I did it. Thank you for the idea. Cheap and sturdy now.

I DID IT ! ! !

From step 35 down, taking everything out is just unnecessary. I use a thin string of nylon to cut thru the adhesive, totally safe since there is absolutely 0 force on the battery (Youtube : How to replace 15" MacBook Pro Retina Glued Battery with a Thread - Part 1).

TIP:

I put my new battery with the protective film still on the adhesive, so not glued back to my mac to trial the new battery in case the new one is defective (call me paranoid, but I heard stories). It rattles a bit but once I give it some more cycles to make sure it is OK, I will reopen and glued the new battery for good.

My old battery was at 62% (5212 mAh) capacity, 806 cycles (a decrease in capacity of ~10%/year from 2014).

The new battery is made by Simplo (known manufacturer I guess since is a common name in Mac batteries), too bad I didn’t look at my old one :).

It was made in 04.2018.

TIP:

On the new battery don’t use the whole area of the adhesive strip, instead just put some thin pvc foil or other thin plastic film on most tof the adhesive and leave just some small area exposed here and there (ex. at the corners like 5x5mm squares) to grip the chassis. This way you can remove again the new battery much easily in the future.

Or better leave most of the original protective film on and remove it just here and there at the corners (peal up the corners and cut it like a triangle) so the battery is still glued (to prevent rattle) but not to the point it is yet again a nightmare to remove it. I believe the battery will stay in place anyway because everything is really cramped inside, no place to rattle :).

I don’t understand why one should dismantle almost all the parts since the battery is right there, not underneath the motherboard.

I did replace my wifi card in my MBPr 2012 (to have the unlock by apple watch, IT WORKS!) and also just half of the steps were necessary to get the wifi board out and the new in.

Same when I upgraded my hdd in my Mini.

So it is not an isolated case.

It may be that ifixit just reuses the same web page and pictures but still is not OK to put anyone thru this hassle .

Ifixit, thank you for teaching us repairs, but don’t add extra steps, because increases of chances to brake stuff, so it defeats the purpose.

Excellent guide, thank you iFix it. It is the second time I follow this , the first one I upgraded to a larger drive (1Tb) and now I switched to a SSD.

I still need the now “legacy” DVD for some old movies :). At some point I may replace it with a second HDD (storage) .

I think is a 3x3 cm fan, alliexpres has some, but what voltage?

Why is so much adhesive tape on the replacement battery? Wouldn’t this make it as hard to replace as the original battery? I mean we are “boo-ing” apple for this, just to make the same mistake ifixit? I would put less adhesive (like 60% less) and in thinner bands to make it service friendly. After all the battery don’t need THAT much tape, since the bottom cover will hold it there anyway. (I plan to actually remove much of the tape from the replacement before puting it in).

No need to take out the motor, just use sharp tweezers and grab the connector (NOT the wires) and with small wiggling pull it out. Worked for mine.

They removed this feature a while back...nice to see it again.

Still no lit keys... and no replaceable battery? No thanks. I will keep what I already have, and when they break I'll still buy the old model.