MacBook Pro M3 Video Flickering Bug?

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro M3 Video Flickering Bug?

Hello.

Support keeps telling me this video flicker is a software bug that will be updated in future updates.

When though?

I’ve been waiting since August last year (‘24). And Ive contacted support each update and told the same. Im confused why a bug like this is taking so long to be squashed. Its absolutely infuriating when watching any from of video.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

Support makes me feel it's just me but it can’t be surely? It’s got me questioning my sanity.

It mostly happens when the video is low light or dark colours and a change of camera angle happens. It’s so jarring when there's a lot of camera shifts.

Last year I got given a screen replacement and it still occurred. Then I got given a whole new unit and it still occurred.

Support tells me they don’t have access to future updates and what will be fixed.

If support was just honest with me from the start I would have had a different mac by now.

Ive kind of given up with it all now and I can live with it but this is not the quality I expected from a 2k machine.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Apr 12, 2025 7:57 AM

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Answer 1

May 3, 2025 10:51 AM in response to jcnathcn

?

The current stable release of Sequoia including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 15.4.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.

***wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries— connect the charging cable, this will make the wired keyboard successful Safe Boot your Mac.

recommended to unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

Contact the corporate office Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

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Answer 2

May 3, 2025 11:25 AM in response to jcnathcn

Are you playing these videos from the very fast BOOT drive directly, or from some other slower drive?

Video requires a fast drive and a lot of resources to expand that data for viewing.

Also you can check your drive speed and its ability to play videos with black magic speed test:

‎Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the Mac App Store

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Answer 3

jcnathcn Author

Level 1

4 points

May 3, 2025 11:39 AM in response to leroydouglas

leroydouglas wrote:

?

The current stable release of Sequoia including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 15.4.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

?

Don't know what you mean by this. My Mac is kept up to date. With every update the "bug" occurs.

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.

***wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries— connect the charging cable, this will make the wired keyboard successful Safe Boot your Mac.

recommended to unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

This has been done multiple times. On different versions of macOS since August last year (even on different machines of the same model Apple swapped out for me thinking it was defective). Support just tells me to do this too. I've been so reluctant to do now because I would put good money on nothing getting fixed by doing it. It's just pointless busy work support read off a script to me.

Anyway thanks for your reply.

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Answer 4

May 3, 2025 2:08 PM in response to jcnathcn

Consider downloading and running this little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck. It changes NOTHING. Etrecheck was developed by senior contributor here, and uses system calls to collect often-needed information.

it contains little tests for speeds of devices, CPU utilization, memory usage, energy usage and a digest of recent problems, in one easy to use package. it does not even need to be Installed. Because less can be learned when your Mac is running great, best time to run is when your problems are actually occurring, if possible.

if you follow the directions faithfully, its report (pre-laundered of all personally-identifiable information) can be "Shared" to the System ClipBoard, then Pasted into an ‘Additional Text’ window in a reply on the forums.

Use Etrecheck Pro for free:

http://Etrecheck.com

then start a reply on the forums, click the additional text icon, and PASTE

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