Chosen Solution

With my horrendous luck I noticed this issue just a week after the 1 year warranty of my Macbook Pro ended. According to my research this issue can stem from 3 things:

  1. a faulty LED-Backlit display in which case will need to have the whole display replaced OR
  2. LVDS ‘graphic cable’ issue, either it needs to be –replaced –or just repositioned At this point in time I’m leaning more towards bringing it to an accredited Apple center for repair. My question is, can anyone tell me the range for fees and for how long the repairs would be for each scenario mentioned above? Just a minimum/estimate would be fine so that I won’t be quite shocked when I do bring it over to the center >< And is this an issue that I can just ignore, practically speaking? Would it get worse if I leave it as is(like bigger shadows or whatnot overtime)? On a side note, I also noted keyboard issues popping up after this. Sometimes the letter ’s’ would have a lag, won’t be functional or would double type. Same with the no. 2 key. I’m not sure if this is related or an entirely different problem with the display – no other functions seem affected MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core i5 Memory: 8 GB 1867 MHz LPDDR3 Graphics: Intel Iris Graphics 540 1536 MB
  • picture taken at the lowest screen brightness
  • increasing it appears to lessen the shadows but they’re still visible even at maximum brightness

As shown here, the cables mentioned by @danj cannot be swapped out. I have pried open the clutch cover which is glued to the LCD bottom panel to investigate.

These are the components, labelled, with clear explanations of what they do and how they are connected. This should answer anyone’s queries about whether the LCD cable can be changed. The part that can be changed is not the answer. The parts that might be the failing ones, cannot be changed. Conclusion:

  1. Apple needs to initiate a recall.
  2. LCD display change is the only solution for now.

Stage light effect is usually caused by a loose or broken display cable. Sometimes it can be resolved just by reseating it. I think that if the display cable is bad, you would most likely looking at a whole new display assembly. The keys however, are the design flaw of the 2016 MacBook Pros. Usually they replaced the keyboard under warranty. Sometimes keys can be remedied by blowing them with a compressed air. Take it to Apple and try to get them fix the machine.

FYI, I just got mine fixed at a MacBook Pro repair shop in Saigon, Vietnam (big shout out to Laptopblue.vn aka Applefix.vn). The most amazing thing was they found out that only the display cable was damaged, absolutely nothing was wrong with the LCD screen itself. They did a great job and my screen is working as good as new again. The cost was $50. Prior to going to this shop, I went to two Apple Authorized Service Providers and they both wanted me to replace the entire display assembly as some of you here had encountered. I suspect this was a strategy employed by Apple to extract more money from their loyal customers. Shame on you Apple!!! I will never buy another device from them ever again. I know some of you may encounter this issue in the future. You don’t need to replace the LCD, you’ll just need to fix the display cable. Don’t give Apple $600 of your hard earned money. They don’t deserve this.

Sign this petition https://www.change.org/p/apple-fix-all-m… to let Apple repair these faulty machines.

So I have this issue too. I asked for an exception from Apple and they basically told me to go &&^& myself. I shared this thread with them to show that this is a very widespread issue. Didn’t care. The most amazing thing though was the excuse they conjured up to not pay. They took pictures of the LCD cable which is obviously completely &&^&@@. They then send these to me and say that it’s ‘accidental damage’ and therefore there’s no way they can help me because they only cover functional damage. I ask how it could be possible that I accidentally damaged an LCD flex cable that is inside the housing of the machine. Their answer? That it must have been opened up by some mysterious third party and damaged maliciously. I emailed them to say this is completely absurd, and they just ignored me. Roll on the lawsuit I guess.

I had exactly the same issue, I replaced the whole LCD screen assembly and it works again. I hope I’ll not have the same problem in the future. If it’s the flex cable that fails it can fails at anytime even if the whole LCD screen assembly has been replaced. It’s not very ecology minded from Apple to force their customer to replace the whole screen assembly when it’s just a flex cable that fails. For a company that communicate about being “green” it’s not very consistent. And that’s really not what I expected from a 2600€ laptop. Anyway, I hope future model will not have the same flaws, and I say that already knowing that the 2018 model have the same design, so it’s not a good news. They have fixed the keyboard flaws years after year, but the screen backlight seems not to concern them. Maybe it’s less visible, maybe it’s not as frequent as the keyboard. Well, I hope so for my screen !

same problem here with a MBP late 2016 , I bought it in Miami and I live in Brazil. It’s frustrating dedicate extremely care for a computer and watch it breaks by itself, in normal use. Apple, please, recall everybody, at least from 2016 to solve this common issue.

This is my experience, my MacbookPro 13" Touchbar 2016 just started having this backlight issue at the bottom of the screen right after a few months of warranty. Also when I recalibrate the screen, I found out that the maximum brigtness has decreased to a max of 165-175 cd/m using a i1 Display Pro (i1D3) with their supplied i1Profiler.I always calibrate my screen to 120cd/m, when I first got it, 120 cd/m is about 65-70% screen brightness using the slider in System Preferences > Displays. Now 120 cd/m is about 90% screen brightness.

I’m going to give @Tyler+P. vendor a shot since I’m currently in town as well. p.s: I know for fact that once I take it to Apple or even if Apple decides to offer repair program on this I’ll be out of luck as they will blame that it’s related to this cosmetic crack caused by a headphone jack left sandwiched between the lid and the body.. F this.

They will also try and cover the cost if you had to pay out of expense and reimburse you (I believe if you’ve done repairs with apple and not a third party) All the info are on the website

I found a solution by scraping down to the traces and soldering them thick solder. Worked for me : )