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iamone11
Participant
July 1, 2026
Question

Quest 3S Visual Bug. Floating colored rectangles showing up in Quest UI

My Quest 3S has a weird visual glitch that's been driving me crazy where a large, semi-transparent colored rectangle appears in the Quest UI and some games (like Into the Radius). Crucially, it only shows up through the physical lenses. If I take an internal screenshot or video, it doesn't show up on the file.

I grabbed a short video and screenshot showing the issue, but I'll admit it's faint and tough to get a shot of through the lens: https://imgur.com/a/HOVdbpW It's the sort of flashing yellow tinted horizontal lines in the video and screenshots.

A few things I've noticed:

  • It happens identically through both the left and right lenses.
  • It happens in both passthrough and virtual environments.
  • It doesn't seem to happen in all games. Some like Beat Saber or Batman don't show it, but definitely pops up in Into the Radius and Robo Recall.

Everything I've tried to fix it:

  • Hard reboots and clearing boundary cache.
  • Disabling Experimental 'Temporal Dimming' and toggling 'Match Colors in Environment'.
  • Using the Meta PC Update Tool to totally refresh the system.
  • 3 Factory Resets: It temporarily disappears on a fresh wipe, but the moment the OS settles back into normal operation and gets rebooted a few times, the glitch creeps right back in.

This feels like a software/firmware bug, but at this point, I don't know what else to try.

Has anyone else seem something like this on a their Quest 3/3S?

28 replies

Maccyb123
Honored Contributor
July 1, 2026

That's a strange one. I haven't seen it on my 3s. What software version are you on? 

    iamone11Author
    Participant
    July 1, 2026

    My headset is currently on Horizon OS v2.5. I think it happened on v2.4 as well, but I didn't grab a screenshot of the OS version when I first started seeing this a few weeks ago to confirm. 

    Just add a bit of color - this doesn't seem like a hardware glitch with the screen itself. It feels more like a shader or rendering type of bug causing these artifacts to appear. 

      Maccyb123
      Honored Contributor
      July 1, 2026

      You might have a bug for sure.. I just checked my 3s, as sometimes I'm not very observant. Lol. But I don't have it, I'm still on v2.4 though. Are you on PTC still or is the final version. If it's still on PTC they might fix it for the official release. Definitely report this as a bug through the bug reporting tool on the headset.. And good luck, hope you get it fixed soon. Once you see something it's hard to unsee it. 

      iamone11Author
      Participant
      July 1, 2026

      That's a good callout, I am on the PTC build of v2.5 but just enrolled earlier this week as a troubleshooting step for this issue. This is my first PTC update. Unfortunately, this issue occurs on both public and PTC v2.5. I'm actually planning to unenroll my headset and go back to the public release v2.5 build this afternoon.

        iamone11Author
        Participant
        July 1, 2026

        Just another note on troubleshooting: I did enroll in the PTC build of v2.5 and the issue persisted. I then unenrolled my headset and factory reset to the public build of v2.5. During the first boot up, this issue did not appear. However within 2 full reboots of the system, this artifact issue has returned. 

          iamone11Author
          Participant
          July 10, 2026

          Quick Update:

          I worked with Meta Support and received an RMA replacement Quest 3S for this issue. Unfortunately, after setting up and testing the replacement headset, I'm still seeing the exact same visual artifact.

          The replacement exhibits the same semi-transparent colored rectangle/horizontal banding behavior that appears through the lenses but does not appear in screenshots or screen recordings. I've been able to reproduce it in the Quest UI and in some games, just like on my original headset.

          At this point, I'm honestly more confused than ever. The fact that a completely different headset shows the same behavior makes me wonder if this is a firmware/software issue, a Quest 3S display characteristic, or something else entirely.

          I can get it to show up easily with the Quest UI Library floating and then physically walking towards the UI. As I step forward to fairly close to the UI the banding will appear, change shape and color, etc. 

          Has anyone else experienced this on a Quest 3S, especially recently? If so, did you ever determine whether it was hardware, software? 

          Any additional feedback or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

          Maccyb123
          Honored Contributor
          July 10, 2026

          iamone11​ Hi there. I just checked my 3s again just to be sure. I mentioned earlier I didn't have this problem. Since then I got updated to the official v2.5 and I still don't have any artifacts, or lines or any other anomalies. It's a real mystery. It would be a very small chance that you got another headset with exactly the same problem, so I'm thinking it might be software, though even that is unusual. I'm just wondering now might it be the room you are playing in?  Are you using LED lights? I have read a few comments over time that LED's were causing both video and/or audio interference.  Also check other electronic and electrical equipment you might have that could be affecting it.. I'm not saying that's it, but if the same thing is happening to two different headsets, it might be worth checking if there is an environmental cause.. It must be very frustrating at this point so I hope you find whatever the heck is causing it! 

            steve40
            steve40
            Honored Contributor
            July 11, 2026

            Sounds suspicious. Maybe Meta sent the original headset back to the user? Check the serial numbers.

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