Apple's Butterfly keyboard repair program winds down soon

AppleInsider

The last two models of 13-inch MacBook Pro with the infamous "butterfly" style keyboard, both from 2019, are still eligible for a free repair for most of 2024 -- but you need to hurry.

Close-up view of a black and silver MacBook keyboard with focus on the QWERTY keys.

Starting with the 12-inch MacBook that came out in March of 2015, and continuing through the 2019 models of 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple was using a controversial very low-travel keyboard switch mechanism of its own design. While the vast majority of owners had no issues with the "butterfly" keyboards, a free repair program was eventually set up for those who did.

The repair program eventually covered a wide variety of Apple's notebook models for up to four years after sale. The oldest were the short-lived MacBook models of 2015 to 2017.

This was followed by the 13-inch MacBook Air with a "retina" screen from 2018 and 2019, and a variety of MacBook Pro models between 2016 and 2019. All the models with the "butterfly" keyboard are now no longer eligible for the free repair program, which mostly added a silicon membrane to the switch to improve reliability.

The last two models of 13-inch 2019 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt ports continued to be sold until November of 2020, meaning they may still be eligible for free repairs until this November, depending on when a user purchased them.

Qualifying for a free fix

Following a class-action lawsuit that was resolved in July of 2022, Apple agreed to compensate owners of the butterfly keyboard models who had already paid to have the keyboards repaired before the program was announced. The deadline for the submission of those claims expired in March of last year.

People who bought one of the remaining eligible 2019 MacBook Pros sometime in 2020 are not automatically going to get the free repair. Only those who are have the following problems are eligible:

• Letters or characters do not appear when pressed


• Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly


• A key or keys feel "sticky" or do not respond in a consistent manner

If one of your eligible machines has these problems, you need to first find an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store, or arrange to mail in your device to Apple. Be sure to make a backup of your data first.

It's important to note that the repair program only covers replacing defective butterfly keyboards for free. It doesn't cover any other types of repairs, and doesn't extend your MacBook's general warranty.




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VictorMortimer

I'm not buying that a majority of owners didn't have problems with those horrible keyboards.  Some people just lived with it, but given the number of top case replacements I saw come through because of keyboards... nope, it was a problem for almost everybody.  Now, I'm not saying I didn't get a few users new batteries for free because the keyboard repair extension existed, but every one of those that I did the user was just living with at least one bad key because they weren't aware they could get it fixed for free.  If it hadn't existed I'd have put in a 3rd party battery, because buying a new top case just to change a battery is stupid.

macxpress

We had lots of these at work and I can't recall ever needing to send any of these back to Apple for a keyboard repair/replacement and they go into construction trailers and everything.  I think this issue was really overblown. 

chasm

This comment is being written on a 2019 MacBook Pro with that keyboard, and it has never given me any issue.

Now that's just one case, but IIRC Mike here at AppleInsider has mentioned that he kept track of store data about keyboard repairs during the period the program was most active, and didn't see a huge bump over normal everyday "I dropped my drink into my keyboard" type problems.

If you were affected, of course, it was annoying and the initial solutions before the program came along were not good at all. But not everyone with such a keyboard had the problem, and that's a verifiable fact.

bvwj

Just this weekend the shift key on my 2019 MBP became very difficult to use.

kdupuis77

chasm said:

This comment is being written on a 2019 MacBook Pro with that keyboard, and it has never given me any issue.

Now that's just one case, but IIRC Mike here at AppleInsider has mentioned that he kept track of store data about keyboard repairs during the period the program was most active, and didn't see a huge bump over normal everyday "I dropped my drink into my keyboard" type problems.

If you were affected, of course, it was annoying and the initial solutions before the program came along were not good at all. But not everyone with such a keyboard had the problem, and that's a verifiable fact.

Is that a 16" 2019 MacBook Pro? Just wondering, because the 16" model was the first to revert back to the usual scissor-style keyboard switches. I didn't have any problems with my 2019 16" Intel MacBook Pro keyboard... But absolutely did with 2x different Touch Bar MacBook Pros, a 13" and a 16", w/ that butterfly keyboard. The 15" MBP went back to Apple twice for top case replacement. First time was sticking S key that would register S randomly in sentences, and like 3-15x when pressed... 2nd time was the exact same issue but with the 9 key. I keep my computers immaculately clean too. Was able to pry the S key off the first time and blow a small amount of dust out (fixed the issue for a day or two), but getting it back on there was extremely more difficult than popping back on the scissor-style caps were/are. The 13" MBP had same issue but with the tab key. At least Apple handled it for free, but not great losing your sole computer for 1-2 weeks in the process. Absolutely loving the M-series MBPs now, 0 complaints there! That last Intel model had me teetering on going back to a windows machine after 20 years w/ Apple now lol.

chasm

kdupuis77 said:

Is that a 16" 2019 MacBook Pro? Just wondering, because the 16" model was the first to revert back to the usual scissor-style keyboard switches.

No, it's a 15-inch 2019 MBP with Touchbar.

avon b7

The worst thing about the whole affair was that it wasn't limited to a certain batch of machines. The repair programs were model specific as opposed to serial number specific.

Basically, that turns every unit into a ticking time bomb. They are fine until they are not fine and the mere presence of a repair program suggests a design flaw as opposed to a manufacturing flaw. 

Now that those programs are coming to a close, users are really open to being hit by the problem and footing a hefty repair bill. 

A more elegant solution would have been to swallow hard and leave the program open-ended, effectively giving those machines lifetime keyboard warranties.

Hopefully at some point, someone will come forward and tell the story of how the butterfly keyboard came to be (apart from the original presentation story) and we may find that the overall goal was 'thinness' and also give some insight on the noise threshold testing because those keyboards were also accused of being too noisy. 

Personally, I'm flabbergasted that they never had being spillproof as an original design goal. 

chasm

avon b7 said:

A more elegant solution would have been to swallow hard and leave the program open-ended, effectively giving those machines lifetime keyboard warranties.
 

The vast majority of Intel Macs have been replaced. Mine is the VERY last model of Intel MBP 15", and it's five years old now. I plan on replacing it with an M3 14" whenever the M4 comes out and the M3s get a price reduction.

I'm not trying to suggest that a five-year-old Mac is "old hat" but in fact the average useful life of most computers is 5-7 years, so replacing a machine that still works just fine is perhaps a tad early but not out of the question at this point. People do this all the time.

stephenhouser99

I have a 13” 2019 with 4 thunderbolt ports and have had no issues. I think the article is incorrect in stating the 13” MBP from July 2019 was sold until 11/2020. Those models were sold until I think April or May of 2020 when they released the last intel 13” MBPs, one w/ 2 thunderbolt ports and one w/ 4. These had the fixed keyboard and physical escape key. They sold the one with two until later in 2020 then replaced it with the M1 version of that, but the 2020 13” model with four ports they sold until fall 2021 when the redesign happened.

mknelson

VictorMortimer said:

I'm not buying that a majority of owners didn't have problems with those horrible keyboards.  Some people just lived with it, but given the number of top case replacements I saw come through because of keyboards... nope, it was a problem for almost everybody.  Now, I'm not saying I didn't get a few users new batteries for free because the keyboard repair extension existed, but every one of those that I did the user was just living with at least one bad key because they weren't aware they could get it fixed for free.  If it hadn't existed I'd have put in a 3rd party battery, because buying a new top case just to change a battery is stupid.

I have many clients with butterfly keyboard machines. A few have had multiple keyboard's replaced, but most (and they are aware of the program) haven't had issues.

There have been quite a few where the cleaning procedure was successful and a replacement wasn't required.

chasm

stephenhouser99 said:

I think the article is incorrect in stating the 13” MBP from July 2019 was sold until 11/2020.

You'll have to talk to Apple and explain to them how they are wrong -- the program runs for four years from when the last possibly-affected MBP inventory was sold.

LarryBorsson

I feel like I replaced over a hundred of those Top Cases. It just wasn't worth trying to swap a single keycap.

MplsP

chasm said:

This comment is being written on a 2019 MacBook Pro with that keyboard, and it has never given me any issue.

Now that's just one case, but IIRC Mike here at AppleInsider has mentioned that he kept track of store data about keyboard repairs during the period the program was most active, and didn't see a huge bump over normal everyday "I dropped my drink into my keyboard" type problems.

If you were affected, of course, it was annoying and the initial solutions before the program came along were not good at all. But not everyone with such a keyboard had the problem, and that's a verifiable fact.

Keep in mind that it takes a pretty low failure rate to still be significant so the fact that most people haven’t had issues is expected. 

I suspect there were also a lot of people like me - I had a lot of issues with mine but none of them were fatal so i never showed up as a statistic despite having more problems with the keyboard than I’ve had with any other.