Joe Rossignol at MacRumors is reporting that Apple’s long-running repair extension program for the butterfly keyboard has ended:
Apple’s free butterfly keyboard service program for select MacBooks models ended late last week, nearly six and a half years after it launched.
With the program now over, it is no longer guaranteed that customers with affected MacBook keyboards will be able to receive a free repair from Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. However, exceptions could be made.
Apple has taken the page down, but it’s preserved at the Internet Archive. Those folks really are doing the Lord’s work. Here’s a bit from the page:
Apple has determined that a small percentage of the keyboards in certain MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models may exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:
- Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly
- Letters or characters do not appear
- Key(s) feel “sticky” or do not respond in a consistent manner
Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will service eligible MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro keyboards, free of charge. The type of service will be determined after the keyboard is examined and may involve the replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard.
The list of machines covered was long:
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
That list grew over time, even as Apple made changes to the keyboard, trying to make it more durable. Notably, those 2019 machines were introduced into the repair program at their launch. As far as I know, that’s the only time that has happened in the history of the Mac.
This problem was widespread and widely mocked. My personal favorite coverage of it came from Joanna Stern. If you haven’t seen her column on it in a while, it’s worth revisiting, as is Casey Johnston’s article titled “The New MacBook Keyboard is Ruining my Life.”
In late 2019, Apple relented and returned to a more traditional keyboard with the 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro. Jason Snell reviewed that machine over on Six Colors:
Apple doesn’t like to admit that it’s wrong, but will be the first to let you know when it’s made an improvement. In this case, the Apple representatives I talked to admitted that while many people liked the butterfly keyboard, “some didn’t.” (That feels like a bit of an understatement.) Regardless, Apple spent time reconsidering what users wanted out of their keyboards, including doing a lot of internal research—and the result is that this new MacBook Pro has a keyboard based on the other 2015 Apple keyboard design, in the hope that this keyboard will be more broadly appealing to laptop users.
It’s wild to think about how much about this generation of MacBook Pros has been erased from the product line. The Butterfly keyboard is gone, as is the Touch Bar. The Thunderbolt-only future that these machines promised didn’t pan out, and the current MacBook Pro design brought with it the return of MagSafe, HDMI, and even the SD card slot.
As thin and light as it was, it’s clear in hindsight that the 2015 MacBook set Apple’s entire notebook like down a path that the company should have never traveled. Like Jason wrote in 2019, Apple doesn’t admit when it gets things wrong, but the improvements made to the MacBook line in the years since have been a much-needed breath of fresh air.