Display Issue - Horizontal blue lines in application windows

I noticed the same problem also appears in other applications:

Vivaldi Browser

Adobe Lightroom Classic (Develop Mode)

I did restart and reset NVRAM/PRAM but the problem presists.

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Specs:

2019 MacBook Pro

OS Catalina 10.15.4

2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7

16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

To fix in Microsoft Teams:

Click your Username/Icon in the upper right corner and select Settings. The popup modal after that has a checkbox under Application: "Disable GPU hardware acceleration". You will have to restart Teams after that but that should quash your troubles..

As mentioned above, I was having the blue line issue first. but later also realised it was constantly restarting overnight.

A week or two after I reported the blue line issue, my MB didn't turn on anymore after what I assume must have been an automatic update to MacOS 10.15.4. I had to send it to the repair shop and they had to replace the motherboard.

I don't have the blue line issue anymore, but the MB still restarts itself overnight when I put it to sleep. Now I'm shutting it down every night instead.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed as I didn't experience any of these issue with my previous MBs. Really hope it's just a software (and not hardware) issue they'll be able to resolve soon.

I'd still recommend not to update to 10.15.4 as this has reportedly bricked some other people's MBs recently as well, not only mine.

Reinstalling the OS might have helped. I did that yesterday and left the computer on overnight. It didn't restart like it normally does and I haven't seen any blue lines yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Also another data point, I worked in safe mode all day the day before (painfully slow) and never saw a random restart or blue lines. I think that's supposed so suggest that it isn't a hardware problem? Anyway, for what it's worth.

You're getting a kernel panic and it's causing a restart.

This happens because your computer is connected to an external monitor. (These machines don't play nice with external monitors, but that's a whole 'nother 100+ page can of worms.)

To prevent the kernel panics, you should

1. Disconnect from the external monitor before computer goes to sleep OR
2. Manually put the computer to sleep each time, instead of it letting it do it by itself AND
3. Disable power nap and wake by wifi

If you don't do number 3 and you leave it connected to an external monitor (as most who use external monitors do) your computer will routinely wake by itself and when it does that, it will obviously fall asleep by itself instead of you clicking the sleep button. That will eventually cause a kernel panic.

I have seen this issue with 10.15.4 the day it was released, and it is still present with 10.15.5 today.

I too am using the 16" 2019 macbook pro, and this issue does not occur with my 2018.

After a fresh reboot, it will work fine but it seems but sometimes waking from sleep causes the issue, and it can also correct it.

I do hope Apple fixes this soon. It affects Teams, Chrome, Edge, and in 10.15.4, it affected Maps as well, though that app seems to be ok in 10.15.5.

I just "upgraded" to the 16" MBP and this blue line issues started. It so far has only effected Notion, must be the browser the Mac app is using. Chromium? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Anyway I am somewhat relieved this is a known issue. At lease it is not just my unit. Hopefully an OS update fixes it. I have also, been having overheating and fan issues, might be related to this.

Has anyone tried to reset the SMC?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Still have the problem with 10.15.5. Resetting the PRAM works for a little while but something causes it to come back.

I am able to get chrome to work with the flags as have been suggested before but apps (like QuickBooks) don't have a preference like that AFAIK. Hoping this is still trying to get fixed...

I have been using Big Sur since the first beta. Beta 1 and Beta 2 have resolved the issue, however it came back in Beta 3 and Beta 4 (the public beta). They know about the issue so hopefully it is resolved before we get out of beta.

Everybody with this issue, please use https://www.apple.com/feedback/ and tell them your problems. The more attention this gets, the more likely it will be fixed. They do not monitor the community it seems.

This has been reported in the Chromium bug tracker – Big Sur beta 10 has not addressed the issue, but no reports on 11.0.1: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1068170#c185

I don't see any reason for me to install beta operating systems on my development machine that I rely on to make a living just to test if this big hot mess is resolved. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury (or inclination) of having another identical mbp to conduct such tests either. I'm sure many others feel the same way too.

Here's a list of software that are confirmed to have this problem – feel free to add to this, everyone:

1. Google Chrome (specifically, WebGL content)
2. Adobe Lightroom
3. Microsoft Teams
4. Miro
5. Spotify

To concur with @fexnok – the issue is present regardless of the presence of external displays. The glitches appear on all displays when it triggers.

My projects involving WebGL have concluded, which corresponds directly to the glitches not occurring as often, but as I have mentioned before multiple times above, all you have to do is to keep a WebGL-intensive website running (an easy test is to visit https://www.shadertoy.com/), let your mac go to sleep and upon waking up, there's a very high chance of seeing the glitch.

There is also the chance that software publishers are aware of the glitch and have simply elected not to use WebGL views in their applications to prevent this in their products. However, Chromium-based desktop apps have a dead giveaway – just toggle the Developer Tools window (if it's available) and you'll see the glitches when it triggers.

As it stands today, this is still a critical issue. To date, since April 2020, we still do not know if this is hardware or software-related. It's not on Chromium either, other applications have exhibited similar artifacts (Safari).

This isn't about putting the blame – it's about identifying and fixing the problem so that we can get on with our work effectively.

PS it's really unfortunate that this thread has an 'answer' which isn't true, and throwing off folks who are encountering the same problem. It will be great if Apple can unflag resetting NVRAM as the solution. Also, the way the thread shows just that first page with a purported 'solution' is misleading. We've hit 10 pages of comments – unfortunately most of them being "disable H/W acceleration fixed it for me!"-type responses. Again, not helpful or valid for those of us tearing our hair out on this glitch.

I've had this issue for over a year in my 2019 16" MBP Radeon 5500 8 GB. Had it evaluated a year ago at the Apple Genius Bar. The diagnostics came back clean. They still replaced the top case assembly, but the issue did not go away. It went away disabling the graphics acceleration. For a while.

Fast forward a year. The issue returned in Adobe Camera Raw, and began outright crashing the computer with the familiar fan speed-up sound. It eventually went into a reboot cycle from which I could not extract it. Back to the genius bar. This time it failed the onboard memory test, and Apple replaced the logic board. I got it back today. New logic board, that is new GPU, new memory, new everything... and the issue is still there in Chrome. Brilliant.

So we've had two reported cases here thus far, where a logic board replacement did not resolve the issue. This is interesting and helpful to know, thanks for sharing it here.

@ileradeltercomondo zapping NVRAM is not a long-term fix (but please let us know if it did with the new logic board!). All it does is force you to trigger a restart of your computer. As we have previously established, restarting the computer resets the graphics card sufficiently to the point where it will resume normal operation. However, this "good to go" state may not last (and neither am I trying to jinx you), especially when you have WebGL content rendered to screen (see list of apps in previous posts as a starting point), and especially when your display goes to sleep with said content rendering on-screen.

Recently I've also had the glitches appear right when I switch app tasks to one that uses WebGL. This is beyond bad. The most infuriating aspect of this issue is that it has almost been one year without official acknowledgement from Apple.

Three reported cases now... I've just had my new (<1 month old..) 16 inch returned after a new battery and logic board replacement (it wouldn't turn on before I sent it off) and 2 days in I'm getting the horizontal lines back. It was running Big Sur before I sent it off, still had the issues, although I had green horizontal lines on Big Sur and blue horizontal lines on 10.15.7.

I've got a MacBook Pro 16-inch 2019

64GB RAM

CPU 2.3 GHz Intel i9

Graphics AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB

So so annoying!