Introduction
This serves as the starting point for every repair on your MacBook Pro: remove the lower case for access to internal components.
For your safety, drain your MacBook Pro's battery below 25% before you begin this procedure. A charged lithium-ion battery can create a dangerous and uncontrollable fire if accidentally punctured.
What you need
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Power on your Mac and launch Terminal.
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Copy and paste the following command (or type it exactly) into Terminal:
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sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00
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Press [return]. If prompted, enter your administrator password and press [return] again. Note: Your return key may also be labeled ⏎ or "enter."
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sudo nvram AutoBoot=%03
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Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove the six screws securing the lower case:
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Two 6.2 mm screws
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Four 3.4 mm screws
Sur le mien A1708 EMC3164 j’ai 4 vis de 6,2 (les coins) et 2 vis de 3,4 celles au milieu en bas
Ce tutoriel n’est pas dans la bonne section !
c’est le 13” avec touch bar et non celui avec les touches de fonction .
l’autre tuto nommé “écran complet” est le bon
Bonjour Vincent,
Si vous cherchez le même tutoriel pour le MacBook 13” non Touch Bar, le voici : https://fr.ifixit.com/Tutoriel/Remplacem...
Before you start I suggest you get magnifier eyeware as screws and connectors are very small and good lightning are a big PLUS
Completed whole steps in over 4 hours….but worth it. Works back perfect and battery error message is gone….
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Apply a suction handle to the lower case near the front-center area of the MacBook Pro.
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Lift the suction handle to create a slight gap between the lower case and the chassis.
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Insert one corner of an opening pick into the space between the lower case and the chassis.
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Slide the opening pick around the nearest corner and halfway up the side of the case.
The instruction implies that sliding the pick up to the side of the case releases the clip. This is far from the truth; it takes a pretty strong force to pop the clip open. The plastic pick is a good start, but you need to reach in and pull the middle of that side of the case pretty hard.
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Insert your opening pick once again under the front edge of the lower case, near one of the two centermost screw holes.
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Give the pick a firm twist to pop free the third clip securing the lower case to the chassis.
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Repeat this procedure near the other of the two centermost screw holes, popping the fourth clip free.
Look at Step 8 pics 2 and 3 to see exactly where the clips are that need to be released. Taking the bottom cover off my MBP took for ever because I didn’t realize the clips were not right around the edges as the wording suggests. Once I realized this, it came off quickly and easily.
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Pull the lower case firmly towards the front of the MacBook (away from the hinge area) to separate the last of the clips securing the lower case.
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Pull first at one corner, then the other.
On the 2018 model, there are two more clips that need to be popped on the sides in the middle. Then it slides out easily.
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Remove the lower case.
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Set it in place and align the sliding clips near the display hinge. Press down and slide the cover toward the hinge. It should stop sliding as the clips engage.
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When the sliding clips are fully engaged and the lower case looks correctly aligned, press down firmly on the lower case to engage the four hidden clips underneath. You should feel and hear them snap into place.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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3 Comments
Yeah, Ifixit is SOOOOO great except for explaining reassembly steps that don’t just involve ‘reverse order’ like this %#*@ bottom case. I did a whole display (yay me!) and am now stumped as to the last step of reassembly. If you just put it back on and put the screws back in, there’s an increasing gap from the rear 2 screws to where the display hinge begins (that sits flush before taking it off). There seems to be no ‘popping’ it in place and the pegs on the underside of the cover are in the middle.
@jseliger You’re both right, that was an oversight! It really is pretty much reverse of disassembly, but it can take a little practice. See the final step for some new reassembly tips. Hope this helps!
Is this step necessary? I can’t perform this step as I am attempting to repair water damage and need to remove logic board & most likely replace the battery.
Macrepair SF - Reply
@mac_medic You definitely don’t want the power coming on while the board is wet. In your case, I think powering on the machine to disable Auto Boot would do more damage than it prevents. I agree, skip this step and be prepared to disconnect the battery quickly if the laptop automatically powers on. Good luck!
Jeff Suovanen -
Thats right! You don't want power running while working on your logic board.
Dan -
This did not work when running High Sierra.
Kyle B - Reply
Tried this on a 2018 MBP 13” Touchbar (there’s no iFixit guide for this model yet). Need to replace a broken screen.
Luckily I managed to connect to an external screen (Cmd-Down Brightness to switch displays) and enter above command. Seems to work, but there’s another problem with this model - it powers up as soon as any key is pressed……. ffs <gnashes teeth>
Cool_Breeze - Reply
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.
Brian - Reply
Is this step necessary if my mac can turn on? Battery fully dead(
Nursat b - Reply
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.
Jason Sherron - Reply
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?
Patrick Machacek - Reply
Not able to do that with damaged screen
richardjgreen - Reply
If you have a damaged screen you can still use a converter from thunderbolt (USB 3) to HDMI and plug your Macbook Pro to your TV as monitor display. Just make sure to chose the right Source (HDMI IN) in your TV. I did it and to make it work I unplug and plug again in my Macbook and so I could disable the Auto boot
Roberto Sanchez Bustos -
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
Adrian Vizik - Reply
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.
Roberto Enrieu - Reply
running `nvram -p | grep 'AutoBoot'` in terminal verifies that it was accepted
result: `AutoBoot %00`
Marek Polák - Reply
Running Big Sur 11.6.7 on a 2019 16" MBP, it's "auto-boot". So it's:
nvram -p | grep 'auto-boot'to display the current state, the default istrue- and then to change it,sudo nvram auto-boot=falsewhich turns it off.Ed Mechem -
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.
Grant Ormsby - Reply
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.
tommy404 - Reply
I didn’t do this. Mine never auto-booted before I replaced the battery. Now it does.
hatuxka - Reply
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.
bcardanha - Reply
When I did this from Terminal.app within Recovery Mode, the “sudo” was not recognized but I could invoke it without the sudo part. It seems to have been accepted when looking at “nvram -p”
johann beda - Reply
When in Recovery Mode, you already have superuser powers. So you don't need to prefix commands with the sudo command to invoke them with root privileges; you already have them. Do a
pwd(print working directory) after opening Terminal in Recovery Mode, and you'll see that you're in the root user's directory.Ed Mechem -
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.
Mircea Comanici - Reply
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.
Ed Mease - Reply
This should be the default. IMO I tell you to power on - not the lid.
G Sena - Reply
Est ce que cela fonctionne sur un macbook pro 2017 sans touchbar ?
maël muzelet - Reply
Bonjour Maël, oui, ce tutoriel concerne "les MacBook Pro 2016 (et plus récents) et les MacBook Retina 12" 2017 (et plus récents)"
Claire Miesch -
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.
Tom Markham - Reply
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.
arichard2401 - Reply