Avid Users Are Suddenly Finding That Their Macs Won’t Boot

Avid video editors have started reported that when they shutdown their Macs, they will no longer boot up afterwards.  It is not known exactly what is causing this issue, but it appears to be affecting older versions of Mac OS X who have the Avid Media Creator software installed.

As reported by Variety, film and TV editors all over the world suddenly found yesterday that after shutting down, they could no longer boot their Macs if they had Avid Media Composer installed on the computer. 

While there has not been any word from Apple or Avid about this issue, a post from the Avid Editors Facebook page states that Macs running OS X 10.13.x and earlier that have Avid Media Creator installed will suddenly find that their account has been changed to a Standard user and may receive an error regarding their iLock license, which will cause their mac to no longer be able to boot.

As some are concerned this is a malware infection targeting these computers, they advise that all users disconnect from the Internet until more information is available.

Instead of a virus, others feel this is a botched update or incompatibility that is causing a system folder used by macOS to become corrupted and causes the system to be unable to boot afterwards.

For now, users are reporting that they can get their Macs up and running again by reinstalling macOS from a thumb drive and choosing to install over their existing installation rather then performing a full erase and install.

BleepingComputer has contacted Avid and Apple and will update this story with any responses.

Update 9/24/19 11:48 AM EST: Avid provided the following statement to BleepingComputer:

"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."

This is a developing story.