diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 93f3505eb1eb1..2011626e67bbc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 ### Fixed
 
 
+- Fixed a visual bug in the progress bar display initialization ([#4579](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/4579))
+
 
 ## [1.1.4] - 2021-01-12
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/progress.py b/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/progress.py
index 3ed5c11fd75d7..639a988bf3856 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/progress.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/progress.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@
 
 # check if ipywidgets is installed before importing tqdm.auto
 # to ensure it won't fail and a progress bar is displayed
+from typing import Optional, Union
+
 if importlib.util.find_spec('ipywidgets') is not None:
     from tqdm.auto import tqdm
 else:
@@ -306,7 +308,7 @@ def init_test_tqdm(self) -> tqdm:
     def on_sanity_check_start(self, trainer, pl_module):
         super().on_sanity_check_start(trainer, pl_module)
         self.val_progress_bar = self.init_sanity_tqdm()
-        self.val_progress_bar.total = convert_inf(sum(trainer.num_sanity_val_batches))
+        reset(self.val_progress_bar, sum(trainer.num_sanity_val_batches))
         self.main_progress_bar = tqdm(disable=True)  # dummy progress bar
 
     def on_sanity_check_end(self, trainer, pl_module):
@@ -327,8 +329,7 @@ def on_epoch_start(self, trainer, pl_module):
             val_checks_per_epoch = total_train_batches // trainer.val_check_batch
             total_val_batches = total_val_batches * val_checks_per_epoch
         total_batches = total_train_batches + total_val_batches
-        if not self.main_progress_bar.disable:
-            self.main_progress_bar.reset(convert_inf(total_batches))
+        reset(self.main_progress_bar, total_batches)
         self.main_progress_bar.set_description(f'Epoch {trainer.current_epoch}')
 
     def on_train_batch_end(self, trainer, pl_module, outputs, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx):
@@ -342,7 +343,7 @@ def on_validation_start(self, trainer, pl_module):
         if not trainer.running_sanity_check:
             self._update_bar(self.main_progress_bar)  # fill up remaining
             self.val_progress_bar = self.init_validation_tqdm()
-            self.val_progress_bar.total = convert_inf(self.total_val_batches)
+            reset(self.val_progress_bar, self.total_val_batches)
 
     def on_validation_batch_end(self, trainer, pl_module, outputs, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx):
         super().on_validation_batch_end(trainer, pl_module, outputs, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx)
@@ -362,7 +363,7 @@ def on_train_end(self, trainer, pl_module):
     def on_test_start(self, trainer, pl_module):
         super().on_test_start(trainer, pl_module)
         self.test_progress_bar = self.init_test_tqdm()
-        self.test_progress_bar.total = convert_inf(self.total_test_batches)
+        reset(self.test_progress_bar, self.total_test_batches)
 
     def on_test_batch_end(self, trainer, pl_module, outputs, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx):
         super().on_test_batch_end(trainer, pl_module, outputs, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx)
@@ -387,8 +388,14 @@ def _update_bar(self, bar):
             bar.update(delta)
 
 
-def convert_inf(x):
+def convert_inf(x: Optional[Union[int, float]]) -> Optional[Union[int, float]]:
     """ The tqdm doesn't support inf values. We have to convert it to None. """
     if x == float('inf'):
         return None
     return x
+
+
+def reset(bar: tqdm, total: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
+    """ Resets the tqdm bar to 0 progress with a new total, unless it is disabled. """
+    if not bar.disable:
+        bar.reset(total=convert_inf(total))