Adobe Issues Premiere Pro Fix for Bug That Caused Blown-Out MacBook Pro Speakers

[MacRumors]

Adobe has released an update for Adobe Premiere Pro via the Creative Cloud app to resolve an audio issue that left some users with blown-out MacBook Pro speakers.

Earlier this month, we reported on an issue affecting a significant number of Premiere Pro users whereby the software suddenly caused loud, distorted audio to play through their MacBook Pro speakers, resulting in permanent damage. In many cases, the issue arose when users were editing the audio settings of video clips.

Adobe initially advised at least one customer to try disabling the MacBook Pro's microphone in Premiere Pro by selecting No Input under Preferences > Audio Hardware > Default Input, but the issue persisted for some users.

On February 19 Adobe told users on its community support forum that it was "aware of the issue" and "was working on a solution that will help users mitigate risk." This issue has now apparently been resolved in a version 13.0.3 update pushed to Premiere Pro users today via the Creative Cloud app. From the release notes:

Fixed issues with Premiere Pro that reduce noise interaction and help minimize possible impact.

While Adobe is urging all users to update their software, there's still no word on how affected users might be recompensed following damage to their Macs.

As a result of the bug, one user took his MacBook Pro to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store in Canada and was given $600-plus repair quote for his 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro. The price is so high because Apple has to replace the entire top case assembly containing the speakers, keyboard, trackpad, and battery.

We reached out to both Adobe and Apple for comment on the issue earlier this month but have yet to hear back. We'll update this article if we hear more.

Article Link: Adobe Issues Premiere Pro Fix for Bug That Caused Blown-Out MacBook Pro Speakers

 

[dumastudetto]

Articles like this remind me why I made a conscious decision to never allow Adobe software anywhere near my Apple devices.

Wasn't there another nasty Adobe bug not so long ago that was trashing Backblaze online backups?

 

[martyjmclean]

Finally! Maybe Adobe can issue fixes for the million other bugs? Premiere Pro will never dethrone Avid unless its stable and backwards compatible.

 

[537635]

Finally! Maybe Adobe can issue fixes for the million other bugs? Premiere Pro will never dethrone Avid unless its stable and backwards compatible.

How can anyone even think that this is Adobe's fault. Sure, there might be bugs in terms of accidental 100% volume output from the speakers, but there should be hardware safeguards in place to prevent speaker damage.


It's like a game would task the graphics card to the max, causing a fire from overheating. Who is to blame? Game software?

 

[swingerofbirch]

I don't think anything you do that involves the computer processing 1s and 0s should lead to hardware breaking. Obviously this was a Premiere problem, but Mac OS should not have allowed a software process to destroy the hardware. I think it revealed a Mac OS problem, or maybe a MacBook speaker problem.

(I hereby refuse to write out macOS anymore. Mac is already short for Macintosh. It doesn't deserve to be in subscript. I wrote Mac OS for years. I got on board with Mac OS X. I got on board with OS X. I can see the "i" in iOS because it's one letter, and it doesn't mean much of anything [except possibly Internet]. I don't care about tvOS because no one cares about tvOS, and this sentence is probably the only two times I've written that word. I care about Mac OS. And if we're going back to Mac OS I'm going to spell it the way I did for a very long time before they made me change it multiple times.)

 

[Ma2k5]

Articles like this remind me why I made a conscious decision to never allow Adobe software anywhere near my Apple devices.

Wasn't there another nasty Adobe bug not so long ago that was trashing Backblaze online backups?

I would question why it is possible to blow out speakers due to software - surely that is on Apple’s head.

I mean if the software set your MacBook on fire, would you still really blame the software and not Apple for having allowed such an event to even be possible which renders hardware obsolete?

 

[martyjmclean]

How can anyone even think that this is Adobe's fault. Sure, there might be bugs in terms of accidental 100% volume output from the speakers, but there should be hardware safeguards in place to prevent speaker damage.


It's like a game would task the graphics card to the max, causing a fire from overheating. Who is to blame? Game software?

I never said the speaker bug was Adobe's fault. Maybe try reading...

(I hereby refuse to write out macOS anymore. Mac is already short for Macintosh. It doesn't deserve to be in subscript. I wrote Mac OS for years. I got on board with Mac OS X. I got on board with OS X. I can see the "i" in iOS because it's one letter, and it doesn't mean much of anything [except possibly Internet]. I don't care about tvOS because no one cares about tvOS, and this sentence is probably the only two times I've written that word. I care about Mac OS. And if we're going back to Mac OS I'm going to spell it the way I did for a very long time before they made me change it multiple times.)

So you write out 603 letters justifying why 5 letters is too much for you.

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

I don't think anything you do that involves the computer processing 1s and 0s should lead to hardware breaking. Obviously this was a Premiere problem, but Mac OS should not have allowed a software process to destroy the hardware. I think it revealed a Mac OS problem, or maybe a MacBook speaker problem.

(I hereby refuse to write out macOS anymore. Mac is already short for Macintosh. It doesn't deserve to be in subscript. I wrote Mac OS for years. I got on board with Mac OS X. I got on board with OS X. I can see the "i" in iOS because it's one letter, and it doesn't mean much of anything [except possibly Internet]. I don't care about tvOS because no one cares about tvOS, and this sentence is probably the only two times I've written that word. I care about Mac OS. And if we're going back to Mac OS I'm going to spell it the way I did for a very long time before they made me change it multiple times.)

Correct. If this can be done unintentionally by bad developers, this most certainly can be done intentionally by nefarious developers. Needs to be fixed by Apple.

 

[Marekul]

Articles like this remind me why I made a conscious decision to never allow Adobe software anywhere near my Apple devices.

Wasn't there another nasty Adobe bug not so long ago that was trashing Backblaze online backups?

My speakers got blown out running windows 10 with official bootcamp drivers. You can google it, happened to quite a few people. This isn't adobes fault, should be locked at hardware and driver level to never be possible to blow out your speakers.

 

[alexjholland]

Adobe could blow my living room apart in a hail of automatic weapon fire, and it would still irritate me less than their 'update Flash' reminder.

 

[69Mustang]

So you write out 603 letters justifying why 5 letters is too much for you.

I'm dead.

On topic: One would think Apple would have some sort of control feature to prevent issues like this. Similar to how batteries have a control feature to prevent overcharging.

Still dead. 603/5

 

[NufSaid]

Correct me if I’m wrong but I can’t ever remember a software bug causing hardware damage in a clear and provable way.

This is going to be an interesting one to watch.

 

[doitdada]

I don't think anything you do that involves the computer processing 1s and 0s should lead to hardware breaking. Obviously this was a Premiere problem, but Mac OS should not have allowed a software process to destroy the hardware. I think it revealed a Mac OS problem, or maybe a MacBook speaker problem.

(I hereby refuse to write out macOS anymore. Mac is already short for Macintosh. It doesn't deserve to be in subscript. I wrote Mac OS for years. I got on board with Mac OS X. I got on board with OS X. I can see the "i" in iOS because it's one letter, and it doesn't mean much of anything [except possibly Internet]. I don't care about tvOS because no one cares about tvOS, and this sentence is probably the only two times I've written that word. I care about Mac OS. And if we're going back to Mac OS I'm going to spell it the way I did for a very long time before they made me change it multiple times.)

I've had to exchange speakers after just installing the Adobe pack, not actually open any of the apps. The progress bar went all the way, then a loud blip and reboot, suddenly my speakers was bust. Could hear a slight distortion in the higher frequencies like voice and music.

And yes, I have experienced a blip on my 2018 as well, but my speakers survived. This was not Adobe related. Just playing a YouTube video and suddenly the screen got distorted and a loud sound got played that sounded exactly like the experience I had before. A lot of small issues with the new machines, but my 2018 have served me well except for a few bugs here and there in terms of video playback and using external monitors.

 

[dilbert99]

Articles like this remind me why I made a conscious decision to never allow Adobe software anywhere near my Apple devices.

Wasn't there another nasty Adobe bug not so long ago that was trashing Backblaze online backups?

So Adobe offers a software fix for something that should never have been allowed to happen in hardware.

 

[MrBat]

My speakers got blown out running windows 10 with official bootcamp drivers. You can google it, happened to quite a few people. This isn't adobes fault, should be locked at hardware and driver level to never be possible to blow out your speakers.

The fact that a software glitch can blow out the speakers does not speak well from Apple. Put not intended.

Max volume should be hard locked at Hardware level

 

[baryon]

I would be surprised if Adobe was responsible for the hardware damage. Software should never be able to damage hardware, the operating system and hardware should prevent that. Just like a software bug can't cause overheating as the CPU has its own thermal cutoff feature, in case something goes wrong with fan control or whatever else. Software should not be able to send any sort of signal to the speakers that can damage the speakers. Despite Adobe obviously having made a mistake, the fact that this caused hardware damage is Apple's responsibility nonetheless.

 

[Michaelhuisman]

Mine blew out while using MainStage app from Apple. Crashlog and my security cams captured the moment (incl. cat startled moment). Two topcases and a motherboard later, all is well.

Only issue is that Apple will not allow me to put AppleCare on this machine now that is *ever* had an issue, even one they’ve already repaired. We were discussing whether to have AppleCare purchased in US or EU at the time - conflicting answers meant I couldn’t “pull the trigger’ and purchase. Then the speaker-destruct moment... yeah, not a great moment, but machine operates now as expected.

 

[Niko Todd]

I don't understand why would an Apple user ever use Premiere when there is FCP?

 

[maflynn]

Articles like this remind me why I made a conscious decision to never allow Adobe software anywhere near my Apple devices.

Not for nothing, but Apple's own drivers caused the same thing as well.

Apple Updates Boot Camp Drivers to Fix Major Issue Causing Blown Speakers on New MacBook Pros [Updated]

 

[pika2000]

I don't think anything you do that involves the computer processing 1s and 0s should lead to hardware breaking. Obviously this was a Premiere problem, but Mac OS should not have allowed a software process to destroy the hardware. I think it revealed a Mac OS problem, or maybe a MacBook speaker problem.

(I hereby refuse to write out macOS anymore. Mac is already short for Macintosh. It doesn't deserve to be in subscript. I wrote Mac OS for years. I got on board with Mac OS X. I got on board with OS X. I can see the "i" in iOS because it's one letter, and it doesn't mean much of anything [except possibly Internet]. I don't care about tvOS because no one cares about tvOS, and this sentence is probably the only two times I've written that word. I care about Mac OS. And if we're going back to Mac OS I'm going to spell it the way I did for a very long time before they made me change it multiple times.)

So... you want a severely limited sandbox OS like iOS?

 

[rurza]

As a result of the bug, one user took his MacBook Pro to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store in Canada and was given $600-plus repair quote for his 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro. The price is so high because Apple has to replace the entire top case assembly containing the speakers, keyboard, trackpad, and battery.

Huh? And how 2018 Macbook Pro wasn't on warranty?

 

[maflynn]

Huh? And how 2018 Macbook Pro wasn't on warranty?

Warranty is for manufactored defects, the speakers were working correctly, software destroyed them. Its not apple's fault the speakers blew so they didn't have to eat the cost of the repair.

 

[dmylrea]

Huh? And how 2018 Macbook Pro wasn't on warranty?

So everyone is finger pointing at Apple for not engineering a safe-guard against excessive volumes (what notebook has that???), but no one is questioning why it costs $600 to replace the speakers??? THAT is more the problem than the fact that there is no excessive volume safeguard!

Any other laptop, you remove some screws, open the cover and replace the speakers. If that cost more than $100 I'd be surprised. But Macbook requires REPLACING the battery, keyboard and trackpad along with the speakers? How are those damaged by the speaker?

 

[Plutonius]

If people are waiting for Apple to say anything about the many issues with the MacBook Pro, then they might have a long wait .

 

[iPad Retina]

Uhhhhh. im not getting the update.....