Don't put camera guards, screen protectors, or keyboard covers on a MacBook Pro

AppleInsider

If put anything in between your MacBook screen and keyboard -- a screen protector, a hard crumb, a camera guard, anything -- it's just a matter of time until you open it up to a shattered display. Here's why, and how much it will cost to repair.

Pieces of card can break a MacBook Air display - Image Credit: TikTok/Classicheidi

A video has started to circulate on TikTok about an unfortunate situation by one Mac user, who slipped something inside her MacBook Air before closing it. However, doing so proved disastrous.

In the video posted on Wednesday, TikTok user Classic Heidi revealed that she had accidentally damaged the display, using a simple piece of card. Deciding to move locations to outside her home, she wanted to quickly move all of her stuff, and tossed a thin piece of card into her MacBook Air before closing it.

This is an action many have done before, especially with books and other folding or closable items. It's something that should not be done with most modern laptops at all, due to the potential damage to the fragile display.

@classicheidi

Is this common knowledge omg

original sound - Heidi

Opening up the MacBook Air, the user was greeted by the telltale black sections and lines on the display, while the top section remained relatively intact. A default background of macOS Monterey is just about visible on the intact part of the display.

Heidi claims she was "so confused" by the situation, but found from online searches that the "pressure" from the card internally cracked the display. She also insists that she had left pieces of paper in her MacBook Air previously, without any damage ensuing.

High-precision problems

Sadly, the video is a harsh reminder that leaving things on a keyboard and closing the lid of a notebook on top has the potential to damage the display. This is true for many notebooks on the market, as the internal layers of the display is often fragile enough to break from a slight bend.

This is especially true for Apple's hardware, which it warns about on its website. A support page from August 2023 warns about the use of camera cover, palm rests, and keyboard covers with a Mac notebook.

Apple warns that users should remove the covers before closing the display, due to the potential damage the foreign objects can cause. This obviously extends to other items, such as pieces of paper or card.

In explanation, Apple says that the clearance between the display and the top case of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is "engineered to tight tolerances." This is so that Apple can create thin MacBook designs.

These tolerances are enough that even a piece of paper laid on the keyboard can cause enough of a deflection to cause damage to display panel layers.

According to Apple's Mac Repair and Service estimator, replacing the front of a cracked M4 13-inch MacBook Air display costs $99 with AppleCare. Replacing the entire display, as this type of damage will require, will cost even more.



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mplsp

Back when Apple had its crappy butterfly keyboard design I had a silicone keyboard protector that was significantly less than 1mm thick and even that was too thick. With my current MBP I’ll get oil marks of the screen from the keys even with nothing on the keyboard at all so that tells me that “engineered to tight tolerances” means essentially zero space. 

It seems like the screen would just compress the keys but looking at the video, the card was at the bottom of the screen/top of the keyboard so if she squeezed the closed case at the furthest point it would easily put a large amount of pressure up close to the hinge.

charlesn

MplsP said:

Back when Apple had its crappy butterfly keyboard design I had a silicone keyboard protector that was significantly less than 1mm thick and even that was too thick. With my current MBP I’ll get oil marks of the screen from the keys even with nothing on the keyboard at all so that tells me that “engineered to tight tolerances” means essentially zero space. 

I know the oil marks problem all too well. It's interesting that the keys are pressed sufficiently against the screen to allow the transfer of finger oils, but this doesn't damage the screen. 

victormortimer

Yeah, design and build quality on Apple's current laptops is astonishingly bad.  The keyboard isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and the display is absolutely terrible.  There's really no excuse for it, thin isn't worth having something that will shatter if you do much more than breathe on it.

I'm thinking it's class action lawsuit time.  Screen damage should be a warranty issue, and there needs to be a repair extension to cover it even after the warranty expires.  The design is fundamentally flawed.

ralphbu

It happened to my 14" M1 macbook pro and I still haven't had it fixed, I'm not sure where to take it. Anybody know what screen replacement will costt?  I called Apple and they said there's a fixed price for all repairs through them and i might do better if I go to one of their authorized repair shops. Is that true? It also happened to my daughter's 16" M1 pro. 

ddawson100

I get that a piece of cardstock seems so thin but it's kind of a slippery slope type thing for me. Instead of asking whether "this is common knowledge that you can't put a piece of paper in there," I'm wondering why store anything there at all?

It's not that you can't or that there's some limit to what you can store, it's that the closed laptop isn't the place to store anything. It's not a folder or a place in your bag, it's a +/- $1500 piece of technology you dummy. Thanks for sharing, though! Sometimes your mistakes can be a warning to others and I'm sure this will save many others.

eric_wvgg

charlesn said:

MplsP said:

Back when Apple had its crappy butterfly keyboard design I had a silicone keyboard protector that was significantly less than 1mm thick and even that was too thick. With my current MBP I’ll get oil marks of the screen from the keys even with nothing on the keyboard at all so that tells me that “engineered to tight tolerances” means essentially zero space. 

I know the oil marks problem all too well. It's interesting that the keys are pressed sufficiently against the screen to allow the transfer of finger oils, but this doesn't damage the screen. 

I’ve been putting up with those oil marks since the PowerBook days, > 20 years now.

When I picked up an M3 Max a couple years ago, I decided to finally do something about it: I bought a tempered glass screen protector. Just like the ones you can buy in packs of three to prevent scratches on iPhones.

While I’ll admit that it adds a significant amount of glare, that’s vastly preferable to weird lines and grids all over the screen from the keyboard. Highly recommend, I’m never going back.

As for the woman with the card… I’m sorry, I simply don’t believe her story. 

eric_wvgg

Addendum: after about a minute of thought, I’ll admit that a heavy weight paper with a big fat crease *might* cause and issue, especially if the MacBook was thrown in a bag that introduced a bit of pressure. And I’ve personally seen gentle cracking around cameras as a result of those adhesive camera covers, I know for a fact those are awful. MacBooks don’t even seem to close with silicone keyboard covers anymore. 

i do not believe that throwing an unfolded sheet of paper or a business card in there would cause any problems. 

uncletrick

There has to be more to the story. All MacBooks ship with a thin piece of paper between the keyboard and the screen. I'm guessing some extra pressure was put on the screen at some point.

edited 11:14AM

timpetus

My 2016 15" MBP's screen is all messed up with keyboard marks because I didn't use a cloth to cover the keyboard for years. On my 2021 14" MBP, I've used a microfiber cloth just the right size to cover the keyboard since I got it. It hasn't broken the screen and has kept my screen in much better condition than my previous MBP. I can see how it might be a problem if hard pieces of dirt stuck to the cloth or it was larger than the keyboard, but my experience has been that it's a good idea to put something soft and thin over just the keyboard area. YMMV...

mike wuerthele

VictorMortimer said:

Yeah, design and build quality on Apple's current laptops is astonishingly bad.  The keyboard isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and the display is absolutely terrible.  There's really no excuse for it, thin isn't worth having something that will shatter if you do much more than breathe on it.

I'm thinking it's class action lawsuit time.  Screen damage should be a warranty issue, and there needs to be a repair extension to cover it even after the warranty expires.  The design is fundamentally flawed.

File one, and let us know how it goes.

eric_wvgg

timpetus said:

My 2016 15" MBP's screen is all messed up with keyboard marks because I didn't use a cloth to cover the keyboard for years. On my 2021 14" MBP, I've used a microfiber cloth just the right size to cover the keyboard since I got it. It hasn't broken the screen and has kept my screen in much better condition than my previous MBP. I can see how it might be a problem if hard pieces of dirt stuck to the cloth or it was larger than the keyboard, but my experience has been that it's a good idea to put something soft and thin over just the keyboard area. YMMV...

that's funny… I did the microfiber cloth thing with my 2016 MBP, still wound up with keyboard marks. Baffling.

chrislaarman

I had a strange experience in July 2024 with my M3 Pro 16" MacBookPro: after the macOS update soon after delivery, the (primary) display would resemble a full moon behind clouds, but an external display would act as expected. That evolved in having a black screen and lit keys, long-pressing the power button to power off, then long-press until the logo appeared, but skipping the emergency options.
Early in July 2025, still one week within warranty, even this "double-clutch" start wouldn't work anymore. I connected an external display. Studying the display options, I noticed that the primary display wasn't listed. In Apple logic: it wasn't available. So I rushed the computer to the dealer. (After making a Time Machine back-up.)

It turned out, as photographed by the repair department of the dealer, that a tiny flake along the right-hand side of the display had broken off. New display due, not covered by warranty. Cost me just over EUR1300 (in the Netherlands). Took one week and a day, including me disputing that charge.

I still wonder what would have gone wrong where. The computer had been built to order in China, delivered to the dealer, next day to me. And me, I had hardly used it yet. - So this article at least tells me to treat this computer very carefully.

strangedays

VictorMortimer said:

Yeah, design and build quality on Apple's current laptops is astonishingly bad.  The keyboard isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and the display is absolutely terrible.  There's really no excuse for it, thin isn't worth having something that will shatter if you do much more than breathe on it.

I'm thinking it's class action lawsuit time.  Screen damage should be a warranty issue, and there needs to be a repair extension to cover it even after the warranty expires.  The design is fundamentally flawed.

This fragile glass display panel is fundamentally flawed! So are my champagne flutes, they cannot be tossed around and must be handled with care — what a poor design!

lol no. Very happy with my MBA and MBP. Get a tough book if you need to slam the display down on random objects. 

edited 1:19PM

rafagon0726

I'm having trouble what exactly is meant by a "piece of card."  Is it a piece of a credit card?  A piece of a business card someone gave her?  I mean, "piece of card" is not really a phrase you hear every day.