Magic Keyboard charge depleting very fast now

[anjanesh]

My Magic Keyboard (2018) is working but the charge is depleting very fast.
Previously I used to charge it once in a month or so, now it looks like I have to charge it once in 2/3 days before it drops to 10%.
Can this be fixed or do I need a replacement ?

 

[chrfr]

My Magic Keyboard (2018) is working but the charge is depleting very fast.
Previously I used to charge it once in a month or so, now it looks like I have to charge it once in 2/3 days before it drops to 10%.
Can this be fixed or do I need a replacement ?

Apple used to publish their out of warranty repair prices for battery replacement in these sorts of devices but that doesn't seem to be available online. It used to be about $29 in the US for a new battery (though they'd actually send you a replacement keyboard.) it's definitely worth contacting Apple support about this as it'll cost a lot less than buying a new keyboard.

 

[benholt]

after 7-8 years the Li-ion cell in the 2018 gen is usually past 80% original capacity, and the 'drops to 10% fast' shape is the giveaway — that's voltage sag under load, not linear capacity loss. macOS doesn't expose a cycle count for Magic Keyboards the way it does for MacBooks, but you can sanity-check by timing a full charge: a healthy original takes 2-2.5 hours from empty to 100% via Lightning, a degraded one fills in 45-60 minutes because the chemistry can't take the full load. Apple's out-of-warranty swap-for-refurb has run about $40-50 last I checked, which is the easy path. iFixit has a battery kit for around $25 if you want to DIY — cell is glued with no pull tab, so isopropyl plus a plastic spudger, plus a quick reflow at the BMS connector. at that vintage I'd just swap rather than fight it.