Avast Passwords changes something in Mac OS Big Sur 11.5.2

Hi Folks,

I’m running Avast Passwords on Mac OS Big Sur 11.5.2. After I upgraded to Big Sur, App Store would launch but not connect. This had not occurred with High Sierra. I found that in Big Sur Safe Mode the App Store worked normally. And then when I booted out of Safe Mode into a Big Sur normal load, App Store worked normally until I launched Avast Password. After that, I was back to the blank screen “no connection” mode for the App Store. I contacted Apple Support. They stated that Avast Password is no longer available for Mac OS per the Avast website (true). So, I got no joy there. Further, App Store is no longer supported in Big Sur, since those functions have been moved to the Music App. However, the iTunes Store in Music won’t connect to the Apple Store either when Avast Password is launched. The upshot of all of this is that there will be no resolution to the problem. So the work-around is to boot into Big Sur Safe Mode whenever you need to download anything from the Apple store, if you don’t want to have to disable Avast Password (always dangerous).

BTW, I went to the Big Sur Terminal utility to launch Network Config so I could do a port scan before Avast Password was launched and then another after it launched. The idea was to see what Avast changed that might be altered to get around the App Store connect issue. Wouldn’t you know it…Big Sur has eliminated the Network Config utility and you now have to use a 3rd party product to do the scan. Yuck!