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Major graphics glitches in macOS Sierra

Since I upgraded to 10.12 Sierra on release day, I have twice experienced these major (borderline catastrophic) graphical errors on my 2015 MacBook Pro Retina. Parts of the screen go black, sometimes entire windows, the ENTIRE lock screen except for the password box, alerts such as the "Are you sure you want to restart?" window, menus come up blank, dock icons disappear, etc. Performance remains fine and programs act as if they are not blacked out, it seems to be a completely graphical issue only. See attached images. I am not sure what if anything causes this to occur, it seems completely random.

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12), (Early 2015)

Posted on Oct 5, 2016 1:17 PM

25 replies

Oct 6, 2016 9:35 AM in response to John Galt

I know that's usually a helpful copy-paste answer, but this is something that has only happened twice in the past 3 weeks. I'm not going to use my computer in safe mode every single day for another 3 weeks until it happens again. This is my main computer both for personal and work. Any thoughts on what could be causing this graphics issue?

Oct 6, 2016 9:56 AM in response to liquidnonsense

Nobody suggests you use the mac in safe mode for any prolonged period of time.

Simply starting in safe mode and then restarting normally can clear any number of issues. There is no guarantee, but some problems occur due to corrupt caches, and several system caches are cleared by restarting in safe mode this is one of most obvious things one can try when the mac behaves in inexplicable ways.

John Galt

Level 10

141,180 points

Oct 6, 2016 4:05 PM in response to liquidnonsense

Any thoughts on what could be causing this graphics issue?

Yes. Either software or hardware is the cause. My troubleshooting suggestions are methodical and are intended to gather additional information. That is the reason for asking for your observations, following those suggestions.

Hardware causes are possible. You could run Apple Hardware Test / Apple Diagnostics but each of its possible results leads to the same outcome:

identifying faulty hardware that only Apple will be able to fix,
"no trouble found" despite the fact something is obviously wrong,
or an inability to run AHT due to the problem you're experiencing.

Therefore the only troubleshooting procedures that will lead to actionable information are what I posted earlier.

Oct 7, 2016 9:38 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Ah, my bad, I read it incorrectly. I've just done that and will report back if it happens again.

Oct 7, 2016 9:41 AM in response to John Galt

Yes. Either software or hardware is the cause.

No need to be snide. I'm just trying to solve a problem, and in addition to taking the standard diagnostic steps I like to proactively ask to see if this is a known problem.

John Galt

Level 10

141,180 points

Oct 7, 2016 10:16 AM in response to liquidnonsense

liquidnonsense wrote:

Yes. Either software or hardware is the cause.

No need to be snide. I'm just trying to solve a problem, and in addition to taking the standard diagnostic steps I like to proactively ask to see if this is a known problem.

You asked for my thoughts. That's what they are. It's up to you to follow my suggestions or not. You may contact Apple, but you may have to pay for theirs: Contact Support

Jan 21, 2017 9:43 AM in response to Tomleecee

I'm having the exact same problems on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015). Let me know if any of you have figured out a solution to workaround this.

Apr 15, 2017 2:48 AM in response to liquidnonsense

I am having exactly same problem . Don't know what to do. If anyone found any solution kindly share with me.

Apr 15, 2017 2:49 AM in response to Tomleecee

Hey, have you got any solution from apple? If yes kindly share it with us .

Apr 29, 2017 6:30 AM in response to liquidnonsense

I've a MBP 2015 13inch and I've the same problem. I factory reset my mac and installed MacOS Sierra and it didn't help. I'm planning to roll back to El Capitan and see if it fixes the problem.

Major graphics glitches in macOS Sierra