Unknown bug is bringing Hollywood Mac Pros running Avid to their knees (Update)

Updated 08:00 a.m. PT 09/25: Avid provided an updated statement. As suspected, the issue is unrelated to Avid's software and is instead a Google Chrome problem.

Today, Avid is confirming 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. Google 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.

Updated 10:50 a.m. PT: Avid provided a statement awknowledging to the bug affecting the Mac Pro.

Avidis aware of the reboot issue affecting Apple Mac Pro devices runningsome Avid products, which arose late yesterday. This issue is top priority for ourengineering and support teams, whohave been working diligentlyto 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.

Apple is getting ready to release a new, powerful Mac Pro but it seems the old model is having some considerable problems right now. And it is shutting parts of Hollywood down.

The problems started when users first noticed that their Mac Pros weren't restarting properly after being shut down. It only appears to be impacting users of the high-end video editing app Avid, meaning people across Hollywood are impacted big time. In fact, people have been taking to Twitter and Facebook to warn users not to shut their Macs down, according to Variety

https://twitter.com/mattpenndotcom/status/1176355775096205313

Some reports note that the problem is related to a corruption of data rather than something more malicious like a virus. If that's the case then a clean installation of macOS and Avid might get users back up and running, but that all assuming that a robust backup strategy is in place. We'd expect that to be the case at Hollywood studios and associated companies, but we'll probably found out for sure soon enough.

For now anyone running a Mac Pro with Avid installed is best to avoid restarting their machine. It might be a good time to ensure all of your backups are up-to-date, too.