Jake Thornberry

I agree with @HBloomfield’s comment overall, but to add to that comment, mine was a little different.

(2) Long: bottom center

(4) Medium: bottom left and right; on either side of the CD/DVD drive

(6) Short: everything else

One of the screws came out easily but the other took a great deal of convincing. To get it out I tightly wrapped a medium-thick rubber band around it to improve grip. I then applied downward pressure with my palm, and with my other hand, rotated the screwdriver. If at first you don’t succeed, try taking a break for a few minutes to let your grip strength return. You’ll get it eventually!

Thanks for this excellent guide, Jeff! I was a little nervous due to the difficulty rating, as, besides swapping out the battery on my iPhone 6 (also used iFixit’s guide as well as YouTube), this was the first electronics repair I’d ever done. But it came off without a hitch! For anyone considering this procedure, my recommendation would be to:

1. Read the entire guide.

2. Read all of these comments.

3. Read all of the comments under each step.

4. Take your time, stay organized, and consult YouTube if needed.

The guide itself is great and thorough, but there are a few different ways to remove the battery, so read them all and do what makes sense to you. I ended up skipping steps 5–41 and removed it with only one of the plastic cards supplied in iFixit’s repair kit. Slow going and if I were to do it again, I’d look into the other methods others have supplied here. Good luck!

I just completed this successfully. The guide was great, and I recommend reading each of the steps’ comments, too. It is possible to cut out a majority of the steps outlined here if you’d rather not dismantle most of your laptop. As I’m a novice and this was the first difficult fix I’d ever tried, the idea of taking so many things apart — including removing the logic board — was a little scary. Everyone calculates risk and reward differently, but for me, the risk of removing the logic board for the reward of being able to remove the battery packs with adhesive remover was too great, so I opted to only do steps 1–4, 42–53 and removed the battery with one of the cards from iFixit’s kit. If you go this route, expect it to be a little frustrating & slow going — it took me around 20–30 minutes of slowly chipping away at the adhesive with only the card. There are other techniques out there (wire, fishing line, etc.) and I’d advise looking into them. Keep track of screws: tape, draw out diagrams, label them, etc.