Two weeks ago, I purchased a new Macbook Pro 14 M3 Pro and a new Apple Studio display.
ISSUE: when connected to the Studio Display, any area that is supposed to appear light grey, appears with a pink hue. All other colors, including whites, are completely normal.
EXAMPLES: the grey bubbles in Messages, the drop shadow where Chrome windows overlap, the search bar in Google, and the side pane in Things, the image backgrounds on Amazon or Google…anything that is typically rendered in a light grey is appearing pink (see photos with arrows compared to my wife's MBA15). If I turn True Tone off, the issue resolves itself.
WHAT I HAVE RULED OUT
1. It is NOT an issue with the Studio Display itself or the color calibration of the display. I have connected my older M1 Pro as well as my wife’s MBA15 to the display via Thunderbolt and everything looks perfect, whether True Tone is on or off.
2. This also rules out the possibility of the issue being a faulty light sensor on the Studio Display that would have been rendering the True Tone inaccurately.
3. To completely rule out any issues with the Studio Display, I connected my new Macbook Pro to my wife’s Dell 4K monitor and the greys (when using true tone) display exactly as they do on my Studio Display = PINK.
So, now we move to potential hardware issues with the Macbook Pro itself…
4. When using the internal screen of the Macbook Pro everything looks perfect whether True Tone is on or off so it is NOT a global issue affecting all graphics
5. It is NOT an issue with a single Thunderbolt/HDMI port. I have connected the display to all three TB ports as well as via HDMI, and the issue persists.
So…I have ruled out everything I can think of. The only way to have the grey colors display correctly when connected to the Studio Display is to turn off True Tone. It seems like this is a software issue, but I cannot figure out what I am missing.
NOTE: for general work tasks not involving photo editing or video I DO want to use True Tone, so turning it off is not a workable solution. I really want to figure out why this issue only affects this particular laptop.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated…thanks!
ISSUE: when connected to the Studio Display, any area that is supposed to appear light grey, appears with a pink hue. All other colors, including whites, are completely normal.
EXAMPLES: the grey bubbles in Messages, the drop shadow where Chrome windows overlap, the search bar in Google, and the side pane in Things, the image backgrounds on Amazon or Google…anything that is typically rendered in a light grey is appearing pink (see photos with arrows compared to my wife's MBA15). If I turn True Tone off, the issue resolves itself.
WHAT I HAVE RULED OUT
1. It is NOT an issue with the Studio Display itself or the color calibration of the display. I have connected my older M1 Pro as well as my wife’s MBA15 to the display via Thunderbolt and everything looks perfect, whether True Tone is on or off.
2. This also rules out the possibility of the issue being a faulty light sensor on the Studio Display that would have been rendering the True Tone inaccurately.
3. To completely rule out any issues with the Studio Display, I connected my new Macbook Pro to my wife’s Dell 4K monitor and the greys (when using true tone) display exactly as they do on my Studio Display = PINK.
So, now we move to potential hardware issues with the Macbook Pro itself…
4. When using the internal screen of the Macbook Pro everything looks perfect whether True Tone is on or off so it is NOT a global issue affecting all graphics
5. It is NOT an issue with a single Thunderbolt/HDMI port. I have connected the display to all three TB ports as well as via HDMI, and the issue persists.
So…I have ruled out everything I can think of. The only way to have the grey colors display correctly when connected to the Studio Display is to turn off True Tone. It seems like this is a software issue, but I cannot figure out what I am missing.
NOTE: for general work tasks not involving photo editing or video I DO want to use True Tone, so turning it off is not a workable solution. I really want to figure out why this issue only affects this particular laptop.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated…thanks!
