2015 15" MacBook Pro Recall Applies to About 432,000 Units, Apple Received 26 Reports of Batteries Overheating

[Ruggy]

Wow, so about 450,000 units including Canada.
If the battery and work cost a minimum of $50 each, then that's a $22.5million dollar recall for 1 incident and 26 reports of overheating.
i think it's impressive to take that pre-emptively and make it known publicly. I wonder how many other companies would have been so up-front about it?
In other news, Daimler are being forced to recall 40,000 Mercedes models by the German regulators who have found that their management chips are deliberately downgrading the pollution controls in real-world conditions. They are being very very quiet about it.

 

[Analog Kid]

Sidenote: ould we please have a ban on “thin” and “price” related jokes? I am for freedom of speech but when each thread is 25% useless comment that do not contribute to the discussion it starts ruining the experience. It seems people are not able to realize by themselves the subtle line between the occasional joke and constantly bother other users with off-topic comments that don’t add anything but it’s impossible not to read , perhaps they need some help. At least an automatic “you can skip this comment” label applied when certain combinations of words are detected? I literally have two read the same 2 “jokes” multiple times per thread everyday.

Yeah, this is a real problem. I think you're being generous referring to them as "jokes". Jokes are generally clever and humor derives from unexpected connections of ideas. This is just whinging. Every thread is littered with keyboard, thin, price, and "Timmy" comments that make any meaningful discussion painful and MR a less pleasant place to be.

Until you hit your 1000 person limit, there's always the ignore option. Unfortunately we can only "like" a post, or argue with it and feed the trolls. There's no succinct way to just say "you're being a distraction and nobody cares but you and your band of misanthropes".

 

[falainber]

Wow, so about 450,000 units including Canada.
If the battery and work cost a minimum of $50 each, then that's a $22.5million dollar recall for 1 incident and 26 reports of overheating.
i think it's impressive to take that pre-emptively and make it known publicly. I wonder how many other companies would have been so up-front about it?
In other news, Daimler are being forced to recall 40,000 Mercedes models by the German regulators who have found that their management chips are deliberately downgrading the pollution controls in real-world conditions. They are being very very quiet about it.

Wow, Apple did something everybody else is doing. Kudos to them! Here is one example: in January, HP pre-emptively recalled laptops because of battery overheating after just 8 reports. And the history of battery recalls is very long. In 2006 Dell recalled 4.1 million batteries.

 

[Analog Kid]

Wow, so about 450,000 units including Canada.
If the battery and work cost a minimum of $50 each, then that's a $22.5million dollar recall for 1 incident and 26 reports of overheating.
i think it's impressive to take that pre-emptively and make it known publicly. I wonder how many other companies would have been so up-front about it?
In other news, Daimler are being forced to recall 40,000 Mercedes models by the German regulators who have found that their management chips are deliberately downgrading the pollution controls in real-world conditions. They are being very very quiet about it.

I think it's 27 incidents of various types. The MR article is a little unclear, but they do give a helpful link to the report:

"As of June 4, 2019, the company has received one report of consumer incident and no reports of injuries in Canada. In the United States, the company has received 26 reports of consumer incidents, including five reports of minor burns and one report of smoke inhalation."​

If I'm doing my math right, that's 27/(432k+26k) = 0.006% of units.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

My Mid' 2015 isn't part of the program.

Why is that a sad face? You don't have to wait through days of downtime as your system has its battery replaced and haven't been at risk of an overheating battery to this point in time. That should be happiness and relief.

 

[nouveau_redneck]

This is the last great Macbook Pro, and its owners are going to get brand new batteries, keyboards and trackpads. (They replace the entire top case for a battery replacement).

I must say that's amazing news for people who have these machines and don't want to upgrade to the new ones with the bum keyboards and lack of proper ports.

My work issued MBP, sadly, is a 2014 model and doesn't quality. (Though I love it to death)

My mid-2015 is not on the recall list - thankfully. Not everyone wants to be without a machine for a week or two, and I'm in that camp. For me it would have really sucked to learn that my machine is on the recall.

 

[D.T.]

I'm a "The serial number you entered may be eligible for this program", so when I get my Mini '18, I'll probably get this done. Heck, I'm at ~84% original battery design capacity, so this will make the machine like new

 

[acorntoy]

Why is that a sad face? You don't have to wait through days of downtime as your system has its battery replaced and haven't been at risk of an overheating battery to this point in time. That should be happiness and relief.

Because at 4 years and 800 cycles it’s going to be replaced soon anyways and in downtime. Would’ve been nice to get it for free


I am happy that my computer is safe for me to continue to use as intended however.

 

[coolfactor]

Just got my 2015 MacBook Pro back from authorised service centre. It took them 6 days and they replaced the entire top case with battery for free under this recall program. Now my MacBook looks brand new! Excellent service from Apple as always!

I would not be able to go 6 days without my MacBook Air. Seriously, I haven't taken a long vacation in 20 years, let alone been away from a computer for more than 5 days (once, 10 years ago). That's scary to think about.

 

[Thirio2]

Am curious if the first persons to report the issue were given the usual "You're doing something wrong. Our products don't have flaws." treatment before the reports escalated on social media. Or is Apple wiser after the iPhone's Batterygate?

I had issues with my 2015 15" MBP a couple of years ago and the case on the right side got hot. The "Genius" Bar kept my computer for 2 days and said their testing showed no problems. Software updates seemed to make the problem go away. They now have my MBP for battery replacement. Estimated time was 2 weeks. Sorry, am new to forum and did not realize response was already posted.

 

[coolfactor]

Because at 4 years and 800 cycles it’s going to be replaced soon anyways and in downtime. Would’ve been nice to get it for free

Yah, I wonder if this is a charging+aging problem that Apple was not able to catch in their testing? Was it an isolated batch, or a design issue that will affect current-gen batteries, too?

My 2013 Air is still going strong, although I keep it plugged in most of the time. It says the battery needs replacing, which I may do soon as a stopgap because I can't afford a new machine.

 

[Thirio2]

I had problems with my 2015 MBP 15" a couple of years ago. Every time I had the problem the case was hot around the right speaker and sometimes on the right bottom. The "Genius" Bar kept my MBP for a couple of days trying to duplicate the problem. They finally said there was nothing wrong. Eventually a OS update seemed to make the problem go away. Now I find my MBP was an affected model. The repairs will take 2 weeks since it has to be done at a repair center and has to be shipped by ground. It should be like new when returned.

 

[H2SO4]

Really wish we had removable batteries. Lithium Ion batteries have the tendency to swell up over time (happened on 6 of my devices so far). Glued in makes it quite an ordeal to deal with. And when the 2015 is no longer supported, what is Apple going to do, give you a trade in on a current version with an unreliable keyboard you didn't ask for and non of the ports you were using?

Also, if laptop battery starts to catch fire, with removable battery you might have a shot at saving the machine. But no, that thing is screwed and glued, so soon as you see smoke, make sure you get a current backup.

Shame I can't give you a double upvote for this.

 

[AMTYVLE]

Unfortunately mine is not part of the recall. Would have loved to get a new battery for free.........

Same here!

 

[and 1989 others]

Oh. I think I may ha e one of these.

 

[spazzcat]

Am curious if the first persons to report the issue were given the usual "You're doing something wrong. Our products don't have flaws." treatment before the reports escalated on social media. Or is Apple wiser after the iPhone's Batterygate?

They don't mess around with batteries, now they may have not offered to fix for free.

 

[joueboy]

This laptop should be banned from getting into the airplane. It's dangerous like the Note 7 waiting to explode.

 

[Defthand]

and are you somehow tryng to equate preventing a device shutdown when using a bad battery by limiting the energy draw to something manageable by the battery?

Seems odd and out of place.

Technically-speaking, they are dissimilar issues, but they are both examples of products failing to work as expected and requiring Apple to acknowledge. Apple has a history of denying flaws and avoiding responsibility until a matter gets unwanted attention. Was this issue treated similarly, or did Apple acknowledge it before headlines occurred?

By the way, Batterygate was not as innocent as you described. It has the most pending lawsuits of any of Apple's consumer complaints.

 

[Wowereit]

0,006% of units affected over the span of 4 years might honestly still be below industry average.

You are pretty naive, if you think any other company would do a recall over this.

 

[aliengin]

Am curious if the first persons to report the issue were given the usual "You're doing something wrong. Our products don't have flaws." treatment before the reports escalated on social media. Or is Apple wiser after the iPhone's Batterygate?

About 2-3 months ago I noticed my laptop was wobbly not sitting on the flat surface properly. Thought it was a dent on the bottom cover. It usually sits on a desk powered on. I also started to notice the desk getting darker! So opened the back cover to discover the battery is swelling. 3 weeks ago took it to Apple Store on Michigan Ave. and was charged $199.99 plus tax. Once this recall surfaced I checked and found that my laptop is included too. So I called to see if I can get a refund. Its been a week and Apple is trying to pay me $199.99 plus tax.
While I was waiting an answer for the refund, someone called from Apple Customer Service and asked me to Ship my laptop back because they have no idea what kind of battery was put in my laptop at the Apple Store.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Yeah, this is a real problem. I think you're being generous referring to them as "jokes". Jokes are generally clever and humor derives from unexpected connections of ideas. This is just whinging. Every thread is littered with keyboard, thin, price, and "Timmy" comments that make any meaningful discussion painful and MR a less pleasant place to be.

Until you hit your 1000 person limit, there's always the ignore option. Unfortunately we can only "like" a post, or argue with it and feed the trolls. There's no succinct way to just say "you're being a distraction and nobody cares but you and your band of misanthropes".

This is the most eloquent Apple apologist comment I have ever read.

A forum is a place where we can glean information based on, among other things, people's opinions both in favor or against something.

Thus I will continue to express my dissent to Apple's decisions whenever I feel it's waranted, whether or not they are labeled as whinging, trolling, whining, or whatever the newest favorite word the apologists want to deride it as.

Conversely, I will also continue to praise Apple whenever I feel it's waranted, whether or not they are labeled as cheerleading, apologising, shilling, or whatever the newest favorite word the haters want to deride it as.

 

[gank41]

This is the last great Macbook Pro, and its owners are going to get brand new batteries, keyboards and trackpads. (They replace the entire top case for a battery replacement).

I must say that's amazing news for people who have these machines and don't want to upgrade to the new ones with the bum keyboards and lack of proper ports.

My work issued MBP, sadly, is a 2014 model and doesn't quality. (Though I love it to death)

I’ve got a 2015 Mid 2015 rMBP and it started swelling recently, and although my SN# was saying I wasn’t covered, I still had my AppleCare+ thru July 22 of this year. Reported it the 21st, received a box to mail back on the 24th, and had it back in my hands with a replaced top case and battery on the 26th. Odd that it wasn’t included in the Battery Replacement Program, seeing as though it was swelling and causing my Trackpad to fail, but whatevs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m just glad I’ll be able to keep this thing ruining for quite a while longer. I just upgraded the internal SSD with OWC’s 2TB Kit. So far I’m not having any of the issues others have reported with sleep/idle problems.

 

[Westside guy]

I'll be curious to see if this eventually expands to cover the 2015 13" MacBook Pro as well (which I own).

I have to agree with an earlier poster - I think the 2015 MBP was the zenith for Apple laptops. I'm hoping this thing keeps chugging along for many more years.

 

[nexusrule]

Yeah, this is a real problem. I think you're being generous referring to them as "jokes". Jokes are generally clever and humor derives from unexpected connections of ideas. This is just whinging. Every thread is littered with keyboard, thin, price, and "Timmy" comments that make any meaningful discussion painful and MR a less pleasant place to be.

Until you hit your 1000 person limit, there's always the ignore option. Unfortunately we can only "like" a post, or argue with it and feed the trolls. There's no succinct way to just say "you're being a distraction and nobody cares but you and your band of misanthropes".

I am not as active online as I was once, I forgot there is an ignore option. Need to start using it. But I noticed this behavior exactly because despite my being on this forum rarely I always always run into a lot of this comments.

 

[Webster's Mac]

Really wish we had removable batteries. Lithium Ion batteries have the tendency to swell up over time (happened on 6 of my devices so far). Glued in makes it quite an ordeal to deal with. And when the 2015 is no longer supported, what is Apple going to do, give you a trade in on a current version with an unreliable keyboard you didn't ask for and non of the ports you were using?

Also, if laptop battery starts to catch fire, with removable battery you might have a shot at saving the machine. But no, that thing is screwed and glued, so soon as you see smoke, make sure you get a current backup.

I wish companies would put in sensors around the battery that would disable charging when they start to swell. That would force users to take them in for service, and help preserve the device by preventing the swelling from worsening
[doublepost=1561659967][/doublepost]Also, this battery recall was perfect timing for me. A couple of the keyboard keys felt worn out (not as nice-feeling as my old early-2013 rMBP)... and it made this popping sound when clicking the trackpad. In addition, the battery was fluctuating between 78% and 86% health...

I'll be picking it up this Saturday from the apple store. I look forward to using it with a new top case and battery!