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The dreaded TouchBar Flicker.

jedgar

jedgar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2017
8
8
My 2018 MacBook Pro has developed the flickering on the touchbar. At first it didn't bother me, but it's gotten so bright that it wakes me up at night sometimes.

My understanding is that although it's a relatively common issue, apple does not repair it out of warranty. I've seen quotes anywhere from $400 to $1200 to fix it. I've also seen that the repair can involve anything from just the touch bar, to the whole top case, to most of the internals. Another thing common in this issue is a battery problem.

Three questions:

Has anyone had any luck just replacing the battery?
Does anyone know exactly what causes this issue?
Has anyone had any luck getting apple to cover this repair?

Thank you kindly and happy new year!

j.
 
If it cost more than $400 to fix, I would just get an M1.

It has been several years since I have seen someone ask about this problem but, (if I remember correctly) back in 2016 - 2017, many people ended up returning the Macs when possible. The others had to send to Apple for repair (still covered at the time).

Happy new year to you as well.
 
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If the battery isn't too bad, you could cover the Touch Bar with black electrical tape and just not use it. Otherwise, I'm likely to agree with Apple_Robert and suggest that you upgrade to a new M1 machine.
 
Apple_Robert said:
If it cost more than $400 to fix, I would just get an M1.

It has been several years since I have seen someone ask about this problem but, (if I remember correctly) back in 2016 - 2017, many people ended up returning the Macs when possible. The others had to send to Apple for repair (still covered at the time).

Happy new year to you as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. A lot of people on other posts have recommended bringing it in for keyboard repair under the extended keyboard program for this generation of macbook and hope for a top case switch (inc touchbar), so I will try that.

I've ordered an M1 and it should come next week, I'm just not sure what to do with this mac, from what I've seen online people who didn't fix it at this point ended up in a slow decline to total system failure (indicating to me that the underlying issue here is related to the power system, feels very much like a batch of weak/fault capacitors or something similar) so I suspect I should fix it if I want anything for it, it's a totally 100% fully loaded 2018 MBP.

I'll report back with what apple says about the keyboard repair etc and update the thread for posterity.
 
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jedgar said:
Thanks for the reply. A lot of people on other posts have recommended bringing it in for keyboard repair under the extended keyboard program for this generation of macbook and hope for a top case switch (inc touchbar), so I will try that.

I've ordered an M1 and it should come next week, I'm just not sure what to do with this mac, from what I've seen online people who didn't fix it at this point ended up in a slow decline to total system failure (indicating to me that the underlying issue here is related to the power system, feels very much like a batch of weak/fault capacitors or something similar) so I suspect I should fix it if I want anything for it, it's a totally 100% fully loaded 2018 MBP.

I'll report back with what apple says about the keyboard repair etc and update the thread for posterity.
Click to expand...
Last week my 2018 MBP developed the flicker and I brought it in to my local Apple service provider. They wanted $500 to fix it as it wasn't covered by the extended warranty. I declined and informed them that I would pick it up later that day. Figured I'd just put back the tape covering the flicker. Got a call back from them 10 minutes later and they informed me that the tech said the space bar was 'wonky' and it was therefore covered by the keyboard replacement program which also fixes the flicker. Anyone having this problem should definitely bring it in and have them check all your keys are functioning properly.
 
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Well, I took my mac to apple last week. The tech turned the computer on and the Touch Bar immediately started flickering, he told me because the Touch Bar isn't working, the keyboard replacement wouldn't be covered under the extended warranty program.
 
jedgar said:
Well, I took my mac to apple last week. The tech turned the computer on and the Touch Bar immediately started flickering, he told me because the Touch Bar isn't working, the keyboard replacement wouldn't be covered under the extended warranty program.
Click to expand...
That made your decision that much easier. At least the M1 will work so much better for you.
 
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My 2016 MBP has recently started the Touch Bar flickering, on the right side. Hard to notice issue while it is active (keyboard etc is receiving input and hasn't dimmed yet), but more when it dims and especially when it is off, the flickering is obnoxious. And I got the top case replaced for free for the infamous double registering butterfly keyboard issue in 2018.
 
My MBP 2018 developed the same issue. As the butterfly problem was also present I went to AASP and they changed the top case and the problem with Touch Bar flickering was solved.
 
Just wondering if this Touch Bar flicker only effects certain models or is this something that generally just happens with any model with the Touch Bar including the more recent M1 MBP?
 
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I recently upgraded to macOS 11.4 and have noticed the flickering has abated, though it's still doing it, but it's less obnoxious.
 
i had the same problem. MacBook 2018. my touch bar acting up all of sudden after updating. never happened before. any possibilities the main reason is the new os update?
 
No, it’s hardware related. Only a top case exchange can fix this or replace the touchbar but replacing just that part is not an official procedure. Take advantage of butterfly exchange program.
 
jedgar said:
My 2018 MacBook Pro has developed the flickering on the touchbar. At first it didn't bother me, but it's gotten so bright that it wakes me up at night sometimes.

My understanding is that although it's a relatively common issue, apple does not repair it out of warranty. I've seen quotes anywhere from $400 to $1200 to fix it. I've also seen that the repair can involve anything from just the touch bar, to the whole top case, to most of the internals. Another thing common in this issue is a battery problem.

Three questions:

Has anyone had any luck just replacing the battery?
Does anyone know exactly what causes this issue?
Has anyone had any luck getting apple to cover this repair?

Thank you kindly and happy new year!

have commented down the solution that worked for me :)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
THIS MAY WORK IN SOLVING THE FLICKERING TB ISSUE!
Go to Activity Monitor on your Mac- search for 'TouchBar Server' and quit it by clicking on the 'x' on the top left. Also quit 'Control Strip'. This immediately stopped the flickering for me. Doesn't really seem to be a hardware issue.
 
Last edited:
tarushi said:
THIS MAY WORK IN SOLVING THE FLICKERING TB ISSUE!
Go to Activity Monitor on your Mac- search for 'TouchBar Server' and quit it by clicking on the 'x' on the top left. Also quit 'Control Strip'. This immediately stopped the flickering for me. Doesn't really seem to be a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
In my case it was hardware. The only solution to fix the issue was to replace entire top case.
 
childoftheko4n said:
curious to answer of this as well. The M1 13" should be enough for me and photography, but the touchbar is a concern.
Click to expand...
Yeah it is worrying me, am considering selling when the M2 Air launches early next year so I don’t have to worry about it lol
 
tarushi said:
THIS MAY WORK IN SOLVING THE FLICKERING TB ISSUE!
Go to Activity Monitor on your Mac- search for 'TouchBar Server' and quit it by clicking on the 'x' on the top left. Also quit 'Control Strip'. This immediately stopped the flickering for me. Doesn't really seem to be a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip Tarushi! unfortunately it didn't fully work with my MBP 15" 2017 with OS Catalina, although the flickering seems to be attenuated.
 
Last edited:
My MBP 2019 had no problems worked perfectly, two weeks ago this weird flickering has started... I really don’t want to change the laptop... the mentioned above solution didn’t work. I just think that maybe keeping the Touch Bar active all the time would solve this problem, though have no idea how to do that. As according to other pages Apple made it not active by default.
Any clues?
 
*update: the problem later recurred.*

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) recently updated to OS X 11.6. The issue seems to be resolved, but I'm not sure which of the following were necessary since I did them all at once.
* Settings -> Keyboard -> "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light": turned off
* Settings -> Keyboard -> "Turn keyboard backlight off after ...": turned on
* Settings -> Keyboard -> Touch Bar shows: switched from "App controls" to "F1, F2, etc. Keys"
* Settings -> Displays -> (Built-in Retina Display) Automatically adjust brightness: turned off.
 
Last edited:
erici said:
I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) recently updated to OS X 11.6. The issue seems to be resolved, but I'm not sure which of the following were necessary since I did them all at once.
* Settings -> Keyboard -> "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light": turned off
* Settings -> Keyboard -> "Turn keyboard backlight off after ...": turned on
* Settings -> Keyboard -> Touch Bar shows: switched from "App controls" to "F1, F2, etc. Keys"
* Settings -> Displays -> (Built-in Retina Display) Automatically adjust brightness: turned off.
Click to expand...
I have same MBP, did update, copied your system preferences, still flickering.
As of late, mine periodically is worse - reaching farther across the Touch Bar.

Couple times between putting computer to sleep, the Touch Bar has stopped displaying altogether including the flickering which was a relief. Was worried I was then without an escape key but it still worked as well as the invisible function keys. But back to normal flickering...

I finally used black color pencil really thick on both sides of a cut index card and taped it over the part of the Touch Bar for my sanity
 
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