MacBook Pro 15" Touch Bar 2018 Battery Replacement

This did not work when running High Sierra.

Tried this on a 2018 MBP 13” Touchbar (there’s no iFixit guide for this model yet). Need to replace a broken screen.

Luckily I managed to connect to an external screen (Cmd-Down Brightness to switch displays) and enter above command. Seems to work, but there’s another problem with this model - it powers up as soon as any key is pressed……. ffs <gnashes teeth>

I unscrew the battery first and wrap electrical tape over the logic board battery connector before attempting any repairs to the board. Haven’t had any problems yet and I’ve worked on about 10 of these models already. Also when you open the bottom case use a suction cup at the bottom and pull up then run a plastic spudger along the edges to disconnect the clips. Also only use a plastic spudger on the board. Saw a youtube video from a repair shop and he did not disconnect the power and used all metal tools during the entire process of removing the board. His last step was to disconnect the battery terminal.

Is this step necessary if my mac can turn on? Battery fully dead(

BEFORE YOU START: The included torx head stripped off before I was done (and you might need an additional T4) so stop now and go buy a good one. Also they fail to warn you above to get some blue threadlocker ahead of time.

This command did not work for me and I read that sometime in later 2020 Apple stopped this command from working…any ideas on a work around?

Not able to do that with damaged screen

Hi. This does not work on 2018 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I did exactly this to disable auto boot. But when I check by using nvram -p it says: auto-boot true. Am I doing something incorrectly? I did everything step by step. Copied and pasted the sudo command, pressed enter and then entered my password. I have Big Sur 11.1 installed. Is there any other way since I need to replace the screen. Thank you. Adrian

Hi everyone. This is also a little pointless if you can’t see anything on the screen, and you don’t have a display adapter to USB C to display it. I agree with Brian about removing the back and disconnecting the battery cable before you even think about opening the lid of the MacBook. Applying the insulation tape is also a handy little tip that just makes sure there is no way to discharge from either the board or battery.

This step is completely unnecessary if you follow the guide to disconnect the battery properly. Just put some tape between the battery and logic board connection to prevent it from accidentally touching and therefore powering on the laptop.

It took me a few tries to make this command work, as I was able to copy and paste the command into Terminal, but could not type in my laptop’s password. I finally typed my password into a text document, copied it (command C), and then pasted it into Terminal and it worked.

I didn’t do this. Mine never auto-booted before I replaced the battery. Now it does.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING - CHECK THE BATTERY!

I-fixit sent me a bad battery, which I didn’t realize until it was already install. They sent me a new one, but I wasted hours uninstalling and reinstalled.

Get a volt meter and measure the voltage on the output of the battery pack. If it reads 0 V, SEND IT BACK. It should read over 2 V.

I received the battery kit for my 2018 MacBook Pro and as per the above comment from bcardanha - Oct 12, 2021, I checked the voltage on the pads marked + and - . It was zero volts so I panicked a bit.

I sent a message on the iFixiT Facebook page and I got no reply. I finally found the customer service email for Ifixit Europe and sent them an email voicing my concern as I was not keen to work for couple of hours just to discover that the battery is faulty. I had an almost instant reply on the email (kudos to them) and they adviced me to go ahead and install the new battery as the voltage measured when battery is not connected is not relevant.

I took a leap of faith and after two hours… the new battery showed 50% charge and everything seems to be working just fine. I am happy it worked.

After removing the old battery and installing the new battery I powered up the MBP before screwing the bottom on. I discovered the my keyboard would not function. It took a few hours of investigation and frustration that I discovered the track pad power ribbon had become partially dislodged from the trackpad. I was able to see that this through the little machined slot where the battery sat. I had to remove the trackpad to reinsert the power ribbon back into the connector in the trackpad. after reassembling and reinstalling the battery etc the keyboard worked. Just food for thought if your run into the keyboard issue.

This should be the default. IMO I tell you to power on - not the lid.

With the amount of force needed to carefully pull the back panel out, this caused the back panel to scratch the battery. I don't see or hear any expansion, but this still has me concerned.

this step must require a lot of force. I tried to pull it with the plastic hookie thing from the ifixit set by hooking it in one of the screw holes — the tip of the hookie thing broke.

The amount of force required for removing the bottom cover is absolutely ridiculous. Almost feels like i'm about to push my MacBook towards the wall the second it comes off.

Be careful, I ended up breaking 2 grounding pins on the motherboard last time I tried opening my computer up.

If I had it all to do over, again, I would blow out the dust with compressed air at this point. During the disassembly, I kept encountering little dust bunnies, and I was very worried that one would get caught in one of the connectors when I plugged everything back up (which wouldn’t get discovered until I put it all back together and tried out all of the components).

Bonjour, super Tuto, petite question elle sert a quoi cette nappe , et quesqui se passe si elle est pas branché ?

Put a little bit of insulating tape over the terminal to be safe.

I dont have the “clicky” feedback from my trackpad anymore - please advise how to fix this

(MacBook Pro 2019 15” 2 years old) There are 4 screws (2 on the left and 2 on the right, each pair held down by a black metal piece) next to the uppermost 5.8mm screws. What is the size/kind of screw are these? I’d like to purchase these missing items? Please help. A suspicious technician tried to scam me out of money. I asked for my computer back before they could charge me. I decided to do the repairs myself. When I received my laptop back and followed Ifixit instructions I found 2 screws missing and they replaced the original with an unrecognizable rusty screw on the farthest left screw hole, and the black metal pieces were missing as well.

Help! I stripped the T3 Screw!! ?

I also did this

Both of these screws also stripped for me. I’m not sure taking extra care would have helped: they stripped almost instantly and felt corroded. I basically continued by carefully manually turning out the right screw head using a regular, (slightly larger than T3) philips driver (and other small tools) until the head popped off the screw and one side of the bracket released. Then the bracket can be lifted and the other screw can be loosened using upward pressure. Upon replacement I basically used a small amount of high viscosity “gel” super glue (or epoxy) to reattach the right side of the bracket.

Ok, I stripped it too. Feels like it isn't a t3 screw... Using the t3 bit from ifixit kit. Have a bite when turning clockwise but won't bite counter clockwise

Tried with another T3 bit (was using the T3 bit from ifix battery kit) and manage to remove one screw. The other one stripped too much but followed the recommendation from above comment about lifting the bracket

Here is a first! I did not notice this when disassembling but spent a bit of time validating I had reassembled things correctly. After 35 years of this stuff, you don’t see much new - just smaller. !

—->The 2.4 mm screw closest to the hinge screws into the logic board screw circled in green T8 (larger head)at step 47.

Try finding that screw in your bucket of spares!

This smaller connector cable of the touch ID sensor that sits underneath the power sensor connector is easy to overlook when replacing the logic board. It is small & short and can easily hide. Make sure you account for it when placing the LB in and before screwing it down.

Right above the connector, there might be a chip attached instead of an empty space as shown in the photos. The connector will be close to the part but they are separate, and the connector can be safely removed.

Both had a dab of glue underneath. I used heat gun to loosen.

On this step, it helped to use the tip of sharp tweezers to open the small metal tab of the connector to the side.

After disconnecting the speaker connector, does the speaker just come out, or is it glued or screwed in place? All I need is to Replace the Right Speaker with a New one. This guide gets me to this point but doesn’t address replacing the speaker. Would like to know if it’s more complicated than that before I get started… Thanks

Would be nice to have a guide just for Speaker Replacement. Thanks

My right speaker doesn't work now because the cable and connector disconnected from the logic board. From one problem to another now... What should I do?

Wenn möglich das Klebeband nicht abziehen! Zwei Schritte weiter bist Du froh darum.

To ease logic board removal (and especially later for reinstallation), I choose to gently bend each connector away from the logic board & use a little tape to hold them out of the way.

Would be good to mention (at the end of instructions here) to pay special attention on reassembly that the Touch ID and power button cable does not slip under the logic board at the last moment7

On my mid 2018 15.3” i9 MBP the battery board screws were PL1

On my mid 2018 15.3 i9 MBP the keyboard cable is farther to the left (as shown at Step 23)! When reinstalling, make sure it is under the battery cable and its connector sticking up between the battery cable and the aluminum battery frame.

P2 bit end broke unscrewing the second of these screws… Now I have a piece of the bit stuck in the screw head and a MacBook completely disassembled…

I bought the battery + "kit" pack here and it doesn't include p2 screws. wow.... it seems like you own people don't even know what tools is needed for this? wow... just wow...

I didn’t have any solution and was hesitant to simply use an Isopropyl Alcohol solution of any concentration let along subject my electronics to liquid and aluminum foil, so I simply took a card (something between a metrocard and credit card… i used a rewards card) and brute forced the adhesive while dry (making sure to direct the bulk of the force laterally and not down into the screen below and mostly wiggle back and forth instead of straight on). About 10 minutes later with a sore hand it worked just fine and avoided steps 52-62. (You may want to try the string method detailed in step 62 if stubborn and after started with card.

The alu foil and the paint tape make it much safer, use them!

Eignet sch auch Isopropyl-Alkohol 99,9%?

The bottle may (will!) squirt liquid. I used a bit of absorbant paper around the tip while turning the bottle upside down and putting the tip where it needs to go. Be especially careful not to drip liquid onto the speakers.

For this type of work I always have a roll of thick toilet paper nearby: its leaves are smaller than those of kitchen paper.

I had a great deal of difficulty loosening the batteries. The solvent seemed to have little effect on the adhesive strips. Despite efforts, I deformed the batteries trying to get them free.

I also had a great deal of difficulty. I had to apply the adhesive remover 5 times before I could wiggle the card underneath the first battery sections. And it left the adhesive on the computer case; it did not remove the adhesive along with the battery sections.

Took me three applications of adhesive remover. Think it really is about wiggling though.

It took me about 10 minutes or so to remove all battery modules. I used the adhesive remover as per the guide and also used the card with the corner doing most of the penetration instead of the blunt end. I also would gently wiggle the battery up and down while I applied more adhesive remover to allow it a better chance of getting underneath. BTW, my adhesive strips ran left to right and not back to front on the outer batteries, so I would think it would be more ideal to put the adhesive remover down the left and right sides of the outer batteries. The inner batteries (under trackpad) adhesive strips ran front to back. Keep this in mind when using the remover to loosen them up.

Once one of the packs is loose, stick a leaf of toilet paper under it, so that it cannot stick to the body again, while you are working on the other packs.

One YouTuber uses a fairly short narrow and small thin-bladed and very essentially flexible cake spatula to push in under the battery lobes never sweeping sideways. No chemicals except for 99% propanol to remove the adhesive residue.

See my comment in Step 63. Might save you time and trouble. Putty knife to remove batteries, then hot dryer to get black strips off followed by de-solv-it (or the Ifix-it remover) to get off the adhesive junk.

Where are your gloves? :-)

Once you get the card edge under a cell, you can apply a couple of drops on top of the card and it will flow down to the working edge of the card. This will make moving the card back and forth a lot easier.

I used dental floss + pastic card for the middle part. Avoided using the adhesive remover for the middle ones.

I didn’t have to resort to this method, but if I did I would think some fishing line would be a good option. Put some candle wax on it if it starts to bind. I use this method to remove car dash phone holders that are siliconed down to the dash.

I used this method, (while waiting for the iFixIt glue dissolver kit: was over a weekend; so too late). Works well with a strong, doubled (with slight, about 1 turn per cm, twist) 25SWG (0.5mm, 0.02inch) copper wire, wrapped around spare small screwdriver handles. Ensure that the angle of the wire is _very_ _flat_ while ‘sawing’ slowly; take your time, quite a lot of force is required to sheer through the spongy pads in places. I started with the 2 larger central cells to refine the technique.

Mine was very difficult to remove and clean. I spent forever trying to clean up the residue. However, I tried 70% isopropyl on two bays and the iFixit adhesive remover in the other two, and covered with food plastic wrap. Went to lunch and when I got back I used razor blade scraper (like used to remove stickers from glass), and it was pretty easily cleaned. Both chemicals worked just as well. Just soak and let the chemicals do the work.

I didn’t use any solution to remove the battery and found that using the plastic tool to start an adhesive strip I was able to pull each one off by hand in one shot

It’s going to cost $25 to dispose of the battery some places.

Used a putty knife and removed the batteries, then hair dryer and removed the remaining black strips. Used De-Solv-it (my usual computer anti-glue) to get the gooey glue off. Went well and clean. New batteries in and reassembled.

Be careful here. When I went to peel up the liner on one of the batteries the adhesive strip came up with it. It should be smooth under the liner. If you start seeing ragged adhesive, stop peeling, push it back down, and try another corner.

The version i got had the individual adhesives stuck to what look like tempered plastic that covered the whole battery. Removing the main plastic took off all adhesives at the same time. Its usefull to have another set of hands at this stage.

I had the same problem as others with the adhesive sticking harder to the plastic cover than to the batteries themselves. Another set of hands here would indeed be useful. This was actually the hardest step of the entire process as you cannot reposition the batteries once you set them down. Luckily it seems there is at least a little wiggle room in there. Make sure the power connection lines up with its screw holes as the number one priority.

I took off the top side full cover of plastic before sticking which meant all the individual cells were flopping about - leave it on until after sticking it down (as per the next step!).

Unsticking the packs is messy and dangerous since they may tear if too much force is applied, especially if swollen.

But do they need to be glued in?

The batteries should not move: in time that would damage the connections. Measuring carefully, the space between the unibody and its lower case is 8.2mm. The thinnest packs are 7.0mm: there is some room.

Instead of taking the protective sheets off the glue patches, I put bits of double-sided tape on top. The batteries are now easier to remove, but they cannot slide around.

However, after turning the machine upside up, they are in fact “hanging” from the “ceiling”! My office tape solution works, but the thinner packs might in time unstick and fall down.

It may be advisable to use the strong glue anyway, or else put some thermally conductive silicone sponge between them and the lower case.

The batteries are under the palms of your hands: they don’t get warm, leaving the protective sheets on should not have any effect. The unibody case there is 0.8mm thick.

Position the battery first with the back covers on it, to feel how it would fit in place (the battery logic board position is a good reference, and the relative distance to the two speakers). Only when you get a good feeling of the position, remove the adhesive covers and put it in place. SLOWLY, there are not many chances to pull it up again if you do it wrong!!

wow, this was awesome. thanks whoever wrote it. very well described.

I did the same thing as @jompo did. Works perfectly fine. Thank you jompo, thanks to the author and thank you ifixit team.

OK well, followed the instructions to the word, & pleased to say my problem has now been resolved. So very many thanks for the fix kit & cracking easy to follow instructions. The MacBookPro lives to fight another day.

in knapp 3h habe ich den Akku gewechselt gehabt, passt auf die Unterlegscheiben vom Trackpad auf… die gehen schnell verloren und das Tastaturkabel vergisst man auch mal ganz schnell. Der Guide ist eine super Hilfe gewesen und ohne den hätte ich sicher das MBP noch nicht mal aufbekommen.

Great instructions I finally got my mac book back alive! I am noticing that the battery settings do not show that it is charging even though it is plugged in…tried resetting the SMC still nothing indicating it is charging…I have no idea if it is calibrating correctly. Has been plugged in for about 2 hours but only indicates a 30% charge

This guide worked very well for me. Triple-checked all the connectors when reassembling. I was able to get everything inside the machine cleaned up very well including the fans and the fan ports. Very well done!

Got through and it worked perfectly! Then I realized the up arrow key was no longer working :(

Ended up sending it to Apple for a free keyboard replacement since it’s the notorious butterfly keyboard problem.

Hopefully it will come back with the same battery and they won’t mind I replaced it.

Very good guide, I didn’t remove the whole mother board tho (A1707) but this is not my first time replacing a battery of macbook.

I used alcohol 96% to get the glue off the battery and a old card.

The way to do it if you don’t want to take apart the whole laptop is to follow this guide to step 23 and unscrew the mother board screws then start to take out the battery and slide the cable while holding up the motherboard.

I FixIt 😎

Ho acquistato il kit completo per il mio mbp 15" touchbar 2018.

Ho seguito la guida fino al punto 18, poi il 46 Ed il 50.

Non ho usato il solvente adesivo per staccare la vecchia batteria ma mi sono aiutato con la scheda in plastica e con un filo di rame sottile che facevo passare sotto le batterie, una alla volta. Mi sono anche aiutato con un phon per far ammorbidire il nastro adesivo originale sotto le batterie.

L’unica accortezza sta nello stare attenti quando si toglie e poi si inserisce la scheda della batteria sotto la scheda madre. Io ci son riuscito senza problemi.

Ora il mbp è in carica: sto seguendo i consigli di ifixit per la calibrazione della batteria.

Comunque una guida perfetta, in ogni minimo dettaglio. Se avete pazienza, dimestichezza, seguitela ed avrete una batteria nuova in circa 1,5h di lavoro.