In a forum post, Google has just confirmed that an update to its Chrome browser rolled out earlier this week seems to have been shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines, an issue that resulted in Mac Pro workstations being rendered unusable at several Hollywood studios on Monday.
Reports of Mac Pro workstations failing to reboot started to circulate among video editors late Monday, with Google informing affected users the following day that an update to its Chrome browser is likely to blame for the issue. “We’ve paused the release while we finalize a new update that addresses the problem,” wrote Google.
According to Variety Magazine, the issue knocked out dozens of machines at multiple studios, with one “Modern Family” reporting that the show’s entire editing team was affected.
“The real culprit was apparently a recent release of Google’s Keystone software, which is included in its Chrome browser to automatically download updates of the browser. On computers that had Apple’s System Integrity Protectiondisabled, the update corrupted the computer’s file system, making it impossible to reboot. System Integrity Protection is an Apple technology that is meant to ensure that malicious software doesn’t corrupt core system files.”
Google has also advised affected users on how to uninstall the Chrome update while suggesting that most users may not be at risk.
