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I own a 2015 Macbook Pro 15" with these specs: Macbook Pro Specs

Sometimes red/grey squares appear below/around text labels, like this:

Red squares img 1 Red squares img 2 Red squares img 3

As you can see, all kinds of apps are effected, like the Dock or Calendar. Also, the squares sometimes have a dark red, sometimes grayish color. When I hover with the mouse over the Dock icons the labels start changing their color between red and grey.

When I restart the app (e.g. use killall dock) the squares are gone but they will re-appear later.

It doesn't matter if I use an external display or the integrated display of the Macbook, the problem will occur on both.

Only thing I noticed is that if I attach both my external monitors to it (27" Thunderbolt Display and 27" Cinema Display) and if I drag an app, e.g. Calendar, from the Cinema Display to the Thunderbolt Display, suddenly the squares appear. If I drag the app back to the other monitor, the squares disappear. The rectangles in the Dock appear on both monitors though.

So far that's all that happens. It's not to bad but it's a bit annoying.

Also, I need this computer for work, so if it's a hardware problem I don't want it to die suddenly in the middle of important work.

So far I haven't tried to reinstall macOS yet since, as I said, I need the computer for work and don't want to fiddle around with it to much since it's working smoothly besides the issue with the rectangles.

What do you think could be the issue here? Is it hardware or software? Would macOS reinstall help? Is it a known issue? Do I have to go see the genius bar? Really want to avoid that :-(

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  • Have you tried to create a new admin user and to log in with it? Let us know if the issue is visible there as well.
    – oa-
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 15:48
  • @oa- Yes, I tried that but didn't have an effect, the problem occurs there as well although not that bad. Rectangles are there but their color is much more in the lighter gray regions. Also, when going back to my normal account, the problem became a lot worse there. The reds got a lot darker and even Mail is affected now.
    – Timo Ernst
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 20:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Finally found out what's wrong. I had been using a custom calibration for my monitors since their color temperature was different to each other. After resetting the calibration to default the issue is gone.

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