2016 MacBook Pro 13.3 with touch bar screen has lines across the top

I'm having the same issue (image attached). It just started 3 days ago. For now it is intermittent, and seems to mostly occur when the computer has been asleep for a good amount of time, and then clears itself after a few minutes of operation. But from everyone else's comments here, it sounds like this is only going to get worse. I think I'll have to wait until it is more persistent until I make my visit to the Apple Store, but it seems clear I will have to head there pretty soon. Makes me sad.

Quick question for lisa1011 and All: Is it cold at the moment where you live? I think this is a problem with the physical coldness of the machine/poor thermal insulation of the display.

I thought mine was getting worse and worse, and then we came out of the cold snap where I live. How bad this symptom is depends for me on how physically cold the lid of the computer is. I have the space gray and I have to say that the metal gets exceptionally cold compared to the silver machines I have had in the past (as you might expect because of the color). Now that it is warmer where I live, my machine gets less physically cold on my way to work, and I am not seeing the lines. If I am being objective, I have no lines as long as my machine is at or above the published operational temperature (10ºC/50ºF). This is not to say this is okay, because I have never seen this in any of the *many* Apple powerbooks/macbooks I have had before, but I wonder if the lid is now so thin, that the thermal insulation on the display is less than it should be and it is basically malfunctioning due to cold until the operational temperature gets up.

I am from India. I bought my laptop (2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar) in May 2017. It's a little over a year old now. I have the same problem at the bottom of the screen. So here's what happens. I'm a designer, so I frequently use apps like Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and so on. When I use regular apps like Notes, Safari, Chrome (which eats a lot of RAM, by the way), Spotify, and so on, simultaneously with multiple windows and desktops open, nothing happens, and everything has been fine for the first 10-11 months. Recently though, whenever I use the laptop for more than 3-4 hours with at least one window of Sketch or Photoshop or any design software open and in use, black lines start appearing at the bottom of my screen. They start faint, one or two, and with time, they become darker, with more lines appearing, until a point when it's a thick dark black band at the bottom of the screen (feathered/smooth edges, not sharp). And then they even start appearing on the top, but not to such an extent. My observation is that this has a correlation with graphics use and heating. The laptop gets very hot. (It gets hot when the bands appear, but the bands may not always appear when it gets hot otherwise, so it's not just the heating issue, it's more of a graphics issue). The photo attached herewith shows the issue at a stage when the bands have thickened. It looks translucent, but it's very opaque at its worst.

My MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

This one with the same problem, I called Apple Support and they told me that my computer is not under warranty. Apple is losing a lot by selling expensive, unprincipled computers!

Same problem here

Mine is getting worse and worse. It has become a black stripe.

Thank you. I went to Genius Bar yesterday. But they said they haven't encountered any problem like this and had no idea what happened. They just sent my new MacBook pro to repair center. My 50-dollar screen protector may be gone if they replace my screen...I thought AR coating was the only problem...

I have the exact problem. I took my MacBook Pro touch bar 13 inch to Genius Bar. They told me that they're gonna fix it and can't replace it. It's frustrating because I bought this computer in December 31. (3 months old) And I seldomly used it because we have a 15inch MacBook Pro as well. The computer didn't even left the house once and really used it around 1 hour tops a day. Now there are permanent grey lines on top of the display with occasional flickering.

The people at Genius Bar told me that I should parley with Apple Care if I want to replace the computer. But why apple care and Genius Bar are different entities is beyond my comprehension. What a strange bureaucracy!!

This is by no means a cheap piece of computer and it shouldn't be subjected to a heavy repair process this early on.

My MacBook Pro is back. So far so good. It's frustrating that the price doesn't match the quality... Anyway, after the repair, I wanted to buy AppleCare for my laptop in case any unpredictable problems in the future, the guy at Genius Bar said their system doesn't allow them to add AppleCare for my laptop, because my NEW MacBook Pro has been repaired...If you don't have AppleCare and plan to get one, do it before send it to repair.

Yes, I live in Indiana. I noticed that too. The symptom appear at the beginning of February, when the weather was particularly cold. I bought my computer in Taiwan, it is a warm place. The problem appeared when I got back from Taiwan. When the weather became warmer at the end of February, the line did become less obvious than before. It was a really dark line when weather was cold, but a transparent gray bar when it was warmer. This problem actually is happening in China too. Many new MacBook Pro owner reported the problem on the forum. They had the problem when weather is cold. But when they brought their computers to Apple Store, the weather was warmer, as a result Apple Store didn't let them replace the computer because there was apparently no problem.

lisa1011, thanks for the reply and the extra info. Very interesting! It seems to me that this is a design flaw of the whole machine, not a faulty component that can be replaced/repaired. My guess is that any replacement/fix would behave the same anyway, so I've cancelled by Genius Bar appointment for next week. Maybe Apple will come up with a true fix in the future, with all the reports coming in, but it doesn't seem like they have one yet. It actually seems like most of the Genius Bar people have no clue what is going on! This is unfortunate, and pretty disappointing, but on the other hand, it seems like there is no permanent damage/display failure going on.

My touchbar macbook pro arrived December had problem with lines on display Feb... Had ENTIRE top half of mac replaced as well as battery. Problem happen ed again last week(!!) Was told u had to wait to see if back office wide replace but unlikely until 4 (!!!) repairs. Totally unacceptable in a top of the range new Mac. It was only when I checked UK consumer law that I found out the following... If an error occurs within 6 months consumer can demand replacement or repair. If one repair has already taken place, you can demand full refund of original purchase price. NOT appreciated that this was not offered to me when I requested replacement and had to research consumer law myself in order to achieve what should have been offered from the start. Have lost time and been put to unnecessary inconvenience. Check your local consumer law as  will not give you all options available to you - only those offered under their own warranty.

Just for the records, I have this problem too.

Seems to get worse with decreasing temperature. Problem disappears upon restart but reemerges when waking up from sleep.

Horizontal lines initially occupy the whole screen but are very soon restricted to only the uppermost two centimeters.

It's been worsening recently; first 2 minutes of operation following waking up from sleep produce „ghost images" or afterburns when minimizing windows, switching tabs etc.

Hope this helps Apple or whomever diagnose this problem.