Green rectangles diagonally across images displayed in Safari

Big Sur 11.2.1 + Safari 14.0.3 on late 2013 MacBook Pro

I too get green rectangles along the diagonal, but only when I've been using Google Earth Pro and haven't yet completely quit the application – the green rectangles appear when, for example, I click on an image on the BBC News website. If I quit Google Earth Pro, the green rectangles vanish from the BBC page. Perhaps this observation may be of use in getting to the root of the problem.

Have the same problem with MBP Retina 15" Late 2013, NVIDIA GT 750M 2GB, macOS 11.6.5. The problem didn't exist if the system use Intel Iris. When the graphic card switch to Nvidia the problem start to appear, diagonal green rectangle on image while using Safari.

Definitely, a Safari + NVIDIA + Big Sur issue, as it never happened between Mavericks to Catalina.

I do also have the late-13 model spec'd out (with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB), and have this same problem, and as everyone else only in Safari... thus not only a driver thing, or it would be bad in every browser. Definitely, something in Big Sur, Safari (since Big Sur) + the NVIDIA card that doesn't like each other anymore.

Sad that Apple won't address this more as we are already stuck with Big Sur until our machines die. And they are still great machines! Monterey would have worked like a charm on them (see below) So it is sad, that Apple decided to ditch the top payers of their late-13 model.

PS. I'd understand if they didn't support anymore the cheapest models with 8gb and only the iris gpu, but their top model in late-13 is a perfectly fine capable beast still today for almost any possible use!

PS2. There's Opencore though... so we still have a way to run Monterey on our machines! In fact, some say it works even better than big sur!, so yeah, we lose any support.. but, what support? doesn't seem we are getting any... do we?

• on Opencore... beware though, not a solution for the less-savvy. So, if you don't know what it is already or how it works, I'd recommend you not to try it, instead, find someone who can help you, if you are really bugged about not being able to update. I'm not sure the update means all that much either. Just think how it was between Catalina and Big Sur... not so much difference really.

I have 2 x MacBook Pro Models:-

1. MacBook Pro (Retina 15-inch, Late 2013) configured with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB.
2. MacBook Pro (Retina 13-inch, Early 2015) configured with Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB.

This green rectangle problem only ever occurs on the MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch.

I normally use the MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch connected to a NEC external monitor, using the Retina display and the external monitor at the same time. If Safari is launched and active on the Retina display, and I disconnect the external monitor the problem still shows for a split second. Then everything displays correctly. Reconnect the external monitor and the problem occurs again on the Retina display.

If I disconnect the external display the problem goes away after a split second, and everything displays correctly on the Retina display. Then go into System Preferences, Battery, and disable "Automatic graphics switching" then the problem re-occurs on the Retina display. Disabling the "Automatic graphics switching" causes the MacBook Pro to always use the NVIDIA graphics chipset, rather than the inbuilt Intel Iris graphics chipset. Reconnecting the external monitor causes the error to occur irrespective of the "Automatic graphics switching".

So this problem appears to be some function of the way that Safari responds to particular websites, and how Safari then interacts with the NVIDIA graphics chipset or drivers

This is a graphics card bug or some sort, nothing to do with the webpage or Safari.

The problem occurs when the system switches from the system graphics to the graphics card. In my case, if anything is running that needs the MacBook NVIDIA GPU the greens squares appear. Shut down that software and the system switches back to the Intel Iris pro.

Run Adobe Illustrator and open a web page - green squares are there. Close Illustrator, and the squares disappear.

Same problem here. I reported it to the BBC as it was mainly their images that displayed the green bars. I think this only happened when I upgraded my MacBook Pro (Mid-2014) to macOS Big Sur. I am now on the current version 11.2.1, but the updates haven’t helped so far. I did notify BBC and MacFormat magazine as they have an excellent Genius problem solving page.

BBC's answer: “This issue appears to be a problem for certain users after they’ve upgraded their machines to Mac OS Big Sur. This appears to be less of an issue for users that undertook a clean install.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diagonal-lines-made-up-of-small-green-squares-just-started-showing-up-on-photos.2282499/

There have been a number of graphical errors associated with this upgrade – we would advise the user to take the machine into the nearest Mac Store”.

MacFormat's answer: Those are almost certainly the result of incorrect display of the images, either because of a bug in their rendering, or in the graphics card or its driver.

Either way, it's not something that you can do anything about. However it's important to report this to Apple Support so that they are aware of the problem, and it might get fixed. I'd therefore encourage you to do so when you get a chance. Hopefully it will be fixed in a future update to Big Sur.

Sooo, Apple, please fix this! As we are not allowed to travel due to Covid 19, I can't reach my nearest Mac Shop (besides they are closed anyway) and based on MacFormat's answer, they wouldn't even be able to help. Big Sur needs an update that repairs this problem.

Having same problem having upgraded from Mac OS X Catalina to Mac OS Big Sur Version 11.4. Green descending blocks diagonally across images.

My machine is

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

Processor 2.3GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB and Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

NEC MultiSync PA272W external monitor (2560x1440)

Noticed that if I launch Safari first on the Built-In Retina Display, and then launch another Safari window on the external monitor the problem does not occur. This is obviously a bug, but does appear to offer a workaround.

I noticed the same bug (green rectangles appearing across some images) happening randomly with some JPEG images in Safari, Preview, Photos, and the Finder on MacOS Catalina.

It only affects images with some specific widths: 385px, 513px, 769px, 1025px, 1281px, 1409px, 2049px... the pattern seems to follow this formula 128.n+1 : 385 = 128 x 3 + 1, 1025 = 128 x 8 + 1, 1281 = 128 x 10 + 1. Sometimes the affected images display correctly, sometimes with green rectangles.

My guess is that the JPEG decoder in MacOS has a random bug for images with these widths.

All these images open correctly with Firefox, Chrome, Photoshop...

Hi shaun from Santa Monica,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. We can see from the picture you provided that Safari photos aren't displaying as expected. We're happy to look into this with you.

If you're only noticing this with one website, the problem may need to be addresses with the website owner.

Let's also test in safe mode. The resource below goes over how to restart in safe mode and what to do if the issue is or is not present in safe mode.

How to use safe mode on your Mac

If this continues, let us know a bit more. Some helpful information would be:

Do you use any other browsers? If so, do the same photos have this issue in those?

Are you using an external monitor? Does this happen if you disconnect?

Thanks.

Hi all,

Not sure if this was ever solved but I've had the same recurring issue on my MacBook pro (2013, 15 inch, Big Sur 11.2.3) for months and while it's a little annoying never really spent any time checking.

One of the comments below suggested if it occurs when an ext monitor is plugged into the mac and I can confirm after trouble shooting this, that disconnecting the ext monitor resolves my diagonal green triangle issue.

I know this isn't a long term fix or solution but gives me peace of mind in the short term. Maybe there's a patch that someone can offer/create/suggest that might resolve things going forward?

This is definitely a Safari problem with Big Sur (latest release) I have installed Chrome and all the sites that display the green squares in Safari DO NOT display them with Google Chrome. I hope Apple fixes this as I have all my passwords stored in Safari and I do not want to use Chrome for online shopping.

Downloaded "Safari Technology Preview" application from developer.apple.com website today. This downloads a version of Safari that the Apple developers are working on. It runs alongside your existing Safari application. So it doesn't destroy your current working / "or not working very well" version of Safari. It can be launched from the Finder-->Applications space.

The version that I have downloaded is Release 126 of Safari (ie Safari V15). It does not fix the green rectangle in some images problem.

Unfortunately, this is a known issue that Apple (or NVIDIA) will not fix. Since Kepler GPUs (like GT 750M) are deprecated, the drivers are no longer available in Monterey without manual patching. So there's that. There's no fix, and will probably never be. If this didn't happen in Catalina, it might be possible to use Catalina drivers on Monterey instead of the current Big Sur patcher uses, but that might get a bit too technical.

Same problem here.

Macbook Pro 15" late 2013 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB.

This is not a Big Sur problem since it was a problem with other versions before too. Been seeing this for years. In fact, they already replaced my logic board for this problem when I was still on Apple Care... so before 2016.

It seems to be more frequent now though. I'm guessing new OSes take more out of the graphic card than before.

It definitely is a graphic card problem.

Anyhow, Macbook Pro late 2013 are discontinued now, they don't even replace the battery anymore since last september 2021. So no fix in sight.

Apple removes my comment cause it’s 11.6.2 running on mid 2012 wow okay. Get a life, anyways this issue was fixed for me after going to 11.6.2