macOS 13.X Ventura - Screen flickering issues

[Mortis360]

I have been experiencing issues with Ventura since it's release, my biggest issue of this is having display flickering.

I have a LG 27UL850-W display connected to my MacBook Pro 14" via a USB-C cable (the one that comes included with the display), whenever I play any form of video on the external display, the built-in display on the laptop starts flickering intermittently, you are talking about it going fully on and off repeatedly in a short amount of time, then it stops, before it resumes again. It seems to be slightly worse with YouTube, but I get the same issue when playing videos via Apple TV, etc.

There is a thread on Apple's own forums regarding this issue, MacOS Ventura Updated - MacBook Pro M1 Pro screen flickers now as my second monitor, I filed a ticket in the feedback app 26 October, and have updates this several times with more information, and through different versions of Ventura, today I downloaded the latest beta for 13.2 (I have been running non-beta software before this, makes no difference), the issues still continue, rendering my MacBook close to useless with Ventura.

As soon as I do a clean install of macOS Monterey, this issue disappears completely, there is no more screen flickering whatsoever.

There's a steps to reproduce list on Apple's own forums that I'll quote here;

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set external monitor as "Main Display"
2. Open any browser on the external monitor (Safari, Chrome, Firefox) and set to full screen.
3. Go to YouTube and play any video. Leave it playing in standard view.
4. (Important) On the MacBook display, open any application and set to full screen. I use Spotify.
5. Back on the external monitor, open Control Center (via Menu Bar) and enable/disable True Tone or Night Shift. Flickering won't occur if you do this on the MacBook display.
6. Observe flickering.

For me it does not matter whether external display is main monitor or not, it happens on basically all video sources, I use mainly discord on the MacBook display, but it happens in other applications in full-screen as well, I have tried changing color profiles, and disabling / enabling True Tone and Night Shift on all displays.

My biggest frustration with these issues is the complete no response at all from Apple regarding this issue, even though I have posted multiple posts in my ticket filed with them, and seeing hundreds of people have the same issue.

Is there anyone else here that experience this issue?

 

[osplo]

Have you tried with different cables?

 

[jordesign]

I have been experiencing issues with Ventura since it's release, my biggest issue of this is having display flickering.

I have a LG 27UL850-W display connected to my MacBook Pro 14" via a USB-C cable (the one that comes included with the display), whenever I play any form of video on the external display, the built-in display on the laptop starts flickering intermittently, you are talking about it going fully on and off repeatedly in a short amount of time, then it stops, before it resumes again. It seems to be slightly worse with YouTube, but I get the same issue when playing videos via Apple TV, etc.

There is a thread on Apple's own forums regarding this issue, MacOS Ventura Updated - MacBook Pro M1 Pro screen flickers now as my second monitor, I filed a ticket in the feedback app 26 October, and have updates this several times with more information, and through different versions of Ventura, today I downloaded the latest beta for 13.2 (I have been running non-beta software before this, makes no difference), the issues still continue, rendering my MacBook close to useless with Ventura.

As soon as I do a clean install of macOS Monterey, this issue disappears completely, there is no more screen flickering whatsoever.

There's a steps to reproduce list on Apple's own forums that I'll quote here;



For me it does not matter whether external display is main monitor or not, it happens on basically all video sources, I use mainly discord on the MacBook display, but it happens in other applications in full-screen as well, I have tried changing color profiles, and disabling / enabling True Tone and Night Shift on all displays.

My biggest frustration with these issues is the complete no response at all from Apple regarding this issue, even though I have posted multiple posts in my ticket filed with them, and seeing hundreds of people have the same issue.

Is there anyone else here that experience this issue?

Not sure if you figured this out, but for me I was able to get the flickering to stop by selecting a non-dynamic wallpaper. I also have a 27" LG (UL600-W)...

 

[sysadmin]

Not sure if you've found a solution yet or not, but I had several users running into these screen flickering issues. All of them were able to be fixed by updating to the newest version of Venture (13.2).

Something about the initial update seems to be causing these issues.

 

[apocalyarts]

I also have this issue. MacBook Air M2 with a Dell Ultrasharp Display, latest Ventura

 

[stimpy01234]

I've also noticed the flickering on my Dell UltraSharp U3223QE when connected via a USB 3.1 cable to my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro 13" after upgrading to Ventura 13.2.1.

The flickering seems to come and go randomly or when I have specific applications open and most noticeably when they are windows on top of one another - but this doesn't happen consistently.

I've ordered different USB 3.1 type-C cables to see if they make any difference. I've also disconnected all peripherals from the monitor and tried a different power cable.

But I'm starting to wonder if this is a software rather than a hardware issue, mainly because it comes and goes.

I've also noticed that setting the refresh rate to 30 Hz resolves the problem.

 

[tomek4]

I've also noticed the flickering on my Dell UltraSharp U3223QE when connected via a USB 3.1 cable to my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro 13" after upgrading to Ventura 13.2.1.

Hey,

It won't make you happy but I have exactly the same setup and ... facing the same issue.
30Hz of course is not an accepted solution since we paid for 60Hz super eyes protection technology (r)... but it is still better than strobe effect brought by apple gpu...

 

[stimpy01234]

Hey,

It won't make you happy but I have exactly the same setup and ... facing the same issue.
30Hz of course is not an accepted solution since we paid for 60Hz super eyes protection technology (r)... but it is still better than strobe effect brought by apple gpu...

Well, at least it strengthens my assertion that this is a software issue, not a hardware issue.
Hopefully, Apple will fix this bug ... or not.

 

[junukwon7]

I've also noticed the flickering on my Dell UltraSharp U3223QE when connected via a USB 3.1 cable to my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro 13" after upgrading to Ventura 13.2.1.

The flickering seems to come and go randomly or when I have specific applications open and most noticeably when they are windows on top of one another - but this doesn't happen consistently.

I've ordered different USB 3.1 type-C cables to see if they make any difference. I've also disconnected all peripherals from the monitor and tried a different power cable.

But I'm starting to wonder if this is a software rather than a hardware issue, mainly because it comes and goes.

I've also noticed that setting the refresh rate to 30 Hz resolves the problem.

Seems like there are many users experiencing the flickering : (

I'm also the one using U3223QE with USB-C1 90W, macbook pro 16 with m1 max.
I could confirm that specific applications and colors trigger the flickering, and it also leaves a ghost (simmilar to burn-in) when left for a long time(~30min).
Although the ghost could be resolved after using conditioning videos, the issue itself couldn't be resolved.

These are some things I tried
1. Use DP or HDMI (O)
2. Use the monitor's smart HDR feature. (O)*
3. Change the color profile, or use night shift. (O)*
4. Use Monterey, Big Sur (O)
5. Use 30Hz (O)
6. Reset monitor (X)
7. Factory reset mac (X)
8. Use other cables with the same USB-C1 DP port (X)
9. Use high resolution rather than higher data speed (X)
10. Install DDPM and Dell's drivers (X)
11. Correctly ground and make sure the power supply for the monitor is enough (X)
12. Use dynamic/static wallpapers (X)

* 2 and 3 are temporary fixes, and might resolve but occur flickering on other apps.

Maybe there might be a specific YCbCr color code which makes flickering (?)
Also, while zooming with mac's accessibility, some zoom levels stopped the triggering.

For me, apps including "Quip - dark mode"'s blue icon and youtube thumbnails including "Minesweeper, but there's negative mines" started flickering.