Screen blinks black for a second and then resumes working normally

To anyone who's experiencing this issue on the 2019 MacBook Pro: last week, I noticed that the flickering occurs especially when the screen is adjusting to warmer/colder ambient light. I turned off True Tone and auto-brightness and haven't had a single glitch ever since. I suggest you try doing the same, see if it works for you. If this is indeed about True Tone and/or auto-brightness, I would imagine Apple can solve it through a software update.

I have exactly the same issue. For me it happens 2-4 times a day, although the screen does not black out completely. Just a part of the screen flickers (not completely black and not sure if even a second - i think less).

First I thought it is just an issue of one of my applications (it happens a lot and is always reproducible with Visual Studio Code), but now it also happened in Google Chrome, iTerm and the native Maps application.

I already tried/performed without success:

• SMC reset
• NV-/PRAM reset
• Startup diagnostics (no issue has been found)
• Safe mode (it does not happen here!!)

I opened a ticket for Apple's support. First I got to know a junior. Then it went up to a senior agent. Finally last week they performed a handover to a technical department.

I see a lot of other threads about this issue. Often times people point out that it (at least it seems) only happens at devices with a discrete GPU and therefore could be a driver issue.

I just want to know: Is it a hardware, or a software issue? If it is a software issue it is much less important for me as if it would be a broken/buggy hardware.

P.S.: Running Mojave 10.14.6 (latest supplemental) on a 2019 Macbook Pro 15 inch.

markwithamac wrote:

I was able to capture this happening. Mythbusters (heard in the background) was changing from light-to-dark and the ambient light was low. TrueTone was enabled. Have disabled TrueTone and will now reset the PRAM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGQ_jiKQhY

If this isn't what others are experiencing let me know so I can begin a warranty repair.

Yep, that's the issue I'm having. Disabling TrueTone and auto-brightness has helped a lot in my case.

Purchased a new MBP 2019 13" 2.4 Ghz 8/256 config. Used it for almost 2.5 weeks with no issues. Updated to Mojave 10.14.6 and within a few days noticed brief flickers on the screen, sometimes they were black bands, sometimes grid like patterns and sometimes magenta and green. Looked this up on the internet, and came across a thread on Reddit that talks about how widespread this is. Switched off True Tone and Auto Brightness and didn't experience any flickers for the day. Turned True Tone on yesterday and things were good till the end of the day when the flickering started again and I saw weird magenta lines on the top of a Word document that disappeared when I moved my cursor over it. I'm back to True Tone and Auto Brightness off. Going to see what happens.

I think it's the update. From what I've read, entirely new machines that have been replaced have the same issue again. I noticed that when the film I was watching had some sort of different lighting in the scene (?), the flickers started again. I am under standard and extended warranty so I'm going to wait and see if a future update fixes this. I've also written to Apple in the link for feedback. Is there any way for this to get more traction though. It's quite unacceptable that we have to switch off key features of such an expensive machine. I'm quite disappointed because I came back to the Mac after having a terrible year with a Windows machine. Hoping this is just a software bug and that they'll fix it.

Those who have switched off True Tone and Auto Brightness, has the issue resurfaced?

Someone posted a solution which works for me: change the size of the cursor. Even an imperceptible change up or down in size fixes the problem, except it has to be done again after every reboot. See Settings-Accessibility-Display, and adjust the slider labeled Cursor size. I don't know why that would work, but it does.

I have four brand new MacBook Pro 13" 2019s that are all having this

same problem. Thanks for the clues! I also noticed some strange

behavior with "Automatically adjust brightness" enabled in the Displays

Preference pane. When enabled and running a GPS benchmark test, if I

attempt to adjust the screen brightness on the touch bar the flickering

issue will reappear with some reliability. I also have attempted the

turning off true tone suggestion which seemed to work at first but

unfortunately on my system it still reappeared when playing with the

screen brightness. However, with some minimal testing, I have so far

been unable to reproduce the screen flicker issue while the

auto-brightness is unchecked.

I started having the same issue on my iMac Retina 4K (late 2015) after the update to OS 10.4.6. Disabling auto-brightness seems to have stopped the flickering. That's good, but I'm not pleased to have lost the auto-brightness function.

Hi,

I've had TT switched on for the past two weeks and the flickering and glitching have stopped for me. The only thing I have observed is that the video flickers when I'm watching something on Netflix (only) in full screen mode on Safari. So I just use Firefox for that. This was clearly SW related for me. I suggest you update to 10.15 if you can.

I do not think that it happens because of a specific application. I have it in Visual Studio Code, iTerm2, the native Maps application also in Safari.

Does it happen to be the same as in my flickering case? https://streamable.com/8n3n5

Focus around seconds 18, 28 and 48.

Also please, submit a bug report to the apple support. If they get more and more incidents, then they can and will probably react and/or fix something sooner.

If it is a software issue, we all get fixes. If it is a hardware issue, you get a repair or a replacement.

It can only come in handy in one or the other way.

I'm having the same issue on a brand new (5 week old) 2019 13" MacBook Pro. Had this on a previous machine and returned it thinking it was a hardware issue. Both machines developed issues 1 to 2 days after 10.14.6 update. Ran great for 5 weeks, only updated two days ago. Turned off suggested auto-brightness and True Tone (will see if this is a temporary fix)

Mine is not the whole screen but random portions, in black/white pattern. Appears like tearing for few seconds then disappears. Similar how others have described it.

I was able to capture this happening. Mythbusters (heard in the background) was changing from light-to-dark and the ambient light was low. TrueTone was enabled. Have disabled TrueTone and will now reset the PRAM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGQ_jiKQhY

If this isn't what others are experiencing let me know so I can begin a warranty repair.

Hey! Sorry to hear that. My screen stopped flickering for almost a month once I switched off TT and Auto Brightness. I updated to Catalina around a week ago or so but kept TT off. I switched it on again yesterday to see if the problem persists. I don't particularly love TT very much for this to be a deal breaker personally. My Mac and the screen are fine otherwise (Played games on it last week with no issues). I'm going to monitor things for a month or so to see if the issue is resolved or not. But, for me, it's definitely linked to the 10.14.6 update and what it did to TT. Not sure whether 10.15 has fixed it or not. Will update with my results.

I suggest you take your MBA back to the store. Maybe it's a hardware issue.

what peripheral devices are connected, using what adapters/cables?

I have the same problem. Same machine, 2019 MacBook Pro (13 inch model). The bottom part of my screen flickers a few times a day. No peripherals connected, except the Apple charger (but I've had the flickering occur without it being plugged, too).

When I reboot my machine, the problem seems to go away for a while, only to return a few hours later. Maybe a specific application is causing it?

Just spoke with Apple Support. Been told that it is a software problem and they work on fixing it. Hope so.