Screen Flicker Immediately After macOS 15.1 Update

Confirmed Sequoia 15.3 fixed the issue for me M1 Max Studio

Having the exact same issue on my Macbook Pro M3 Pro... immediately after the update I was getting black screen flickers and screen tearing on my Alienware AW3423DW 34" 3440x1440 HDR 165hz monitor. I tried restarting (again), reseating cable, lowering refresh rate and resolution, display mirroring, etc. Still flickers between lost signal black screen or screen tears (even on static image). Using an Anker 778 Thunderbolt 4 Dock (fabulous solution for Macbook and a Win desktop) with latest firmware.

Will try turning off HDR when back at my screen but it is certainly isolated to the 15.1 update. Only change made before issue. ** Ryan (@whippetranch)

Great news, Anker is aware and working on it. Kind thanks to their support department for a very speedy reply! Their update is:

We are aware of the compatibility issues between the Anker 778 dock and macOS 15.0 or higher. Our team is currently investigating the problem to find a solution. However, we cannot provide a specific timeline for when this issue will be resolved. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience. In the meantime, keeping your MacBook on macOS 14 is a practical workaround.

I installed the latest of the latest macos. Still the same issue with the Anker dock, everything still works fine with the Ugreen dock.

I believe that there's something in the Thunderbolt protocol specs that isn't managed as it should by the Anker dock.

Update: I was able to get the flickering and screen shuttering to go away by disabling HDR in the display settings. But this is an HDR monitor and it was working before the update. So at least I can get some work done, but the image is awful. It looks so washed out.

I have the same issue with my Anker 778 dock and my Mac Studio M1 Max. I upgraded from Sonoma to 15.1 and the issue immediately started. I tried the DP and HDMI connections and all had the same issue. Replacement was sent and same issue. My old Cal Digit TB2 and 2 OWC TB3 docks do not have this issue.

In my email conversation with their support team they are aware of it and I assume are working on a firmware fix. Current firmware is 1.29 and I haven’t seen any updates pop up.

hopefully they fix this soon, as it is an otherwise good dock.

 bought a UGREEN Revodok Max 313 TB4 Dock at Black Friday. I installed it an hour ago. No flickering with the same setup, same cables out:

1. MBP M2 Max => Dock => TB over USB-C => BenQ 4K60 
2. MBP M2 Max => Dock => DP => Dell 1440p75

AFAIK the problem is solved. I'd strongly suggest asking Anker for a fix in software.

So was monitoring the replies without yet making any changes to my setup, which had worked shockingly well given the daisy chain:

Macbook Pro M3 Pro --> TB4 cable --> Anker 778 Thunderbolt Dock --> DP Cable --> Cable Matters USB3.0/DP1.4 KVM switch --> DP Cable --> Alienware 34" monitor.

So was just using the macbook as a laptop. with my M3 Pro on 15.1 throwing lines and long flickers on my monitor at any resolution or refresh rate.

I used an Anker Thunderbolt-to-HDMI 2.1 cable to connect my MBP to a Samsung S95C OLED TV. No problem with 4K 120hz streaming GeForce Now Ultimate. No lines or flicekers

Same issue here, and I have the Anker 778 dock as well. This started after updating 15.1.1 - I haven't had any issues prior to that. I don't think this is an Anker dock issue, or a cable issue. I use the same dock with a Dell laptop running Windows 11/Opensuse Linux - no issues. In addition, my wife's laptop is MBP M1 with Mac OS X v14.x (can't remember the OS name designation / exact version), and I asked her to use it whole day, and she did not have any problems. If I plug in my MBP M1, after a while, every ~10 minutes, my Dell U3415W monitor would go black, and everything is working (i.e., sound etc., since Zoom meetings would be going on), and screen would come back. No issues on the other external display (Dell 24", nor the MBP display itself). This is definitely an OS issue. I am going to try to revert the OS to an earlier version and see what happens.

Experiencing the same ...

• Brand new M3 Pro MBP
• Anker 778 dock with brand-new TB4 certified cable (1.0 m)
• I installed all updates including 15.1 before signing into any of my stuff or plugging into a dock. So I do not have a pre-15.1 reference point.
• Two screens - LG 29" 75hz 2560x1080 via HDMI - and LG 34" 144hz 3440x1440 using either HDMI or DisplayPort
• Happens even if I set the monitor(s) to 60hz / generic Color RGB color profile / HDR is OFF for all tests.
• Happens even if I only plug a single monitor in.
• Problem follows the Anker 778's physical video out ports - e.g. whatever monitor I plug into Apple USB-C Video Adapter -> TB3 downstream port always works fine, and whatever monitor connects directly to the Anker's HDMI or DP Out flickers.
• Have owned the dock for ~2 years and it works flawlessly on ~6 different Lenovo/Dell Win 11 machines. (This is my first time returning to a Mac in many years. I've supported them for other users, just not been using one myself.)

I may try the Cable Matters dongle once i get over the sticker shock. Or I may wipe my data and start from scratch, but refrain from allowing the macOS 15.0 update.

I installed MacOs 15.2. The issue is not as bad as it was before, there is no longer constant flickering, but the screen goes blank for a second and then comes back. Still no FW update from Anker

MacOS 15.3 General release seems to have fixed this issue for me :)

Anker 778 Dock and 4k@120hz through DisplayPort with no more flickering so far.

DP TX wrote:

My monitor started an odd flicker and ghosting of images almost immediately (less than 5 minutes) after performing macOS 15.1 update. Monitor is connected via HDMI and has not had this problem with any monitor in the past.

Also using a Mac Mini M2 updated to Sequoia 15.1

The External Display is Directly Connected via a HDMI cable from Display to female HDMI connector of the computer

Sometimes when connecting a USB-C Drive to the computer

I have inadvertently touched or nudged the HDMI Cable for the Display

You may consider Reseating the Display Cable on the computer

An aside to to your actual issue

The Apple Support Community Forums are sometimes visited by AI / LMM / ChatBots.

AI / LLM are basically a Super Version of Predictive Text which is based upon a Data Set.

When that Data Set is based upon older data points, the outcome of the response will be equally out dated and / or  unreliable

Suggest being very careful about this.

Some suggestions can be incorrect, misinformed , incomplete, impossible to do, out right wrong.

If your machine is an Apple Silicon M1,M2,M3 computer

Resetting the SMC and Or NVRAM does not apply at all

This! I have flickering horizontal white lines immediately after updating to MacOS 15.1. M3 Pro MacBook Pro with external display connected via HDMI to Anker 778 Dock.

Re-seating / swapping HDMI cable has no effect.

Toggling HDMI also no effect.

Thank you for the update - I am holding off on installing the update, and hopefully Anker would be able to help soon (or even Apple should be able to help - since it looks like it's something in the latest OS that created incompatibility with Anker and perhaps other docks as well).

Thanks again. Happy Friday, and have a great weekend ahead.