Everything You Need to Know Before You Fix a MacBook

The most affordable MacBook yet, the MacBook Neo, is currently in surgery on our teardown table! While our teardown engineers cook, we want to take a minute and look back at MacBook repair of yore.

It’s been 20 years since Apple introduced the MacBook family of notebooks, their Intel-based vision of mobile computing. The form factor isn’t radically different today: it’s still a clamshell device that combines a display and a keyboard. 

But as they say, it’s what’s under the surface that counts, namely the internal design and adhesive choices Apple has made over the years. Whether you’re dealing with a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air, we’ve got some tips before you fix.

In this article, we’ll go over the options you’ll have when it comes to fixing the most crucial components of your Mac laptop, like swapping the battery, display and other components. We’ll also talk about your options when it comes to storage and RAM upgradeability. So strap in and get ready to fix!

Know Your MacBook

While Apple has released annual refreshes, major repairability shifts have come in waves: older Unibody-era machines with modularity and upgradeability, the 2016–2019 thinness-at-all-costs period, and the Apple silicon era including the redesigned MacBook Air and the modern Pro chassis founded in 2021. We’ll be focusing on MacBook Airs and Pros in this article, mostly because the last “vanilla” MacBook model that was actually ready for repair was released more than 15 years ago.

Telling MacBook models apart isn’t always easy, especially when generations (and features) overlap, but it is crucial to your repair. Small differences like the chip generation, screen size, and even the number of ports, can mean completely different parts and procedures. You should always check the model number that’s printed on the bottom case of your MacBook (look for the A#### number). You can put this identifier into our compatibility checker, and it’ll tell you whether the part you’re looking at fits with your device.

If the printing was scrubbed off, but you can still boot up, your model number will be in “About This Mac” which can be found in the Apple menu. Based on the info you get, you can navigate through to the correct device page in our wiki.There you’ll also find relevant troubleshooting information. Sometimes, you might even be able to fix your problem without replacing components!

Before You Start

Opening a MacBook is easier than opening most phones, but you’ll have more luck (and more fun), when you get the preparation right:

• Back up your data before your repair, if possible. macOS has a backup solution called Time Machine built in, but you can also just copy over your important files to an external drive.
• Discharge your battery to 25% and fully power down. MacBook batteries go all the way up to the 100 Wh plane limit, meaning that they pack a punch when punctured. To minimize the risk of a battery fire, drain as much of the charge as possible before you start your repair. Apple even offers a neat tool for discharging if you have a supported model. If the battery is swollen (a hard-to-click trackpad is a telltale sign), we’ve got tips on dealing with that safely.
• Review the repair procedure beforehand. Go through the steps, read comments from other fixers, and make sure you have the tools and part(s) you need. Nothing worse than having to stop a repair midway through because you forgot something.

Avoid Getting Screwed

Screws are the first hardware hurdle in any Mac laptop repair: Apple started abandoning standard Phillips screws with the first Retina MacBook Pro. Instead, you’ll find pentalobe screws, a five-pointed, star-shaped fastener that Apple adopted specifically for its products. You will absolutely need either a pentalobe screwdriver or a pentalobe bit to get inside. 

Watch out for hidden clips. After removing the pentalobe screws, the bottom case on many MacBooks still has snap-in clips. Use a suction cup and opening pick to release them without bending the case.

Inside the MacBook, you’ll mostly find Torx (T3 and T5) screws, but Apple has recently adopted Torx Plus, too. Even if they use the same drive type, these screws can be different lengths and widths. It’s easy to mix them up but extremely important that you do not. A misplaced screw can easily short your whole system, so label your screws as you go, or you’ll be playing a deeply unfun matching game during reassembly. 

The Battery: Your Most Likely Repair

Every battery degrades over time, and a degrading battery eventually leads to a laptop that loses its portability, instead spending its time chained to the wall outlet to keep going.

How painful this repair is depends entirely on your era. Unibody models are a breeze: unscrew the battery, pop it out, replace. Retina models are a different story: batteries glued to the top case with serious adhesive and no pull tabs require solvent that can damage plastic speaker enclosures if you’re not careful. Bring adhesive remover, plastic prying tools, and patience. 

Starting in 2021, things improved again: MacBook Pros added adhesive pull tabs and moved the battery out from under the logic board. The M5 model lets you replace the battery after removing just the bottom case and a single cable. MacBook Airs (M2 and later) use stretch-release adhesive and a screw-in tray.

During your battery replacement, keep the trackpad cable in mind. It runs over the battery on several models, and is rather delicate.

One important caveat: The one-two punch of Apple’s overreliance on adhesive and lack of trust in fixers makes battery repair via the “official route” surprisingly expensive. If you’re not afraid of a little effort, third-party batteries from our parts store are more affordable, less wasteful, and our Fix Kits come with all the tools you’ll need.

The Display: Easier Than It Used to Be

When it comes to display swaps, pre-Retina Unibody models are the most forgiving: the display panel can be separated from the lid assembly. 2012–2015 Retina MacBook Pros are trickier: the display cable routes through the hinge and you’ll need to carefully disconnect several antenna cables during removal. Still very doable, just more steps. 

2016-2017 models add a notorious wrinkle: Apple used a display flex cable that was too short, causing it to wear and fail from normal opening and closing, a widespread issue the community dubbed “Flexgate.” If you’re replacing a display on one of these, source the revised longer cable or you’ll be back inside before long. The Retina MacBook Air presents a similar challenge, with Wi-Fi antenna cables threaded through the hinge that need careful rerouting.

2021 and newer MacBook Pros streamlined things considerably. Redesigned cable routing and a single-cable connection makes display replacements one of the more straightforward repairs on these machines. 

But the hardware isn’t the full picture. The real catch across Apple Silicon MacBooks is software. Replacing the display means losing True Tone and getting display artifacts unless you run Apple’s Repair Assistant to pair the new panel with your Mac. The same applies to Touch ID after certain component swaps. 

Apple’s pairing and diagnostics tools have gotten much better over the years, but it doesn’t always go perfectly.  So definitely make sure you’re running the required macOS version before starting any repair that involves display or biometric components to avoid being surprised.

Storage and RAM: A Story of Diminishing Access

If there’s one area where MacBook repairability has steadily gotten worse over time, it’s upgradeability.

The Pre-Retina Unibody era (2008-2012) was the gold standard in this regard. RAM lived in standard SO-DIMM slots behind a panel you could open with a Phillips screwdriver, and storage was a standard 2.5-inch SATA drive, swappable in minutes. 

Retina MacBook Pros (2012-2015) are where things started to tighten. RAM was soldered to the logic board. Storage remained socketed but relied on Apple’s proprietary PCIe SSD modules. They’re not standard M.2 drives, but they are at least removable, which means you can still replace a failing drive or upgrade to a larger one if you find a compatible module (or an adapter). The 2015 MacBook Pro was the last model to offer this.

2016-2019 Touch Bar era locked everything down. Both RAM and storage were soldered directly to the logic board. A failed SSD on these models means your data is gone unless you had a backup, because there’s no way to pull the drive and read it elsewhere. This is also when Apple started using the T2 security chip to encrypt the SSD, further complicating any data recovery efforts.

Apple Silicon MacBooks take this one step further. The RAM isn’t even a separate component anymore; it’s unified memory built into the M-series chip package itself, which is what gives Apple Silicon its speed advantage but also makes it fundamentally non-upgradeable. Storage remains soldered to the logic board. Neither can be replaced, upgraded, or serviced independently. If the logic board fails, everything goes with it.

Other Parts: A Mixed Bag

The keyboard is hard to access and riveted to the top case on virtually every MacBook since the Retina era, making standalone replacement a nightmare of drilling out tiny rivets. Considering Apple doesn’t have a spotless track record on keyboard reliability (remember the butterfly design?) that’s probably not what you’d want to hear. The practical advice, even as it hurts us to say: replace the entire upper case assembly (keyboard, battery, trackpad, and speakers) if you need a new keyboard.

Fans on MacBook Pros are straightforward to replace, just unscrew it and disconnect one cable. If yours sounds like a jet engine, try cleaning it first; dust buildup is usually the culprit. Apple Silicon MacBook Airs are fanless. That’s one fewer thing to potentially break, but they run warm under sustained loads.

Ports are a bright spot on Apple Silicon Mac Laptops: USB-C, MagSafe, and the headphone jack are all modular and not glued down. Speakers are glued but release cleanly with isopropyl alcohol.

A Story of Ups and Downs

MacBooks aren’t the most repairable laptops, but the trajectory isn’t all downhill. Pull tabs, modular ports, official manuals, and a self-service repair offer were unthinkable just a few years ago (right to repair regulations, and people like you, have been moving manufacturers in the right direction). With the right tools and a bit of nerve, you can keep your MacBook running for years beyond what Apple might expect. And doing it yourself can even save you money! 

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What did I miss? What’s a tip you would give someone trying to fix a MacBook, either generally or specific to a particular model? Comment below or tag us on social media (X, Facebook, Instagram)!