Severe Contrast & Color Issues after macOS Update

Apple does tweak ColorSync with every major OS release, so color tends to change a bit. But never dramatically. Your problem is this:

A MacBook's display has a much wider color range and gamut than sRGB. What you're doing is forcing a smaller color space to stretch out to the display's native capability.

I don't know if the supplied profile for your MacBook is Color LCD or P3. It would very likely be one or the other. Being an Intel based MacBook, it's probably Color LCD. I wanted to compare that to sRGB, but couldn't find anywhere to download that profile from, so I used P3.

Anyway, the point is you have a very bad mismatch, which accounts for at least the high saturation. The green circle is RGB values of 255.0.0 at the most saturated red sRGB has. The blue circle is the same RGB values of 255.0.0 for the P3 profile. So what happens when you use the wrong profile, 255.0.0 of sRGB displays as just that - 255.0.0. But at the screen's ability at the blue circle, not where it exists in the profile. Take all of the rest of the sRGB values as shown below that do not reach your display's range (in the gray areas) and stretch it to fit P3 (or Color LCD). And over saturation is what you get.

Canned profiles are just that. Canned. They are predefined sections of Lab, and should never be used as monitor profiles. The only supplied profile that would at least be close to your monitor's actual output would be one above the line in System Settings.

I create my own custom profiles with i1Profiler, an X-Rite i1 Pro 3 and the EIZO supplied ColorNavigator monitor profiling software. Which is why I'm not using the CG279X profile pulled from the display.

Use the supplied profile, and that should at least help the screaming color issue.

I'm not seeing any of that but, try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally. Sometimes that will fix anomalies.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Just to add, if you have an Intel MBP, try…

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

and/or

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Try turning Reduce Transparency On and True Tone Off.

Then if that doesn't help, try selecting some different Color Profiles.

Swing by your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider and have them look at it.

To find the nearest location, go to > Find Locations and click on explore Service Locations.

vitali71 wrote:

After that I vacuumed the laptop and the problem has gone.

Hmm.... If it happens again I would have the MacBook looked at by an Apple certified tech.