# Massive failure of Macs due to Chrome Update



## Living Fossil (Sep 24, 2019)

Edit:
Since there is new information, i've edited the title of the thread.
(The problem had nothing to do with Avid or iLok as was suspected).










Mysterious Data Corruption Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood


Updated: Late Tuesday, Google said that an update to its Chrome browser is likely to blame for the issue. Read more about it here. Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evenin…




variety.com


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## lumcas (Sep 24, 2019)

Probably not an AVID Issue, looks like Safari 13.0.1 issue.
Copy pasted from the release notes - Adds support for authentication using USB security keys on supported websites.

Do not update Safari until further notice, uncheck "Automatically keep my Mac up to date" if you haven't before (I'm sure you probably have).


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## Living Fossil (Sep 24, 2019)

@lumcas : The problem had nothing to do with Safari, but with a Chrome Update.


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## kgdrum (Sep 24, 2019)

I have never seen this but I never use Safari.
Chrome,Opera and Firefox for me are preferable.


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## lumcas (Sep 24, 2019)

Some news on this...









Google Chrome Keystone is Removing /var symlink on non SIP Macs Causing Boot Issues


Reports that some AVID Users Macs would no longer boot. It now may be that a Google Chrome Keystone update modifies /var on NON SIP Protected Macs.




mrmacintosh.com


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## HeliaVox (Sep 25, 2019)

I use Safari and my iLok software is working just fine, even after the update


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## Nick Batzdorf (Sep 25, 2019)

This is what's going on:









Mysterious Data Corruption Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood


Updated: Late Tuesday, Google said that an update to its Chrome browser is likely to blame for the issue. Read more about it here. Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evenin…




variety.com


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## babylonwaves (Sep 26, 2019)

The issue has nothing to do with Safari or Avid or Ilok. It happens when you install the latest Chrome update. It only happens if you either have 10.9 or 10.10 installed or you've disabled SIP in the past. In other words, it will not happen for the majority of us. The background is that Google's Chrome changes a system setting (a Symlink) which causes the system to kernel panic when you reboot. 

here's a good article with all the details:









Google Chrome Keystone is Removing /var symlink on non SIP Macs Causing Boot Issues


Reports that some AVID Users Macs would no longer boot. It now may be that a Google Chrome Keystone update modifies /var on NON SIP Protected Macs.




mrmacintosh.com


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## Ivan M. (Sep 26, 2019)

Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to modify anything in the root dir, especially for browser purposes! LOL 
Also, don't get why people disabled SIP, it's there for a reason.


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## TGV (Sep 26, 2019)

Ivan M. said:


> Also, don't get why people disabled SIP, it's there for a reason.


Some software requires it, in particular, so it seems, third party graphical cards.


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## Ivan M. (Sep 26, 2019)

TGV said:


> Some software requires it, in particular, so it seems, third party graphical cards.



If I understand correctly, to install a driver on a SIP enabled machine (default) the driver needs to be signed with a certificate issued directly by Apple, and define a permission to do certain things. I wonder why they don't have such a certificate yet, since SIP is around for a few years already.


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## Sarah Mancuso (Sep 26, 2019)

I don't know exactly what this Chrome update was doing, but I suspect you might be able to avoid it by enabling SIP's filesystem access protection even if your setup requires you to leave some other SIP features disabled.

Info on how you might do that: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/17452


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## Odum Abekah (Sep 26, 2019)

Is this affecting both Mac laptops and desktops? Is it an update that I need to stop from within Chrome itself or does my halting of Mac OS updates (still on 10.14.1) help keep me “safe”?

On a 2018 MacBook Pro.


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## Ivan M. (Sep 26, 2019)

Odum Abekah said:


> Is this affecting both Mac laptops and desktops? Is it an update that I need to stop from within Chrome itself or does my halting of Mac OS updates (still on 10.14.1) help keep me “safe”?
> 
> On a 2018 MacBook Pro.



It is a Chrome update and it affects macs with SIP disabled. To check if SIP is enabled run this in the terminal app: csrutil status


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## kgdrum (Sep 26, 2019)

What I've been looking for is how to disable Chrome from automatically updating, there a preference I'm not seeing?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Sep 27, 2019)

TGV said:


> Some software requires it, in particular, so it seems, third party graphical cards.



SwitchResX, which I use to allow custom resolutions, requires that you turn it off while you set them. But you can - and I certainly did - turn it back on after that.


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## JamieLang (Oct 2, 2019)

As I've said in the past--Google IS the devil.


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## kgdrum (Oct 2, 2019)

I’m not sure if Google is the cause of these issues there is also some speculation that the iOS13 update might be the cause of this problem.....
I’m not sure.........


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