my 2017 iMac still does not show any hints of image retention.
My 2017 iMac which is barely used is showing signs.
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My guess is there was a firmware update for the display controller included with the High Sierra update, and that's what's causing my particular problem.
For your own particular problem perhaps its a software issue but I can say, with complete 100% certainty, that the displays Apple uses in the iMac are just horrible panels. As I've said I've owned a 2012, 2014 and 2017 iMac and they all developed retention. Moreover, I went through multiple panels with the 2014, and the retention persisted in Windows also meaning it wasn't software related.
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I was just kidding.
I think it's just that usually whenever you upgrade your OS X it's at least 1 y later (obviously).
IR usually begins after 2 years or so from my experience, thus sometimes it falls right when a new version of OS X is released.
In my case, IR began well before High Sierra, I noticed it in Sierra already. At first I thought it were just random OS X glitches so didn't bother. Then much later I started to google the issue and eventually noticed that people had it specially on the first MBP Retina quite fast (but I had it on a non retina screen anyway).
Might have been easier to notice on High Sierra but if that's the case my guess would be that it's just because time had passed.
My guess is if it affects all screens (doubt it else Apple would have reacted... Most likely only people who HAVE IR are posting about it, making it as if it was widespread), I'll start to notice it in 10.15 in my case (since I just bought a iMac Pro), then will prolly blame 10.15 like people here blame High Sierra...
So far so good but my iMac Pro is only 3 months old.
But one thing I might agree with people here is I think it's related to heat (but maybe again it's a coincidence) : I had no sign of IR for 3 years until I started to do lots of video editing/encoding and thus stress the iMac a lot almost 12h a day.
So it's possible that the iMac Pro might not have this issue since it uses a completely different cooling system.
But one guy here says that his LG screen has the issue too so... might be not the case after all and just time passing...
I am intimately familiar with the retention problem, having experienced it for 6 years on 3 iMacs and 6+ panels in total.
The issue is the panels apple uses, and the retina ones are made by LG, which if you buy their standalone 5k display also has retention issues:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/image-retention-lg-5k-owners-help-needed.2038477/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/lg-ultrafine-4k-ghosting-burn-in.2021478/
If you search the forums it looks like there are LOTS of angry people with this LG monitor and the iMac (especially the 2012-2014 maybe since they're older) who are angry about this issue. I myself have lurked on the forum for a long time and have followed this issue closely, but then I only signed up because I got into PowerPC.
I am content with the fact that Apple
WILL NOT fix this issue, because they
DO NOT care about the Mac, we can see that easily:
1. AVOID the iMac because they all have LG panels with a crippling flaw that causes image retention
2. AVOID the MacBook Pro because the keyboard is terrible, keys easily die, and the hinge makes annoying pop noises
3. AVOID the mac mini because it hasn't been updated in years
4. AVOID the mac pro because it hasn't been updated in years
We can see where Apple's priorities really are... The iPhone X and iPad Pro are fantastic. The Mac not so much. This year Apple is bringing iOS app support to MacOS, iOS 12/13 bring a lot of multitasking and desktop features to iOS. In 2020 they're moving the Mac from Intel to ARM. Apple didn't train their employees how to provide support to the iMac Pro whereas in the past they always did much better.
In the next 2-5 years Apple will kill the Mac off completely. MacOS is 20 years old, and hardly any effort is being put into improving MacOS or Mac hardware.
