According to Wccftech, a widespread screen flickering glitch is affecting users who installed the macOS Tahoe update, which Apple launched in September. The issue reportedly plagues MacBooks and even external Studio Displays, causing random flickering. Interestingly, the problem appears most frequently when users switch between apps with stark white backgrounds or scroll on white webpages. For some, it’s been a persistent irritant since the update’s release, suggesting a bug in the code itself. The flickering can be a brief flash or a sequence of flashes lasting several seconds, disrupting workflows. There’s some anecdotal evidence that turning off the Night Shift function might help, but a definitive fix from Apple is still pending.
The White Screen Problem
Here’s the thing that makes this bug so weird and specific: it’s seemingly triggered by white. That’s a huge deal because, well, a massive amount of the digital world is white. Think about your email client, a document, a basic web page—they’re all bright, white canvases. So when the core act of scrolling through your inbox or a Google Doc causes your $2,000 laptop to strobe, it’s not just a minor glitch. It’s a fundamental breakdown in the user experience. This points the finger squarely at something in the graphics stack or display management. Maybe it’s a problem with how Tahoe handles gamma correction or brightness transitions on certain panels when rendering large fields of pure white. It’s the kind of deeply annoying, hard-to-ignore bug that makes you want to roll back an OS immediately.
The Fix and The Wait
So, what can you do? The internet’s current hack is to disable Night Shift, which is that warm, yellowish tint meant to reduce eye strain in the evening. If that works, it’s a major clue. It suggests the bug is lurking in the color management pipeline—the system that dynamically adjusts color temperature and brightness. Turning off Night Shift simplifies that pipeline. But let’s be real: that’s a band-aid, not a cure. Nobody should have to choose between a flicker-free screen and a feature designed for comfort. The real fix has to come from Cupertino. Apple’s known for its tight integration of hardware and software, which usually means smoother performance. But when a bug like this slips through, it highlights the downside: you’re completely dependent on one company to patch it. There’s no rolling your own driver or tweaking a config file from a third party.
Why This Stings
This isn’t some obscure edge case. We’re talking about basic screen functionality on premium hardware. And it’s been around since September? That timeline is surprising. You’d expect a visual bug this noticeable to be caught in beta testing or squashed in the first point update. The fact that it persists suggests it might be a complex interaction between the OS and specific display hardware or configurations. Maybe it only hits certain MacBook Pro models with ProMotion displays, or specific GPU combinations. The diversity of affected devices makes it a headache for Apple to diagnose. For users, it’s a trust issue. You install the latest, greatest, most secure OS, and suddenly your primary tool for work has a distracting, persistent flaw. It’s a reminder that even the most polished software ecosystems aren’t perfect. Now, everyone’s just waiting for that .1 update to finally drop.
