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Small correction: you likely have a 2015 5k iMac that you purchased last year. There was no 2016 refresh of the iMac lineup. To add to the anecdotal evidence someone above mentioned about the 2017 iMacs not having image retention / burn-in issues, I can safely say the same.

but did you ever experience this issue on a 2014 or 2015 imac?
 
I too have owned a bunch of iMacs too and they all had the issue, every single one. I'm definitely not calling you a liar its just that it sounds too good to be true that the 2017's dont have this problem. I want to believe, I really want to believe, but Apple has let me down me every time so far.

How many 2017 iMacs have you tested?

at least three. the first one was a customer's I installed in august. I almost couldn't believe it when I worked on this machine, but there was no image retention at all. then I checked with the ColorSync Utility and I saw that there was a newer revision of the LCD panel built in to this iMac. so I bought two 2017 iMac for me to replace my own two 2015 iMacs.

seeing is believing! go and have a look for yourself. the new panels have zero image retention.
 
at least three. the first one was a customer's I installed in august. I almost couldn't believe it when I worked on this machine, but there was no image retention at all. then I checked with the ColorSync Utility and I saw that there was a newer revision of the LCD panel built in to this iMac. so I bought two 2017 iMac for me to replace my own two 2015 iMacs.

seeing is believing! go and have a look for yourself. the new panels have zero image retention.
Apple is sending me a 2017 to replace my 2014 because its been serviced so many times and partly I bet because they know the 2014 imacs are garbage so I hope you're right for my sake! I'm at the end of apple care so this is my last shot.
 
at least three. the first one was a customer's I installed in august. I almost couldn't believe it when I worked on this machine, but there was no image retention at all. then I checked with the ColorSync Utility and I saw that there was a newer revision of the LCD panel built in to this iMac. so I bought two 2017 iMac for me to replace my own two 2015 iMacs.

seeing is believing! go and have a look for yourself. the new panels have zero image retention.


the retention can show up after few months of usage
 
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as I wrote in another thread already: the 2017 models have zero image retention. finally. this is why I sold my 2015 i7. the 2017 iMacs are equipped with newer retina LCDisplays (according to the ColorSync Utility the newer model is 0000AE13 whereas the older ones were 0000AE07 IIRC). check with the ColorSync Utility to see what screen your iMac is equipped with.
This isn't true. I have a TOL 2017 iMac that exhibits pretty bad IR.
 
at least three. the first one was a customer's I installed in august. I almost couldn't believe it when I worked on this machine, but there was no image retention at all. then I checked with the ColorSync Utility and I saw that there was a newer revision of the LCD panel built in to this iMac. so I bought two 2017 iMac for me to replace my own two 2015 iMacs.

seeing is believing! go and have a look for yourself. the new panels have zero image retention.

that sounds like great news, im happy to hear it.

but would you mind sharing other details regarding differences between 0000AE13 and 0000AE07 screens you might have noticed, i would be very interested. thank you

and sorry for hijacking the thread
 
This isn't true. I have a TOL 2017 iMac that exhibits pretty bad IR.

what model is your LCD panel? check with ColorSync Utility.

AE13.jpg
[doublepost=1513982057][/doublepost]
that sounds like great news, im happy to hear it.

but would you mind sharing other details regarding differences between 0000AE13 and 0000AE07 screens you might have noticed, i would be very interested. thank you

colors are almost perfectly accurate. calibrating the display using an X-Rite i1Display Pro made almost no difference. it's brighter. zero image retention (so far? only the two I own?).
 
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I too began to see this problem immediately after upgrading my late 2012 27" iMac to High Sierra. I tried to report this in a bug report and was told that it was simply a burn-in problem, and it sounded like it didn't have anything to do with the macOS version but with my computer. So, seeing other people's comments (like planeBrad, BirtReynoldz , GilbertdH, etc), I decided to add my experience. This seems to cross machines (normal iMacs, 5K iMacs) and years (2012 onwards).

I finally found this page and tried resetting my (admittedly non-energy-saving) energy saving settings (for the computer and display) and then also having the screen saver kick in a lot sooner. And at least after about an hour's use the burn in seems to be gone....
 
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Just to follow up: I added a screen saver that kicks in pretty quickly, and I still see burn-in every now and again. But it hasn't gotten any worse since I originally opened this thread, and it's always gone away.

I suspect one day there will be permanent burn-in, but I have AppleCare so I hope Apple will replace the screen when that time comes.
 
Just to follow up: I added a screen saver that kicks in pretty quickly, and I still see burn-in every now and again. But it hasn't gotten any worse since I originally opened this thread, and it's always gone away.

I suspect one day there will be permanent burn-in, but I have AppleCare so I hope Apple will replace the screen when that time comes.
I would suggest getting the screen replaced by apple sooner rather than later because the issue will come back on the replacement screen and you want it to come back when you're still under apple care so it can be replaced too.

Also in my experience you want to report this issue to apple straight away so that they have it on record that you reported it early on.
 
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I too began to see this problem immediately after upgrading my late 2012 27" iMac to High Sierra. I tried to report this in a bug report and was told that it was simply a burn-in problem, and it sounded like it didn't have anything to do with the macOS version but with my computer. So, seeing other people's comments (like planeBrad, BirtReynoldz , GilbertdH, etc), I decided to add my experience. This seems to cross machines (normal iMacs, 5K iMacs) and years (2012 onwards).

I finally found this page and tried resetting my (admittedly non-energy-saving) energy saving settings (for the computer and display) and then also having the screen saver kick in a lot sooner. And at least after about an hour's use the burn in seems to be gone....

I started seeing this issue around the same time.

The odd thing is, when it happens there are like 1/16" vertical lines throughout the whole retention image, even when the window that caused the ghost image was white.

Something has gone awry within the OS software me thinks.
[doublepost=1515251798][/doublepost]Here's a quick picture showing the vertical striping throughout the ghosted image.

It's not a gpu issue I wouldn't suspect as the lines go away with the ghosting after I set a screensaver to run for a bit. A ghost image wouldn't be so bad but those lines are extremely annoying on any darker background.

Is there any way for apple to look into my case since my AppleCare expired a while ago?
 

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Also having the same burn in image issues as other with my late 2012 iMac, only after updating to High Sierra.

As well as the burn-in I am also having the greenish vertical lines that Binarymix has detailed. Most obvious when viewing something grey.

This all looks to me like a driver issue (have built gaming PC's and know the pain of driver hell!), especially as this is all happening post update to High sierra.

Running a screensaver for hours fixes the burn-in temporarily (not the lines though) but if anyone has a permanent fix I would be most grateful!:)
 
Apple is sending me a 2017 to replace my 2014 because its been serviced so many times and partly I bet because they know the 2014 imacs are garbage so I hope you're right for my sake! I'm at the end of apple care so this is my last shot.
This is giving me hope. I have a 2014 iMac 5K as well and have been very happy with it aside from this image retention issue. It's not feeling like a huge deal right now but if it's going to get worse over time I 100% want it fixed. At present, I only notice when I switch to a full-screen app that hides the menu bar -- in which case I see a ghost of the menu bar from before.

So, you reported it under AppleCare and they replaced it with a 2017 model? How many times did you have to go through AppleCare to make that happen?
 
This is giving me hope. I have a 2014 iMac 5K as well and have been very happy with it aside from this image retention issue. It's not feeling like a huge deal right now but if it's going to get worse over time I 100% want it fixed. At present, I only notice when I switch to a full-screen app that hides the menu bar -- in which case I see a ghost of the menu bar from before.

So, you reported it under AppleCare and they replaced it with a 2017 model? How many times did you have to go through AppleCare to make that happen?

After three repairs they gave me a 2017

I have no idea if the 2017 has the same problem yet but I'll make sure to moan to everyone here if it does
 
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I had my 2014 imac screen replaced 3 or 4 times because of image retention under apple care.

Basically you are screwed. The problem will get worse over time until retention occurs even after keeping a window up on the screen for 5 minutes.

Some people "claim" their 2014 and 2015 iMacs don't have image retention, but my theory is that they haven't owned or used the macs long or hard enough yet to develop or notice the issue.

Some people naively claim this is a non issue (because they havent experienced it) and they just link you to the apple page on image retention (which does not properly cover this problem). Those people have no idea what they're talking about.

If you have apple care I would strongly advise you to open a case and send them as much picture and video evidence as you can. The retention will most definitely become worse over time and you need to get a replacement screen ASAP and get it replaced under apple care once it develops retention too. Keep doing that until you run out of apple care and then either sell the imac (and hopefully disclose that it has this flaw) or try and get apple to send you a new one.

(FYI if you haven't heard of the image retention issue before, try going here https://marco.org/rmbp-irtest.html in full screen on your mac and leaving it for 5 minutes without looking at the pattern yourself, then full screen this grey color https://i.imgur.com/YFPLXuj.png and see if the boxes burnt in)

ONCE AGAIN: if you have never experienced image retention before then please don't try and tell the rest of us that it doesn't exist. You either got lucky, haven't owned/used the computer long enough to cause the issue yet, or you haven't noticed the problem (the retention is more noticable when you switch to a grey backdrop from a light interface).

and in closing: AVOID ALL LG DISPLAYS WHENEVER YOU CAN, THEY ARE ALL COMPLETELY GARBAGE.

good luck OP.


I have a late 2014 27" imac

It is doing it within minutes of a window being open.
I contacted apple and they told me "I have checked and it is a normal occurrence on this type display on yourMac but it will disappear."

What a load of
 
Late 2013 13" MBP for me, never had a single screen issue, I upgraded to High Sierra and image retention started to occur right away... like after 5 or 10 minutes. I reinstalled the OS, reset PRAM and SMC and that seemed to work. I then upgraded yesterday to 10.13.3 and yet again: revenge of the image retention.

I yet again went through the process of reinstalling the OS, reseting PRAM and SMC, and nope, I still have image retention. I called Apple, but they told me to bring it in. I am a few months out of AppleCare, but I've been a client for around 20 years and an Apple user since I was in grade school: this is utter BS.

For comparison, I have a Late 2015 27" iMac with 10.11.6 (El Capitan) and ZERO image retention issues. Luckily I didn't upgrade because AutoCAD isn't compatible with Sierra or High Sierra or I would be livid right now.
 
I noticed a dim image on the lock screen...

I know it's hard to believe, but what you are seeing on the lock screen is NOT burn in! That faint transparency/opacity effect is a FEATURE of the lock screen since El Capitan. I'm not sure why you are experiencing this now for the first time but it is "by design" on the lock screen. I was concerned as well when I saw this on my brand new 27" iMac out of the box. After some research, I discovered that this slight transparency on the lock screen (showing through to the desktop is a normal part of macOS.

I personally think it's a security issue that Apple introduced this for no apparent reason other than eye candy on the lock screen.

You can prove to yourself that this is NOT burn-in by placing something recognizable in a certain position on your desktop and then locking the screen. You will see that the object is just barely recognizable through the lock screen. Move that object, lock he screen again, and you will see that it's in the new position.

You can disable the issue from System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Enable "Reduce Transparency"
 
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That seems like a plausible explanation, but I haven't been able to get a faint image to display on the lock screen by following your instructions.
 
Late 2013 13" MBP for me, never had a single screen issue, I upgraded to High Sierra and image retention started to occur right away... like after 5 or 10 minutes. I reinstalled the OS, reset PRAM and SMC and that seemed to work. I then upgraded yesterday to 10.13.3 and yet again: revenge of the image retention.

I yet again went through the process of reinstalling the OS, reseting PRAM and SMC, and nope, I still have image retention. I called Apple, but they told me to bring it in. I am a few months out of AppleCare, but I've been a client for around 20 years and an Apple user since I was in grade school: this is utter BS.

For comparison, I have a Late 2015 27" iMac with 10.11.6 (El Capitan) and ZERO image retention issues. Luckily I didn't upgrade because AutoCAD isn't compatible with Sierra or High Sierra or I would be livid right now.

I have heard several people say they noticed a ghosting bug when updating to High Sierra but the 2014/2015 iMac retention problem has existed since those models came out which greatly predates High Sierra so it is definitely not a software bug. It's a defect with LG's 5k panel in the iMac itself, because LG's standalone 5k panels have the same issue.

Thanks. I've got a 14 months left on AppleCare, so maybe if I start kvetching now I can get this dealt with in time...
Call them today and start the process now. You may have to make a case to them that there's a problem because they're trained to think that retention is normal and they love referring users to some pointless article about "avoiding retention". Clearly they don't understand that this issue is different, or they know exactly what they're doing and are trying to avoid a class action because this problem is widespread and effects a great number of 2014 and possible 2015 units.

I have a late 2014 27" imac

It is doing it within minutes of a window being open.
I contacted apple and they told me "I have checked and it is a normal occurrence on this type display on yourMac but it will disappear."

What a load of

That sounds exactly like my experience. It's clearly not normal and you'll have to make your case with Apple now. I suggest taking photos, videos and asking to talk to a senior advisor. You may have to try multiple times. It's definitely not a normal or fair problem and if you press them hard enough they will agree.
 
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That seems like a plausible explanation, but I haven't been able to get a faint image to display on the lock screen by following your instructions.

It may be that I notice it clearly because I have my desktop background set to a solid, medium gray (yes, boring, but I find that it helps my eyes when working with web colors). Therefore, the details of things like icons and open windows have fairly good contrast on my desktop vs. those users that have photos as backgrounds. This may be why I can see these objects through the lock screen opacity/transparancy effect.

Setting your desktop background to a solid, medium gray is also likely a good way to detect actual burn-in as well. I can tell that my 27" iMac does not have burn-in whatsoever by moving icons that have been in the same place on my desktop for over a year. When moved, I don't see any burn-in in the location of the icons. If I had burn-in then it would be very clear on my medium gray desktop background.
 
Mac user of 24 years, and many years of visiting MacRumours, but only just joined specifically to contribute to this thread (watch me finally get drawn into other conversations!)

I have an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) running High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102).

About three weeks ago my iMac was taken in for a repair because of a black smeary stain on the bottom left of the display (an unrelated issue to the one in this thread). As I was still under Apple Care (just) the display was replaced under warranty. My Apple Care expired just a few days later.

I've had this iMac since early 2015 iirc, and not once in that time noticed any screen burn / image retention whatsoever.

However, since the repair, I've been noticing image retention constantly.

Interestingly, I too have my desktop background set to Solid Gray Pro Ultra Dark, and have used that for at least the last year if not two (so, both before and after recent the screen replacement).

Image retention occurs When any bright window is left open for 3-5 minutes or more. For example, this MacRumours window I am typing in now, in Safari. If I hide this right now I can actually read this text I am typing "burnt into" the desktop background!

Madness. I've called Apple Support, they've said I've got 90 days warranty on the repair to sort this. Will cal the Authorised Repair Centre on Monday to see what they say.

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