Battery Disconnection

Written By: Carsten Frauenheim

Comments: 6

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

No estimate

Introduction

Prerequisite-only guide! This guide is part of another procedure and is not meant to be used alone.

Use this guide to safely disconnect the battery before beginning repairs on an Early 2020 MacBook Air.

Tools

Step 1

Before starting this procedure, you should disable your Mac's Auto Boot feature. Auto Boot powers on your Mac when you open the lid, and may be accidentally triggered during disassembly. Use this guide to disable Auto Boot.
If your MacBook is running Big Sur v11.1 or later, disabling Auto Boot may not work. You can proceed normally, but make sure to disconnect the battery as soon as you're inside.
Completely power off and unplug your MacBook Air before you start. Close the display and flip the entire laptop upside-down.
Use a P5 driver to remove the following screws:
Two 7.9 mm screws
Two 7.1 mm screws
Six 2.6 mm screws
Throughout this repair, keep track of each screw and make sure it goes back exactly where it came from to avoid damaging your MacBook.

Step 2

Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.
Remove the lower case.
To reinstall the lower case:
Set it in place and press firmly to engage the two hidden clips underneath. You should feel and hear them snap into place.

When reassembling, the “snaps” are in the middle of the laptop (from top to bottom), and just to the left and right of center. I assumed it was near the hinge so it took a bit for me to hear the snaps.

Laurie McCall -

Laurie, the two clips are outlined in the third photo of step two. Hope this helps—happy fixing!

Carsten Frauenheim -

What tool kit should I use for this?

Lucas Lee -

Step 3

Peel back the tape covering the battery connector enough to reveal the connector underneath.

This image is incorrect correct for the A2179 EMC 3302 model, also doesn’t match the next image in this guide

Steven Friar -

There is other guide for the model you reffer to, I was using that one until i realize it was different, this is the one you are looking for: MacBook Air 13" Retina Late 2020 Repair

Marco Rojas -

How do you find out if you have a Retina Late or Retina Early model?

Inji E -