Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Do you usually do that so you install manually everything (settings and programs) after clean install OS, or just restore from TM backup? I not sure which way I will do it. I'd rather save time but want to avoid possible issues afterwards...
Call it OCD if you will, major OS upgrades in my experience always have their quirks due to the migration of old settings/apps which may or not be fully compatible with the new one. Plus, nothing beats the snappiness of a fresh new start IMHO.
 
So... has Catalina fixed the issue for you all? So far i haven't noticed any flickering but it is stlill too early to tell if it has been fixed.
 
I upgraded to Catalina yesterday. 2018 MBP 13" 2.3ghz. No artifacts/flickering so far...
 
I updated to Catalina two days ago and I've enabled auto brightness and true tone! Fingers crossed.
 
I have not seen this issue recur since I installed the last Mojave update (10.14.6).
 
ok i haven't seen the issue and i've been on this computer an entire day.

hopefully it has been fixed. anyone else?
 
I have not seen this issue recur since I installed the last Mojave update (10.14.6).
Same here. That update fixed it for me. On Catalina now. Also hasn't happened again, however some other little Catalina issues, but that's another story. Main thing is the graphics glitch isn't happening any more.
 
Hey!

I'm in the same boat as you guys. I have a MBP 2019 13" that I bought in the US on the online store and it came directly from China and I have the same problem as you.

I really hope and think it's a software problem. But it could really be that all the graphical cards of this model have this problem, or perhaps the problem is not on the board but perhaps on the sensor.

Anyhow, I really concur that it's related to auto-brightness and true-tone features and it's happens after the machine has woke up form sleep. I think that usually after a couple of times sleeping and waking up something in the graphical system goes awry and when the computer senses a change of light the flash in the screen happens.

In my case I have other kind of graphical glitch. When I'm connected to an external screen —through USB-C cable (I don't know if with others too) if I log out the screen gets distorted green —on the mac— for a second and then it gets the normal image. I really don't know if it's related.
 
By the way… from one Reddit comment about the issue:

My 2018 13” does this as well. I am able to reproduce the flicker by shining a flashlight across the ambient light sensor. This is likely a software issue related to auto brightness.

I just tried and I was able to reproduce. It does't always happen, but the first time I did, it did the flicker.

I really really really think it's a soft issue that something stop working properly after you repeatedly sleep and wake up the computer. When the computer it's fresh booted it doesn't happen.

Perhaps more people is suffering and it's perhaps a widespread issue in the 2018 and 2019 models, but you have to really pick it up and work in certain light conditions. Also, you really need to be bother by it, know that it's a glitch, and be really observant to notice it. It's not really easy to be picked up.
 
By the way… from one Reddit comment about the issue:



I just tried and I was able to reproduce. It does't always happen, but the first time I did, it did the flicker.

I really really really think it's a soft issue that something stop working properly after you repeatedly sleep and wake up the computer. When the computer it's fresh booted it doesn't happen.

Perhaps more people is suffering and it's perhaps a widespread issue in the 2018 and 2019 models, but you have to really pick it up and work in certain light conditions. Also, you really need to be bother by it, know that it's a glitch, and be really observant to notice it. It's not really easy to be picked up.
Upgrading to Catalina has fixed the issue for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lpuerto
How is OP's machine working with Catalina? Did it fix the problem?

I've had Catalina installed for couple weeks and so far not a single flicker, so looking good in that department.
Just today upgraded to 10.15.1 version, interesting to see if it stays the same. Seemed to contain some new Boot rom and T2 updates, so need to keep an eye on this.
 
@0906742 Thanks a lot for keeping us posted. I really appreciate it and it would be really great if the rest of the people that updated to Catalina also report back if the flickers are gone.
 
Did Catalina fix Sergeys screen glitches?

I can confirm that mine has been glitch free ever since Catalina update. Even after the latest Catalina patch couple weeks ago never seen any problems with the display. I think it is safe to say it fixes that random and rarely occurring less than 1 second at the time happening glitch. Obviously there are number of other reasons (like hardware or cable faults) that can use this.
 
I know no one is listening but Im telling you, this is to do with the backgound image on the desktop.
You can see even in some apps, the colour changes slightly according to what you have on the desktop.
And when it wakes from sleep it takes a second or so to sort out the image.
Maybe the graphics card starts up a little late orsomething;

But in any case give it a go.
Change the desktop t oa plain colour that isn't composed of millions of pixels- grey by preference.
If it doesn't go away, then I'm wrong and I'll shut up.
But I have fixed this twice on two machines now.
 
I know no one is listening but Im telling you, this is to do with the backgound image on the desktop.
Nah, I don't think so, that is some other problem you're seeing but sure it can be fixed like that if you seen it yourself. I haven't had that problem ever, the only glitching I had (like in this thread described) was fixed with Catalina update.
 
I know no one is listening but Im telling you, this is to do with the backgound image on the desktop.
You can see even in some apps, the colour changes slightly according to what you have on the desktop.

I really doubt it. What you are probably seeing there is that change due true color and auto brightness features, which are sure linked to the issue since the glitches seems to be due to change in light.

As I said before, I really think that is a service that goes awry after several sleep and wake up cycles and not working properly. Just that.
 
YFYI, some data points:

I had the exact flicker problem as described here with two different MBPs, both 13" touchbar, one from late 2016, the other from mid 2018.

Each of these machines had another problem (obviously: broken keyboard in the MBP 2016, less obvious but apparently quite common, too: swollen battery in the MBP 2018). So I brought both for repair last week, also mentioning the flickering. Both came back with new top case and new display (but original logic board).

And guess what, the flickering is not gone (both MBPs are still running Mojave). I did expect this, thanks to @0906742's careful observations as reported in this thread. And I can confirm now that this is certainly not a display problem, nor a display flat cable problem.

Theoretically, it could still be a logic board problem, because these were not replaced. But I think @0906742 was right all along - this is software. Furthermore, I guess it is related with sleep/wake, because what I found immediately makes the flicker go away for me is a quick sleep and wake cycle. It looks to me as if there is a possibility of a "bad wake", where some display timing gets and remains off track. The probability of a "bad wake" however is low, so a sleep/wake cycle has a good chance to fix it.
I'll not rush installing macOS Vista Catalina, so I'll have some more opportunities for observing this ;-)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.