Macbook Air Keyboard

[eric/]

I was wondering if anybody knew where I could purchase individual keys for a 13 inch Macbook Air (2011). It's been pretty tough to find. I've checked eBay, Craigstlist, etc...

 

[iSee]

I don't know, but if it's just one or a few you could try taking it in to an Apple store if one is near you.

A few years ago one of the arrow keys started falling off (the plastic clip-on bit on the back of the key cap had broken.)

At first the genius is talking like I'd need to replace the entire keyboard. But after talking to him for a few minutes about any possible alternatives, he say, "wait a minute," takes it into the back and 2 mintues later comes out with a new key snapped in place. Apparently he had a keybaord in the back he could canabalize the key cap off of.

(On the other hand, I'm not even sure if MBA key caps can be popped on and off like that.)

 

[eric/]

I don't know, but if it's just one or a few you could try taking it in to an Apple store if one is near you.

A few years ago one of the arrow keys started falling off (the plastic clip-on bit on the back of the key cap had broken.)

At first the genius is talking like I'd need to replace the entire keyboard. But after talking to him for a few minutes about any possible alternatives, he say, "wait a minute," takes it into the back and 2 mintues later comes out with a new key snapped in place. Apparently he had a keybaord in the back he could canabalize the key cap off of.

(On the other hand, I'm not even sure if MBA key caps can be popped on and off like that.)

They can. The damage is my own fault and I had already taken it to the Apple store. Basically I had spilt a little bit of soda on three of the keys and was just looking to pay to get them replaced. They wanted to charge me $750 instantly to even touch it, which honestly is pretty dumb considering I was just looking to get the keys replaced. I did talk them into giving me a few of those little black tool things they had, but overall it was a pretty bad experience. He was going on and on about how the rest of the computer could be damaged, and I was just like "dude, I just want to have these keys taken off and cleaned". So he gave me the tool and was like that's all I can do. So I managed to take them all off but broke a bit of plastic off two of them, but now I know how to remove the keys and put them back on perfectly.

I may end up just buying the entire assembly from iFixit and then selling all the keys on eBay or something that I don't use. But I'd like to avoid that if possible.

 

[iSee]

Ah, I see... I just got lucky that one day.
I guess you could always try again -- and maybe get a guy who will take pity on you like the one did on me.

My backup plan was to buy the keys off ebay, because at the time there were some enterprising people obviously buying whole keyboard and then selling the individual keys...

Since no one else is doing it right now, maybe you can fill a niche and make a profit

 

[eric/]

Thanks, I'm probably going to have to do that. Wish me luck!