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Pink tint from 2021 MacBook Pro 16 M1 on external display (via USB-C)

When I connect my MBPro 16 to my external LG 4K monitor, in the evening with normal artificial lighting on (warm LED spots etc), while the laptop colours look absolutely perfect the external monitors white-range has a distinct and obvious pink tint. The two screens areas of white (such as a webpage) are literally different colours, one being actual white and some grays that are there intentionally - on the external monitor those white a pink and the grays are even more pink.


If I turn off True Tone both screens appear in the 'blue' range of white but are then identical - I don't remember having this on my previous MacBook Pro 15 (2017).


I've tried resetting using a command in Terminal with no change. It's really off-putting and this can't be right that external monitors get given a crazy (and wrong) colour profile. Talking of which I cycled through every RGB profile and they all carry over this 'pink' issue - some hide it better than others but the default profiles handles all the non white stuff the best.


Apparently this is a known issue for the last few years and now I've got it I'm not happy at all. It looks awful. Screenshots don't capture it interestingly. So I took photos with my phone. The top photo is of the MBP 16 display, whilst connected to the external monitor. I moved the window across to the external display and took the next photo below where you can see the pink tint in the formating ribbon below the text box. The photos don't show the full, extreme 'rose pink' that these parts of windows show. They should be ever so slightly grey like on the first picture of the MBP 16 display. I've also cycled through colour profiles on the monitor to no effect. This is absolutely an issue coming from the notebook.


I've also tried changing desktop background/wallpaper and toggling 'Allow wallpaper tinting in windows' which effects the dark grey areas slightly but the pink remains exactly as you see it, regardless. What is this?


Any help would be appreiciated!

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Mar 17, 2022 12:35 PM

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Posted on Mar 17, 2022 1:55 PM

UPDATE - FOUND SOLUTION:


Ok, so I feel a bit silly now. I have discovered where the issue was for me. For full context I am using an LG 27UK850 4K monitor.


Despite all the messing around with colour settings/profiles etc. on both the MBP and the monitor, I discovered that the white-point of the monitor changed 'dramatically' when adjusting the contrast setting. High contrast presented slightly grey/off-white areas in pink hues. Lower contrast presented those same slightly grey/off-white areas in blue hues. I found a sweet spot which was lower than I had it set that matched the MBP display perfectly. A little more adjustment on Brightness to get the black levels right and its now absolutely perfect.


Apologies to Apple for this... I should've got to this point earlier and I hope this is the same for the many others reporting the same issue. My advice for people who want to check if this is the same for them is to adjust contrast through max to minimum and observe the change in white/grey areas as you do. I observed white/grey areas moving through blue, yellow and pink and at about the high 50s/low 60s of my contrast settings it was spot on. It's very sensitve though and could easily be missed. So make extrememe changes to see if this works for you.

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Question marked as Best reply

Mar 17, 2022 1:55 PM in response to jw250uk

UPDATE - FOUND SOLUTION:


Ok, so I feel a bit silly now. I have discovered where the issue was for me. For full context I am using an LG 27UK850 4K monitor.


Despite all the messing around with colour settings/profiles etc. on both the MBP and the monitor, I discovered that the white-point of the monitor changed 'dramatically' when adjusting the contrast setting. High contrast presented slightly grey/off-white areas in pink hues. Lower contrast presented those same slightly grey/off-white areas in blue hues. I found a sweet spot which was lower than I had it set that matched the MBP display perfectly. A little more adjustment on Brightness to get the black levels right and its now absolutely perfect.


Apologies to Apple for this... I should've got to this point earlier and I hope this is the same for the many others reporting the same issue. My advice for people who want to check if this is the same for them is to adjust contrast through max to minimum and observe the change in white/grey areas as you do. I observed white/grey areas moving through blue, yellow and pink and at about the high 50s/low 60s of my contrast settings it was spot on. It's very sensitve though and could easily be missed. So make extrememe changes to see if this works for you.

Pink tint from 2021 MacBook Pro 16 M1 on external display (via USB-C)

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