M1 Mini issue with LG 27" 5K Monitor

thoughts,

I called Apple Saturday and started a case. Talked to a senior tech person for a while. Went over everything. Told her about these threads in the forum. She had me set the energy saver to never. Thinking that this would push it to occur. The interesting thing is since changing it, it has never occurred. Makes me think that going into sleep may be what is causing it. WHY, I do not know.

I did see that there are 3 threads about this and on one someone mentioned they could make it happen by setting a hot corner to sleep monitor.

She also wanted me to try using the USB-C cable supplied by LG and see if it still happens. Have not tried that yet as I am seeing how long it will go without messing up by sleeping monitor being set to never.

I have the 34" model and had the same problem. I spent several hours troubleshooting with both Apple and LG, the end result of which was, a couple days later, an email from LG with a link to a beta of the LG Screen Manager app (I thought they had updated the version in the app store but apparently not; go to the LG US website and scroll through software and drivers for your model, you want to download the most recent mac version of "On Screen Control"). This mostly solved my problem, on occasion I have to unplug and plug back in the usb-c cable when waking from sleep (or my mini crashes in sleep), but at least it works correctly now. I suggest grabbing it from the app store; you don't need to do anything to it, just install it and reboot, and the monitor should default to 5k and Displays will now work correctly.

Also note I tested it with my M1 Air as well and same deal, a little under 4k and fuzzy text without the download, 5k and clear with.

Problem Solved! Here is your answer...Apple is currently promoting and selling a monitor that it full well knows is not compatible with Big Sur. The issue is NOT the Apple Silicon - the issue is Big Sur and LG's incompetence. The current firmware for this monitor is not compatible with Big Sur, the LG Display Manager App is not functioning in Big Sur. LG releases a firmware update in January that it had to roll back because it made the distortion issue worse. Apple blames LG and LG blames Apple. Regardless - Apple still promotes and sells this monitor directly to consumers knowing full well that these issues exists without making any disclaimer. The solution?

1. Stick it out and hope it gets fixed. When you experience the distortion simply unplug the thunderbolt or USB C from the back of the monitor and plug it back in.

2. Return the monitor and get an alternative brand NOT from LG.

LG: The kind and clearly knowledgable support rep told me that they have been aware of compatibility issues ever since Big Sur was released. An OS Big Sur upgrade fixed some issues that prevented users from using all available resolution settings and some other stuff. The issue with the pixel shift has not been fixed. I was told they attempted to do so with a firmware update in January but it proved to make things worse - whatever that meant. When I asked why the LG Display Manager on the App Store hasn't been updated in a year and is not compatible either and can't recognize connected Displays, I was told the following: He said the app not working is a combination of Big Sur and Rosetta 2. There are no immediate plans to upgrade it. A different App called LG Onscreen Manager (not on the App Store but available on the LG site) also does not work for the same reasons despite being a replacement for the Display manager. And, I was told that LG of course stays in the business of making displays but will not make any more MAC specific displays and will discontinue the Ultrafine 5 K model. As to your last point - yeah in my 15 years of dealing with Apple I encountered that while their support staff is usually super nice - they are either told to deny any issues or are just not being informed of them and thus make you waste your time jumping through hoops that do nada for you. Oh well...watcha gonna do? Switch to Windows? I'd rather get my old typewrite out than that.

I had a similar issue and could fix it with MacOS 11.2 and by using the original thunderbolt cable from LG (the one with the white flash on the cable). Now back to 5120 x 2880 on the MacBook Pro M1.

Hi Jon,

Like many here, I have an M1 Mac mini with an LG UltraFine 5K monitor. Recently I went at least a week without seeing the pixel shifting issue. I updated to macOS 11.2 and still had no issue. Now several days into 11.2 I see it again. So, apparently there's no fix with 11.2.

Cheers,

Doug

i noticed that with 11.2 the pixel shift does not happen as often like with 11.1. I would say 80% less.

I use a Mac mini M1 with a LG 5K Display (27MD5KL, 2nd Gen) connected via LG original Thunderbolt cable.

Yes, I am referring to the pixel shift. And thanks the hot corner solution seems to do it and is a bit less hassle than unplugging the cable - merci! I was on the phone with LG support several times (not a good company btw) and finally got someone on the phone who was actually super knowledgable on this issue and told me what the issue is. BTW - LG seems to not plan on rolling out a new firmware to address this and I was told they are actually discontinuing this particular model. In any case, Apple does actively promote this monitor and it is the only 3rd party display you can buy directly from Apple. In addition, when you call Apple support to address this issue they all claim to have never heard of this problem and make you waste an enormous amount of time by doing non-sense like starting in recovery mode, reinstalling Mac OS, swapping your thunderbolt cable etc. The right thing to do would be to either stop selling it or at least make a disclaimer. But instead we see another example of a pattern of denial, fingerprinting and no attempt to protect their customers from financial harm by selling a product Apple knows has issues. Yeah maybe they keep it on the shelves till they come out with their own consumer level priced monitor and just want to get rid of their inventory - just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

In the meantime LG updated the LG Screen Manager (App-Store), so it is working on M1-Machines. But up until now I don't see a firmware-update which fixes the problem. May be later?

My experience is: The problem still exists, but after the change of settings to never to shut of monitor after 3 hrs - or never it almost doesn't happen too much. If it does I quickly use a hot corner to go into sleep mode and awake it again. Then for this time it is fixed. I can live with it.