Avast Premium Security Locks Up Macbook

I have been running Avast Premium Security for the past couple of years on my Macbook without a problem until I upgraded the OS to Catalina 10.15.1.

Avast does not play nicely with Catalina. On an almost daily basis my mac locks up and “spins” into eternity when coming out of Sleep Mode until I a forced to do a hard reboot after which everything comes up fine (until the next time).

I opened a case with Apple. At their advice I rebooted and ran in Safe Mode. Avast does not run in Safe Mode. I ran in Safe Mode for 48 hours without incident. Within hours of rebooting into Full Mode with Avast running the lock up problem coming out of Sleep Mode occurred again.

I uninstalled Avast and the problem went away. AVAST IS THE PROBLEM.

I reinstalled Avast thinking it is better to run “protected” even if I have to reboot almost daily. There is never a convenient time to reboot. This this is not fun!

What is Avast doing to correct this problem? I can see from this forum and from searching the internet that this is a known problem affecting other users.

Hello,

AFAIK this is the first time someone is reporting a total system lockup to us on these forums.

We know that for some users, browsers stop working after coming out of suspend, with restart issues afterwards. We are unable to reproduce that, support packages do not contain anything helpful. The problem is recurring for the affected users. We assume there has to be an interaction between Avast AV and some Catalina subsystem in a specific configuration, however we need a detailed analysis on an affected machine to progress. None of the affected users have contacted us regarding our offered remote access session so far. We simply can not proceed further without that.

Saying this, your issue seems to be even more serious and I do not think the computer is in state when such a remote access session can be done successfully.

We apologise for the issue, and we really wish to fix this.

For now the only remedy in case of these recurring problems is uninstalling Avast AV.

Kind regards,
Ondrej Kolacek

I could be interested in allowing you access to my mac to help resolve this reoccurring problem but need more information on how and when that access occurs and how you would guaranteed the safety, protection and privacy of my data. Perhaps I can run some kind of data collection/log file in the background that I can send to you after the next failure but again, my data security and privacy is of the utmost importance. Please contact me through my private email address which should be on-file with you to discuss further. Thank you.

Incidentally, the captcha system you use to post inquiries is the most difficult to read that I have ever seen.

Captcha is only needed for your first 3 posts. (Spam protection)

ondrej.kolacek wrote:

“We know that for some users, browsers stop working after coming out of suspend, with restart issues afterwards.”

That is certainly similar to my own experience, though I think not limited to “coming out of suspend”. The browser stall seemed often to occur in the midst of a browsing session.

Re. allowing Avast access to a machine to observe the crash… With the best will in the world, few people have the time to be unpaid researchers for a large commercial operation.

Speaking of which, I really had better get back to work.

You can add another user to the group afflicted by this problem. I have three Macs, one iMac and two MacBooks, all running the latest version of Catalina, all running Avast Security 14.3, all afflicted by this problem. This most happens overnight and when waking the machine from sleep, web browsers and various other programs are affected. Quitting or force quitting applications does not resolve the problem, and a “clean” reboot cannot be performed as the Mac hangs, which then requires a hard re-boot with the power button.

A case has been opened with Apple in an attempt to diagnose the problem. Web browser cookies and history have been deleted, plug-ins disabled, etc. To no avail. I have run in safe mode without issue. The last test was to create a new “test” user to see if the condition persisted. Given Avast does a low-level install, it runs regardless of user, whereas other programs do not.

This same condition occurred while running logged in as the test user.

I have since uninstalled Avast on my machine - 2015 iMac Retina - and the problem HAS NOT recurred.

If a solution is found, I will re-install. In the mean time, I plan to remove Avast from my other two Macs and consider a competing product.

-Joseph Celona

My MacBook Pro does the same. Most of the time it won’t shutdown and sometimes just reboots when I have clicked shutdown.
I do not want to keep pressing the start button to do a hot shutdown. If I uninstall Avast Premium Security will I get a refund as I purchased 3 years cover. Previously I have always used the free version with no trouble at all.

Contact Avast support and explain your problem and request.

Contact Sales: https://support.avast.com/en-us/contact/enter/
If you don’t have an order # use 00000000 then explain your problem.

Same issue as above

  1. Mac operates without problems for a few days, after sleeping
  2. Chrome and Music then suddenly lock up (random occurrence)
  3. Force quit does not work
  4. A hard reboot via the power button is required
  5. I’m running Catalina

Might be available for you to take a look at my machine given likely to be working from home more over next couple of weeks while Corona virus issue continues. Drop me a line via my private email.

Having the same issue 2018 MBP/Catalina 10.15.3. Safari hangs trying to page load and Mail only displays header, no message. Force quit on the apps does nothing and power button restart is required. Usually occurs after coming out of sleep. Problem occurs 4-5 times a day. Did an uninstall two days ago and the problem has not come back. Think it has something to do with coming out of sleep as I run Avast on a 2018 Mac mini that never sleeps and I have never seen the issue on that machine. Software wise is is a clone of the MBP.

Hello,

disabling File Shield should prevent the issue from occurring.

We have several possible solutions in queue and are working to test them/get them out ASAP.

We apologise for the issue.

Kind regards,
Ondrej Kolacek