MacBook Pro 15" Touch Bar 2019 Battery Replacement

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?

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.

Excellent instructions. I was able to follow and install the new screen. I recommend that you get a good set of tools before you begin. I started with an inexpensive repair kit bought online. The Penta and torx bits failed. I bought an IFIXIT kit with quality bits and I was able to do everything I needed.

If you're not running an admin account the sudo command won't work (which honestly, you should not be running admin). Rather than logging in to your admin amount via the OS, in the terminal type "login [admin username]," then the password and you'll be able to do the sudo command as described above. Once you're complete, type "logout [admin username]" and you'll be good to go. Obviously replace [admin username] with whatever the account name for your admin user is.

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

And now? It's definitely not T3. What the hell do I do now...

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?

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...

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.

I wanted to comment on what worked for me.

I did put some of the remover on like they showed.

I used the credit card plastic tool to kind of get underneath it.

Then I used plastic putty knife and slowly and carefully pried the batteries off. I take no responsibility here for you, but it worked for me. Also I used 99% isopropoyl to clean the adhesive off.

Also so you are probably reading this because it is hard, put the trackpad back like the other person said before you put the batteries in. I did that and it probably saved me time.

Also as you reassemble, make you go look at every connector and there are a bunch and make sure those leads are all coming up through the logic board. I don't want to tell you I thought I was done 2x when I found a small cable at the end I missed. If you do end up in that case, you can remove some of the screws, and use the curved tweezers to kind of snake the cable up top. I know you aren't there yet, but as someone ahead of you, you'll remember this tip.

The trick here was the use of a putty knife. As someone mentioned, the adhesive strips on mine also ran the direction of the width of the computer, not from the screen side down. Thus, putting the adhesive remover where the directions said only worked on the uppermost adhesive strip. The adhesive remover did nothing to help the process...

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.

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.

By far the easiest way to remove the adhesive strips for me was to use tweezers. After removing the battery I had mostly large swaths of adhesive. first I used the tweezers, open, then laid it on an angle so the edge laid flat against the surface. Then scraped up side of the adhesive. I wedged up sufficient adhesive so that i could grab it angled (lengthwise not with the point) , Then i slowly pulled up the adhesive without a tear nearly every time, almost satisfying.

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!!

I pressed on the batteries for 5-10 seconds but they did not stay stuck after a few days.

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.

For sure we need every step so its clear. One misstep and its game over. Shouldnt there be a note or step to work backwards after battery is installed?