Window focus randomly changing... and it's the Avid HD Driver

[Eric Seaberg]

We just upgraded to new MacPro Racks and installed our 2-HDX cards in one of the Macs. The system did upgrade the OS to 11.5.2 and, I know, it's not officially supported, but we've not had this problem on any of our other MacPro systems running the same OS.

After installing the HD Drivers, and I've tried 2021.7 and 2021.6, any app that is open loses window focus on the front window. This cycles about every four-seconds... losing focus, then it comes back, then it goes away... repeat.

ProTools isn't open at all, this happens with ANY app, i.e. Safari or Finder windows.

I have opened Console, as well as Activity Monitor, and keep seeing activity from "Avid Audio Server" and "Avid Video Server". As these tend to cycle and come back with errors, it coincides with the focus change in the windows.

I uninstalled the HD Drivers and the problem disappears, so it's definitely and issue with the drivers.

At this point, we're trying to back-rev the OS on this one system, hoping it will take us back prior to 11.5, and reinstall 2021.7 drivers to see what happens.

Again, we've got other MacPros running 2021.7 but they don't have HDX cards, just HD Native. Other than that, the setups are identical.

If things change, I'll come back with an update.