How to resolve flickering and unusable external monitors with the new MacBook Pro 16"? Displays have worked with previous MacBook Pros.

The web page on the display says it is capable of 1920 by 1080 at 75 Hz. Is that what it is running?

That is a little faster than most docks are ready to supply, so there could be a mismatch between what your new Mac is sending and what the old Mac could send. is that the same refresh rate it was running on the old computer?

The hub/monitor/MacBook 16” combo works fine when you first hook it up. It’s after the MacBook sleeps overnight that the flicker/display initialization loop starts when you wake it. It’s happened the last two mornings in a row. On the other hand the 15” didn’t do this once over years of use.

Readers here are all other users like you. Apple does not troll the forums looking for complaints -- it only works on fixing problems that have been formalized into a Bug Report with enough additional information provided to attempt to reproduce the issue in their labs.

I am trying to think of things for you to consider to get to the bottom of this.

If you do not want to do any more debugging yourself, please take the opportunity to contact Apple Support to get your complaint on record. Make certain the person you are dealing with knows that your problem is NOT solved, if that is the case, and do not let them dismiss you without filing a Bug Report. Start with the "Contact Support" link at the top right of every forum page..

Yeah, there's not much else to try. My main goal with all of this was to provide another set of data points to the community. To let other users know that "it's not just you" - others are having this issue.

I appreciate the attempts to help, but I think it's a pretty cut-and-dry case of a bad driver/software or (... and I really hope this isn't it), bad hardware.

I will definitely try to get this on Apple's radar (no pun intended). Thanks again for the effort.

I am having exactly same issue with my new macbook pro 16". I have an external acer display, and with my old macbook pro 15" and my macbook pro 13" works perfectly, no flicker, but this one is making me crazy. Apple is letting us down, and for that price. Dissatisfaction indeed.

Sometimes Apple breaks things by enforcing standards that should have been there all along. That is not what they should be doing, they should give you an error message instead.

I suggest you make certain your cables and adapters are all certified to run at the high speeds involved, and consider upgrading them.

For whatever it’s worth. This issue just “went away” for me after a few days. I think I did a VMWare Fusion upgrade during that time but that’s the only change I can think of. Maybe it was that or maybe it was coincidence. Worth a shot if you’re running VMware.

Hi, I have this same issue. The flickering only occurs in MacOS. If I switch to Windows 10 with Bootcamp, the flickering goes away. However, when resuming from screen sleep, the screen displays noise for a few seconds.

It's an older Samsung display connected via HDMI, on a Satechi USBC hub.

Using multiple displays via Sidecar works ok, but still has the occasional glitches, so would prefer a proper wired solution.

Hoping this issue gets fixed soon!

We have had this same issue for months and finally solved it! Mac Book Pro 2018 was fine with any adapter connecting to our Apple Cinema Displays, we upgraded one of our computers to a MacBook Pro 16" and it flickered no matter what we tried (Dell WD 15 dock, other portable adapters). Contacted Apple Service, no resolve. After ordering multiple adapters to connect USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapters, we found one that finally worked.

Available on Amazon, this QGeeM adapter has worked with no flicker - Search: USB C to Mini DisplayPort Adapter,QGeeM 4K 60HZ Thunderbolt 3 to Mini Displayport Adapter Cable

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QW5QDHB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Curious if anyone has monitored console output for errors to see what kind they're getting? I have a MBP 2018 that is doing this same thing, so it might not be related exactly to the 16" but I get this error whenever I lose my Thunderbolt Display connection (and al peripherals), etc. IT comes back on but I lose all my peripheral connectivity on the TB monitor. Sent MacBook back to Apple, they couldn't find the issue. Bought a refurb 2019 15" from Apple and same issue existed. Rebuilt my laptop from ground up when I got it back from Apple, thinking maybe that might help (vs installing from TimeMachine). No dice. Have tried everything now worried a new monitor might not be the answer after all.

error 22:53:43.477310-0600 WindowServer [ERROR] - Attempting to get capabilities from capabilities with no devices

error 22:53:43.477538-0600 WindowServer [ERROR] - Attempting to get capabilities when none exist

Hi,

To add to the discussion. I purchased an appleUSB-C to Digital AV dongle. This connects to all my displays without the flicker I had with my Satechi hub. My MBP is the 2019 16" version.

Hopefully this is useful info for someone.

I have exactly the same issue. I have a 2016 15-Inch MBP with and external Apple display (Mini Display Port) and it works fine. Got the new new 16-Inch MBP today and the external monitor flickers about every 10 to 15 seconds consistently.

For extra info I am using the Satechi multiport USB-C hub.