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On macbook - Just go to colorsync profile and see the ICC profile for inbuilt monitor. It has an mmod tag which embeds the serial number. I don't have another mac to compare values against, but the ICC profile is dynamically generated based on the embedded hardware info.

interesting,

the question then would be whether a reset wipes this out or not

I suppose it wouldn't be a terrible idea to back up this icc
 
Wait, what!?

You're saying that resetting a MacBook would lose the display settings from the factory?

How would Apple be applying a settings file to each MacBook in the factory? I thought they'd apply a standard image.

Regardless of how they do it... that would be concerning...
Yes, they will be lost and replaced by a so-called “average” profile with color deviation, temperature shift, black, white and gray point shift. Roughly speaking, a complete reset of the ICC profile.
That's easy. Load the universal profile, which is included in the preset ICC profile of the operating system. It is the same “default settings” and will adjust it to the average value. If you reinstall the operating system, there will be no color adjustment.
 
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I seriously doubt they do this

pretty simple argument to resolve

we just need to take a look at the icc from two identical MacBook monitors and see if they are identical or not
No. They won't be the same. One monitor will give a yellow tint, one will give a blue tint, one will give a red tint.
 
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Yes, they will be lost and replaced by a so-called “average” profile with color deviation, temperature shift, black, white and gray point shift. Roughly speaking, a complete reset of the ICC profile.
That's easy. Load the universal profile, which is included in the preset ICC profile of the operating system. It is the same “default settings” and will adjust it to the average value. If you reinstall the operating system, there will be no color adjustment.
I can’t believe Apple would do such a thing. To have the display calibration get permanently lost if reset to factory defaults would be idiotic. Especially without any warning.

We will need proof of this. Or a way to verify this.

Apple could download the correct factory profile from a server during setup. They could embed it in read only firmware. They could skin this cat a hundred different ways without permanently deleting this for the user.
 
The question isn’t about user-calibrated profiles though so how is that relevant?
One more time. When reinstalling the operating system, the factory calibrations of the monitor are deleted and the calibrations and changes made by the user are also deleted (if any).
 
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I can’t believe Apple would do such a thing. To have the display calibration get permanently lost if reset to factory defaults would be idiotic. Especially without any warning.

We will need proof of this. Or a way to verify this.

Apple could download the correct factory profile from a server during setup. They could embed it in read only firmware. They could skin this cat a hundred different ways without permanently deleting this for the user.
You can easily see for yourself. You will need a spectrophotometer for monitor calibration and software. Delta E will constantly jump and produce average values when reinstalling the OS.
 
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No. They won't be the same. One monitor will give a yellow tint, one will give a blue tint, one will give a red tint.

what are you talking about?

if apple calibrates the monitors at the factory, then each MacBook of the same model will have a unique icc profile

if they do not do so, then the icc for each MacBook of the same model will be the same
 
One more time. For those who can't read. When reinstalling the operating system, the factory calibrations of the monitor are deleted and the calibrations and changes made by the user are also deleted (if any).

what specific information are you basing this claim on?

do you know for a fact that the calibration is not stored in firmware?
 
What’s your source that this isn’t stored somewhere in the firmware and gets restored the moment you reinstall macOS after a SSD wipe? You provide none thus far.
You're welcome. Apple's official standard response. Read it very carefully. If you don't understand, read it again. I told you the answer before. How do I know? Again, experience, knowledge of monitor calibration. That's an ironclad argument. Where-where? What SSD!? LUT is written either in the driver profile of the video card/chip or if available, in the brains of the monitor itself.
 
You're welcome. Apple's official standard response. Read it very carefully. If you don't understand, read it again. I told you the answer before. How do I know? Again, experience, knowledge of monitor calibration. That's an ironclad argument. Where-where? What SSD!? LUT is written either in the driver profile of the video card/chip or if available, in the brains of the monitor itself.

what "official standard response"

you seem to be talking nonsense

why do you believe the calibration is not stored in firmware?
 
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Калибровка дисплея Mac

С помощью приложения «Ассистент калибратора монитора» можно отрегулировать точность воспроизведения цветов на дисплее Mac. support.apple.com

that doesn't say anything about whether or not there is a profile for the display stored in the firmware

it is completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand
 
You're welcome. Apple's official standard response. Read it very carefully. If you don't understand, read it again. I told you the answer before. How do I know? Again, experience, knowledge of monitor calibration. That's an ironclad argument. Where-where? What SSD!? LUT is written either in the driver profile of the video card/chip or if available, in the brains of the monitor itself.
The page you're providing doesn't mention anything about the question being asked here. In fact nothing you've said so far bears any relevance to the subject.
 
where did you read this?
This thread holds a lot of what I have previously read. Most relevant quote is below:

Hi baltwo,

Yup, all monitors are like that now, even laptops. The factory profile is burned on a chip associated with the monitor and is pulled by the OS to the Profiles folder; Mac or Windows. Which is why you never see disks with monitors anymore, which used to have pretty much nothing on them but the factory supplied profile.

In the case of the OP here, if they overwrote the one in the Displays folder so it's not the original canned profile, the OS will still pull off a new one from the monitor and call it xxxxx-1.icc

But it is from 2010, which is why I figured I'd ask here if it was still true. I'm impressed by the robust discussion my question has created - I had figured this would be more common knowledge.
 
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I’m an Apple certified technician. You’re fine. The panel is calibrated at the factory. This is one of the many (some debatable) reasons Apple doesn’t want aftermarket display replacements used, the panel most likely won’t be calibrated. Don’t worry about all the techno-mumbo-jumbo reasons people are talking about. The factory calibration is baked into the panel itself. Erase and restore your Mac to your heart’s content.
 
The answer above is complete on its own, but also, let's just take a step back and think about it for a second.

Apple cares a lot about screen quality & color accuracy. It would make NO SENSE that if you reset your Mac, your screen would be downgraded in quality. Absolutely zero sense on any level. Those who are saying that performing a software reset, which millions of people do all the time, would adversely affect the screen's performance – that is a wildly illogical thing to claim, especially without any shred of hard data to back it up. "Trust me bro, use a spectrometer and see for yourself" is not hard data or proof of anything.
 
Yes, the factory calibration of the monitor will be erased and lost.
Back that claim up.
There is now way factory display calibration is being erased. I’ve erased my Mac’s many times, same with iPhones that are calibrated out of the factory as well since at least the iPhone 11 Pro, and the display never looks different compared to the previous standard.
It would make zero sense to only have your computers be color accurate ONCE and then never again after it was wiped for whatever reason.
Imagine going to the Apple Store for Mac service and they give you your Mac back without its previous factory calibration.
 
Despite my reluctance to enter this specific wasp nest...

Calibration is the process of adjusting a monitor’s display settings (brightness, contrast, color temperature, and RGB levels) to meet a specific standard or ideal condition. The goal is to ensure that the monitor reproduces colors consistently and accurately, setting a baseline for color fidelity.

Profiling is the process of creating a color profile for the monitor after it has been calibrated. This profile maps the monitor’s specific color characteristics to a standardized color space (like sRGB or Adobe RGB). The profile is saved as an ICC (International Color Consortium) file and is used by the operating system and color-managed applications to translate colors correctly. Profiling doesn’t change the monitor settings but ensures that software compensates for the display’s unique characteristics.

The profiles that you read from the monitor are those of the specific target the monitor has been calibrated to, within the required tolerance.
You can measure a monitor response and save the measurements as profile.

If you reset a mac you delete all the profiles. There's no way, as far as I know, to touch the factory monitor calibration of a mac, you can only apply a specific profile to it.
 
Sorry if this is a stupid question, would just like some reassurance about this.

If I delete all user data on the Mac and wipe it to factory settings (using Erase All Content and Settings), does the factory display calibration get lost as well?

I've read in some places that display calibration is baked into the monitor hardware and will be maintained across system resets, but I didn't find any up to date information about this.

Thanks!
It's fine. Your screen will be the same.
 
Despite my reluctance to enter this specific wasp nest...

Calibration is the process of adjusting a monitor’s display settings (brightness, contrast, color temperature, and RGB levels) to meet a specific standard or ideal condition. The goal is to ensure that the monitor reproduces colors consistently and accurately, setting a baseline for color fidelity.

Profiling is the process of creating a color profile for the monitor after it has been calibrated. This profile maps the monitor’s specific color characteristics to a standardized color space (like sRGB or Adobe RGB). The profile is saved as an ICC (International Color Consortium) file and is used by the operating system and color-managed applications to translate colors correctly. Profiling doesn’t change the monitor settings but ensures that software compensates for the display’s unique characteristics.

The profiles that you read from the monitor are those of the specific target the monitor has been calibrated to, within the required tolerance.
You can measure a monitor response and save the measurements as profile.

If you reset a mac you delete all the profiles. There's no way, as far as I know, to touch the factory monitor calibration of a mac, you can only apply a specific profile to it.

I think the confusion here is that there appears to be an icc for the display baked in to the machines firmware
 
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>icc for the display baked in to the machines firmware

Yes. It's dynamically generated. You can try it yourself by deleting "/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/". Similar things are possible for external displays (e.g. ICC from EDID), probably for apple display it's queried via other means. Tried to put this thread to bed once and for all by checking ioregistry for anything that could resemble calibration data ("ioreg -c AppleCLCD2 -r -lw0 -d 1") but only thing I could find was "Panel_ID", which seems to have enough bytes to convey something but whose format is not clear
 
Are you sure? Here’s a quote from a guide from Apple:

“Every MacBook Pro, Studio Display, and Pro Display XDR undergoes a state-of-the-art factory display calibration process on the assembly line to ensure the accuracy of the P3 wide color panel and LEDs.”

Something's changed then - last I checked the profiles were identical (it's been a while though). Sounds like Nathansz is right above, and it's in the EDID now.
 
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