over the past 36 hours, the deep dive of due diligence working closely with Apple, PACE and other partners exhausted all options and we’ve landed in the right place as quickly as possible. We owe our special thanks to Avid’s customer and user community for their typically strong show of support at this time, especially to those who welcomed our engineers into their studios to troubleshoot.”

In another update, Avid has posted a video with Kathy-Anne McManus, who is their Senior Vice President of Global Customer Solutions and Services, thanking customers and partners for helping to resolve the reboot issue.

More To Come As We Get It

This is a fast-moving situation and we will be constantly updating this article as we get more information on the reboot issue until it is completely resolved.