Bad image retention on iMac

Question

Bad image retention on iMac

Experiencing bad image retention which shows up very quickly on my iMac since updating to Big Sur—which leads me to believe this is a software issue.

I'm seeing ghosted images of the dock, desktop folders, and even the toolbar.

Apple's suggestion to use "sleep feature to turn off the display" or "use a screen saver to make sure that a static image isn't on the display for long" don't address the issue if the images get burned *while I am actively working!*

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

macOS Big Sur 11.3.1

iMac 27″, macOS 11.3

Posted on May 11, 2021 7:43 PM

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Answer 1

May 12, 2021 2:16 AM in response to RobOnAppleSupport

If you take a screenshot, does the screen retention issue get recorded in the screenshot?

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Answer 2

May 12, 2021 8:55 AM in response to RobOnAppleSupport

RobOnAppleSupport wrote:

Interestingly, a screenshot does not record the issue

This may not be good news... I suspect there may be a hardware issue.

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,796 points

May 11, 2021 9:14 PM in response to RobOnAppleSupport

If you go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and check the box for Reduced Transparency, does that help?

MtD

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Answer 4

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,796 points

May 12, 2021 10:06 AM in response to RobOnAppleSupport

Have you tried resetting your NVRAM?

https://www.macworld.com/article/224955/how-to-reset-a-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html

MtD

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Answer 5

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,796 points

May 12, 2021 11:44 AM in response to RobOnAppleSupport

There was a similar post a couple of months ago, also involving at 2015 iMac:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252537477

and also a Google search shows other reports.

Not sure what to recommend except a trip to an Apple store Genius to verify the problem and see if they have any kind of solution. Odd that it is triggered by the Big Sur update, but that may be a coincidence.

Good luck!

MtD

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