Reemplazo de la batería de MacBook Pro 15" con Pantalla de Retina de Mediados de 2015

Thanks Jeff! I'm afraid this repair is a wash. Trackpad won't even click. I will ask around.

Jeff, thanks so much for this guide. I was able to resurrect a Mid-2015 MBP that was thrown away due to water damage! It was stuck in an automatic boot loop whenever AC power was connected and would not even power on via the battery alone.

I admit that I did not do a complete teardown nor did I use the kit with the adhesive remover. I was able to lever the outer battery sections up enough with a plastic spudger to slide an old, used gift card underneath them to forcefully cut through the adhesive.

Here’s the System Information output for the installed battery part:

Battery Information:

  Model Information:

  Serial Number: <redacted>

  Manufacturer: DP

  Device Name: bq20z451

  Pack Lot Code: 0

  PCB Lot Code: 0

  Firmware Version: 702

  Hardware Revision: 1

  Cell Revision: 3241

  Charge Information:

  Charge Remaining (mAh): 8635

  Fully Charged: No

  Charging: Yes

  Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8723

  Health Information:

  Cycle Count: 1

  Condition: Normal

  Battery Installed: Yes

  Amperage (mA): 900

  Voltage (mV): 13029

Great job Jeff. Didn’t seem like there was a need to remove everything, but I’m glad I did. It’s all clean and working perfectly again. Best of all, no bulging battery warping the case!

Just did this today, January 17, 2018. Took me about 3 hours. The instructions were awesome. Taking the battery out was actually far easier than I imagined it would be. Really appreciate you guys making this guide. Apple was going to charge me $1500 to replace my battery, but I did it myself for $120.

I recommend people to check out the thread trick soo you dont need to remove all the components inside! You basicllyy just need to take of the backplate. remove two screws on the battery frame and then use a thread to cut the gluestrips between battery and bessel. I used builder string for leveling as its strong and thin. I used roughly 5 min to remove the battery from the bessel, and then another 30min to clean of the old glue. I recommend the Arctic Thermal removal (mainly for cleaning cpu), it resolves the glue at makes it gel like, then use a spachelor like the one you get un screen replacement kit and scrape it of, use a cloth or toilet paper to remove the liquid undderway. Since its in such a small bottle with drop adding you do not risk damaging the screen etc due to the acid. One of my most easiest repairs i have done! ifixit should update their approach with an alternative. Youtube “macbook retina battery replacement“ ;)

I agree with everyone that you don’t need to go through the entire process. Do Steps 1-5, then 46-50. WARNING: use as little force as possible when removing the battery, as you most certainly will rip or disconnect something else if you are not careful. Take special care with the keyboard/trackpad ribbon. When I did this repair I somehow ruined the keyboard/trackpad ribbon, and neither worked until I put another ribbon in—which is very easy. They cost pennies to replace, so you might even want to have some on hand. Everything works perfectly now!

I just did the swap, followed all the directions (and it did make sense to me to do it properly and remove the speakers and everything to avoid damaging anything) . Either way, when I booted back up and am doing the initial discharge, my battery indicator has turned red and says “service battery” I am not sure if this is just because its in the middle of calibration, or if there is a problem. I assume there is no problem, but worth mentioning that it showed up.

Worked for me too—I followed all the steps before I read the comment thread here. Wasn’t that big a deal, although I can’t say I was confident that everything was going to work when I switched it on, but all is good. Great instructions—thanks!

my mac won’t start after the replacement. booting in “scan for new hardware” mode, says that the new installed battery is faulty…

Being as cheap as I am, I bought the battery from Ebay. Tried to be lazy and just pop the battery out of the computer. Opened the case. . .Well it actually flew open as one of the original cells were swollen. Tried to pry the battery out with freeze spray, hoping to freeze the crappy adhesive and hoping it will just pop out. Spark. . .Hiss. . .Smoke. Long story short, I ended up buying iFixit’s Adhesive remover kit. Amazing product. The included cards just cut through that crappy adhesive like butter. Also, I did the repair the long way and took everything out. Best to be safe than sorry as there is a risk in damaging the sensitive logic board with the adhesive remover or with your tools trying to free the crappy batteries from the crappy adhesive. Right now I’m calibrating the battery. Wish I bought the battery from iFixit in the first place to support such a great company with great products. Kudos!

Went slow and steady. Followed all the steps. Seem to have pulled it off. Everything appears to be working. Amazing guide and great price on the battery. Thank you.

Why did Apple make this so difficult?

Did This Repair using some waterproof pvc playing cards, a syringe squeeze bottle with 99.9% isopropyl and a black stick. Took about 15 minutes to free the battery, just watch out for the flex cables on the trackpad and its no problem. No real need to gut the entire frame. Would of been a bit easier with some heat applied to the outter most cells.

I replaced my battery after being inspired by the instructions on the process. My MacBook is out of warranty and I suspected Apple would charge me several hundred dollars to fix it and require my laptop for at least a couple days. I didn’t like that proposition and decided to brave the DIY repair.

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I bought the kit from IFixIt and received it about a week later. I’ve seen the comments about only doing the first five and last five steps. My experience with these types of things is that it’s usually best to clear as much out of the way as possible in case something goes wrong. Fortunately, little went wrong for me by following the instructions provided (well written and sufficiently descriptive).

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I took my time and made sure I was patient when pulling cables as many of them have seemingly fragile locking mechanisms. Very much appreciate the author’s attention to detail and willingness to produce such a helpful work. As an homage to the DIY process, I made a time lapse of my effort (https://youtu.be/l4J6SFOrCQI).

Replaced a battery today, guide was very helpful and the repair went perfectly.

My Mac had a swollen battery, to the point where the chassis was bent outward both ways and the laptop wasn’t closing properly. Didn’t notice this early on since it serves as a desktop machine for me and I’m using external displays, mouse and keyboard. There are no Apple service centers in my area, so my only option was to do it myself.

There’s probably no real need to completely disassemble it (acetone, when it reacts with an adhesive used in a mac, turns into a jelly-like substance with no actual risk of flooding the internal components), but I did this anyway just to clean out all the dust inside. Now my mac is as flat, as cold and as silent as new. :)

Thanks for a great guide and kit!

I ordered the battery replacement not really knowing how difficult a surgery it was going to be. I’ve always repaired my old laptops, but never needed to do anything super major like removing the logic board. After the kit arrived, I began to review the replacement guide and was suddenly feeling really overwhelmed. The iFixit tutorial however was a fantastic resource.

Just take your time and be diligently organized and thoroughly follow each step. I used sticky notes and bottle caps to keep and label all the screws and pieces I was removing from the machine. When putting the logic board back in, watch to make sure all the ribbon cables that need reconnected don’t get buried. It’s pretty easy to do.

After everything went back together, the machine powered up and has been working flawlessly. After calibrating the battery, I’m totally satisfied! Thanks, iFixit!

Great guide! Done the replacement today and everything went well.

Thanks,

Matej

just performed this fix and it took less than hour. skipped most of the steps, just doing 1-5 and 46-49.

after CAREFULLY removing trackpad ribbon (46-49) all you need to do is apply solvent and wait 5mins, then reapply solvent and wait another few minutes. from there you don’t even need string; just wedge the card tool and slowly work it under the batteries at the far edges, and proceed to center. that’s it. just make sure your solvent really has the time to saturate the old adhesive. also, running the battery down will help keep the area warm which definitely helps with getting things loosened up.

hope that helps. great tutorial and as usual, excellent product from ifixit.

Awesome guide, really detailed, every step carefully written down. I had no problems at all to get my MacBook up and running again.

It’s actually easier than it seems, the whole process took me about 1h 30min.

Here’s a time-lapse video for those who are interested in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeWb7Yzu...

Mode opératoire bien fait et efficace, échange batterie effectué et réussi en 2 h 45 minutes. Merci

I Just completed this. I also skipped the disassembly of the whole machine as others have pointed out above. My battery was enormously swollen so much so that I wasn’t sure how to get the solvent in underneath it. I was able to push the battery up enough with the plastic cards to get the liquid in and start it working.

I think the swelling also meant that the battery had partially unglued itself so that made it a touch better.

Good luck all who try and thanks to iFixit for their amazing kit which is perfect in every way.

I had no options in Israel that I would trust to do this.

Completed the guide very well without removing all of the parts.

Good job! Thank you.

Just finished battery replacement. Works great. The guide is perfect. Thank you, IFixit!

Also, I used the opportunity to remove all dirt and dust that gathered inside.

I hope, it going to be cooler now - with funs free of dust.

I disagree that it’s easy to go straight from step 1 - 5 to removing the battery. In my case, the battery was misaligned to one side, which made the gap between the speaker and battery too steep to slide the ifixit-card underneath. Completed the swap be following the complete guide, which tbh. isn’t too hard. The most time i used on removing the batteries anyway.

Just to add to the confidence of others. I, too, did the repair without all this disassembly. Once the cover is off the back, take the two screws out of the trackpad logic board connection (step 26). then unplug that ribbon cable and pull away from the battery. You can remove the other end of this, but you don’t need to just fold it back. There are two more torx screws holding the battery in, remove them (step 50) then unplug the battery connection. That’s it, then pried up one battery one the end and got some nylon string under it (dental floss didn’t work, broke) and saw back and forth. Once the end section of battery is loose, I used a combination of string and the plastic cards to saw back and forth to cut the double sided tape. Took me 30 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, the ifixit plan is solid and the kit is great but if you can avoid steps, it’s better. less to go wrong in re assembly.

I did this today veeeery carefully. Took probably 2.5 hours start to stop. Booted laptop back up and everything works fine. I was tempted to not do all the logic board etc. but decided to go by iFixit’s guide. Worked well, but be patient, careful and gentle. I made a large piece of paper and placed components with a note of the step number as they came off. Then was easy to locate when re-assembling.

Many thanks for these really excellent instructions. Considering that they enabled me as an absolute novice to replace the battery successfully, the authors should be nominated for the literature Nobel prize.

This is a bizarre instruction manual. Inexplicably it says to remove all manner of extremely delicate components that are not in the way and seem to have nothing to do with replacing the battery. It could be, as others have said, to protect delicate parts from the adhesive remover. I didn’t need that either and managed to remove the battery by simply prying it out gently. Perhaps the adhesive on others was tougher than mine. Anyway, I’d be hesitant to follow this if I were you.

Fantastic guide, everything worked. It just takes patience and time, a few hours for me. I bought the ifixit kit and everything was as shown.

The last few steps with the battery were not needed for my situation. I had puffy batteries and could insert acetone under the middle ones like the rest. No need to use two cards from both sides.

Hello,

To anyone asking if it works, yes it does. It is not easy to remove the battery cuz it’ll take sometime but if you are good enough to do the job and repair it yourself then just work on the battery and avoid moving all the parts. If you’re a noob, then love all the parts and then work on the battery. WARNING: just like they said, the glue remover is super strong so make sure not to spill any on anywhere else but underneath the battery to cut the glue.

hope it helps.

Did anyone have problems with a faulty replacement battery where battery is detected but it doesn’t charge and status is “replace now” ? I have already send it back for a new one coming, i’m afraid to be stuck in the same situation with another faulty battery.

My batteries had heated and swollen enough to destroy the factory adhesive pretty much. also they seemed to have less adhesive on them than the replacement batteries did. So it was fairly simple to pry out the factory battery without using the solvent. YMMV.

Excellent instructions. The repair was a success and the laptop, which blew it’s charging circuit from an iced-tea mishap, was resurrected! Thanks!d

I did also 1-5 and 46-74. There was no need to use the adhesive remover. As suggested somewhere on YouTube, I would recommend starting to pry the second and fourth sections, since there’s an aluminum ridge on the side of the motherboard on which you can apply lever. Then you can proceed with the outer sections, and finally attack the central ones. All seem to be good, the only minor issue being that the trackpad feedback seems to me a bit less strong than it used to be; I might have applied excessive pull when taking out the central sections of the battery? Or it might be because the swollen battery acted as a resonance chamber? To stay on the safe side, I would advice using the adhesive remover at least on those sections. Anyway the trackpad is fully functional and the feedback is sufficient, so overall I am happy.

Bought the battery kit and with the instructions was able to get the old batteries out and new one in. Working Perfectly and like new! Thanks iFixit and the guide author. Saved me hundreds! Took about an hour being very cautious with screws and connectors.

My original battery was out of warranty by only 3 months. Batteries were swollen to the point of putting severe pressure on case and track pad.

Perfect fix — thank you. From start to finish it took me 4 hours.

When you actually open up your computer it may be a bit stressful — the reality is that one mistake could potentially damage your entire computer. It helped me A LOT to take things slow. Go through the directions before you start so you know what is expected and you are not surprised — then everything will be fine. A few tips: 1) I labeled note cards with the step number, and placed the parts I took out of the computer onto the cards — makes things very organized. 2) Work somewhere where you won’t be bothered or have unexpected visitors. My friends visit me frequently with dogs, so, I texted them and asked they don’t enter my room until I let them know. 3) Take it slow and feel comfortable. I wore something cozy and made sure to stay hydrated and focused. Feel free to take a break if you are getting sloppy — drink some water, walk around, go pee, whatever you need to do.

Die Anleitung war perfekt! Vielen Dank!

Ich habe bei einem MBP das Display und den Akku getauscht. Die Zeitangabe von 2-3 Stunden (eher 3 Stunden) kommt absolut hin.

Really regret following these instructions. As others have said, it’s just way too many delicate components being removed. And given that the main point was to avoid the speakers being damaged by the adhesive remover, I was really disappointed to go through the whole process only to find that, while everything else is working, the speakers no longer work.

I have no idea why they don’t work. I don’t think I’ve damaged their cables. I think the cables are correctly re-seated. Yet both speakers are dead. No sound from anything (though audio through headphones is still fine, and the system preferences correctly identifies whether it is on headphones or internal speakers). Is there something else I need to reset?

Also, although I am careful (not my first rodeo), the latch broke on the keyboard cable. The material is very brittle. I’ve managed to get it to stay well enough, but this is another reason to advise against following these detailed instructions that have you remove so many parts. Old latches are brittle

After powering off I disconnected the battery and removed the strip that crosses over the battery. I took one strand about a foot long of fine copper wire from an electrical cable (14 or 16 gauge multi strand). I worked the wire under the outer battery on the right, using the wire like a saw, I pulled on each end of the wire a few inches at a time with a full size pliers. Had I held the computer in place with duct tape or other means I could have used two pliers to speed up the process. I repeated the process using a new strand of wire for each battery. It took about 35 minutes to cut the battery loose. Removing and cleaning the adhesive tape took forever, and that was using the adhesive softener and one other product.

In the past I damaged one of the plastic flip up/down connections on another main board, so I thought it best to leave all the components in place.

Based on ESD safety guidelines: You should remove all components from top case prior to replacing battery.

in reality it’s a waste of 2-3 hours. I swap these in 45 mins max. Disconnect battery, ribbon cable, and speakers.

afterwards use floss and card to pry up battery. Be careful not to damage cables underneath (riskiest part) mini heat gun does the trick.

This repair honestly should not be listed as max difficulty. It’s misleading and Apple overcharges for this: $1,000 - $1,500 as they treat it as a top case swap.

Ted

GET CABLES OUT OF THE WAY, is the lesson. I got Apple’s recall notice on my MacBook Pro battery, but they said it could take two weeks - too long. So I got the iFixit battery replacement kit (with tools). All went seemingly well. When everything was buttoned up I booted, got the startup chime … but no display. Panic. Took the lower case off, checked everything I could see, all appeared well. Booted with the case off - got the display. Case back on, with just a couple of the screws to hold it, booted - got the display. Long story short, everything worked UNTIL I tightened the upper right red case screw (Step 1). lower case off again, discovered the display data cable was sitting just enough on the aluminum post (seen in Step 37) that screw goes into, when I tightened it down it pinched so the display wouldn’t light up. I snugged the cable away from that post, buttoned back up, and all is well. (So far, so good - I now only hope I didn’t damage the cable internally - fingers crossed.)

Are there other tutorials for replacing the force touch trackpad for this model?

The one here is a bit different to the one I have, though both are for the same force touch model macbook pro.

For example;

T5 screws in my trackpad cover plate are different from T3 screws for the cover plate in the above guide.

Here is the replacement part I bought.

Thanks,

Danke für die Anleitung. Ich habe einfach mit Zahnseide die Klebestreifen unter den Akku-Elementen nach und nach durchtrennt bis alles freigängig war. Dazu muss man wirklich nur das eigentliche Akku Kabel entfernen und das darüberliegende Datenkabel abnehmen. Aufwand 30min. Dabei hat das Reinigen echt die meiste Zeit in Anspruch genommen. Läuft alles super. Viel Erfolg!

Excellent guide! I was able to follow it with ease, and reassembly went really good too. The notes for reassembly really made a big difference. I happened to need to replace my speakers as well as my battery, so I ended up completing 3 tasks in 1. The steps were almost identical for all 3 tasks. Thank you again for providing this service.

I made it !!!

Batteries had swelled to the point they just lifted out with minimal resistance. Scraped the remaining adhesive with a razor blade and re-assembled within an hour.

Thank you for letting me know there was a recall on my battery!! Yes it is covered. You just saved me $100+

thank you!!!!

Thanks, worked for me, did only steps 1-5 and 45-74. Also repair kit from iFixit is great (tools and battery).

what a bullsh*t design… ugh. ok, 74 steps later mission accomplished. #thanksalotapple

I also skipped most of the disassembly and only removed the back cover and the trackpad cable. My battery was already swollen. Drainig the battery to 0% already heated up the case a lot and the i was able to remove the battery by putting a tiny drop of solvent on the spudger/cards and wiggled the battery cells out one by one. Very little force was needed. I can only reccomend this, if it does not work you can still try the other method. Took me about 1 hour in complete.

As others have said already, I did not disassemble the entire computer. I understand why that is a recommendation if you are not used to working on these delicate machines. However with some care and patience you can do it with only removing the back cover, the trackpad cable and the battery cable. Just be careful not to touch anything other than the battery if you can. I used a combination of the string method for the outer 4 cells and a very very small amount of adhesive remover on the inner 2 cells as per these instructions. Instead of string (which I tried first and it broke), I used a guitar string, .12 high E to be specific. It worked very well to cut through the adhesive. Took about an hour and a half, but I like to go very slow and make sure I don’t make any mistakes.

The instructions to do this are great, but not for the faint of heart. I got through it all only to discover that the “new” battery only lasts around 3 hours, versus the expected 8-10 hours. Very disappointing I’m afraid. In the future, I would listen to the instructions but NOT buy the hardware from ifixit.com.

Amazing guide, thanks so much!

I didn’t go through all the steps. I just removed the trackpad cable, used a tiny amount of the solvent and some thin nylon cord to tease off the battery units. For the two central units, I used the provided plastic cards. Everything works perfectly.

The glue used in my laptop was extremely strong and it took a long time to detach the battery, as well as removing the remaining tape and glue from the case. I wanted to be extra careful so as to avoid solvent spilling to unwanted areas. The whole thing took around 1,5 hrs in total.

Excellent tutorial. One could just to go the short way and just go through steps 1-5, 26-27 and then 50-74. In my case (5years old MacBook Pro) I didn’t need to use the adhesive remover which also reduces the risk of irreversibly damaging some internal components. Remember to keep the Mac charging for a couple of hours afterwards even if the new battery comes already charged.

Did steps 1-5, 26-27, 46-50 and removed the battery with string to cut through the adhesive strips. You need a helper for this to hold the computer in place (search youtube for tips). I used fabric gift wrap ribbon. I removed the adhesive from the case (after battery is out) by carefully scraping with a spudger and smearing the adhesive remover on with a microfiber cloth. Be careful with the trackpad cable: it’s very fragile. While I was in, I also changed the thermal paste and cleaned out the fans etc. Highly recommended add-on if your machine is a bit old: It increased my cinebench score by 30% and cpu is about 10c colder at medium workloads. The entire job with add-ons took 4 hours (cleaning took the most time, you have to be careful).

Thank you. It took me just under 3 hours. The only thing that would make this kit better would be a little container to keep all the screws organized. But paper and tape work just fine. Easy to follow guide and the only nerve-racking part was removing my very puffy battery.

I just installed new batteries from iFixit. It took about an hour for my mid-2015 MacBook Pro. All the original batteries were so swollen, that they were already partially detached due to their now curved surfaces. That meant that I didn’t have to use the adhesive solvent and thus, didn’t have to disassemble all those components described in the above instructions. Saved a lot of time, and potentially broken parts. So far so good. I’m currently calibrating the new battery per instructions. I did have a bit of trouble re-attaching the new battery pack to the motherboard. The little array of wires from the new battery pack were a bit longer that the originals. I had to bend all the wires to take up the slack so the clip would align with the clip where it plugs into the motherboard. Also, two of the longer, more slender batteries on the new battery pack resisted attaching to the case on installation, via their adhesive patches. I suspect that the adhesive patches were not thick enough or large enough.

THNX!

Hat super geklappt. Danke! Hab’ drei Stunden gebraucht um alle Schritte zu absolvieren und schreibe diesen Kommentar auf meinem geretteten Laptop :)

You don’t own what you can’t fix. Thank you ifixit for making me own my electronic devices!

:)

Such a wonderful resource! My replacement battery is working amazingly well. It’s been so long since my laptop has stayed on for 4+ hours. Thank you!

Bought this kit to replace the replacement battery that Apple put in during the recall a year ago. Removed 6 of the screws before all the remaining screws popped out of the aluminum frame under the force of the distended batteries. Removed and replaced the batteries in about 30 minutes, with only the trackpad ribbon cable disconnected. To my utter incredulity, the MBP turned on and now works like it did the day I bought it. The trackpad (which was no longer responding) is back to functioning normally. No heat or solvent needed to remove the battery packs - they were so swollen that they had partially loosened on their own. Now my only issue is having to wait all day for the battery to discharge!!! Thanks iFixIt!

WOW!!! I’m no technic nerd at all but I managed to do it the short way in about an hour!! Thanks a lot for the battery kit and the brillant guidance! And thanks to everybody encouraging to take the shortcut. Everythings fine, I’m grateful and proud!! Yeah!

Just did this myself also, steps 1-5 and 46-50. Didn’t use any solvent nor heat, just dental floss and an old credit card. Also, some patience. I took about 45 min because after removing the battery, i really wanted a clean surface for the new one, so i spent some time removing the old adhesive with wd40 and goof off.

So far so good! Save yourself some stress, do what I did, just be careful and take your time…

Super tuto

Tout fonctionne parfaitement. Il faut prendre son temps, bien déposer les pièces et vis dans l’ordre du démontage (j’ai pris de petits bouts de papiers sur lesquels j’ai noté le N° de l’étape avec les vis et/ou pièce dessus). De cette façon, aucune difficulté lors du remontage. Je ne suis pas bricoleur et avec cette méthode, je n’ai eu aucun souci. ENCORE BRAVO POUR CE TUTO!!!!

Same as above! I just did steps 1-5 and then 46-50. No need for acetone and all of the precautionary removal of the boards. This is the second time replacing the battery in my mid 2015 Mac after replacing it 2+ years ago. This time was far easier! I left the peel off adhesive on the new batteries covered so that I don’t have to deal with the sticky stuff if I have to do this again in two years! I’m going to get all of the mileage I can out of the “last user serviceable” Mac I can!

- Oren

I have now replaced the battery and the dc-in board, and I still can’t get the battery to charge. I also bought a new magsafe power adapter. It appears all cables are connected, and the computer runs fine on the battery (until it runs out of juice, then I will be at a complete loss). No clue what to try next. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Took my time and did all the steps. It’s really not that hard. You just need to be good at keeping track of the many different screws and get them back in the right spot. I use a magnetic mat that keeps them all grouped in the order I removed them. I replaced the MagSafe board at the same in order to make sure I had my bases covered. Thanks iFixit!

For me the entire process took about 30 minutes. I did not remove any of the components. Instead because the batteries were already partially detached I used the black flat plastic tool to slowly remove the right-most battery. I propped the Mac on the right side and used a VERY small amount of acetone under the next batteries. You really just need a couple drops and wait a few seconds, then use the flat tool to slice through the adhesive. Again, you literally only need to use it like a dropper to loosen it enough so that the acetone doesn’t travel where you don’t want it. I don’t recommend it because there’s a chance you could slip and puncture the battery potentially. Anyway, it made the process a lot smoother and I’m typing this message on the Mac I worked on and it’s like brand new! Thanks iFixit, you guys rock!

Wow. I didn’t think it was going to be easy, but with the step by step instructions I was able to replace my battery and get my Macbook pro up and running in the time advised though I have minimal experience.

Thanks for the spot on instructions and illustrations. I saved some money and I got to know my laptop a little from the inside at the same time!

I was happy the procedure involved removing the logic board, because I also needed to replace my speakers.

I messed up on the reassembly though - I had to remove and represent the mainboard as I’d neglected to make sure the keyboard ribbon was making it around and above the board. In doing so I forgot to release the KB backlight ribbon which I’d reattached to the board. Ribbon ripped, backlight ruined.

So a quick YT vid & order a new backlight sheet ($9). Installed that & reassembled everything today. All systems are go, laptop fully functional.

I’m an old hand with PCs & pre-SMT circuits, but haven’t ever worked on laptops. These devices are incredibly delicate and tiny to work with. I couldn’t have done it without a desk-mounted magnifier, a powerful lamp and a couple of sets of plastic tweezers.

The kit of tools was fantastic, though. So glad I opted for it, knowing it would contain anything I don’t already have in the workshop.

So glad I did this, giving my treasured device a new lease of life :-)

I also did this a couple of days ago in easy way: steps 1-5 and then 46-50. And everything went fine. Thank you ifixit team very much for this excellent guide!

One thing still bothers me: after installing and calibrating my new ifixit battery everything works fine. But when I monitor my battery’s temperature with Macs Fan Control it shows ‘Battery Max‘ a bit over 20 celsius but both ‘Battery Sensor 1‘ and ‘Battery Sensor 2‘ shows values over 30 celsius (you can see screenshot here: http://mjvirtanen.net/tiedostot/temperat...).

Is this normal behaviour? How can Max value be smaller than sensor values?

The battery calibration instructions provided with my kit are completely opposite to what you’ve prescribed above. They say to drain below 10% and then charge uninterrupted to 100%. Which one is correct???

Hello

I replaced an ifixit battery with a new ifixit one. (The battery only lasted a year? It worked as designed for about 6 months, not holding the charge after that, deteriorated with time. I have yet to contact customer service about this issue).

Unlike removing the original battery, the ifixit was easily removed, a slight tug and up it came one cell at a time, the two center cells needed a little more persuasion. I didn’t remove any of the components apart from the ribbon strap that crosses the battery. I didn’t use any liquid adhesive remover. I duct taped all 4 sides of the laptop to a table, with the laptop held firm it was easier to exert force on each battery cell during removal.

I use Opti Visor #4 magnifying glasses.

A little over an hour to complete. I skipped a shot of Hennessy Brandy this time before powering up as its only Monday. My MacBook is back up and running.

Wow. I can’t believe I did this correctly! Directions were clear and pictures were so helpful. As a tip for keeping track of small screws- use post-its and label them with what they are, then tape them down in order. Made it SO easy to reassemble! Never done anything like this before and finished in just under 2 hours.

Just did this for first time. The risk of damage to multiple tiny connectors is excessive, compared to risk of acetone damage. Much better to remove battery ONLY, using half the total time, with a bit more wiggling with the card to release adhesive. That said, excellent kit, with all needed tools

My MacBook Pro Retina 15” mid 2015 battery have now 703 cycle, condition “good” and state of healt 73%. About few days the mac go in stop also if have 50% of energy. Sometimes at 46%, 80%. This happend without the magsafe. So to weak up agani the mag I need to collegate the megasafe, waiting some second and then click on the power botton. I try to reset the SMC but nothing. I need to replace the battery? Thank for answer.

I managed an almost flawless replacement. My only issue was that I detached (and subsequently lost) the plastic lock of one of the tiny ZIF sockets (step 31) during reassembly. I expect the microphone cable will stay in place anyway, but just in case I taped it down with a sliver of electrical tape.

So, for anyone reading this, I would urge you to be very gentle with these sockets and perhaps using the flat end of the spudger instead of the tip when closing them (to reduce pressure).

Bought a replacement battery in the summer but only got round to fitting it this month (Dec 2020). Initially the battery health monitor showed 102% against the original health. Only 18 charges later, the monitor now shows 77% (6487mAh actual versus 8440mAh original). Is there anything I can do to improve the battery health reading? I might be wrong but I feel this battery is not going to last

I followed the directions and got the laptop back together again and working (somehow feeling like I’d dodged a bunch of bullets). I wish I would have read the other comments and skipped taking everything out and used the string trick to unseat the old battery. There are so many ways to easily damage the delicate ribbon cables. That said, thanks for the very helpful directions

I have a Mac Book Pro 15 mid 2015 and I bought this batteries on august 2018 to replace the original Mac very swollen batteries.

Now this batteries are a little swollen again. The number of cycles indicated by the system report is of 163

Is this normal to expect only a 2 to 3 years of lifetime ?

Thank you, Merci, Gracias ,it at work for me , 2h to finish out and back with a new batterie take care

Definitely don’t use the chemical solvent to remove the battery. The solvent will melt the adhesive strips under the batteries and turn it into a goo and make it really difficult to scrape out. Use the string trick and wear a pair of thick gloves. It’ll take a little more strength, but going back and forth with a thin, strong nylon string is way more efficient than the card/solvent method. If you need a new battery at this point, chances are your battery is swollen and will be pretty easy to get out. When you do this without the solvent, you’ll be able to peel all those adhesive strips off with a spudger in one piece - the solvent makes everything a huge mess.

After installing the Battery I still get a PPT004 error when performing Apple Diagnostics? Is this Apple saying “you haven’t repaired in apple service”?

coconutBattery says everything is ok!

Also can Apple be slowing down my computer because of the PPT004?

Completed this last night. Didn't wait for my 99%isopropyl and just went with nail polish remover and flat cards.

Did it all with very small Qtip dabs of acetone + edge of card dipped in acetone and a bit of excessive upwards prying (ouch!!!) should have been more gentle but didn’t do any damage.

Edge ones came up easily - small rectangles of adhesive and the two main center ones more difficult.

My biggest challenge was the Trackpad worked, but keyboard didn't. I thought I might not have flipped the ZIF toggle back down and indeed had not - hoped that would fix it but did not.

So tested USB and connected Bluetooth keyboards and prepared myself for possible damage and maybe considered ordering a replacement cable.

Then attempted full reset of cable - removed and replaced and then everything worked.

I much preferred trying to just work on the battery removal rather than all of the other stuff. I did it all on my 2012 and everything worked out - in fact worked the first time! But ugh. Curious to try with string.

J’ai pu changer la batterie de mon Macbook Pro 15” 2015 sans retirer la carte mère ni les haut-parleurs de chaque côté.

Avec un peu de patience, il est tout à fait possible de décoller la batterie à l’aide de petites cartes souple comme celles proposées par iFixit.

Je me suis aider également d’une petite règle de 20 cm d’une matière proche des cartes, mais légèrement plus épaisse : très commode pour aller un peu plus loin et faciliter l’effet de scie sur l’adhésif. Durée totale : 1H25

Yup, taking it all apart just to drip some acetone under the batteries is not how I wanted to spend my day. Maybe it helped that this laptop is now 6 years old (and so the battery adhesive is also), but I only needed to do some careful, patient prying and was able to pop them out and finish the job without it being the epic undertaking described above.

A great set of instructions to dismantle. Unfortunately the instruction of reassembling by doing reverse order a little simplistic maybe. But worked it out eventually. Other than that, quite a smooth process and MacBook Pro running like new. Maybe get another 5 years out of it?

Amazing guide, thanks. The zif are very delicate, so it’s very easy to broke them. I would add a warning for that. But the guide is 100% accurate.

Why is needed to disassemble all these parts?

I mean can’t you just remove the baterry and put a new one?

Why removing the speakers, the fans, the mother card?

You can easily get this done in 30-45 minutes by skipping steps 6 - 45. A lot of unnecessary pieces are removed to gain an extra cm of space to fit the card in.

Put a little adhesive remover under the left or right battery section, wait a minute, then squeeze the card under. Once one is removed, you have all the space needed to remove the remaining battery sections.

Thanks and big KUDOS to Jeff Suovanen for authoring this guide, iFixit for offering the terrific and indispensable tool kit, and the many varied commenters whose shared advice and experience made this repair possible. This is a challenging repair, even for the modestly experienced “do-it-yourselfer”, but the instructions, tools, and additional advice made it straightforward. I highly recommend reading ALL the comments at the end BEFORE attempting the repair, and ALL the comments appended to each individual step BEFORE attempting each. I was a bit daunted and extra careful, and therefore the repair took me nearly 4 hours. However drawing upon all the posted experiences I was able to successfully complete the repair without having to use the potentially hazardous liquid adhesive solvent, relying instead on plastic cards, gentle but insistent traction, and a LOT of patience. For an average “Joe” like me, the successful completion of a repair like this is a great source of personal pride and confidence.

Guide is great to really gut a mac. as with other, not sure why you need to pull the whole thing apart. But did follow step for step. i’m pretty comfortable pulling a MB Pro apart now, lol. Some key takeaways- Stay VERY ORGANIZED. Stupid Apple doesn’t use any 2 of the same screw size once you pop the case open. i used the magnetic mat and marked every screw size and placed them in order of removal, this made it way faster. If you have a magnifying glass/arm, it helps if your vision sucks like mine. I was able to insert ribbon cables much more cleanly, less less stress on the cables when removing/inserting. The Solvent isn’t “just a few drops.” I had to use quite a bit through the process. I also notice the plastic cards are pretty much gummed up after that (even after squirting the solvent and rubbing it in). Otherwise- awesome guide. Love the Ifixit tools.

Like another user (pzhivulin) I skipped the majority of the steps and basically just got he rear cover off, removed battery cable and then used the credit cards to lift the batteries out. I used the adhesive remover AFTER removing the battery. It may have been useful had the battery gone bad when it was new but I doubt the adhesive remover would have made much of a difference today. Use common sense and you don’t need to remove anything but the battery cable and cable covers.

I have completed this twice. The first time it was quite intimidating and I took my time. The second time I finished in about 2.5 hours.

The only complaint I have is that the first battery I installed failed again in less than a year. Both failures happened after I began using my macbook as a full-time desktop for work-from-home. These things really don’t like being used for long periods while plugged in and sitting on a surface. I am hoping I can get more life out of this battery by unplugging it daily and letting it discharge, and by raising it off the desk so that it doesn’t get so hot.

I replaced the battery and followed only steps 1-5, 26-27, and 46-50. I almost damaged the touchpad connector. Carefully read the instructions and the comments at each step. The most difficult part was obviously taking the battery out. I used the card and the adhesive remover that was part of the kit. The first cell, I took it out using the dental flaws. The adhesive remover was definitely a big help. While putting the new battery back, make sure the holes align properly before you stick it. I had to remove the new battery back as the holes were not aligned battery and that took me some time. Luckily it was not stuck hard. It took em good 3 hours. Make sure you connect the touchpad track cable properly. I had to redo it as I did secure the cable properly. All in all, it was worth the effort and now my Macbook runs like new.

Add me to one of the folks who did it without removing the entire system board. I did that once to replace a trackpad, and you just never get all of the little ports re-connected right the first shot. I only performed steps 1-5, 46-70. Someone else on this comment board made this suggestion, but let me second it: DENTAL FLOSS. If your batteries are swollen (which, if you are doing this guide, there is probably a decent chance), you can shimmy dental floss underneath the batteries. Then gently slice your way through the underside adhesive. You can get away with using a fraction of the glue remover, maybe even none at all. My other suggestion is to definitely fit the new battery before peeling off the cover of the adhesive. You just want to make sure you aligning everything before you start fixing the new batteries in place.

A really good guide - thanks! Not for the faint-hearted but process went smoothly - magnetic project mat, good torx, pentalobe screwdrivers and plenty of take away food containers and post-it notes for labelling parts associated with each step really helped when it came to reversing process. It’s quite easy to select wrong screwdriver (torx vs pentalobe) so I got into habit of carefully trying both for best possible fit before committing to unscrewing/screwing the tiny bolts…When I got down to the battery the removal fluid supplied with my new battery worked very well if left for a minute - need to be patient working space for next drops of adhesive dissolving fluid. Did the new battery charge/discharge process and now MacBook Pro has a new lease of life…trackpad works again, no bulge in case and v good battery life….but I know that very many people would discard a 6 year old top-of-range MBP laptop simply because of battery replacement issues…it’s really not good enough Apple!

ps I know some people posting above managed to replace battery in fewer steps but one advantage of complete dis-assembly is that you get to use air-duster to blow out dust from everywhere, especially fans and all nooks and crannies….and to clean gunk off boards with isopropyl alcohol….so not only does one end up with a new battery but also a cleaned out, better ventilated machine….

I did a complete tear down as instructed since I had replaced both speakers before (steps 1-45), so felt comfortable with the landscape, and I wanted to clean up the components. It turned out that my old battery was swollen enough that I didn’t need the solvent for removing it or cleaning up the left over adhesive gunk. Just the plastic cards, some elbow grease and lots of patience. Everything is now clean and working again, my new battery is charged up, my keyboard and trackpad are no longer bulging out and I can close my laptop again. So success! It was a smooth operation. Thanks Jeff for the clear steps and illustrations!

I just replaced the battery on my MacBook 15” Retina Display Mid-2015. It took about an hour using the following steps from the battery replacement guide. Steps 1-5, Steps 26-27, Steps 46-51. I then very carefully followed the iFixit guide to remove the battery. It took around one hour to complete the process.

I truly appreciate how thorough this guide is. Thank you, iFixit and Jeff for putting all of this together! I used the iFixit Essentials Electronics toolkit, rubbing alcohol and an old sim card holder (like a credit card) and got everything swapped out in a little over an hour, skipping the removal of everything that didn’t obstruct my access to the battery. Now just going through the charging / discharging steps at the end of the guide to calibrate. Fantastic guide!

I followed the instructions. Mac was able to turn on but has a folder with question mark. I cant seem to turn it off to boot it properly. Help :(… it is normal that is a bit warm as well?

So…I need to take apart the entire machine because of a solvent? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and more efficient to just use something that doesn’t attack plastic in the first place?

Personally, I used isopropyl alcohol, an old membership/credit card (you just need something that’s bendable enough to get under the cells, but not soft enough that it breaks) a syringe with a slightly bent needle to get under each cell, and followed steps 1-5 and 46-50.

I did unscrew the speakers, just so I don’t put too much pressure on them when trying to pry out the outer cells. But that’s it. And I think most people would be ok following the “short version“. You just need a bit more attention, cause you have a little less space to work with on the outer cells, but between that and taking out everything, just so you can remove the left speaker…I took the short version. :))

It’s still useful to know how to do those steps… But, in my experience, you don’t need those, and if the dissolver is the problem, just use something else.

Risky job, dismantling all of it. I took out the battery with dental-floss, sliding underneath the battery. It cuts through the adhesive with little force. Works like a breeze. Did not have to take apart the whole computer. Was ready in about 20 minutes. Check youtube for examples.

I followed all the directions… then I read the comments about skipping a bunch of steps... Then, I took my handy dandy sledgehammer and finished the job!

l directly use spatula,no liquid, no hot gun. but guys you need to be really tecnic, if you don't believe yourself, better to do with this solution or hit gun.

First, a huge thank you to Jeff & everyone working on this. Quite extensive for anyone who never built or repaired computer systems himself. However, it needs some confidence to try this, but the explanation and all user comments gave me a good feeling, so I tried it. And, in fact, if you read everything carefully and work precisely, it’s no rocket science, nothing you’d have to pay triple for a service, which takes your Mac Book pro away for 5 days. Impressive, how well you, as a pro, can put yourself into shoes of ignorants ;-)

Hey @jeffsu I followed all the steps Having trouble booting it back up again. Its currently turning itself on and off when connected to the charger. It doesn't stay on very long before it turns itself off, just near the end of the loading bar sometimes it gets to the part where I put my password in but then it shuts off. The first time it came on it started up on its own and lasted for about 5 mins then turned itself off then the second time 4 mins then 3 then so on untill the point I'm at now where it's just shutting off before I can log on. Ive let it charge to the point where the light on the cable goes green(100%) waited 2 hours before trying it again but alas no change. I booted it up in safe mode which got me past logging on but not for long. I've attempted to reset the SMC but no change. I hope someone can help

I too skipped gutting the whole case and began with step 46. Keeping the acetone off other components was not really a problem. The instructions said to avoid damaging the keyboard ribbon cable. I have no idea where the keyboard ribbon cable is. If I’m to avoid it, the instructions should tell me where it is. Everything is working fine so I must have avoided it. Also the plastic tray that the two center batteries sit in was a problem. The instructions never reference this tray. After examining the new battery I determined yes, there is no plastic tray on the new battery so I better leave the tray alone. It was damaged and loose after prying the two center batteries out but usable. I didn’t know the plastic dividers between the two center batteries were going to come out with the battery. I was horrified when they did. But all is well. My primary tool for accomplishing this job was a butter knife. Not a stainless dinner knife but a real butter knife.

Excellent instructions and photos. I received everything that I needed from IFIXIT (including all of the specialty tools) and followed the instructions and everything worked well. I used some masking tape and stuck each screw to the tape and wrote the step # and screw size on the tape. It made it easy to keep track of the many small screws and put them back in the right place. Patience and gentleness is the key. There are many delicate connectors that one has to be careful with. I replace the batteries and left speaker and my computer is working beautifully now. Follow the instructions. These people know what they are doing! Thanks to IFIXIT and Jeff Suovanen (and 6 other contributors) for providing me with a way to repair my own computer at a reasonable price.

I initially performed the battery replacement fix because my battery was swelling to the point where the laptop would not sit flat and I was worried other components were in danger of being damaged. I was able to do the simplified version using heat and not the solvent, BUT when I reassembeld everything, the keyboard and trackpad were non-responsive. I replaced the trackpad cable and still no working trackpad or keyboard (except for the power button). I finally replaced the trackpad and now all is working great. I have read other accounts of people replacing the battery and having the trackpad and keyboard not work afterwards. I think it is very easy to damage the trackpad connections if your are prying up on the old battery too hard. Also, I suspect the swelling of the old battery may have had something to do it as well. My general advice is to be careful and be prepared to replace the trackpad as well as battery.

I replaced battery due to some major expansion from it. I used the guide and followed instructions to a tee. I did managed to mess up the connector for the left speaker. Put everything back together and now the laptop won’t even boot. Replaced both speakers, put everything back together again and it still won’t boot. Anyone have any suggestions to troubleshoot this laptop? Also, one of the fracking wires for wireless came out of its metal connector. I managed to get it back on but, man, was it a pain in the @ss.

Funny how Apple had a recall on its batteries for this make and model. I called them and gave them the laptops serial number and they said the my battery wasn’t covered. I will disagree with them seeing that the battery was so swollen that it was actually pushing the touch pad and keys upward. When I opened the case for the first time it was like it was spring-loaded and popped up. Yeah, my battery wasn’t affected.

Bear D.

I did it like pzhivulin and it works. You need a little heat an lots of patience. Ist perfect because you do not need to disassemble the whole macbook!

Thanks you guys!

There are YouTube videos outlining a faster way to replace the battery. My battery swelled so I wanted do remove it the proper way, but Jesus this was a lot of work. The most difficult part was trying to keep track of which screw went where for reassembling, which I failed to do, so it took a lot of guesswork to reassemble.

On the bright side I managed to Frankenstein my laptop back together and it’s working fine.

Ultimately I can’t imagine this is how Apple replaces batteries.

As mention by others this repair seems overly complex and gets you to remove a lot not really required. I fixed in 1 hour following:

Steps 1-5

Steps 26+27 (getting trackpad cable out the way to avoid damage)

Steps 46-50

In my case the batteries were so swollen they'd partially detached from the underside, and so removing glue mechanically wasn't a huge deal. I found using a larger / longer pick made from a large yogurt pot lid, which had right stiffness/flexibility helped a lot.

My batteries had been swollen for a while but was dreading the replacement since the repair seemed pretty difficult. Decided to go for it after my trackpad stopped clicking lol. Took a couple of hours but the repair wasn't as bad as I thought. Everything came apart and went back together pretty smoothly. Battery seems to be working great and no more swollen unibody. Trackpad clicks just like new. Awesome guide and fix kit came with absolutely everything necessary. Thanks ifixit!

1:02 hours :-) did not need to remove much, my bulging battery didn't stick very much any more.

This guide is just WRONG. You do NOT need to dissemble nearly so much as the full guide suggests!

And I did not even need solvent, the battery packs just released with a spudger and a bit of patience, not even that much patience. (however, my battery had been replaced by Apple in 2020, I might guess they started using less sticky adhesive by then)

There were a couple issues with the iFixit battery, the plastic protector on the battery circuit board was stuck to the top of the battery rather than between the battery and the circuit board. As a result the battery did not sit flush and I suspect the bottom lid would not have fit right. Also the wires for the battery connector terminal are too stiff and not shaped well which made it difficult to snap the connector onto the mac side.

I'd also advise buying the iFixit batt over the cheap ones on Amazon.

Anyway thanks to the commenters for sharing the optimized disassembly tips, and iFixit for parts and the overall guide, this was an easy operation!

A few well placed screens would avoid this whole process. Shame on Apple.

Finally reached a time when I could take the plunge to replace my powerbook battery. My laptop was really bad and - as my son warned me - getting very dangerous to continue using as it had bulged so much it warped the case and popped one of the screws off. It had not laid flat for months and I put this off too long. He helped me carry out the replacement and the instructions and comments were all excellent. I was sure it wasn't going to work given all the parts removed and put back but we were careful, took our time, and it started up flawlessly. Everything works, it started faster and I charged to 100% and then unplugged to begin calibration. The battery has lasted over 9.5 hours so far with my iTunes library looping overnight (sound off) and then streaming videos for the pat 5-6 hours. My son is jealous - he also replaced a battery with a different kit and said it's no where near as good. Highly recommend this kit that comes with all tools you need. Now what to do with the old dangerous one?!!

I follow after steps but when I turn on my laptop the screen is black! What should I do?

Bonjour, pour moi tous c’est très bien passé. J’ai hésité à suivre les partisans du démontage minimum…Mais, sauf à être pro et être au chrono, le démontage complet assure la préservation des autres composants des chocs, du solvant et autres risques lors des manœuvres de retrait des batteries.

Merci. Cordialement Alain

The adhesive of the new battery packs didn't worked after installing what sort of adhesive should I use?

hi

can i use WD40 as an adhesive remover ?

Yes, there are quicker ways to get this done besides what is provided but these instructions were spot on and allowed me to thoroughly clean the inside of the machine in the process, not sure where the rest of the cat is but a majority was inside the computer!!!

I've used this guide to replace the batteries on three different MacBook Pros. It is excellent. Very clear, and full of useful details. I particularly appreciate the 'before and after' photographs. The iFixit kit is superb, although last time I replaced a battery I only bought the battery, since I had all the tools and had plenty of adhesive removal left over from previous repairs.

Remove the speakers and use 91% alcohol on the sides. , for central cells I recommend using tooth floss to remove the adhesive.

Thank you Jeff Suovanen - this was an excellent guide!

I did it the "short way" avoiding the lengthy process of removing many small screws, cables an lifting various parts out of the way

I did steps 1 to 5 and then from 46 onwards

The battery cells were so swollen that they sort of participated in easing the process of lifting them out. I hardly needed the adhesive remover

The process of scraping the remains of double sided tape went quite well and the remaining glue came off with some of that adhesive remover

Considering the complexity of disassembly I was putting back that repair, but with some caution, the short way is the way to go!

It took me a couple of hours

Thank you, much better than replacing the full top case!

Same as above, battery was so swollen it practically jumped out. Minimal disassembly, new battery in place, works! Thanks IFIXIT! Could have gone cheaper, but went with the best for service and support!

I just replaced my (heavily swollen) original battery with the new one ordered from ifixit. Taking out all the "guts" of the MacBook is recommended in this guide due to the acetone contained in the ifixit solvent. This would damage the speaker cases which are made from plastics.

BUT: It is perfectly possible to change the battery without removing all the interiors like logicboard, speakers and so on. I did it and it worked flawlessly. Simply use BENZINE (purified medical grade from your local pharmacy of course, not the regular fuel from your gas station ... :-)
instead of the acetone-based solvent!

Benzine softens the adhesive very well, without any harm to plastics parts, and for anyone fancying a "gas station type" smell: the purified medical benzine does not smell at all! It also comes in very handy whenever adhesive residues have to be removed ... .

I too did the shortcut way. I found it easy to remove the outer wings of the battery with a heat gun cautiously applied (go slow and easy).

I then got myself a hypodermic needle and very carefully applied acetone (the main ingredient in the iFixit adhesive remover) in tiny amounts to loosen the adhesive under the trackpad while holding the aptop up so that gravity would cause any unwanted acetone to flow down and away from the main assembly. Using the hypodermic applicator prevented sloppy overuse of the acetone. Worked like a charm.

Worked great. Just finished, along with replacing both speakers. Needed to go slow and use good light. In retrospect, pieces of paper or containers, where I put the parts removed from each step would have been more helpful in keeping track, rather than my haphazard approach of just setting them in clusters on the table. Took about 3 hours.

Everything when well, but now I can't asset the battery panel. Any idea how to get it back?

This is a fantastic guide, and I was able to complete this in about 2 hours, going very carefully and making sure I didn't miss any steps. I was able to clean out my computer so well that it looks brand new, and even replaced the thermal paste while I was in there!

For anyone asking if they can skip most of these steps and just remove the battery - yes you can. BUT, you will not have the added safety of having taken the motherboard out (which you have to be extra careful not to get adhesive remover on and also not knock any components off when trying to remove the battery). You will also never have a better chance to clean out your Mac! I am so happy I was able to make the ports look like new, and also got a few dust bunnies out of them.

So, if you don't care about getting your computer super clean and you know that you will be very careful with the motherboard, then go for it. But personally, if I ever have to do this again I will do it the same exact way. Thank you to the creator of this guide!

I, also wondered if all this was necessary.

The real shame is that if the batteries were "glued" (affixed) with the same stretchy strips used in iPhones, it would be completely unnecessary to disassemble. No glue dissolver necessary. Just pull the strips carefully, and the batteries would be released.

As soon as i started to follow the first steps, i realized i would get more chances to break the thin components than damage it with the solvent. I stopped removing the non required parts and i jumped to step 46, followed the steps and everything works fine.

I spent 2 hours.

The ifixit kit is useful.

The steps were clear and to the point. My MacBook has some additional cooling ducting on the right and left side of the batteries, but I was able to work around it to free the old battery. The adheasive remover worked great, you just need to take time for it to work.

Thank you for the detailed instructions. The photos were especially very helpful. Was able to change batteries without removing all the parts just loosened the speakers to get below the batteries from the sides. Just putting a little bit of solvent at the tip of the cards and sliding them under the batteries got the batteries loose enough where I could pull them out. Took about an hour to replace the batteries.