Why does my MacBook Air screen sometimes get a blue tint?

March 6, 2023 3:21 PM

I'm having trouble googling this because I am not talking about the "blue screen of death," but sometimes my MacBook Air's screen will suddenly take on a blueish tint. There's no other disturbance -- I can keep working on whatever I'm doing, but right before my eyes everything kind of tints blue. Why, and what do I need to do about it?

My laptop is still covered by Apple Care, if it matters.

posted by BlahLaLa to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Response by poster: I should have added:
-- this comes and goes, at all hours
-- I'm aware of that night version of the screen, but I'm noticing this during the day (while I'm working)
-- everything else about the laptop appears to be running fine
-- all of my settings are at whatever the defaults are
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:23 PM on March 6, 2023

Possibly a problem with the video hardware, or a flaky ribbon cable connection. If so, it's repair under warranty time.
posted by pipeski at 3:28 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yeah I think I had this same problem and it was the ribbon cable. Replaced under warranty if I recall correctly.
posted by rustcellar at 3:37 PM on March 6, 2023

I’d confirm that you don’t have the “night shift” setting on some schedule, then take it in for warranty repair.
posted by skewed at 4:02 PM on March 6, 2023

Best answer: I would also see if "True Tone" is on, because I found that tended to make my screen look blue--just in case that's it. And then yeah, get on that repair.
posted by wintersweet at 5:48 PM on March 6, 2023

Best answer: Second that it could be "True Tone" - I've had that get turned back on after updates, too, so if you previously had it turned off, it might have come back.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 6:08 PM on March 6, 2023

Certainly worth testing if it's the True Tone thing (which bugs me when it happens - I disabled it) but if you have the presence of mind try taking a picture and comparing it later. It won't catch the color cast exactly but you would be able to compare and tell later whether a certain icon was definitely like really blue or green or whatever.

So yeah, first go into settings - display and disable true tone. If it still happens, it could be a GPU, cable, or display panel issue and they'd need to handle that at the Apple Store.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 6:11 PM on March 6, 2023

Response by poster: OOOHH yes, True Tone was enabled. Just disabled it and will see if that makes a difference!
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:38 PM on March 6, 2023

I was going to say True Tone - my display suddenly goes more or less blue at seemingly random points because of it, but not enough that it worries me. Hope that's the fix for you!
posted by fabius at 5:11 AM on March 7, 2023

Response by poster: Coming back about 10 days later to say that turning of True Tone seems to have solved the problem. Thank you!
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:07 PM on March 17, 2023