Screen colors get a washed out look (2024)

Wednesday, June 18

For some users, displays (primarily on MacBook Pros, but also on other models) suddenly develop a washed-out look, as if all the colors had faded. This has occurred for some users after running various applications including the the screensaver, as well as after software updates,or after the display restarts from sleep modes.

As described by Apple Discussions poster csorensen:

"Recently I noticed the color on my display being VERY washed out. It happens about 3-4 times a week. It only happens after I type my password in from the screensaver. When it loads back to the desktop, the screen looks CRAZY bright, and washes out all the colors."

This is caused by faulty ColorSync profile settings, and can be easily fixed:

Close and open the display again This will sleep the display and when the computer wakes up again it should reset the colorsync profiles properly.

Force the display to restart Press these keys to force the display to reset: control-shift-eject (you may have to press some keys to restart the display after it shuts off)

Calibrate, or re-calibrate the display In the "Color" section of the Displays system preferences, remove all colorsync profiles except for the one that's used by the display. Additionally, you might calibrate the display again and then remove all other profiles except for the newly calibrated one.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Resources

  • csorensen
  • Late-breakers@macfixit.com
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