MacBook Pro 13" Two Thunderbolt Ports 2020 Touchbar Replacement

ID: 142585

Description: Use this guide to replace a touchbar on an...

Steps:

1. To begin, we will need to remove 6 total screws
2. 2x 6.9mm Pentalobe P5
3. 2x 5.5mm Pentalobe P5
4. 2x 3.5mm Pentalobe P5

5. After the screws are removed, grab a suction cup. We used iFixit's Heavy Duty Suction cup.
6. Place the suction cup towards the bottom of the Macbook
7. Pull up on the suction cup; Creating about 0.15in worth of space from the panel and the Macbook.
8. Don't lift it any higher, as it could damage inside compenents

9. While creating the gap between the Macbook and the back panel, insert an opening pick into the gap about 0.2in.
10. Don't insert the pick further, as this could cause internal damage
11. Move the pick towards the left side of the Macbook and around the corner edge.
12. Bring the pick up towards the top of the Macbook
13. Once you reach about the middle of the Macbook, you should hear a click. This is good! You have now unhooked part of the back panel.

14. Repeat Step 3 but on the right side of the Macbook
15. Once done, don't remove the back panel just yet. It is still attached to the Macbook

16. Insert your fingers in-between the back panel and Macbook and pry upwards to unhook the middle hook keeping the back panel connected to the Macbook
17. Don't attempt to remove the back panel yet. It is still connected to the Macbook

18. Grip the back panel with one hand
19. Grip the Macbook with the other hand
20. And pull the left side of the back panel AWAY from the HINGE side of the Macbook
21. This will require a lot of force. Don't be afraid to pull hard while keeping the Macbook steady and in position.
22. Repeat this with the right side of the Macbook
23. Once pulled from the hinge area, you may now remove the back panel and place it out of the way.

24. Locate the battery connector cover
25. Take a pair of tweezers and gently remove the plastic cover from the Logic Board
26. Be careful not to pull on any flex cables

27. Locate the small flex cable covering the battery terminal
28. Take a pair of tweezers in one hand and pull up on the plastic flap
29. Take the hook end of a Halberd Spudger in the other hand and gently pry up the retaining flap on the battery cable ZIF socket
30. Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
31. Make sure to use gentle force as this shouldn't require a lot of force. If excessive force is used, you could break the flex cable.

32. Take your tweezers and pull on the plastic cover away from the ZIF socket to remove the flex cable from its socket
33. Make sure to use gentle force as this shouldn't require a lot of force. If excessive force is used, you could break the flex cable.

34. Remove the 3.8mm Torx T5 screw from the battery connector
35. Take the flat end of a spudger and pry up the battery connector to a 90° angle
36. Prying it this far away from the contact pads ensures there won't be any contact between the Logic Board and the battery
37. Be mindful of the battery connector. If you flip the Macbook and lay it down on the table, you could damage the battery connector

38. Locate the left hinge cover
39. Remove 2x 2mm Torx T3 screws securing the hinge cover to the Macbook
40. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the hinge cover

41. Locate the right hinge cover
42. Remove 2x 2mm Torx T3 screws securing the hinge cover to the Macbook
43. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the hinge cover

44. Locate your LCD flex cable towards the top of the Macbook
45. Locate the bottom cover plate
46. Remove 2x 3.2mm Torx T3 screws securing the bottom cover plate to the MacBook
47. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the brackets

48. Locate the top cover plate of the LCD flex cable
49. Remove 2x 1.8mm Torx T3 screws securing the top cover plate to the Macbook
50. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the now free cover plate

51. Take the flat end of a spudger and gently pry up the LCD flex cable from its port
52. Make sure not to pry the socket itself
53. Lift LCD flex cable up and away from the Macbook

54. Locate the left LCD screen spring
55. Remove 2x 4.1mm Torx T3 screws securing the spring to the MacBook

56. Locate the right LCD screen spring
57. Remove 2x 4.1mm Torx T3 screws securing the spring to the MacBook

58. Locate antenna connector cover
59. Take a pair of tweezers and gently pry up the cover from the Logic Board
60. Be careful not to pry anything but the plastic cover
61. Remove 1x 3.9mm Torx T5 screw securing the antenna cables to the MacBook
62. Take the flat end of a spudger and gently pry up the antenna cables from their sockets
63. Be careful not to pry up the socket itself

64. Locate the antenna towards the top of the Macbook
65. Remove 12x 1.2mm Pentalobe P2 screws securing the antenna to the MacBook

66. Locate the LCD board towards the top of the Macbook
67. Remove 4x 3.4mm Torx T5 screws securing the LCD board to the MacBook and to the antenna

68. You should now be able to remove the antenna from the Macbook.
69. Gently pry & pull away the antenna cable from the Macbook while routing it's cable through their hole. Take care here, as the antenna sockets can be ripped from the board easily.
70. You can straighten out the cables to make it easier or simply twist and turn the antenna to maneuver the cables out of their hole.

71. Locate the left LCD screen hinge
72. Remove 2x 4.5mm Torx T9 screws that secure the hinge to the MacBook
73. Leave 1 screw to make removing the LCD screen easier

74. Locate the right LCD screen hinge
75. Remove 2x 4.5mm Torx T9 screws that secure the hinge to the MacBook
76. Leave 1 screw to make removing the LCD screen easier

77. Place MacBook at the edge of your work bench and let the screen overhang
78. Locate and remove the remaining 2x 4.5mm Torx T9 screws securing the 2 hinges to the MacBook
79. The MacBook display will now freely dangle on the edge of the table. It won't fall due to the hinges being inside a divot in the MacBook

80. Bend the LCD screen slightly towards you
81. Gently pry up the LCD screen from the Macbook, while guiding the hinges out of their divots
82. During reassembly make sure to place the hinges into the divots. Once in the divots, you can then screw 1 screw back into each hinge and then shut the Macbook. This will allow you to properly arrange and align the LCD hinges

83. Locate the power button flex cable bracket towards the top left of the MacBook
84. Remove 2x screws securing the bracket to the MacBook
85. 1x 5mm Torx T3 Screw
86. 1x 1.4mm Torx T3 Screw
87. During Reassembly: You may want to use this screw to screw in the logicboard standoff underneath.
88. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the bracket
89. Make sure to grab and pickup ONLY the bracket.

90. Locate the trackpad's flex cable bracket towards the middle of the Macbook
91. Remove 2x 1.9mm Torx T5 screws securing the bracket to the Macbook
92. Then take a pair of tweezers and remove the bracket
93. Make sure to grab and pickup ONLY the bracket.

94. Using the flat end of a spudger gently lift the connector from its socket
95. Make sure to not pry the socket itself
96. It might make it easier if you pry it up a little on all 3 sides

97. Locate the right speaker flex cable bracket
98. Remove 2x screws securing the bracket down to the Logic Board
99. 1x 3.7mm Torx T5
100. 1x 2.6mm Torx T5
101. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the bracket
102. Make sure to not grab the flex cable while removing the bracket

103. Take the flat end of a spudger and carefully pry up the flex cable from its socket
104. Be careful not to pry up on the socket itself
105. There are sensitive filters near the socket. Make sure to be ultra careful not to knock one of those "microscopic" filters off.

106. Locate the left speaker and touch bar bracket
107. Remove 3x 1.4mm Torx T3 screws from the bracket
108. Take a pair of tweezers and remove the bracket
109. Be sure not to grab any of the flex cables while removing the bracket

110. Take the flat-end of a spudger and gently pry up all 3 flex cables from their sockets
111. Be careful not to pry up on the socket itself
112. There are sensitive filters near the socket. Make sure to be ultra careful not to knock one of those "microscopic" filters off.

113. Locate 8x flex cables connected the logic board
114. For each flex cable, pull up on their plastic flap with a pair of tweezers
115. Take the hook end of a Halberd Spudger and gently pry up the retaining flap on the ZIF socket of each cable
116. Make sure to use gentle force as this shouldn't require a lot of force. If excessive force is used, you could break the flex cable.
117. Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
118. Take your tweezers and pull on the plastic cover to pull each cable away from the ZIF socket to remove the flex cable from it's socket
119. Make sure to use gentle force as this shouldn't require a lot of force. If excessive force is used, you could break the flex cable.
120. If any of the plastic flaps break off don't worry! You can use a combination of your spudger and tweezers to gently pull out the flex cable from it's respective socket

121. Locate and remove 5x Logic Board Screws
122. 3x 3.4mm Torx T5 screws
123. 1x 3.6mm Torx T5 stepped screw
124. 1x 3.3mm hex standoff (3mm drive)
125. During Reassembly: It may be difficult to screw the top left logic board standoff back in. If you are finding it hard to do this, take the 1.4mm screw that we removed to remove the power button bracket and screw it into the top left logic board standoff. Afterwards, take the now "cyborg" screw and screw it into the logic board.
126. Don't forget to remove the 1.4mm screw from the logic board standoff during reassembly

127. Take the hook end of your Halberd Spudger and gently pry up the top left corner of the logic board
128. Now remove the logic board from the Macbook
129. Be careful not to rip or tear any flex cables while removing or placing down the logic board
130. During reassembly, make sure to take your spudger while placing the logic board down and move any flex cable away from being squashed, tore, or ripped.

131. Locate the touchbar flex cable mess towards the top right of the Macbook
132. You will be removing a total of 3 screws to release this cabled mess from the frame
133. 2x 2.4mm
134. One of these are "hidden" by a small pad. Take a pair of tweezers and remove this pad to access the screw head
135. 1x 1.7mm

136. These brackets that keep the cabled mess down and attached to the frame are adhered to the cabling
137. Remove these brackets from the flex cabling mess
138. TIP: Be mindful of how the brackets are positioned in relation to the cables and frame. Take pictures to reference. Without these brackets, the cables will be free inside the frame (which is not good).
139. There are also little wraps of plastic holding different parts of the cabling together. Go ahead and CAREFULLY remove these as we won't need them during reassembly and we do need them removed to completely remove the touchbar
140. Follow this guide to properly install the new touchbar

141. There are 2 methods that we can take towards removing this annoying touchbar. We went ahead and performed what we thing is the harder method.
142. Method 1: Take 2 tweezers or handles and wrap very thin wire around them. Then pull the wire underneath the touchbar LCD gently while being careful not to damage the keyboard
143. This method keeps the frame underneath the touchbar from scratching a whole bunch, eliminates the possibility of the keyboard keys "melting" from the Adhesive Remover, and allows you to possibly reuse the touchbar.
144. Method 2: What we did. Remove the touchbar digitizer first by prying it up and off the touchbar LCD. Then use a combination Adhesive Remover and a Technician's Razor Set to remove the touchbar LCD.
145. This method takes longer and more patience. However, we didn't have wire at our disposal and we weren't needing to reuse the touchbar

146. Take a Halberd Spudger and insert the knife end right underneath the plastic of the digitizer
147. Run the Halberd Spudger along the edge of the touchbar digitizer
148. The digitizer should separate surprisingly easy.
149. Feed the Touchbar digitizer cable through the hole and remove the digitizer

150. Take a technician's knife and start prying away the LCD of the touchbar.
151. Use adhesive remover from time to time to help loosen the adhesive
152. Don't let any of the adhesive remover touch the keyboard keys or any plastic for that matter. It will melt and eat away at any plastic it comes in-contact with

153. Locate the cable side of the NEW touchbar
154. The touchbar is very sensitive and can break easily. Make sure to handle with care while maneuvering it around.
155. Locate the detachable end of the flex cable and use the flat-end of a spudger to disconnect the larger portion.
156. Be aware of how the end portion is oriented in relation to the smaller cable. When reattaching this part, it is important to place it correctly back into it's socket and not backwards.'''

157. Locate the little hole near the left side of the Macbook and feed the touchbar flex cables through it.
158. DON'T remove any plastic off the touchbar just yet. The adhesive attached to the touchbar is VERY strong and you will only have 1 chance to place the touchbar down correctly.

159. After feeding the flex cable through th hole, reattach the bigger portion of the touchbar flex cable
160. Make sure to reattach this part correctly as if you don't, it can cause damage to the cable.

161. Locate the larger bracket and place it down in it's spot. Reference the images for assistance.
162. Might make it easier to perform the below steps if you screw the bracket down into place. Reference step 36 for screw placement
163. Place something heavy enough to keep the flex cables back but light enough not to damage them (Ex: metal spudger)
164. Remove the blue adhesive protector from the touchbar digitizer cable
165. Align cable to bracket and press the flex cable firmly down onto the bracket
166. Don't remove the blue adhesive protector on the other side of the flex cable just yet

167. Remove both blue adhesive protectors
168. Take touchbar LCD flex cable and place it against the touchbar digitizer flex cable
169. Press firmly on the flex cables to adhere the 2 together

170. Locate the second bracket and place it in it's correct spot. Reference the photos and step 36 for assistance.
171. Screw down the bracket using it's screw. Reference step 36.
172. Place a small strip of adhesive to the bracket. We used basic Tesa tape

173. Remove the white protective top of the tesa tape
174. Remove the blue protective film on the flex cable
175. Take the flex cables and bring them down to the bracket
176. Press the flex cables firmly onto the bracket to adhere the flex cables to the new bracket

177. Carefully lift the touchbar assembly up and out of it's little crevice
178. Remove the black adhesive protector from the touchbar
179. Carefully align the touchbar to it's crevice
180. Once perfectly aligned, place the touchbar into it's crevice and push firmly but not hard on the touchbar to finalize it.
181. You may only have one shot at aligning the touchbar properly once the adhesive touches the Macbook. So be careful, precise and don't rush it.
182. Once this is done, follow this guide backwards starting with Step 35 to reassemble the Macbook