MacBook Pro 2019 Screen Flickering — Stops During Video Playback or External Display

[Ahsoka]

Hi all

I have been having an issue with my MacBook Pro 2019 with the screen flickering.
The internal screen flickers to black intermittently after logging in. However:

• No flickering on login screen
• No flickering in Safe Mode
• No flickering when a video is playing (YouTube, Twitch, QuickTime, etc.)
• No flickering when connected to an external monitor or dock

Flickering begins immediately after logging in and continues randomly unless a video is actively running.

What I’ve Tried:

• SMC + NVRAM reset
• Safe Mode test (no flicker)
• New user account (still flickers)
• macOS reinstall via Recovery (non-destructive — no change)
• Cleared display and windowserver prefs
• Deleted ColorSync profiles
• Uninstalled/disabled:
  • DisplayLink
  • Citrix
  • Java updater
  • Adobe/OneDrive launch agents

Issue has been ongoing for a few months now, the only thing I was doing at the time of this occurring was viewing a website and Safari asked that the site would like to send notifications.

any help would be great

 

[Heinzja]

It sounds like you've already done a thorough job of troubleshooting the flickering issue on your MacBook Pro. Given the details you've provided, here is a additional step and consideration that might help you further diagnose or resolve the problem... Since the flickering occurs after logging in and not in Safe Mode, it suggests that a third-party application or extension might be causing the issue.

Consider checking for any startup items or login items that might be running when you log in. You can do this by going to:
System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items and removing any unnecessary items.

It’s complicated and take a few attempts...

 

[Ahsoka]

It sounds like you've already done a thorough job of troubleshooting the flickering issue on your MacBook Pro. Given the details you've provided, here is a additional step and consideration that might help you further diagnose or resolve the problem... Since the flickering occurs after logging in and not in Safe Mode, it suggests that a third-party application or extension might be causing the issue.

Consider checking for any startup items or login items that might be running when you log in. You can do this by going to:
System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items and removing any unnecessary items.

It’s complicated and take a few attempts...

Thanks for the response.

I went through and removed unwanted things and then removed everything (as I didn’t see a need for them to run on start up) but unfortunately that didn’t help with the issue.