10.15.4 Update - External Monitor Colors Washed-Out

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10.15.4 Update - External Monitor Colors Washed-Out

Last night I updated my machine from 10.15.3 to 10.15.4, and that appears to have somehow broken color profiles and taken away my ability to adjust monitor settings directly on the display. My external monitor is an LG-34WK95C-W, which until this update looked absolutely beautiful. Now the color profile is washed out to the point of being very distracting.

Selecting the Rec. ITU-R BT.709-5 display profile instead of the default LG HDR WQHD setting slightly improves the color, but it is still nowhere close to what it had been. All direct picture settings on the monitor except for Brightness are grayed out, and the only thing I am able to change beyond is the Picture Mode, which cycles through HDR Vivid, HDR Standard, HDR Game, and HDR Cinema.

The only other thing I've found that helps is tweaking the Accessibility->Display->Display contrast setting, but this of course changes both the MacBook display and the external display. Everything had been perfectly fine out-of-the-box, so this issue is puzzling me.

What gives? Is there anything else I can try?

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 1, 2020 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 1, 2020 6:47 PM in response to Community User

This thread helped resolve my issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251213356 It took restarting my MBP several times, but apparently the HDR option for external monitors is invisible upon first update to 10.15.4. I ended up disconnecting my monitor, resetting it to factory defaults, and unplugging/re-plugging it, then restarted my MBP a few times. Eventually the HDR option showed up (checked by default) for the external monitor; I unchecked it, and everything is now fine.

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Answer 2

Apr 1, 2020 1:37 PM in response to Community User

And to follow-on, the monitor looks perfectly normal connected to my other MacBook Pro, running 10.15.3. I'm also able to access all of the settings on the monitor (none grayed out). Looking at the release notes for 10.15.4 (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210642), it seems like there were a few changes that could be responsible.

Pro Display XDR

Customized reference modes that you can tailor to specific workflow needs by selecting from several color gamut, white point, luminance, and transfer function options

...

This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements:

High Dynamic Range output to HDR10-compatible third-party displays and TVs connected with DisplayPort or HDMI

...

Fixes an issue with screen brightness for the LG UltraFine 5K display after waking from sleep

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