In 2018, a number of MacBook Pro users—with models from 2016 onwards—discovered a serious design flaw that causes the screen to fail after repeated opening and closing of the laptop over the course of a few years. The ensuing scandal was, of course, dubbed Flexgate, after the flex display cables causing the problem. Despite Apple’s refusal to acknowledge the issue, though, their latest MacBook Pros have a longer cable that may be attempting to make up for previous shortcomings.
You can read more about Flexgate in our rundown here, but in short: Apple, in an effort to make their laptops even thinner and sleeker, is using thin, fragile flex cables to connect the display to the display controller board beneath the touch bar. In this space-saving design, the thin cable wraps around a small circuit board where it is pulled taut as the laptop opens and closes. After a year or two of opening and closing the laptop, the cable will wear down, causing the display to start failing with a distinctive stage-light effect.
Photo credit: iFixit member kaikai
And since the cable is integrated into the screen, it cannot be simply swapped out—the entire screen must be replaced (a $700 part). Apple has yet to acknowledge the issue or extend their warranty to affected users.
So far, so good—another design defect exacerbated by Apple’s insistence on making products thinner at all costs. However, when MacRumors user Olivia88 noticed their 2018 13” MacBook Pro seemed to have a longer cable than previous models, we were intrigued. Since we were just wrapping up writing the repair manual for the 2018 model anyway, we checked inside our 2018 15” MacBook Pro again to measure its cable against its 2016 predecessor—and found the 2018 cable was, in fact, a full 2mm longer. Since this change appears in both our 15” model and Olivia88’s 13” model, it’s plausible this change is present in multiple, if not all, 2018 MacBook Pros.
“This is significant because it gives the backlight cable more room to wrap around the board and not come into contact with the board as the laptop is opened past 90 degrees,” said Taylor Dixon, teardown engineer at iFixit. Presumably, this contact is what led to the wear, tear, and eventual failure of the cable—though the exact cause of the failure is tough to pin down. “Since we have yet to experience the problem for ourselves, it’s hard to say for sure how much of the problem is the cable being in close proximity to the board and how much of it is the length of the cable,” said Dixon. “The longer cable definitely gives more room to breathe around the board, but it’s still in such close contact with the board that it’s impossible to tell whether it’s rubbing on the board at any point.” In other words: this could solve the problem, or it could just delay the cable’s inevitable failure a bit longer.
Here’s what the 2016 backlight cable looks like with the hinge fully open:
And here’s the same cable with the hinge fully open on a 2018 model:
You can see there is dramatically more room with the longer cable. We’ll have to wait another year or two to see how this actually affects the prevalence of Flexgate issues on 2018 MacBook Pros. While we didn’t predict precisely this failure mode, expensive repairs like this are exactly why this device earned a rather pathetic repairability score of 1 out of 10.
Worst of all, this implies that Apple knew about the Flexgate issues before public backlash hit its fever pitch, and still refuses to even acknowledge the issue, let alone take responsibility and offer free repairs. In fact, multiple people claim Apple has deleted support threads regarding the issue on Apple.com, attempting to sweep this under the rug rather than offer an extended warranty program to those affected. You can sign this petition to try and get their attention, or fill out their feedback form here.
Unfortunately, this feels like par for the course. Apple has a long track record of fighting efforts to encourage more repairable design in green environmental standards like EPEAT, and this is just another design flaw on the pile that forces costly, unnecessary replacements on consumers who bought a multi-thousand dollar laptop with the expectation that it won’t break after only a couple years of normal use. Do you hear us, Apple? Do better.
Thanks for the article. I hope my own 2017 model will survive!
> when MacRumors user Olivia88 noticed his
I figure you meant “their” or “her”?
Or how about we just never buy another POS apple product. Next computer will be a linux box with vmware/hackintosh if I need to develop on iOS.
Do you know if the 2018 MacBook Pro screen fit to 2016-2017 one?
Thank you, iFixit, for continuing to investigate this problem. I have a broken MBP 2016 myself and wrote to several forums on Apple site about this only to find out later that they were deleted. Sad that Apple refuses to do that right thing.
2018 model’s screen does not fit previous ones since it has “True Tone” feature…
Hmmm, I tink Apple lives up to more then I was expecting, I had a defective screen but there is also a known and extended warranty on coating issue, screen was replaced under extended warranty … happy camper with my 2016 15 Macbook Pro Touch Bar …
We’ve got three 2017 MBPs – the first has already been replaced twice for keyboard problems, the second is now starting to exhibit keyboard problems and the third is completely unusable due to having both keyboardgate and flexgate simultaneously. I brought this *gate MBP to Apple, was told that its 13 months old and therefore needs to be brought back to the shop where it was bought (EU law mandates a 2-year warranty, but after one year the burden of proof is on the customer to prove that the flaw was a hidden one which was there since the purchase). I obediently brought it back to the shop and they informed me that Apple had refused to fix it for free and instead sent me an offer of EUR 620 to repair it. I called Apple Support and told them the story and they’ve now opened a support case and I’m currently waiting for a decision from them. In the best case the whole issue has cost us many, many hours and a notebook which has been unusable for months. In the worst case, we’ll probably just have to toss it in the trash, since what’s the point in paying that much money to repair a product with parts which appear to have inherent design flaws?
Continue with this amazing work please. I have the flexgate problem when my laptop was with only 1 year and 5 months(it is late 2016 model); apple said to me that they will not make a free repair.That is just absurd, I use my macbook mostly docked and I am sure it was not my fault.I am very very sad with all of this situation and really expect that they extended their warranty
Great job again, Ifixit.
Have you looked into the issues of the 2018 Macbook Pros having repeating keys? I just sent mine to get repaired after 5 keys started repeating after just 6 months.
The problem was reproducable. My keys would only repeat, when the laptop was very hot. I hope this can help you investigate the problem. I believe it might have something to do with the very tight tolerences in the very low travel keyboard being affected by the slight change in size of the metal as it heats up. The keys affected on my unit was exactly the keys above the heatsink. At least thisis my guess. If a piece of dust can kill it, some heat might just be able to so as well.
Mine is a 13″. I don’t know if the 15″ suffers from the same issues.
I thought we would not have update for this issue. Thank you so much ifixit, thanks for speaking for the users and our right to repair!
Apple should give up its quest for thinness as it jumped the shark on that quite some time ago. Clearly, Apple favors form over function at the detriment of the user experience. That is not a classic Apple value, and just one more reason why Apple is losing goodwill for those who demand excellence, once a hallmark of Apple design.
the fact that apple has not admitted their design flaw signifies 2 things: (1) apple does not want to reimburse those who have paid to have their displays replaced, (2) the company is not honest or trustworthy.
if you buy apple products and pay the ‘apple tax’, it’s because you trust the product is well designed or it will return good value on your investment, no ?
instead, you buy one of these laptops and discover this issue after a while. to no fault of your own you are told you must pay out of pocket because you are out of warranty. think about it for a minute, where is the value in this ‘well designed’ product, when you discover it is not well designed, have already paid for it, and now you must pay more to get your computer fixed because of apple’s mistake …. ?
even with the iphone X, people are now discovering after a year of ownership or longer – that the battery in that product is degrading faster than what you would expect from a new phone ? for instance, my battery health on my 1 year – 3 month old iphone X is only 90 %. where will I be next year, or the year after ? i certainly did not expect to spend $ 1200 + for a device i’d have to replace after 3 years because it will no longer hold enough charge to get me through a 10 hour time span. where am I then, when my phone is dead and i’m wondering if someone was trying to reach me on a matter that’s important or worse – an emergency ? …. is apple going to tell me the solution is to – ‘buy our battery case’ ?
My 2017 13 inch MBP (non-TouchBar) just the other day showed a jumbled screen when I opened the lid. I closed and opened it again and it was fine. This scared me into never closing the lid again, and I’ll be using a different laptop to carry around. Based on this and other articles, this does seem to be the result of a design flaw and Apple should address the problem for affected users.
Following up on my comment from yesterday about our 13 month-old *gate MBP (both keyboard and screen dead):
Today I got a mail from Apple support telling me they will do nothing for me and that my only option is to go back to the dealer where I bought it (despite the fact that the dealer already refused to fix it under warranty).
So apparently the only option left to us now is to pursue legal proceedings – unlike most customers, we do have legal insurance, so that’s what we’ll do.
As a staunch Apple customer dating back to the iPhone 3 who has recommended Apple products to anyone who would listen, it’s a disappointing outcome. It’s hard to imagine how Apple’s stance on this issue makes any long-term sense for the brand.
Is this 2 mm longer flex cable already present in both the July and November 2018 MacBook pro models?
I have the July model but Apple updated the MacBook Pro later in 2018 with the Vega 16 and Vega 20 graphics. The whole design is the same of course. But did Apple lengthen the flex cable already in the July model or only in the latest November model?
I am completely disappointed with Apple. I made an expensive investment to obey my Macbook in 2016. I used very little and quickly appeared the flexgate problem. Today I have been with my MBP for more than six months now and have no expectations of a solution. A shame! Who is saving me is the good old DELL, who never breaks!
I am completely disappointed with Apple. I made an expensive investment to obey my Macbook in 2016. I used very little and quickly appeared the flexgate problem. Today I have been with my MBP for more than six months now and have no expectations of a solution. A shame! Who is saving me is the good old DELL, who never breaks!
One of my clients let me look at his 2016 macbook pro with the touch bar, and it has the cable problem. the screen will no longer turn on, but he computer powers on and will work with an external display. Apple needs to confess to their petty crap.
My mid-2012 13 inch MBP will not be replaced based on these reports of design defects in later models. As these problems are disclosed, Apple is going to see significant pushback from potential buyers. Ignore this at your own peril Apple!
Apple has sacrificed a lot in their quest to develop a three-dimensional laptop. The list of things sacrificed may soon include sales.
Why are people still buying this overpriced crap from Apple? Is it a status thing or what? And at this point do you expect that some bullshlt is going to happen anyway? Save some money and put OSx on a VM or get a hackentosh.
I simply do not buy Apple computers anymore. This high cost and low value lately (no meaningful upgrades on desktop or laptop performance in years) got me to buy other laptops and build my own desktops and use Linux or Win10. There is simply no reason to use Apple these days. I have owned Apple since the Apple //. I am done.
Had the same issue with a white MacBook. Think it was 2010 model.
Good to see you continue to make efforts to have big corporates like Apple take greater responsibility for their products.
I think it’s unfair to characterize the suppression of the topic in the Apple support forums (assuming that has indeed been going on) as a “cover-up”, or indeed anything to do with Apple management at all. Those forums are for user-to-user advice, and none of the volunteers there can fix hardware problems, mediate with AppleCare, or the like. Once such a problem has been diagnosed, there’s little point to continued discussion beyond seeking commiseration, so the moderators (also mostly volunteers IIANM) have adequate reason to close threads or whatever, without assuming they’ve succumbed to corporate censorship or pressure ‘from above’.
Back in the 1990s, Apple got burned with three defective components in the same series of computer models (Performa 500/600). Two caused random crashing and freezing, the third (in the Performa 500 series) caused the built-in monitor to drop out one of three colors. Apple not only extended its warranty to cover all of these issues, it provided in-home repairs to its customers. (This was possible because these models were very easy to service.) It almost ran the company broke, and its stock at one point fell to less than $6 per share. Even so, Steve Jobs insisted on doing it because it was the right thing to do. The company was well rewarded for its honesty and diligence, as we all know. It is too bad the present directors and executives have forgotten the company’s roots.
What’s really dumb about this is that it may not be that hard to fix if the problem is caught before the cable is worn through. If it is the cable being ground down or overstressed by the edge of the circuit board, and if there is no fine trace running right at that edge, the fix would be to disconnect the cable, round off the edge with a file, then put a strip of Teflon tape on the cable where it contacts that edge.
Dear MNice, Steve Jobs was not working at Apple in the Performa era. He had been gone seven years and wouldn’t return for another five.
The battery of my MacBook Pro 15” has overheated that deform itself braking the touchpad and even the aluminum base of the laptop as deform. The Apple Official service don’t assume as production malfunction and advise me that the product has 5 years so no spare parts are available – final result : MacBook Pro in the garbage and for me also APPLE in the garbage – never in my life I will buy Apple products.
This is what happens when you put a graphic designer (Jony Ive) in charge if technology. Beautiful devices that don’t work.
MacinTRASH
And when Steve Jobs had returned to Apple in 1998, his revamped G3 line-up that “saved” Apple included the blue and white 300/350/400MHz Power Macintosh G3. The Revision1 logic board of this machine had a defective ATA controller which would not support a second HDD above 6GB and caused random data loss. The blue and white G3 was the Mac Pro of its day, costing well over $3000 for the tower alone. Apple never admitted there was a problem, despite wide-spread complaints, but they did come out with a 400/450MHzRevision 2 logic board which silently acknowledged the problem by fixing it, but without admitting it. Owners of Rev1 machines were never compensated and were stuck with high-end computers hobbled by severely limited storage capacities.
But it gets better. The reputation of the blue and white G3 was damaged beyond recovery so after just 6 months on the market, the model was pulled. It was given a new blue and gray case, with the same G3 innards including the same Rev2 logic board (but with a downgraded 350MHz CPU), and released as the Power Mac G4 in 1999. The in-house name for this first G4 was Yikes!
Subsequent blue and grey and Quicksilver models had completely new logic boards and went on the be the Volvo 240 of the Apple lineup.
Thank you for posting this. It’s a bit of a relief for me. I’ve been worried about my 2018 MacBook Pro 15, to the point of being careful how often and how far I opened the screen. I’m a little less worried now. But I know that doesn’t help people with the 2016-17 models. Nor does it explain why people who are laying out big bucks for high end laptops are getting such shoddy treatment from Apple.
What month is your MBP 15 2018 production ?
I am using my macbook with asus zenscreen now. And bringing both of them anywhere i travel. Don’t want to pay the repair fee as the issue will be repeated again in next 1-2 years
Can we install 2018 MacBook Pro screen to 2016-2017 one?
I’m also interesting What month is your MBP 15 2018 production?
Does the Macbook also have this issue? I assume the Air does not because it was released after the 2018 Pro with the new cable.
Good day! The new flex cable is installed on all macbook pro models or only on models with touchbar panel?