MacBook Pro M1 external screen flickering

[kibepo73]

There can be multiple reasons for the screen flickering/blinking issue on your Mac. Some common reasons for the issue is in-display resolution, inappropriate working of Energy Saver, etc.

However, whatever the reason is, you can resolve the Mac screen flickering/blinking issue on your own with the below few quick fixes:

Fix 1: Reboot your MacBook.
Fix 2: Update your MacBook.
Fix 3: Deactivate automatic graphics switching
Fix 4: Deactivate True Tone
Fix 5: Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on Mac.
Fix 6: Reset NVRAM/PRAM on your MacBook.

Hope this will help you out!!!

 

[andytchp]

Signed up just to say I'm having the same issue.

M1 16" Macbook Pro connected to a Dell U2720Q 27" display (60Hz). This just started out of the blue yesterday, and occurred again late this morning. Was all rock solid prior to this since purchase (around 4 months ago), and I used the same setup for a year with my old 13" M1 Macbook Air without any issue whatsoever.

Both times it started and then resolved itself after about 30-40 minutes, absolutely bizarre and makes it very difficult to troubleshoot.

Very disappointing for what has (so far) been the most expensive computing equipment purchase I've ever made.

 

[renzo33]

I am also having the same issue. Flickering and pinstriping.

Configurations that don't have a problem:
MBP 14" M1 Pro
HP 24 inch 2k monitor x 2 output through OWC thunderbolt 4 dock

Configurations that has a problem:
MBP 14" M1 Pro
BENQ 28in EL2870U 4k monitor x 2 output through OWC thunderbolt 4 dock

The flickering and pin stripe happens randomly..

I have tried
- setting color profile and currently on sRGB on laptop
- changing cables now using USB-C to HDMI directly
- fiddled with monitor color settings and HDR settings - still sames

What I found out that I can reproduce this flickering or pinstripe is when I am using few different dark/black tones UI on SW like Keynote, whatsapp, Rock...

So like on keynote, my presentation deck is fully in black background, and I have presenter view turned on, and when i am scrolling through certain slides using the slide navigator on the left, then the screen starts flickering, happens randomly to the monitor that has a presenter view window for keynote.

I also tested this using whatsapp window in dark UI and monitor is normal, and I moved the window around and i had it overlapped with another window of other application which has dark UI, the flickering comes out. It happens on certain part of the dark part which overlaps on both windows of 2 different software.

I see that there is a lot of comments that it happens due to the dark color that m1 mac is trying to output.

And as I am writing this, I am not able to reproduce it with whatsapp and ROCK which is both that causes the problems. I hope it stays this way... I didn't change any settings.

I am really at lost at what else to try to fix this problem. Most of the time my external displays don't flicker, but when they do, it's really hard to focus on doing work.

I might just have to switch back to my 24" HP monitor if the flickering gets really annoying.

 

[FlickerFixer]

Hi folks! I've got some solutions here- WHOO! This problem drove me crazy, but I figured out a fix (other than the earlier suggestions!) For reference, this was with a BenQ PD2700U monitor.

1. There appears to be a bug in some versions of MacOS (including the most current one) where ICC V4 profiles or above cause external displays to flip out and do the pinstriping/flickering/etc. Using an ICC V2 profile should help in your display settings. (You can also verify ICC versions by using the ColorSync utility).

If you're still having issues...

2. Backup and delete these plist files (MacOS will rebuild the plist file on restart):
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist
and
/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.displays.[UDID].plist

3. Force RGB color by following the steps here: https://gist.github.com/GetVladimir/c89a26df1806001543bef4c8d90cc2f8

4. While you're in the plist file making edits, make sure your bitdepth is set to "8". For some reason my defaulted to "7" when MacOS rebuilt the file.

A combination of all of those steps fixed my problem! Apple wasn't any help despite talking to multiple techs and them just blaming my monitor. It seemed pretty clear to me that this is a MacOS issue, which was confirmed by the fixes up above. Hopefully this helps some people out.

Good luck!

 

[FlickerFixer]

Also, I should add that there's a sort of "turning the Titanic" sort of thing at play here. If your display is flickering and ghosting and going crazy, it'll continue to do so even if you fix the problem (and even if you unplug your cable and hook it up to a PC immediately afterwards!)

In other words, you can change the right settings and not see any immediate improvement because you're already past the flickering/pinstripe threshold of no return. You'll have to wait until the flickering stops, or your monitor has been turned off long enough, or probably the best option, to run a RGB fixer video, like this one for ten to twenty minutes or so:

If your Mac is super flickertastic, you might have to hook up your monitor to a different computer to run the RGB fixer video, then reconnect it back to your M1 Mac after it's stopped freaking out. Then work fast, before it hits that point of no return again!

 

[JoeSayerUK]

Also, I should add that there's a sort of "turning the Titanic" sort of thing at play here. If your display is flickering and ghosting and going crazy, it'll continue to do so even if you fix the problem (and even if you unplug your cable and hook it up to a PC immediately afterwards!)

In other words, you can change the right settings and not see any immediate improvement because you're already past the flickering/pinstripe threshold of no return. You'll have to wait until the flickering stops, or your monitor has been turned off long enough, or probably the best option, to run a RGB fixer video, like this one for ten to twenty minutes or so:

If your Mac is super flickertastic, you might have to hook up your monitor to a different computer to run the RGB fixer video, then reconnect it back to your M1 Mac after it's stopped freaking out. Then work fast, before it hits that point of no return again!

Hey flicker fixer.

Thanks for your response, very curious to find out if your flickering comes back. I still believe this is a hardware issue. In fact, I already built a PC and moved my entire audio production workflow to Windows, in no small part due to this issue. Your solution would be momentous, if true. Let us know straight away if the flickering returns!

 

[FlickerFixer]

Hey flicker fixer.

Thanks for your response, very curious to find out if your flickering comes back. I still believe this is a hardware issue. In fact, I already built a PC and moved my entire audio production workflow to Windows, in no small part due to this issue. Your solution would be momentous, if true. Let us know straight away if the flickering returns!

All good for weeks! This drove me crazy for month or so, so I'm happy to report the fix works!

 

[BENCHPRESS]

M1 Max with the Anker 777 outputting to a 32" 4k 144hz (DP to USB-C )monitor and the other is a 27" 1440p 120hz (HDMI )monitor.

My 1440p started flickering and blacking out and sometimes wouldn't even wake back up. This was fixed by switching the refresh rate to 60hz. I didn't like that since that seemed like a band-aid fix and then I remembered that I have recently installed Amphetamine to keep my device awake at all times. I uninstalled it and the switched the monitor back to 120hz and the flickering/blacking out has stopped since.

Maybe you guys can give that a try if you're an amphetamine user. Also, remember to uninstall Amphetamine Enhancer if you have that installed as well.

EDIT: Lol just kidding. Of course it came back.

 

[beko04]

Hello Guys

I had the same problem with my 16" MB M1 Pro. I connected it to the monitor via a USB-C to DP adapter.

The monitor normally uses 144 Hz. After setting it to 120 Hz like the MB, the flickering stopped.

Try adjusting the refresh rate so both have the same.

Hope this helps.

 

[wpp]

I have a slightly different issue which occurs mostly

1. After waking my computer from sleep.
2. The sharpness and color of the external monitor (Dell S2721QS) seem a bit off
3. I then change the resolution to a random value and back to the desired one in the system settings
   
4. Which results in a sharper image, but the monitor going black every 30s or so
5. What seems to fix that behaviour is to open an application in Full Screen Mode.

I'm not entirely sure if the application is relevant, so far I've opened Safari and started one of the Pixel Fixer videos mentioned above.

Other observations

• The resolution and scaling selection does not seem to make any difference.
• Changing the refresh rate to Variable improves picture quality and sharpness, this is especially noticeable in the dock icons.
• Changing the Colour Profile does not seem to have an effect
• Changing cables does not seem to have an effect (I've tried 3 different DisplayPort cables)
• The issue does not occur on an Intel based Mac I have for work

Hope this helps.

 

[chaaosdragon]

True Tone was the culprit for me. I have a MacBook Pro M1 14" and a Dell P2721Q (USB-C monitor). The monitor worked fine with my Mac Mini, but the flickering happened intermittently with the MacBook. I can toggle True Tone on and off (on the Display settings for the laptop screen) and watch the flickering start/stop on the Dell monitor.

 

[stevemiller]

i've followed tons of these "recommendations" and yet this still happens at random, frequently enough to be extremely frustrating. even if some of these fixes worked, the fact that you have to turn off features of the computer to be able to actually use it isn't acceptable in my eyes. and like i said, nothing has fixed it for me. after a year of this, and the fact that its not "just me", apple's indifference is disappointing.

apple silicon has an issue with external monitors that didn't exist with intel, full stop.

 

[Moulzdid]

Hey there, just joining the thread that I've been following for quite a time, to say that something as worked for me as a temporary fix.

I tried several things listed here as solutions, but at best it worked for a day or two.
Curiously, although people said to deactivate true tone and that kind of things, options that were already off for me because I need true colours for my work, well actually activate Night Shift works every time for me ! I have to do it nearly everyday, when the screen starts to flickr, and I adjust the slider to the coldest colour in order to not make it too different than normal colours.

I've doing it for a few weeks and it solves the problem every time, but I have to make the switch everyday, and let's face it it's really annoying when I have to do specific works on photos or video footage.

In addition I want to say I've also been in contact with Apple techs who asked me to deal with the screen manufacturer (ASUS), or schedule an appointment at the nearest Apple store (which is not close to where I live) and go there with my MBP 16" M1 and my screen, hoping the problem happens when I'm there...

Guys don't hesitate to call Apple to report the problem, until maybe one day they become willing to give it some interest !

Finally, did someone tried to change the HDMI / DisplayPort cable, and did it change anything ?
I'm interested to know if it's worth it to try and buy another cable or not...

Thanks everyone

 

[pshufd]

Hey there, just joining the thread that I've been following for quite a time, to say that something as worked for me as a temporary fix.

I tried several things listed here as solutions, but at best it worked for a day or two.
Curiously, although people said to deactivate true tone and that kind of things, options that were already off for me because I need true colours for my work, well actually activate Night Shift works every time for me ! I have to do it nearly everyday, when the screen starts to flickr, and I adjust the slider to the coldest colour in order to not make it too different than normal colours.

I've doing it for a few weeks and it solves the problem every time, but I have to make the switch everyday, and let's face it it's really annoying when I have to do specific works on photos or video footage.

In addition I want to say I've also been in contact with Apple techs who asked me to deal with the screen manufacturer (ASUS), or schedule an appointment at the nearest Apple store (which is not close to where I live) and go there with my MBP 16" M1 and my screen, hoping the problem happens when I'm there...

Guys don't hesitate to call Apple to report the problem, until maybe one day they become willing to give it some interest !

Finally, did someone tried to change the HDMI / DisplayPort cable, and did it change anything ?
I'm interested to know if it's worth it to try and buy another cable or not...

Thanks everyone

I had flickering problems off my M1 mini to Dell Ultrasharp 4k monitors. I upgraded cables December 2021 and the problems went away. I went with a short 18 inch USB-C Cable Matters cable and I don't recall the cable I used for the HDMI port but it was a really thick and chunky cable. It's possible that the Dell Ultrasharp line is better at this than the more consumer-oriented models.

 

[YusufRaja]

Hey, I've been dealing with this flicker issue for the last 3 months on an M1 Max Mac studio, completely puzzled at what the problem was. I noticed that it wasn't flickering on Apple apps like Safari, Finder or Final cut Pro, but it was on other apps like Blender. I tried everything, different cables, monitors, color profiles etc...
Just now, I changed the resolution scaling to match the Native resolution of the monitor and the flickering disappeared. I haven't seen anyone post this as a solution/potential problem, but hopefully this helps someone.
The only side effect is now all the text on everything is tiny, but it's less annoying than the flicker.

 

[pshufd]

Hey, I've been dealing with this flicker issue for the last 3 months on an M1 Max Mac studio, completely puzzled at what the problem was. I noticed that it wasn't flickering on Apple apps like Safari, Finder or Final cut Pro, but it was on other apps like Blender. I tried everything, different cables, monitors, color profiles etc...
Just now, I changed the resolution scaling to match the Native resolution of the monitor and the flickering disappeared. I haven't seen anyone post this as a solution/potential problem, but hopefully this helps someone.
The only side effect is now all the text on everything is tiny, but it's less annoying than the flicker.

I think that it's been widely noted that you can have performance problems using scaled resolutions as the system has to do some work to do the conversions. I run an M1 mini with 2 4k monitors and they are at native resolution during the day and scaled resolutions outside of the business day. I have even run four monitors off the mini, 2 with DisplayLink. I did not have flickering problems with this setup after upgrading cables.

But I was running the mini with about 70% CPU idle. I think that it's possible, at much higher CPU loads, to see video issues. I have had these kinds of problems on older Macs, particularly with integrated video and high memory bandwidth workloads.

I have not had these kinds of problems on Macs with discrete GPUs. I have a 2014 iMac 27 and that handles 5k scaling with no issues at all, regardless of how busy the CPU is.

My solution is to partition my workload on multiple systems so that I don't use a lot of resources on any single system.

 

[YusufRaja]

I think that it's been widely noted that you can have performance problems using scaled resolutions as the system has to do some work to do the conversions. I run an M1 mini with 2 4k monitors and they are at native resolution during the day and scaled resolutions outside of the business day. I have even run four monitors off the mini, 2 with DisplayLink. I did not have flickering problems with this setup after upgrading cables.

But I was running the mini with about 70% CPU idle. I think that it's possible, at much higher CPU loads, to see video issues. I have had these kinds of problems on older Macs, particularly with integrated video and high memory bandwidth workloads.

I have not had these kinds of problems on Macs with discrete GPUs. I have a 2014 iMac 27 and that handles 5k scaling with no issues at all, regardless of how busy the CPU is.

My solution is to partition my workload on multiple systems so that I don't use a lot of resources on any single system.

This is completely true, my bad. I spent a few hours looking at different guides and threads and didn't see it as a solution. I was extremely excited when I found the scaling "solution" and immediately rushed to comment it.
Just did a render on blender using the GPU and bam, there it was again! Is there really no solution until Apple fixes the problem?

 

[pshufd]

This is completely true, my bad. I spent a few hours looking at different guides and threads and didn't see it as a solution. I was extremely excited when I found the scaling "solution" and immediately rushed to comment it.
Just did a render on blender using the GPU and bam, there it was again! Is there really no solution until Apple fixes the problem?

First make sure that you're using the Apple Silicon version of Blender.

Then try experimenting with limiting the number of threads that Blender can use on your system. It's possible that you could restrict resources used when running it to the point where you don't get the screen flicker. I've never used Blender but I see that there's a setting on Threads and you can set it to Fixed and then set the number of threads to use.

It's not so much that Apple needs to fix this as you are using so much of the machine resources that you run into a limitation. The benefit is that it gets your work done as soon as possible. The downside is that it affects foreground use. What I would love to see in macOS is the ability to control resource usage by program or user.

 

[AllTheNamesAreTaken_37]

So I made an interesting discovery today. It seems to be caused by certain websites. If I open a certain website in Safari, the entire scene starts flickering:

https://www.theguardian.com/.../revealed-the-30bn-cost-of...

If I then open another tab in the same Safari window and load a different website the screen flickering stops:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/us/results

Clicking on the original Tab causes the screen to start flickering again. They can literally be two different Tabs in the same Safari window, and switching between them will start/stop the flickering. The flickering extends to the entire screen including the desktop - not just the content within the Safari window.

It occurs to me that YouTube, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video all rely on Safari. Doesn't explain AppleTV though...
If I create a screen recording using QuickTime Player, the screen recording is rock solid upon playback with no flickering whatsoever.

What do you all make of that?

 

[pshufd]

So I made an interesting discovery today. It seems to be caused by certain websites. If I open a certain website in Safari, the entire scene starts flickering:

https://www.theguardian.com/.../revealed-the-30bn-cost-of...

If I then open another tab in the same Safari window and load a different website the screen flickering stops:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/us/results

Clicking on the original Tab causes the screen to start flickering again. They can literally be two different Tabs in the same Safari window, and switching between them will start/stop the flickering. The flickering extends to the entire screen including the desktop - not just the content within the Safari window.

It occurs to me that YouTube, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video all rely on Safari. Doesn't explain AppleTV though...
If I create a screen recording using QuickTime Player, the screen recording is rock solid upon playback with no flickering whatsoever.

What do you all make of that?

Switch to Firefox.

 

[EvilHomer80]

So I made an interesting discovery today. It seems to be caused by certain websites. If I open a certain website in Safari, the entire scene starts flickering:

https://www.theguardian.com/.../revealed-the-30bn-cost-of...

If I then open another tab in the same Safari window and load a different website the screen flickering stops:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/us/results

Clicking on the original Tab causes the screen to start flickering again. They can literally be two different Tabs in the same Safari window, and switching between them will start/stop the flickering. The flickering extends to the entire screen including the desktop - not just the content within the Safari window.

It occurs to me that YouTube, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video all rely on Safari. Doesn't explain AppleTV though...
If I create a screen recording using QuickTime Player, the screen recording is rock solid upon playback with no flickering whatsoever.

What do you all make of that?

It was doing something similar for me, certain things loaded on the screen would kick off and switching what was on the display would stop it then start again. I concluded that something was flipping the BENQ out in the display signal, with darker windows seemingly creating the problem. I could even stop it by sometimes just moving a window to another part of the screen!

For what it is worth I changed nothing but switched monitors as my BENQ had another issue so I returned for a refund. Been running my EIZO trouble free with a small issue that sometimes when waking from sleep it forgets the monitor settings and resolution/refresh rate can't be set properly. I have to turn the monitor off, leave for 30s or so and turn back on then its fine

 

[AllTheNamesAreTaken_37]

Just out of interest I recorded my screen using Quicktime, and upon playback it was rock solid – no evidence of flickering whatsoever.. So this might suggest that the GPUs are working properly and that the issue is caused by something further downstream. Because HDMI works better (although not perfectly), I'm wondering if it has something to do with the Thunderbolt controller itself.

 

[AllTheNamesAreTaken_37]

Again, just thinking out loud here, but I'm wondering if this is the reason why Apple puts custom timing controllers in their displays - because they know the video output is a bit of a lottery and they need to compensate for it?

 

[Cannikin]

So I made an interesting discovery today. It seems to be caused by certain websites. If I open a certain website in Safari, the entire scene starts flickering:

https://www.theguardian.com/.../revealed-the-30bn-cost-of...

If I then open another tab in the same Safari window and load a different website the screen flickering stops:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/us/results

Clicking on the original Tab causes the screen to start flickering again. They can literally be two different Tabs in the same Safari window, and switching between them will start/stop the flickering. The flickering extends to the entire screen including the desktop - not just the content within the Safari window.

It occurs to me that YouTube, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video all rely on Safari. Doesn't explain AppleTV though...
If I create a screen recording using QuickTime Player, the screen recording is rock solid upon playback with no flickering whatsoever.

What do you all make of that?

Yep, I’ve noticed that when certain DARK things are on the screen, it’ll happen. It might be things that are near black, but not quite completely black. I used to run YouTube with the dark theme, but I started seeing certain videos would start the screen flickering. Switched to light mode and no problem.

So my theory is that certain values of gray, and what percentage of the screen they occupy, is what triggers it. Maybe the signal coming down the cable is slightly out of spec when this combination of factors occurs and it makes monitors freak out.

 

[AllTheNamesAreTaken_37]

When flickering, there is a subtle pinstripe pattern on the screen. It appears as thought there are alternating rows of image and black stripes. as though the odd numbered columns are image and the even numbered columns are black. Then in the next 'frame' all of the rows are image. This 50% black content switching back and forth is what our eyes perceive as flickering.