Mac Book Pro 2019, Touch Bar started flickering and won't stop.

Found this on reddit and couldn't believe it. Absolutely software issue.

Get a phone on max brightness or a flashlight. Then, shine it at yourlaptop camera/lightsensor. The touch bar will get brighter and stop flickering within 5 seconds. The, pull the light away. The touchbar dims and starts flickering.

This happened with a 2020 Macbook Pro of mine. I took it to Apple and the tech reset all kinds of things, SMC, NVRAM, thought my battery needed to be replaced and seemed surprised it was in great shape.He did things for an hour and then told me I need to have the whole thing bottom of my Macbook replace for $1000. I was livid! I just bought this a few years ago! I couldn't afford the "repair", so they told me to buy a back up...and a back up for the back up. Sure enough, my macbook died soon after. The flickering touch bar makes the 2020 macbook a LEMON and Apple needs to recall it. I noticed they are not including it going foreward. We should be reimbursed. Apple products are not cheap and in this financial day and age, I already have friends who are choosing other less expensive products from other companies because of my experience. Shame on you Apple for not recalling this obvious failure.

1. I turned off the light sensor after reading this post (Turn off Automatically adjust Brightness in display: Click on the main Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Select Displays.
3. Turn off Automatically adjust Brightness.
4. Quit System Settings.
5. )

the flickering stopped. Restarted, some flicker during start up then fine, no flicker, touchbar worked normally.

Started up today and the flicker was back. Currently not flickering but touchbar is blacked out, so, useless.

Apple? are you there?

Maybe it doesn't happen to everyone. You are lucky. I was not and I am not the only one.

The flickering light is like a strong strobe light that lit up my whole room. I worry that this problem may cause a seizure in some poor person. Not everyone in a movie theatre has seizures, but they often put warnings before shows now to avoid litigation because someone had a seizure.

Apple should figure this out and provide a PERMANENT fix or warn people with seizure disorders before this happens.

No one should have to hold a flashlight on a $2000 new laptop for it to stop flickering. Come on Apple...

I am in this exact situation with 2020 MBP. I suspect it's a bigger problem and should be part of a recall.

I have had this same problem for about half a year, I can say from living with it that the problem only gets worse; flickering more often, and crashes are way more common.

it has gotten to a point now that my Mac, after waking it up, has to crash 4-10 times before it is able to stay on (with the flickering)

Same issues here for me with the suggestion to just buy another one. Not impressed as this is my first mac after making the switch from a windows PC. I bit the expensive price tag because they’re known for lasting a long time. Now my mac book is constantly restarting unexpectedly and flickering touch bar issues. Very disappointed that Apple refuses to issue a covered fix for their faulty technology. I am now less likely to purchase another macbook.

Hello, same issue here but it comforts to know that I'm not the only one and that it's clearly not a hardware damage caused by me. I have a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro and my Touchbar started acting up roughly two year after I got it in 2019. Since then I have tried all of the common fixes: NVRAM reset, SMC reset, resetting the Touchbar process, deleting caches, and keeping my Mac up to date.

Still, the issue only seems to be getting worse as my room turns into a nightclub as soon as I haven't moved my cursor for a while or when waking up my Mac from standby.

Contacted Apple Support again today but they don't know of any more solutions besides those discussed here. And it seems as if they clearly know of this issue. I just don't understand why there hasn't been any recall program even though this is clearly a production issue on their side.

Anyhow, support staff recommended to send in feedback about the issue here. Apparently if lots of user report issues they will be forwarded to mgmt. Worth giving it a try.

Same problem, a 2020 M1 macbook costing $2000.

Could it be the light sensor/software is the problem?

Touchbar flickers like a strobe light since it was bought as seen here https://youtu.be/vAN8O4f2R3Y?si=0apE4ES1VtnH_ZFU.

The whole system crashed after 2 years had to reinstall the OS.

Will be reluctsnt to buy any new apple products.

Your dismissal of the "flashing" Touch Bar issue as merely unfortunate, and your assertion that it hasn't affected your own device, reflects a profound ignorance of the gravity of the situation. The fact that not every affected individual voices their concerns on this forum does not diminish the validity or urgency of the problem. There is ample justification for a recall, as this issue undermines the functionality and reliability of affected MacBook Pros, impacting users' productivity and overall experience. It's essential to acknowledge the widespread nature of the problem and take decisive action to rectify it, rather than downplaying its significance based on individual experiences.

I have the exact same problem with my 2019 MacBook Pro. I am a pro user using my machine for work everyday. This issue is so annoying and very common with these machines. There should have been a product recall with these laptops as there is an obvious problem.

same here it’s a 2020 pro and flashes super bright white light and sometimes rainbow barcode looking things

I have a 2020 MBP and I am having the same issue. It flickers and then goes black and stops working until I restart the computer. I'm concerned that this is a sign that it will die soon. This is a very expensive laptop and I can't afford a new one.

1. Turning off automatic brightness does not turn off the light sensor
2. Even if it did, there are some other scenarios, when touchbar dims, which is the cause of the problem for mem such as 60 seconds of inactivity.
3. When the touchbar is blacked out, this means that the OS lost connection to it as you even cannot start the settings, where you configure the control strip. In addition, if you kill the ControlStrip process when it is blacked out, it won't start back. A solution to this scenario I found is turning off the Mac, resetting the SMC by holding the power button for 10 seconds, and starting the Mac again.
4. I am currently using the script from https://medium.com/macoclock/macbook-touchbar-flicker-fix-bafa754aae13, so the only cases when I get the flickering issue is the sleep mode.

Maybe this will help you and help someone else to use this to find a better solution.

I have some improvement after turning off Touch Bar zoom.

Saw this on here

"Sonoma upgrade turned the Touch Bar zoom on, which impacts ability to interact with it. To turn it off (or see if it's turned on) go to Settings > Accessibility > Zoom > Touch Bar zoom "

The flicker stops when I touch the touch bar...

People are reporting a touch bar flicker after upgrading to Sonoma.