Apple no longer offers free repairs for MacBook models with the infamous «butterfly» keyboard, as the repair program for these machines has officially ended.
Apple no longer offers free repairs for MacBook models with the infamous «butterfly» keyboard, as the repair program for these machines has officially ended.
The program was available for a wide variety of MacBook models sold between 2015 and 2020, including different MacBook Air and MacBook Pro configurations. With the repair program’s end, however, it’s now no longer possible to get these machines repaired by Apple at no cost.
This will ultimately cause frustration for some users, as they will now have to resort to third-party repair shops and have the machine repaired out of pocket. It’s widely known that the butterfly keyboard has significant durability problems, with notable flaws surfacing less than a year after its introduction.
In 2015, with the release of the 12-inch MacBook, Apple showed off a keyboard with a unique butterfly-style switch mechanism. Unlike the standard scissor mechanism used on previous MacBooks, the butterfly keyboard consisted of a single assembly supported by a stainless steel dome switch.
At the time, Apple executive Phil Schiller said the new butterfly keyboard was 40% thinner than ones with the scissor mechanism, and stated that it was four times more stable. Complaints about the keyboard soon began piling up, however.
The history of the butterfly keyboard is riddled with claims of durability issues
Users started experiencing problems with the new-and-improved keyboard, even as Apple unveiled the second-generation butterfly keyboard with the 2016 MacBook Pro.
