MacBook Pro 13" Two Thunderbolt Ports 2020 Touchbar Replacement

Written By: Thomas Kirschbaum

Comments: 11

MacBook Pro 13" Two Thunderbolt Ports 2020 Touchbar Replacement

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

Time Required

1 - 3 hours

Introduction

Use this guide to replace a touchbar on an A2289 Macbook Pro 13" Mid 2020.

Be mindful to keep all screws and brackets organized. This will keep from damaging sensitive components by accidently screwing the wrong size screw in.

Tools

Parts

Touchbar Assembly

Step 1

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

Step 2

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

Step 3

While creating the gap between the Macbook and the back panel, insert an opening pick into the gap about 0.2in.
Don't insert the pick further, as this could cause internal damage
Move the pick towards the left side of the Macbook and around the corner edge.
Bring the pick up towards the top of the Macbook
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.

Step 4

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

Step 5

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
Don't attempt to remove the back panel yet. It is still connected to the Macbook

Step 6

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

Step 7

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

Step 8

Locate the small flex cable covering the battery terminal
Take a pair of tweezers in one hand and pull up on the plastic flap
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
Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
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.

Step 9

Take your tweezers and pull on the plastic cover away from the ZIF socket to remove the flex cable from it's socket
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.

Step 10

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

Step 11

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

Step 12

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

Step 13

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

Step 14

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

Step 15

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

Step 16

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

Step 17

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

Step 18

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

Step 19

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

Step 20

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

Step 21

You should now be able to remove the antenna from the Macbook.
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.
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.

Step 22

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

Step 23

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

Step 24

Place MacBook at the edge of your work bench and let the screen overhang
Locate and remove the remaining 2x 4.5mm Torx T9 screws securing the 2 hinges to the MacBook
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

Step 25

Bend the LCD screen slightly towards you
Gently pry up the LCD screen from the Macbook, while guiding the hinges out of their divots
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

Step 26

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

Step 27

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

Step 28

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

Step 29

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

Step 30

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

Step 31

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

Step 32

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

Step 33

Locate 8x flex cables connected the logic board
For each flex cable, pull up on their plastic flap with a pair of tweezers
Take the hook end of a Halberd Spudger and gently pry up the retaining flap on the ZIF socket of each cable
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.
Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.
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
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.
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

Step 34

Locate and remove 5x Logic Board Screws
3x 3.4mm Torx T5 screws
1x 3.6mm Torx T5 stepped screw
1x 3.3mm hex standoff (3mm drive)
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.
Don't forget to remove the 1.4mm screw from the logic board standoff during reassembly

Step 35

Take the hook end of your Halberd Spudger and gently pry up the top left corner of the logic board
Now remove the logic board from the Macbook
Be careful not to rip or tear any flex cables while removing or placing down the logic board
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.

Step 36

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

To complete this excellent guide: Use T3 screwdriver.

Claus Pfisterer -

Step 37

These brackets that keep the cabled mess down and attached to the frame are adhered to the cabling
Remove these brackets from the flex cabling mess
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).
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
Follow this guide to properly install the new touchbar

Step 38

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.
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
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.
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.
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

Step 39

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

Step 40

Take a technician's knife and start prying away the LCD of the touchbar.
Use adhesive remover from time to time to help loosen the adhesive
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

Step 41

Locate the cable side of the NEW touchbar
The touchbar is very sensitive and can break easily. Make sure to handle with care while maneuvering it around.
Locate the detachable end of the flex cable and use the flat-end of a spudger to disconnect the larger portion.
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.'''

Step 42

Locate the little hole near the left side of the Macbook and feed the touchbar flex cables through it.
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.

Step 43

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

Step 44

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

Step 45

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

Step 46

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

Step 47

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

Step 48

Carefully lift the touchbar assembly up and out of it's little crevice
Remove the black adhesive protector from the touchbar
Carefully align the touchbar to it's crevice
Once perfectly aligned, place the touchbar into it's crevice and push firmly but not hard on the touchbar to finalize it.
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.
Once this is done, follow this guide backwards starting with Step 35 to reassemble the Macbook

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order starting with Step 35.

We here at Smart Cloud hope your project goes smoothly and without a hitch. However, things happen and we want to make sure you know we are here to help if needed. You may contact us for assistance and we will provide support or repair options per request. Good luck and have fun.

Author

Thomas Kirschbaum

Member since: 27/03/20

1711 Reputation

10 comments

hi, sorry to bother you, but wouldn’t it be possible to remove the touch bar without removing the screen and the motherboard?

It seems that isn’t necessary to remove all three screws at step 36, but just the upper left one which can be reached even with the motherboard in place, hope you will be able to give me an answer, thanks for your work

Giacomo Pasquali -

Giacomo,

Excellent question! We want to remove the screen to protect it from any acetone that we use to help release the adhesive of the touchbar. The device is also a lot easier to handle when the screen is removed.

All the screws described in step 36 are necessary to remove as they are all attached to the touchbar cables.

It is also required to remove the Logicboard to properly disassemble and reinstall the touchbar cables without worry of damaging them. You MIGHT be able to do it without removing the logicboard, but you run the high risk of damaging the new touchbar cables during the install (emphasis on the word might).

In my honest opinion, sometimes taking the extra steps and going slow with it is worth it.

Thomas Kirschbaum -

Thank you @smartcloudllc for your help. I have actually worked with several iPhones, but this seems to be on an higher level (of risks and costs). However, thank you so much, the tutorial is perfect on every aspect.

Giacomo Pasquali -

This was thorough and informative. As a professional I try to do this kind of stuff myself, but as an individual with my personal device, I'm not doing that. You never know what this work will look like until you see the whole thing through for your particular model and wow, this is nuts. I thought upgrading to SSD storage on my 2009 iMac was difficult.

Jeff Conner -

Hi, i followed your guide and installed the new touchbar, but it doesnt turn on and isnt recognized by the laptop. Is there anything else I need to do after the installation for an a2338?

moe talib - 31/12/22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdVmDjE...

appleplus34 -

Hello, My name is Barış. I am writing to you from Turkey, the button with Siri on the touchbar sometimes comes and goes. I took a picture of it and I am writing the link below, please tell me this is not a hardware failure.

https://file.io/l0HjuAqiO71F

Barış Aytekin -

What kind of wire could be used underneath the touchbar to remove? Thanks

Aman Singh -

Hi, I think my touch bar is interfering with my screen backlight. It is unresponsive and the screen is working but without backlight. Is there any of the connectors in step 32 that I can disconnect and then power up the computer, without the touch bar, and se if the screen backlight is controllable from the settings menu? Thanks for the detailed instructions/ Mike

Mikael Jönsson -

Hi, I'm just a student. Yesterday night I did all the process and it works perfectly. So it is possible to do. I write this just because all the reviews are made by someone who had problems. But is possible! I did everything in 4 hours, with a friend. Removing the adhesive is ten times harder than u could think. And I did on al 2019 MacBook Pro (instead of 2020 as the one in the tutorial) but it pretty similar, just few sockets and screws different. Thanks for the tutorial. Bye.

FraViga - 16/03/24