Big Sur update is causing extensive screen flickering

That's what brought me here. Are you running Helium App, just curious if it's the source. I do a lot of work in terminal and my screens either disappear for a second and come back or flicker. In Safari the border content disappears for a second and back again.

My other issue is the trackpad becomes non-responsive for up to 15 seconds, most noticeable in Safari.

This is not a hardware because when I boot from an external SSD (Catalina) it runs like a charm with no issues.

Here are my specs if anyone is curious
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
Processor 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
Memory 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Same here
@eyepea I don't use Helium app but I get really bad flickering on Safari
also on the about Mac I get red flickering overlay and at startup, the icons background on the Touch Bar turn flashy green

MacBook Pro 16 inch
Processor 2.3 i9
memory 16gb
graphics radeon pro 5500m + intel uhd

I too have a similar issue on my MBP 2020 13" i5 2.0 GHz. It's usually a flicker in the bottom half of the screen, but sometimes the entire screen appears to "blink" for a fraction of a second. It's quite random, though it tends to happen more frequently if apps like Safari, Chrome, Terminal are running.

I have installed Windows 10 via Boot Camp and it NEVER flickers there, so I'm guessing this is a GPU driver bug that will be fixed soon in a forthcoming update.

I've just updated to the latest beta, build 20A5343i.

From the first beta I've had a flickering menu bar. Initially it was a slow rate of flickering that was only a mild annoyance. With the latest beta the flickering has become really rapid, & that's quite distracting.

PROBLEM REPORT BETA BUG SUR

1.same here I have a brand new MACBOOK PRO 16" 32GB its flickering even when the computer is not touched but it intensifies during TYPING or MOVING the mouse

2. The Systems Preferences are after being opend and clsoed not respoding to changes after a few updates.
Like if I disable battery and say show percentage its not until I close it that it shows.

THe turn off display options does not work at all.

Otherwise I like the feeling of screen feeling much larger and response feels great when using mouse and keyboard.

I've got the same issue . Just the menu bar flickering. Been using Beta 20A5343j for a few days and it just started happening.

Same problem here, menu bar flickering just when I add extra Desktops. No flickering when just with one Desktop. Even if some apps are in full screen - no flickering.

Someone have a solution to this bug?

im having the same issue, I didn't do anything to damage the screen. it started for me 3 days ago and I don't know how to fix it???

Same issue for both Beta 4 and Beta 5 constant flickering in the menu bar located in the top left corner of the display.

macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i)
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
Processor 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
Memory 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

I am having the same issue also with Public Beta 5.

same here ! when adding an extra monitors

MBP 15" 2018

running big sur beta 5. top menu bar started blinking. I opened mission control, deleted empty desktops. Blinking stopped.

I am facing the same problem and could not fix it. The screen is going crazy and cant use the mac any more.

im getting the same thing here

Has there been a fix for this? I just updated to Beta 8 and now my entire screen flickers and the background blinks. It's also extremely slow. It has made my Mac non-functional. Any tips?

Edit: The dock is also missing.

do you have any answers to solve this problem I am facing the same issue

Same here. iMac Pro 2017 and it's almost unusable. I was hoping the latest Beta fixed it but nope. Obviously it's a beta so I get it but wow, this is bad. Good thing I'm not epileptic.

Disable Screen Time and reboot to solve this issue.

The Screen Time hack no longer works it seems.

The problem now appears for me every time I plug in an LG 5K monitor and to resolve it you must reboot with the monitor still plugged in.

Confirming also this issue still exists in 11.0.1, which I assume therefore means it will be in 11 GM.

Apple better be ready for an awful lot of unhappy 5K monitor owners.

Yesterday (Nov. 13), I upgraded my OS to Mac OS 11.01 Big Sur. Everything worked fine, until a few minutes later that I started to experience a flickering in the bottom of the screen, that replicated a ghost image of the top section of the screen. I tried several things but nothing worked. Keeping trying, I was looking into the "Activity Monitor", and simply guessing I decided to kill the processes "mds stores", "mds" and some related to "md-" processes (which actually showed a high rate of energy consumption). To my surprise, after killing this processes, the screen flickering stopped. After this, my screen works fine for several minutes, until the flickering starts again. I confirm that I can solve the flickering if keeping killing the "mds" processes (I understand this process is related to the metadata indexing in spotlight, and my sometimes consumes important amount of energy).
I hope this is useful information for Apple engineers to find a solution for this problem. Meanwhile, at least for me, killing the "mds" processes solves (for 20-30 minutes at least) a temporal solution for the screen flickering. A final solution is needed urgently.

Hi I am sorry but I am glad we have the same issue to talk about this issue..
I have updated my MacBook Pro 2019 yesterday and just found my screen is blinking every few minutes.
I assume that this problem is due to extended monitor.
Also, when I moved my ZOOM (webinar application) window, the second monitor screen is partially broken..
I do hope this issue is fixed ASAP..

Just uploaded Big Sur this weekend and same intermittent flickering problem.

For me the problem vanishes as soon as I deactivate "Night Shift".

Appears Apple did not care to wait and fix this problem with external monitors (4 or 5K)
Its definitely present in the release 11.0.1 and makes Apple look like Microsoft when it comes to software quality.
This was not a problem prior to the upgrade on launch day, but present after first wake from sleep.

Running on Mac mini 2018, which "kind of" depends on an external monitor - after sleep the monitor keeps turning off and on whenever you click on anything, anywhere on the screen. Only solution I've found so far is change resolution to anything and back again. Which solves it until the next sleep/wake.

I'm an Apple fan, but also getting very annoyed at the software quality level they are releasing on their customers these days.
Have had many problems with the last couple of MacOS versions and this new one is no different.

Both my monitors aren’t working after the updated to Big Sur. They don’t even register in the Display preference panel. I’ve plugged them into my work laptop which is running an old OS and the monitors worked fine. New OS all new probs.