[markvc]

On a recent trip to Petra (and other stops) I had a strange set of images. Everything was normal, then the next several images had a purple cast to them. I was able to mostly correct in Lightroom, but not fully. After turning camera off for about 1 hour during lunch, the images returned to normal for the rest of the trip. Then at Christmas the same thing happened, but for a shorter time period. It went back to normal after just a few shots.
Images below show normal and problem from Christmas in Arizona.
I'm shooting auto white balance - In Az I shifted to day light which helped a lot, then back to auto with no issues.
Suggestions?

Attached Images

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[MarkJerling]

The EXIF data for both images seems to indicate manual white balance. Are you sure you've not altered a setting?

[UncleVanya]

Raw? Or jpg only?

[photoptimist]

As @MarkJerling said, EXIF says the white balance was set to "manual" which is a system for manually measuring and saving a white balance setting.

There's a decent chance your nose accidentally hit White Balance button on the 4-way. (I did this once and selected the "Color Temperature" setting with a value of 20,000K.)

If you almost always stick with AWB, you can change the memory settings of the camera to forget the white balance setting (reset to the default) each time you turn off the camera.

[kypfer]

On a recent trip to Petra (and other stops) I had a strange set of images. Everything was normal, then the next several images had a purple cast to them. I was able to mostly correct in Lightroom, but not fully. After turning camera off for about 1 hour during lunch, the images returned to normal for the rest of the trip. Then at Christmas the same thing happened, but for a shorter time period. It went back to normal after just a few shots.
Images below show normal and problem from Christmas in Arizona.
I'm shooting auto white balance - In Az I shifted to day light which helped a lot, then back to auto with no issues.
Suggestions?

I suspect this may be an occasion of an "errant thumb" unknowingly operating the WB switch on the 4-way controller.
Depending on how the camera is configured, the WB may revert to "normal" when the camera is switched off so the "fault" could come and go.
I've not had an issue with my K-3iii, but my K-70 caused me a couple of issues with unintentional Drive Mode settings 'till I realised what was going on.
There is an Operation Lock Button on the K-3iii, p46 in the Operating Manual, which can help overcome situations like this, also a plethora of button configuration options which may also help, p102 in the Operation Manual.

[Mikesul]

I found that, when hiking and climbing, it was best to take advantage of the locking command which locks the selected group of controls. It is easy to unlock when you need to adjust something but you do not accidentally push a button and change a setting.

[markvc]

Thanks for the suggestions. I do think it may be bumping the buttons as mentioned - I'll try to lock the functions when moving around out in the field.