White flickering screen while in Illustrator or InDesign cc 2019

[Guest]

Just wondering if any one else is having issues with a seizure inducing white flickering that only seems to happen while in Illustrator or InDesign? I am running iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with memory at 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 and a AMD Radeon R9 M395 2048 MB graphics card and fully up to date Creative Cloud programs. It seems to happen later in the day say after 2pm and it won't stop flickering until i restart my computer. Moving the mouse seems to aggravate it and it only happens on my main mac display, not on my two externals. A screen recording does not capture it but i have attached a video i found that shows the issue. i have talked to Apple and sent them diagnostics and they can't seem to figure out what's going on, now that it's also happening to my coworker as well I'd really like to get this fixed.

[Monika Gause]

Contact Customer Care and have them take  a look at your system.

Contact Customer Care

Perhaps the graphics card driver has been updated or whatever.

[Srishti Bali]

Roel, thanks for sharing this information. I have sent you DM, please check and respond accordingly.

[spenceri41064082]

Hello - just to confirm, I do not have Outlook installed and never have.

I do have Microsoft Office - Word, PowerPoint and Excel installed.

I have turned off GPU performance in InDesign and Illustrator - and although this stops the flickering, it means there is serious screen lag! Very frustrating and almost as hard to work with as the flickering issue.

Is there any update as to a potential fix?

Thanks

Spencer

[Srishti Bali]

Spencer, thanks for sharing the details. We completely understand how frustrating it could be. Could you please check which all applications are open along with Illustrator and InDesign when the screen starts flickering.

Also, can you reproduce the issue if you turn on GPU performance back in InDesign and Illustrator?

Regards!

[gracerudy]

Will the Catalina OS release address this issue? Could Adobe staff please reply with any information they have about this issue? Other users have no doubt spent many, many hours trying to track down solutions for this, the way I have. This has been going on for months and months with very little communication from Adobe or Apple. C'mon people! Please help!

[david_k]

Hi there,

We recently upgraded our imacs (retina 5K 27-inch, late 2009, 2013, and 2015) to High Sierra with the specific reason of being able to install Illustrator 24, since v23 can't open v24 files. (shame). I have noticed on the 2015 mac that when using Illustrator, and I right click on the ruler to change from Picas (who uses them) to Inches, that's when my flickering starts. I have only been able to solve it by restarting the mac. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. I do also run outlook for the MAC (v2011), but your link above doesn't have a solution for using it in low resolution. All that link says is that the problem is fixed in Catalina. 

I'll look for a result that shows the outlook low res instructions.

david k 

[jane-e]

“...to change from Picas (who uses them)

I do.

I also use Points, which is the default for Illustrator. I much prefer using 0p6 over .083333”. More here:

https://indesignsecrets.com/video-when-to-use-picas-and-points.php

~ Jane

[steves53302038]

Hi All,

My coworker and I have the same iMacs, LAte 2015. I am running Mojave and he may still be using High Sierra, I forget. This problem started for me when I updated to the latest CC after upgrading to Mojave. I experience it mostly in InDesign, as I actually do not use Illustrator very much. I do have  Outlook and the MS Office apps installed, but it's not where I encountered the problem.

Each time, the flashing seemed to start in a minor way and got worse, eventually forcing me to shut the iMac down (Which was difficult given I could not find my around on the screen! I was trying to save work and not force quit). As best I can tell the action that immediately preceded the flashing was my dragging, or drag-duplicating objects in InDesign.

And after reviewing this thread, rather than fully turn off "GPU Performance" in InDesign Settings, I turned off only "Animated Zoom." It's been a couple of weeks now, and the problem has not recurred, even in the minor, starting way I might have expected. So, fingers crossed, this seems to work fine and not affect performance much if at all.

Hope that helps.

Steve

Los Angeles

[bigfish2224]

I've got the same exact problem, it seems we are not alone in this! Same iMac (Late 2015) as well. Is there a fix?

[Monika Gause]

Does it still flicker when you turn off GPU acceleration?

[bigfish2224]

I was experiencing this issue on macOS Mojave, but since I upgraded to Catalina (with the latest supplemental update as well), I haven't experienced it yet. I actually wiped my drive and did a clean install of the OS and reinstalled all my Office 365 and Creative Cloud apps, and I haven't turned off GPU acceleration yet. I will advise how it goes, but so far it seems to be working! 

I should also point out that there is an issue that might cause this when Outlook is installed and used on these macs (the late 2015 ones that is): iMac screen flickers when using Outlook for Mac.

It seems a bit crazy that I would need to upgrade the whole OS to fix this issue, as that can sometimes bring on other issues, but at this point things are stable.

[WhitBee]

Unfortunately I have to report that I'm getting the same issue on my PC, so I don't think it is just a mac issue as of now.

[Monika Gause]

Dies it still flicker when you turn off GPU acceleration?

[steves53302038]

Update to my issue/"solution" above: For about a month after turning off "Animated Zoom"-only in InDesign, I had no flashing recurrence. Then it flared up, gradually over a few days building to the point where it was intolerable and a restart was needed. I've since needed two other restarts, and the problem seems to have stopped for now. 

I wnted to add that the issue seems to start when I am dragging part of an ID page layout with the Selection Tool.

Note that I do have Microsoft Outlook and Office installed, but the problem for me appears in InDesign, our main program. I am not a heavy Illustrator user. Since WhitBee mentions having the issue on a PC, I'll note that our 2015 27" iMacs have the AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 GB graphics cards.

I am still on MacOS Mojave, but given post bigfish2224's above, going to fast track upgrading to Catalina, once we determine if critical apps will be OK.

[romain de santi]

Hello, I have a kind of similar issue, wich may help to solve it .
I am on PC , windows 10 , GTX 1080 , nvidia drivers up to date .
When I am on illustrator with GPU on, I have a luminosity flickering issue at the top of my screen , only when I move my mouse.
If i turn off GPU, no problem.

[GilesHicks]

Hi, Does anyone know if this is now fixed by Adobe Illustrator 2020 and Catalina?

Our local Apple store rolled back our Imac to High Sierra to fix the Mojave / AI / AMD graphics card conflict.

Thanks

[steves53302038]

Hi Giles,

I can say that the InDesign 2019 version of the problem seems to be solved for me, using MacOS 10.15.1 Catalina. I've not updated to ID 2020.