don't take this chance... it will break stuff if it keeps swelling. just replace the battery or remove it entirely and live with the slower speeds.
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How likely is Apple to fix swollen battery out of warranty?
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don't take this chance... it will break stuff if it keeps swelling. just replace the battery or remove it entirely and live with the slower speeds.
I agree. Plus, a swollen battery has the potential to explode. I would think Apple recognizes this and would want to do everything possible to remove themselves from any liability should the unthinkable happen, regardless of how old the computer is. Take it in, be polite, express your concern for your safety, etc. etc. and see where it goes. Good luck!
Right so I've asked around at Apple Resellers and also the official Apple hotline in Hungary, and they gave me a resounding "no". They said that simply, if it's out of warranty, they aren't going to help. They agreed that the price is absolutely ridiculous, and they told me to go and get a 3rd party to do it which would be much cheaper.
So I contacted some Authorized Apple Repair centers and they have told me that they don't deal with this particular battery (specifically for the Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro) because it has such a high failure rate that they can't take responsibility for it, it's just not worth it for them. So I'm stuck with this potentially dangerous battery.
So there you go, it can't be repaired.
Looks like the only solution would be to buy a new Mac! Another win for Apple! It's funny how they get rewarded for building poor quality products.
No I'm not going to buy a new Mac, this one was already expensive enough and it's barely 4 years old. Its performance should be good for me for another 2 years. Removing the battery would also decrease performance, so I can't do that, I do lots of heavy work (grading RAW video).
So I contacted some Authorized Apple Repair centers and they have told me that they don't deal with this particular battery (specifically for the Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro) because it has such a high failure rate that they can't take responsibility for it, it's just not worth it for them. So I'm stuck with this potentially dangerous battery.
So there you go, it can't be repaired.
Looks like the only solution would be to buy a new Mac! Another win for Apple! It's funny how they get rewarded for building poor quality products.
No I'm not going to buy a new Mac, this one was already expensive enough and it's barely 4 years old. Its performance should be good for me for another 2 years. Removing the battery would also decrease performance, so I can't do that, I do lots of heavy work (grading RAW video).
are there guides online that will allow you to change the battery yourself?
I'm aware not easiest as glued in.
I had similar issues with a 2010 white MacBook when keyboard failed.
Glues in but with a youtube video guide I swapped it out myself, sadly now logic board gone
I'm aware not easiest as glued in.
I had similar issues with a 2010 white MacBook when keyboard failed.
Glues in but with a youtube video guide I swapped it out myself, sadly now logic board gone
don't deal with authorised service, their attitude is appalling, you can still replace battery by 3rd party shop or diy using guide from ifixit (on eBay you can still buy genuine battery to this model)
You really need to replace the battery. Take it to a 3rd party shop or do it yourself. Right now it is a fire hazard like the Note 7's were. Also, the batteries will continue to swell and your keyboard and/or trackpad will stop working.
I've seen MacBook Pro Retina with swollen battery and System Info still shows battery condition as "Normal".
Yep same on mine...
I'll keep looking for 3rd party places to repair it, there's got to be someone out there who is willing to do it!
Now that's scary! Here i was worrying mine would bulge in the next couple days, since it has had the replace now warning for a month now. Even Apple told me not to worry, just to make sure to switch it when i get the chance.
I'm sure third party will be willing to do it, even if it's a little risky the chance of you getting a couple more years out of it is worth it. If not, you can always sell it for parts and get some money back.
Good luck!
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I had a failed Apple A1322 battery in a MacBook Pro A1278 Unibody featuring a 2x2.4 Intel Core2duo, 8GB DDR3 Ram, 250GB of SATA hard drive and running Mac OSX 10.9.5 Maverick. Out of the 10 A1278 I checked, two failed because the batteries bulged pushing then crushing the trackpads and keyboards. On the pics, you can see that one of the Li-ion Polymer battery (Model 1322, 10.95V at 63.5 Ah, 846 cycles) expanded from 13mm to 33mm. Further, after being taken out of the laptop into a fire-proof box, it vented and might have caught fire judging by the soot. Looking at the web, this battery expansion is quite common: Apple replaced a few of these batteries during a very short period of time, and now asks for $129 to provide a spare. As far as I know, Apple refused to recall the batteries, only accepting to replace them on a very limited ‘one of a kind’ scale, while leaving most of the people without help with their battery problem. Most common comment of the Apple ‘Genius’ faced with a bulged battery was ‘you need to upgrade’ !
Fortunately, the battery on the A1278 'Unibody' is removable and user accessible providing you have a pentylobe screwdriver!
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I bought a 2008 17” MBP. I didn’t have AppleCare but in 2010 when out of warranty the battery started bulging & distorting the case. I removed the battery as soon as I noticed & took it into my local Apple Store which at that time was Nice in France. They replaced it FOC without quibbling. Said it was a known problem.
After trying other repair shops, I finally found a 3rd party repair place that actually doesn't refuse to do this repair. They spent 5 days diagnosing the machine, only to tell me that they don't have this kind of battery in stock and will have to order it, which takes about a month. So I'm getting the machine back without a battery until they can find me one.
All for the equivalent of "only" 230 USD, almost half the price that Apple gave me.
That's how quick and easy it is to replace the battery on a MacBook Pro!
This is not some weird, unusual issue. It's a battery replacement, FFS. Something that you are expected to do eventually before the end of the life of your computer. But it's all but impossible to do, even by professional technicians who were trained to do this. Even Apple can't freaking do it! They can only replace the entire bottom half of the machine because they don't even know how to remove their own glue. How about using screws? A marvel of modern engineering!
All for the equivalent of "only" 230 USD, almost half the price that Apple gave me.
That's how quick and easy it is to replace the battery on a MacBook Pro!
This is not some weird, unusual issue. It's a battery replacement, FFS. Something that you are expected to do eventually before the end of the life of your computer. But it's all but impossible to do, even by professional technicians who were trained to do this. Even Apple can't freaking do it! They can only replace the entire bottom half of the machine because they don't even know how to remove their own glue. How about using screws? A marvel of modern engineering!
Like many modern devices, MacBook batteries are part of a larger assembly. As a result the Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) is the top case. The labor cost to individually replace the multiple battery packs glued in a MBP is just too high. So the Topcase FRU consisting of the battery, trackpad, keyboard and metal upper case to which all are attached via rivets or glue.
It could be worse, a Microsoft surface book FRUs are the entire upper unit (the tablet part) and the base. That is it.
I understand that other companies are doing this too, but it doesn't justify it. The same way you can't justify murder by saying "well other people are doing it too". Companies are making life harder for us for their own gain, it's as simple as that. To Apple, it has multiple benefits, because 1. it's easier to manufacture 2. it can be made thinner and better marketed to stupid people 3. they make more money off of repairs 4. the product becomes less durable so people will buy a new one faster. To us it simply means: we spend more money, and we get more pollution in exchange. They're literally tricking us to pay more for their laziness.
Also I don't see how glue can't be replaced by, I don't know, velcro, or some kind of other fastener. Would it really be that hard to manufacture? Imagine if you could just take the bottom cover off, and be able to easily remove the battery, and install a new one. It would cost you 3 times less because you'd only pay for the new battery, no labour costs. And it would only take minutes, not months, for the repair.
All right this nearly 1 year long frustrating story has finally come to an end! There have been many Apple appointments, weeks of living without a computer, months of not being able to use the trackpad, Apple claiming that due to their poor design, the entire top case has to be removed, which I have to pay for even though I didn't come up with this poor design choice. And dodgy repair shops, some which refused to do something (which should be) as simple as a battery replacement, some which simply didn't know how to do it, while others claimed it's only possible with high-failure rate 3rd party batteries that will almost certainly explode. One little corner shop however, magically had access to this rare and expensive battery that Apple is otherwise not selling to anyone, and was willing to go through the risks and frustration of putting it in the machine and still give me warranty on it.
Total cost: roughly 200 USD and more than 1 week without a computer. That's less than a third of what Apple quoted! During that time I had to grade 3 videos, render multiple projects, and write a dissertation, all on an 11 year old Mac Mini. It would have been even less if I had gone straight to the second place.
The moral of the story is: if you buy a product in which the battery cannot be replaced by design, then you're pretty much asking for this to happen. In a way as consumers it's our fault that we've let this happen. Indeed we have little choice, because all laptops that have removable batteries are PCs. But there are other options, Hackintoshes, desktop Macs, or older Macs that still used to have removable batteries. Or simply, we have to know some really good repair shops and know how much time and money each repair is, and if it's worth it. If we stop paying more for products that are designed to "go bad" eventually, and start paying less for products that last longer and are built to last, then that's what we will get.
I have no idea what I will do once my MacBook Pro becomes obsolete, because a desktop seems very limiting, and I really don't like Windows, but I definitely don't want to buy a MacBook Pro again. Maybe an old MacPro that can still be repaired.
Total cost: roughly 200 USD and more than 1 week without a computer. That's less than a third of what Apple quoted! During that time I had to grade 3 videos, render multiple projects, and write a dissertation, all on an 11 year old Mac Mini. It would have been even less if I had gone straight to the second place.
The moral of the story is: if you buy a product in which the battery cannot be replaced by design, then you're pretty much asking for this to happen. In a way as consumers it's our fault that we've let this happen. Indeed we have little choice, because all laptops that have removable batteries are PCs. But there are other options, Hackintoshes, desktop Macs, or older Macs that still used to have removable batteries. Or simply, we have to know some really good repair shops and know how much time and money each repair is, and if it's worth it. If we stop paying more for products that are designed to "go bad" eventually, and start paying less for products that last longer and are built to last, then that's what we will get.
I have no idea what I will do once my MacBook Pro becomes obsolete, because a desktop seems very limiting, and I really don't like Windows, but I definitely don't want to buy a MacBook Pro again. Maybe an old MacPro that can still be repaired.
I'd go back to an apple store and refer them to this page: https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service. "Battery service" does not specifically specify not holding charge... I'd argue that swollen is indeed an "issue"! Speak to the manager... in my experience, Apple has always made things right.
I went to an 3rd party authorized apple service center, because there was on right next to me. They first quoted me a top case replacement, which is quite a bit more than battery replacement. I referred them to the apple official battery replacement price (as shown in the page above), they did some checking and honored the price (199 for my 2013 mbp15). And yes, they did replace the entire top case which they sourced from apple. I was more than willing to pay the $199.
You'll need to get this fixed as soon as possible — eventually it will start pressing against the trackpad, making it not work, and it can break the glass too, which is expensive to replace.
If you're out of warranty, then find a good 3rd party repair place that has good reviews, and get it done there. Though it's rare, if you can, make sure they use genuine Apple parts.
There is also an iFixit tutorial on how to do this yourself if you're confident with it, but the battery you buy from iFixit won't be genuine so I wouldn't recommend it. The repair is difficult and risky both to you and the computer, and won't save you much money, and has no warranty.
That's strange. I opened my Late 2013 13" rMBP last week and battery looked normal. It's been used since November 2013 and is at 480 cycles right now. 2015 models should be much 'younger'.
I hope it's not getting swollen anytime soon - it holds charge very well.
I hope it's not getting swollen anytime soon - it holds charge very well.
My 2011 MBP 13 had a swollen battery which leaked and damaged the motherboard and the bottom case. it was wayyy out of warranty. I had to pay EUR 200 for a replacement battery but a new motherboard and bottom case were replaced free of charge. The laptop still lives today
I have this issue on a 2014 rMBP. Trackpad is behaving erratically, case is badly bent and the lid does not close entirely anymore. Time for an emergency visit to an Apple Store I guess.
Of note, I've been using this rMBP heavily since buying it 2014 and 99.9 percent of the time in clamshell mode always plugged to power. The battery only has 14 charge cycles ! I had no idea it is not recommended to leave a macbook always plugged to power and made this discovery researching this problem.
Anyway, my next laptop will be not be a macbook but a workstation laptop designed for the battery to be replaced easily with a large battery enclosure.
Of note, I've been using this rMBP heavily since buying it 2014 and 99.9 percent of the time in clamshell mode always plugged to power. The battery only has 14 charge cycles ! I had no idea it is not recommended to leave a macbook always plugged to power and made this discovery researching this problem.
Anyway, my next laptop will be not be a macbook but a workstation laptop designed for the battery to be replaced easily with a large battery enclosure.
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If you have AppleCare, then definitely go to Apple. If you don't, you might want to find a 3rd party repair place that uses genuine batteries.
Actually at Apple they told me that "This problem would not have happened if I just left it plugged in all the time". I said "pardon me?" and they simply said that they understand that I bought a laptop to use it as a laptop, i.e. with the battery, but if I hadn't used the battery, the battery would not have failed. So I kind of said "are you guys blaming my correct use of the product for the failure of the product?" and they said "no no, we're just saying that if you hadn't used the battery, it would not have failed."
Okay. Uh, thanks Apple. I guess they're right. If you buy a Mac, then the best way to make it not fail, is to not use it. After all, 99% of failure cases happen because people use the product they bought. Stupid people, eh?
I don't have AppleCare but will still contact Apple to hopefully get a battery replacement for the quoted price (Apple site) of about 200 euros.
And even if you are not using it, you must be careful: for prolonged durations, Apple recommends to store the rMBP with the battery at 50% and to recharge it to 50% every 6 months...
Anyway, light notebooks are a recipe for ballooning batteries wanting to destroy the whole thing sooner or later. And they are not easily user replaceable, because thin. That's why I'm looking at Dell and Lenovo workstations.
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