MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Early 2015 Trackpad Replacement

A good technique for starting to thread the screws when replacing them is to position and align the screw, and with the driver, gently turn the screw in the REMOVAL direction until you feel and hear a slight click. This click happens when the leading thread of the screw drops off of the leading edge of the thread in the hole — this is the point at which the threads are properly positioned for engagement. You can now turn the driver and screw in the TIGHTENING direction. This technique will help prevent accidental “cross-threading” of the screw, which will damage the threads permanently.

Note that this is a useful technique when installing ANY threaded fastener.

Hi peeps,

I have a wifi problem on this MBP 13” early 2015 and was pleasently surprised to find your guide to changing the airport card.

However upon closer inspection it seems that on my MBP (purchased new or so I thought) the 3 antennae seem so have been soldered together at the point where they are clamped to the chassis. I have photos but cannot post here. Can anyone conform that where the 3 antennae wires are held to the chssis by the 2 scew metal support (just before disappearing into the screen hinge), the support is not meant to short the 3 wires together. This makes no sense for 3 seperate antennae wires.

Any advice /close up photos is welcome here.

dom

Tip: Use post-it notes to keep track of screws

1. Pack of post it notes

2. Stick screws to the sticky part of the post it note

3. Write on the post it note which step and what kind of screw it is

Hi, in order to drain the battery I am running:

yes > /dev/null

in 4 terminals, so the CPU maxes out at almost 99%.

I hope this speeds up the battery draining process.

And the backlight is at maximum brightness :-)

You can see the cpu load in Activity Monitor.

Its draining at 20% per 15 minutes.

Any concerns about draining the battery in this way?

Something I’ve been curious about, is it possible to upgrade a late 2013 Retina model MacBook Pro, with the improved 16gb ram and i7 processor logic board from the 2015 retina model? I’d be interested to try but not ready to shell out the $500+ to be the first lol

Without rehashing what others have said, I would highly recommend reading through the steps *and* the comments for each before tackling your replacement for tips. Highlights for me were: only disconnecting what actually needed to be disconnected, rotating the spudger to release the track pad cable, a hair dryer worked perfectly fine, and the pencil outline of the battery before you remove. You got this!

Installation of replacement AirPort card was easier than I had expected thanks to this guide. Thank you.

I use replaced SSD and it was super easy and working great. I can finally upgrade Mac OS with plenty of room to spare and no more low memory alerts. Well worth investment and didn’t have to buy new laptop

It's interesting that this tutorial is rated Moderate even though you need to remove the battery. The battery removal tutorial which is basically the same but with fewer steps is rated Difficult.

when i pulled the screws out i arranged them in the same way they were in. the top 2 middle screws appeared to be shorter than the rest. in order to keep them in place i got a square of packing tape sticky side up, taped both sides down with 2 other pieces of tape. and then put the screws head down in the order i pulled them.

Excellent instructions although checking battery and speakers aligned before fixing batteries into place is essential. MacBook good as new!

I find it helpful to spread a soft, slightly fuzzy cloth (like flannel) over my workspace before doing something with small parts. It keeps screws and things from rolling or bouncing away. A towel might be too plush, though, as a screw might get lost in it.

Lift from the long, flat side, not the shorter side. In this picture, you should lift from the NORTH part of the connector, not the WEST side like they are doing. This is because you can spread the pressure from lifting the connector across more area, as compared to the side. I accidentally broke off part of my battery connector lifting it up the way shown, but was able to do it the way I described without problem. Make sure to lift from the wide part so you don’t have my same trouble!

The connector is no more than 1mm thick… the socket is 3-to-4mm deep so make sure you’re trying to remove the connector itself, and not pulling at the socket.

Thank you Richie I was trying to lift the socket.

be careful the little square block is actually made of 2 parts and you only have to lift the upper part as Richie said

You can do it from the side like the picture, but i would recommend twisting almost like a screw driver once you have leverage under the overhanging part of the left side like in the picture. Twist the tool so that it starts to put pressure on the top, until you’ll hear it click out. You can be somewhat forceful but it shouldn’t require a lot of strength. Guiding the tool with one hand and twisting with the other is a good way to attempt this.

After I put the battery back I found out at this step that the new battery connector was off by 2 mm (because I installed my battery slightly off). Since the connector is rigid, I removed it’s plastic cover (just like we all did in Step 4) to free the cable, which allowed me to bent it enough to properly plug the connector.

The connector wires from the battery to the connector are long

You'll have to bend them downward and into the small cove that exists so the connector can fit in place.
So use the a plastic card or flat end of the spudger to bend them downward and folded a bit back so the connector will fit in place.
Use your old battery as a guide for how they should be bent.

Hi All ,

I followed the instructions step by step and changed the board successfully and reconnected everything back. When I powered it back on I can see it is charging again however it just displays a black screen and no display. Keyboard light comes on as well and the apple logo light on the back lid also turns on. Not sure what is wrong ? It has been charging for more than 15 minutes and still no joy. Anyone able to help solve or identify the issue .

Thanks

The connector cover is slightly wider and longer than the socket (<1mm) so there is a small "lip" around the top that can be used to lift it.

I couldn’t skip steps 12 & 15 because the speaker assemblies are holding down parts of the battery.

Removing the speakers is very important if you use solvent — solvent will damage the speakers and can lead to a horrible buzzing. I failed to understand this and skipped removing the speakers when dissolving the glue and paid the price: speakers that are essentially unusable.

(Whether to disconnect the speakers is a judgment call, but removing them from the battery cavity is important.)

On mine the cable connector pulls out to the left, not upwards

Once disconnected, you will see that the speaker socket pins are horizontal. You might think the connector needs to slide into the pins, but it does not. The connecter is reattached by pressing straight down. After the connector is in place, use the flat end of the spudger to make sure the connector is fully seated.

This step should be skipped.I pulled it all off, hard to pull one off alone.

You can skip step 10,11 go to 12, and fold it over. Same as left.

Then go to step 17.

I picked up my steps back here when replacing both my L and R speakers on my MBP mid-2014 13”. I used the flat part of the spudger and gently, carefully applied a fulcrum upward pressure to the base of the speaker connector to help pop it off.

I, too, found it unnecessary to unplug this speaker. It was easy, and not stressful to the speaker cable, to fold the speaker upwards and rest it on the motherboard.

When removing the left speaker as shown in the image in the photo, the left-most fixing part (protrusion) is broken. Will there be any problems using it?

Removing the speakers is very important if you use solvent — solvent will damage the speakers and can lead to a horrible buzzing. I failed to understand this and skipped removing the speakers when dissolving the glue and paid the price: speakers that are essentially unusable.

That said, unplugged is not necessary, merely removing the speakers (Step 16).

Once again.

NO NEED NO NEED NO NEED

Réparation faite en moins de 5 minutes chrono (j’avais lu et relu le tuto et l’avais répété autant de fois “dans ma tête” le temps de la réception du haut parleur endommagé). Réparation très facile, faite en moins de 10 minutes tout compris. Vraiment bravo et merci !

Why does this step exist?

Unneeded…

Removing the speakers is very important if you use solvent — it will damage the speakers and can lead to a horrible buzzing. I failed to understand this and skipped removing the speakers when dissolving the glue and paid the price: speakers that are essentially unusable. (See comment on Step 14).

For people having keyboard or trackpad issues:

If you followed the disassembly photos you may have lifted the the tap on the ZIF connector in Step 18 image. Note the lifted “tape” below the thumb. This may release the ZIF Connector and cause keyboard issues. Make sure the black retaining bar is in the down position on the ZIF Connector.

Also, check the ZIF connector in Step 19 and 20. The Black plastic retaining bar MUST be in the “up/open” position to remove and reinstall the ribbon cable.

This was the most challenging part of the installation. Putting this tab back, it's so fragile and difficult to put back. I thought it was going to get damaged but it worked.

Like Peter, I just folded it back a bit and had care to keep it out of the way. I think it is much better than the risk involved with taking it out.

All in all it found it a bit less difficult than I expected - As with all the work I have done on different Apple products: Slow and careful work and following the instructions - including all the comments - seems to be the best advice.

Daniel- remove and put back again the cable on the ZIF connector, making sure it is pushed all the way in before closing the retainer clip. May have a partially reinserted cable.

If you are replacing an old battery with a new battery, and the trackpad cable goes “under” the battery from the trackpad connector to the other side of it (instead of the trackpad cable going “over” the battery from its trackpad connector as shown in the provided image), then you then it is possible to skip this step. See my comments in Step 17.

This was the most difficult part for me.In frustration, I thought I had a bad cable so I bought two new ones and still was not successful.So I skipped the whole thing and bought an external wireless keyboard which I have been using till now.Recently, my LCD screen cracked and I am about to replace it. So, I now have another opportunity to open my laptop and try fixing this step again.This time I will read users comments before attempting another go.Please if anyone have additional useful tips for this step, kindly post a comment.I should be fixing my laptop in 2 weeks.Thanks!

One thing to know about the tape that you have to remove is that it has "arms” that wrap around the cable just beyond the connector. If you bend the cable toward you you can see these. Remove/bend them so that they are pointing ‘north” and then pull the sticker.

The “flip up” tab was hard to see for me but once my 7yo confirmed it was up, I slowly moved the cable into the slot using my fingers (to avoid bending/breaking anything, thanks to comments I read), staying perpendicular. Once it was clearly in, I confirmed it was fully seated with a toothpick (a gentle tool for delicate parts). If worried, take zoomed in pictures straight from above, that way you will know what it should look like when reassembling.

After completing this repair and breaking the zif socket while trying to make sure this cable was re-attached properly. I believe the battery replacement can be done without doing this step. I would just carefully bend the cable out of the way when it came time to prying the portion of the battery out that sits below this cable.

I'm taking my Macbook into Apple to see if they'll replace the touchpad and cable now since I don't feel like messing with this anymore. My screwup may just push me into buying a new M2 Macbook Air... I'm thinking subconsciously my brain tricked me into sabotaging this repair attempt so that I'd just get a new computer, lol.

Same experience as many. I didn't read the comments or the instructions well enough here and forgot to flip up the ZIF connector. Ended up just pulling the ribbon cable out which must have damaged it. After the battery replacement when I reassemble and turned my computer back on, the trackpad and keyboard were unresponsive. I bought a replacement (used) trackpad cable from iFixit, it came a few days later, I popped it in (the correct way!) and my keyboard and trackpad were back to working. So, don't forget the ZIF connector tab!!!!

READ THE COMMENTS ON THIS ONE.

Broke the ZIF connector :-(

Should've seen this step properly and read the comments. I was on the right path but somehow thought needed to plug. out the casing of ZIF connector too and maybe just ripped out the cable wrongly. My bad and now will see what the Mac does without the ZIF connector flipper... or may just buy the new trackpad.

This does look the most frightening part of the process, that connector looks really flimsy. Is it ok to just bend it back and leave it connected as suggested?

This is the only step I skipped, as Gary Bain mentioned above there was adhesive which made it difficult to remove, and it’s probably the only step worth skipping.

Can you buy replacements for this trackpad control board? They dont seem to come with new trackpads.

The ZIF retaining tab is a tiny black plastic bar. Pull the trackpad cable HORIZONTALLY out of the socket.

If you are replacing an old battery with a new battery, and the trackpad cable goes “under” the battery from the trackpad connector to the other side of it (instead of the trackpad cable going “over” the battery from its trackpad connector as shown in the provided image), then you then it is possible to skip this step. See my comments in Step 17.

Unfortunately, i didn’t notice that there was a retaining tab, so i damaged my ZIF Connector. I ordered a new one from amazon. I followed the procedure and did it in the “correct” way. Anyway trackpad and keyboard won’t work. Can you help me?

"straight out" in this case is away from you and horizontal, not straight up! I tugged on the cable a bit harder than I'd like to admit before realizing my mistake, although no damage seems to have occurred.

Thank you for all the comments on the direction to pull this cable. Pull horizontally toward the battery. It slips out of the connector then you can pull it vertically to free. Mine had a little bit of sticky on the cable that held it to the battery.

when installing new battery it is better to start with this step and secure the battery control board first with the screw. This is needed to align the battery plug with the jack on the mother board, then glue the rest of the battery back.

FYI this was a T4 on my system

When aligning the placement of the battery, on my second attempt, I used a sim card removal pin (a paper clip would suffice) to align the battery board hole with the screw hole underneath. Unfortunately on my first attempt I inadvertently stripped the threads a little. Luckily there was just enough threads to hold

I used heat from a hair dryer to detach the adhesive. The bottom of the touch pad seems to be made from plastic so I didn’t want to use any hard solvents (acetone) to risk permanent damage to the track pad.

I also used the hair drier and the cheap plastic spackling 2” knife and old credit card. No solvents. Once you detach the section of the battery you can use piece of the blue plastic that covers adhesive strips of on the new battery to prevent detached sections from sticking back .

The bottle you have to cut spills easily. Used the card to apply. Still a bit messy.

I did not have a iFixIt kit (they were sold out). I used a hot/cold therapy pack instead of an iOpener, but found I didn’t need it. What worked really well for me was to gently work an old credit card in underneath, then slide a long wedge-shaped spudger between the credit card and battery cell and pry gently up. Not to much to avoid bending the cell, but working back and forth between wedging up with the spudger and shifting the credit card further in worked really well.

To prevent re-adhering, I placed a bit of Scotch tape over the original adhesive locations.

While you have the battery off, consider removing the T3 screws that hold the metal plate over the trackpad. That makes it much easier (and less dangerous for the trackpad) to clean the adhesive off. And while you have that off, consider removing the twelve T5 screws holding in the trackpad and cleaning it up a bit around the edges, and the edges of the case. Because that’s a slot, stuff gets in there. I was surprised how dirty mine was. Trackpad instructions here: MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Early 2015 Trackpad Replacement

At the last step reassembly there was a 1-2 mm gap between the cover and the body. Upon inspection I found that one of the new battery’s plastic bar had to be gently nudged under the aluminum « post ». At the ends of the plastic U shape, look for tiny flat protrusions, right next to the rubber bumpers, those should go under a recess near the screw posts (one can be seen on the left of the thumb on the image above).

Merci beaucoup ! Très bien expliqué parfait !

I found mineral turpentine on a piece of cloth removed the remaining glue without making too much of a mess.

Friendly warning: Make sure the adhesive remover evaporates before connecting the new battery!

I successfully changed the battery in my 2015 MacBook Pro, everything powered on just fine, then I put it in my neoprene sleeve. The next morning I noticed some of the adhesive remover on my keyboard. I wiped it off, powered it on and then it suddenly shut down. After a couple more tries I could no longer get it to power on. It was dead. Took it to a repair shop and they concluded it was most likely liquid damage to the logic board. Total bummer. I have sense learned that the adhesive remover itself is not conductive, but it can dissolve something like glue, and then become conductive. The adhesive remover also cools as it evaporates which attracts moisture. So please make sure your adhesive remover evaporates completely before connecting your new battery.

I did the SMC reset but still nothing. Is not charging at all.

Tips for alignment:

1. Do not remove the plastic covering the adhesive and then try to align the battery. Leave the plastic on and remove one at a time after the battery is aligned.

2. Use masking tape to hold the battery cells together while aligning, otherwise they flop around a lot.

3. Put your speakers next to the battery cells (before removing plastic on adhesive) to ensure you’re leaving enough room.

4. Make sure your battery connector is well aligned too.

one more thing, if you install the speakers first (totally do-able) you’ll take off the adhesive on the outer most cell on each side first and you’ll approach it from the top and tuck it under the very edge of speaker…after that’s done press down when happy with alignment.

In conjuction with the owner of the MacBook, we decided not to stick the new battery down, specially because it is used 99% of the time on a stand and connected to a monitor. Will repost if this seems to give any issue.

Thanks for this excellent kit and the detailed instruction guide!

Once the battery is removed and you want to glue the new one, make sure that you leave enough room for the speakers. Honestly the battery change was far easier that what I thought, I think everyone is capable of doing it. Great tutorial by the way, thank you for the work !

Hi. After a couple of months installed the new battery is loose, seems like is “unglued”… Does anybody have an idea what could I use to replace the glue?

Thanks!

Hi there, I was so surprised at how delicate everything seemed, never attempted anything like it before! My old battery would hold any charge at all and had swollen so much it warped the casing a little. After replacing the battery my mac turns on but still doesn’t hold any charge. I reset the SMC but it hasn’t worked, not sure what to do next, any advise?

To make it clear: Really check if battery plug and socket fit before you feel comfortable to press down the cells on the glue. I had to tear the connector pretty much on one side.

I would recommend doing the next step where you take the cover off of the trackpad before you install the battery. I did and found a bunch of the adhesive remover (there is nearly zero space between the cover plate and touchpad, meaning the remover/acetone easily seeps in there, but air does not get in so the acetone remains. Soft compressed air also works well to dry the remover. Ok, to be cautious, probably steps 37-40. Being able to inspect/get some air in there may save you.

I just finished the battery replacement. I did not have to remove either of the speakers. I tried using the iOpener (and a hair dryer) but it just wasn’t hot enough. It’s like the glue was super-cured from the heat of the computer. I put a layer of foil and a layer of paper towel before I tried using the acetone. I found that just a tiny amount did the trick after a couple of minutes to soak in. As i pried up the edge I added a couple more drops and was able to free the old battery. The replacement fit perfectly. The battery is calibrating now.

Replaced the battery but now every time I power her on, she immediately shuts off again. What would be the cause of this?

Eine super Anleitung. Damit war der Akkutausch problemlos möglich und hat 70 Minuten gedauert (bei langsamer/sorgfältiger Arbeit).

Um Beschädigungen durch den Klebstoffentferner zu vermeiden, habe ich 3 alte Plastik- Scheckkarten langsam und vorsichtig unter die alten Akkus geschoben und so die Klebeverbindung gelöst (1 x von links, 1 x von rechts und 1 x mittig). Dann ließ sich das gesamte Paket herausziehen. Das alte Akkupaket habe ich wie ein rohes Ei behandelt, da es sehr prall aufgebläht und somit absolut brandgefährlich war. Es bereitet mir noch immer ein mulmiges Gefühl, eine solche Brandbombe auf meinem Schreibtisch gehabt zu haben.

Der Ersatzakku passte perfekt ins Gehäuse, nachdem ich alle Klebestreifen-Reste entfernt hatte.

Mit dieser Anleitung kann nahezu jeder den Austausch vornehmen - allerdings: genügend Zeit und Ruhe einplanen! Alle entfernten Schrauben unbedingt genau positioniert lagern. Dann geht’s im Zusammenbau wirklich flott.

Mein MacBook Pro läuft nun wieder problemlos.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

Keyboard and trackpad were unresponsive after new batter install. As instructed in step 19 I reset both connections. Still no battery or keyboard. Ordered new trackpad cable. Still no working keyboard /trackpad. In an attempt to unseat reseat everything I then did the keyboard cable but no go. Second time I did keyboard the ZIF socket retainer popped loose. Tried to seat cable as carefully as possible and then covered with electrical tape.

I should mention that keyboard backlight, power button function properly. Will re-run tests, resets, etc.

Is there any way to fix the keyboard ZIF socket and/or remediate this?

I replaced the battery and it seemed to run good. Now every time I restart it shows the apple logo and then goes black again. If I push the power button for the whole boot up process it starts to work but powers down soon after. The same is the case when I reinstall the old battery and when I start up only with the charger and no battery. Any thoughts?

In the few battery replacements I’ve done, in addition to making sure the battery connector is aligned properly the single screw needs to be aligned to start with. I’ve found that the rubber feet tend to be too high (the 2 in the middle of the computer). I believe it’s more the long tail on the underside of the rubber foot that prevents the bottom case from seating properly. As well the plastic around the other 2 feet (near the front of the computer) need to be flexed somewhat to help with bottom case alignment and seating…

I skipped the steps using the liquid glue solver, and therefore also left out the removal of additional parts, so made it quite “simple” at the end. I was going through steps 1-7, 17&18, 21, and then from 26 onwards to the end. For 26, I used the sun to heat up the old batteries, after it it was quite easy to remove them with a creditcard. Thanks for all the details!

Hat 3 Tage funktioniert 🙄 Nun Startet er nicht mehr

habe gemäß der Anleitung den Akku gewechselt, hat alles super easy geklappt.

Werkzeug und Akku bei ifixit bestellt.

Das MacBook hat danach 3 Tage funktioniert, hat geladen, entladen alles Prima.

Dann lief er bis der Akku Leer war und seit dem startet das Gerät nicht mehr.

Auch ein SMC oder NVRAM Reset helfen nicht.

Das Ladesymbol am Ladekabel leuchtet, aber auch nach einer Nacht immernoch nicht grün.

Wenn ich die besagten Tastenkombinationen drücke, ist beim SMC Reset zu erkennen das die Ladeleuchte danach für ca. 2 Sekunden grün wird.

Hat jemand eine Idee ?

This was a piece of cake, thanks to all the comments, and to my 7yo who taped and color-coded of all the screws on a sheet! I used very little heat probably because the batteries were very swollen. I used the acetone (sold with the kit) only to remove the glue.

I used alcohol prep pad with 70% alcohol to remove old battery adhesive from the laptop.

If you need to transfer the rubber spacers to the plastic frame of the new battery (because you got a cheap one that didn't come with any), take note that they come in 2 slightly different heights.

The shorter ones go towards the front edge, the higher ones to the center of the MacBook.

You can remove them by pushing them through from the bottom of the old frame with your screwdriver. Getting them into the new battery frame requires some fiddling. Try to push them in from the top while trying to get the wide part through the hole with a toothpick.

Thank you Adam!