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I have two LG 5K’s that have experienced the pixel shift discussed above.

I have a Pro Display XDR as well—same thing happens occasionally.

This is not a third party monitor problem.
Imagine having Apple's Pro monitor, their latest laptop hardware and still experiencing issues.

I feel for you man. I'm wanting to buy one just so that when I lodge a support issue they can't say it is a third party monitor issue.
 
I just sold my M1Mini. Pixel shift with LG Ultrafine 27" was just too annoying to deal with.
 
Imagine having Apple's Pro monitor, their latest laptop hardware and still experiencing issues.

I feel for you man. I'm wanting to buy one just so that when I lodge a support issue they can't say it is a third party monitor issue.
I'm running it off an M1 Mac mini, so it's mildly frustrating, as you're right---all the latest and still having issues.

But....

Doesn't happen all the time and it goes away after you sign in.
 
I just sold my M1Mini. Pixel shift with LG Ultrafine 27" was just too annoying to deal with.
This happened with my 16 inch MacBook Pro and 2 LG 5K Ultrafine monitors, so I can tell you pixel shift and sleep issues were in existence long before M1 Macs.

I always assumed it was a TB3 issue.
 
I have two LG 5K’s that have experienced the pixel shift discussed above.

I have a Pro Display XDR as well—same thing happens occasionally.

This is not a third party monitor problem.
I think you are right, its is that Apple just doesn't handle external monitors very well. And Mac minis have to have external monitors. Forums like this one and on Reddit, are rife with problems with Mac minis and monitors. I purchased my M1 Mini because I couldn't wait for the Apple Silicon iMac. When that becomes available, I will almost certainly replace the mini with and iMac.
 
I think you are right, its is that Apple just doesn't handle external monitors very well. And Mac minis have to have external monitors. Forums like this one and on Reddit, are rife with problems with Mac minis and monitors. I purchased my M1 Mini because I couldn't wait for the Apple Silicon iMac. When that becomes available, I will almost certainly replace the mini with and iMac.
I'm knocking on wood I don't have any issues other than slow sleep wake or the pixel shift with the M1 Mini.

So far so good.
 
Hey. Can anyone tell me whether I can run my Mac Mini M1 with the 6K XDR Pro monitor AND the LG 5K ultra wide together simultaneously? Specs say it can only handle 6K monitor and 4K monitor at the same time... anyone been successful proving otherwise?
 
I have two LG 5K’s that have experienced the pixel shift discussed above.

I have a Pro Display XDR as well—same thing happens occasionally.

This is not a third party monitor problem.

Can you tell me of the LG brightness controls are good because my current monitor doesnt decrease enough on brightness more so using windows via bootcamp than osx because ive got the brightness slider app installed
 
I too have the Mac Mini M1 and the LG UltraFine 5k display.

My problem is the monitor periodically is not recognized by my Mac Mini.

  1. Often the monitor "blinks" off and on again.
  2. If I reboot the computer, often I have a black screen while waiting for the monitor to recogize it.
  3. I tried replacing the Thunderbolt 3 cable with a NEW CABLE and the problem remains.
  4. Sometimes I have to unplug the cable and back again before the monitor recognizes it. Very frustrating.

I'm going to try and update to Big Sur 11.2.3 and see if it helps...
 
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I too have the Mac Mini M1 and the LG UltraFine 5k display.

My problem is the monitor periodically is not recognized by my Mac Mini.

  1. Often the monitor "blinks" off and on again.
  2. If I reboot the computer, often I have a black screen while waiting for the monitor to recogize it.
  3. I tried replacing the Thunderbolt 3 cable with a NEW CABLE and the problem remains.
  4. Sometimes I have to unplug the cable and back again before the monitor recognizes it. Very frustrating.

I'm going to try and update to Big Sure 11.2.3 and see if it helps...
Might be that the thunderbolt 3 port of your LG Ultrafine is a bit loose. I know someone who had the same problem.
 
Might be that the thunderbolt 3 port of your LG Ultrafine is a bit loose. I know someone who had the same problem.
I tried updating the OS on my Mac Mini M1 last night to Big Sur 11.2.3 and this didn't help. I've also replaced the Thunderbolt cable and that didn't help either. Very annoying!
 
I tried updating the OS on my Mac Mini M1 last night to Big Sur 11.2.3 and this didn't help. I've also replaced the Thunderbolt cable and that didn't help either. Very annoying!
That's why I'm suggesting it's the actual port on the back of the display that's loose, not the TB3 cable.
 
So I pulled the power cord on the LG UltraFine and let it sit for a bit. Thinking about what you said, I then wrapped the Thunderbolt cable in a single loop around the power cord in such a way that it sits perpendicular to the port on the back of the display (not sure if that made sense), but should "hold" it in place better than if it just sat on it's own. It remains to be seen if this will take care of the situation.

Another other weird things...

  • I tried going into the System Preferences > Displays and checked the "default" resolution and then tried "scaled" at 2560x1440; it didn't seem to change anything. Other monitor resolutions made it either bigger or smaller.
  • I also have no option to change the Hz rating of the monitor. I was thinking it could be set to 30Hz instead of 60Hz but I have no option to change it.
  • I had a 2nd older monitor plugged into the HDMI port of my Mac Mini M1. I unplugged it and my LG Ultrafine (which was STILL PLUGGED into the Thunderbolt) went dead. When I plugged in the HDMI again for the 2nd monitor, even though it was off, my primary LG Ultrafine 5k came back on immediately. So weird.
 
• I tried going into the System Preferences > Displays and checked the "default" resolution and then tried "scaled" at 2560x1440; it didn't seem to change anything. Other monitor resolutions made it either bigger or smaller.
That just means the default is 2560x1440. Which makes sense for a 5K display (2560x1440 is a HiDPI mode).

• I also have no option to change the Hz rating of the monitor. I was thinking it could be set to 30Hz instead of 60Hz but I have no option to change it.
That just means the display doesn't define other refresh rates. It may support other refresh rates, but M1 Macs don't have a method to define them like Intel Macs do. Did you have the "Show low resolution modes" option selected?

These are the modes for a 5K display:
Code:
Old: 27MD5KA-B
2560x1440@60.000Hz 88.860kHz 234.59MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 32 -)
3200x1800@59.999Hz 111.119kHz 364.47MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 43 -)
3840x2160@59.999Hz 133.319kHz 522.61MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 53 -)
4096x2304@59.999Hz 142.198kHz 593.82MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 57 -)
5120x2880@59.993Hz 177.699kHz 938.25MHz  h(48 32 80 +)  v(3 5 74 -)

New: 27MD5KL-B
2560x1440@60.000Hz 88.860kHz 234.59MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 32 -)
3200x1800@59.999Hz 111.119kHz 364.47MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 43 -)
3840x2160@59.999Hz 133.319kHz 522.61MHz  h(8 32 40 +)  v(1 8 53 -)
5120x2880@59.993Hz 177.699kHz 938.25MHz  h(48 32 80 +)  v(3 5 74 -)

• I had a 2nd older monitor plugged into the HDMI port of my Mac Mini M1. I unplugged it and my LG Ultrafine (which was STILL PLUGGED into the Thunderbolt) went dead. When I plugged in the HDMI again for the 2nd monitor, even though it was off, my primary LG Ultrafine 5k came back on immediately. So weird.
Yes weird. The LG UltraFine displays don't have power buttons or other buttons for menus so stuff like this will happen.
 
Since the beginning (late last year), I had experienced:
  • Incorrectly dimmed screen on wake from sleep --> frequent occurrence and required jostling the brightness slider (or tapping the keyboard brightness keys) to get it to correct itself
  • Pixel shifting --> less frequent issue, corrected by a restart or a unplugged and replugged TB3 cable
I was away from my M1 + 5K Ultrafine setup for a while. I had updated the OS remotely and was hoping that when I got back in front of the machine, that all would be well.

That is not the case. On 11.2 (I'm not on the beta), the brightness issue remains. I haven't seen the pixel shifting in a couple of days of use, but again, that is infrequent.

To those thinking it is a particular hardware device, I have ruled out the following:
  • The Mac: I have replaced the M1 with another (both 16Gb RAM, one 512 SSD, the new 1TB)
  • The LG 5K: I returned the first to get another. Issue was true across both. Both were gen 2, fresh from Apple
  • My particular OS setup: I have had this happen with absolute clean installs of Big Sur, not just my own normal setup
  • The TB3 cable: This happened with both out-of-the-box LG cables. Yesterday I got Apple's own TB3 0.6m cable. Brightness issue still occurred
I spoke extensively to Apple Care senior support early in 2021 to try to resolve this. They didn't seem to see it as a common issue, but took it back to engineering. After a couple of back and forths with hours on the phone, they disappeared with no resolution. I tried to reference prior MacRumors forums on the topic, but they seem to dismiss anything that isn't on their own support site.

A couple of things I wonder about cause-wise:
  • I'm using a third-party keyboard (Das Keyboard 4 for Mac). It has screen brightness keys. Same keyboard works flawlessly on my 2018 mini. But could this be an issue? Are others with brightness or pixel shifting using Apple's own keyboards?
  • I'm using a dual monitor setup (LG 4K over HDMI or USB-C is the other). I believe I've had this issue when only the Ultrafine is connected (but don't recall exactly). But are others using a single monitor setup and still having issues?
Thanks
 
It seems to work okay with my wife’s MBP (Core i9) so I assume it’s something weird with the Mac Mini at this point. Of course since my wife just spilled water on her MacBook, her computer isn’t working too...
 
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That's why I'm suggesting it's the actual port on the back of the display that's loose, not the TB3 cable.
If it's the actual port on the back, is there a fix for this? Or do you have to return the display for another?

I just got my Ultrafine 5k for my M1 MacBook Pro and less than an hour in I'm getting black blinking every 20-30 seconds. This display looks really nice but the blinking is hella annoying.
 
If it's the actual port on the back, is there a fix for this? Or do you have to return the display for another?

I just got my Ultrafine 5k for my M1 MacBook Pro and less than an hour in I'm getting black blinking every 20-30 seconds. This display looks really nice but the blinking is hella annoying.
Update: I was able to fix the problem by taping the thunderbolt 3 cable onto the monitor. I haven't gotten a black screen blink since.
 
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If it's the actual port on the back, is there a fix for this? Or do you have to return the display for another?

I just got my Ultrafine 5k for my M1 MacBook Pro and less than an hour in I'm getting black blinking every 20-30 seconds. This display looks really nice but the blinking is hella annoying.
I mean technically this falls within warranty but good luck with that with LG. Their support system is absolutely horrible.

EDIT; I think I misunderstood. Did you just purchase your LG Ultrafine from Apple? Because if that's the case: just return it and get a new one!
 
I'm on my second M1 Mini now. No pixel shifting.
Best way to test this to be 100% sure is to set one of the hot corners to turn the display off. And then all you have to do is move your mouse cursor to the chosen hot corner, it will turn off display, you wake it again by moving cursor, and you do that action 5-10-15 times, if there's still pixel shift it should appear.

Btw, now that you changed your mac mini m1 unit, do you still experience screen waking up with lower brightness then you set, so you need to re-slide it again to the max?
I own mac mini m1 and LG ultrafine 5k latest revision, and these two issues are so annoying for me.
 
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