MacBook Keyboard Repair
Keys repeating, sticking, or doing nothing at all.
Free Diagnostic
Fixed quote first. No fix, no fee.
Walk In Or Post It
Newcastle workshop, or UK-wide mail-in.
30-Day Warranty
On parts and labour for this repair.
Signs you need this repair
- A key types twice from one press
- A key needs pressing hard, or does nothing
- Key feels gritty or sits lower than its neighbours
- Whole rows unresponsive after a spill
- Keys work intermittently depending on the angle
What actually goes wrong
If your MacBook is from roughly 2015 to 2019, you have a butterfly keyboard, and this is the best-documented design fault in modern Apple laptops. The mechanism sits so close to the top case that a speck of dust is enough to stop a key registering or make it fire twice. Apple ran a Keyboard Service Programme covering the affected models for four years from purchase, but those windows have now closed on essentially all of them — which is why these arrive with us rather than with Apple.
The honest part: on butterfly models the keyboard is riveted into the top case, not screwed. Replacing the keyboard alone means drilling out dozens of rivets, and any shop quoting a quick single-key fix on one of these is either replacing a keycap that will fail again or has not opened one. The reliable repair is a top case assembly, which brings a new keyboard and usually a new battery with it. It costs more, and we would rather tell you that up front than after.
From 2019 onwards Apple moved back to a scissor mechanism — the Magic Keyboard — and it is both far more reliable and far more sensible to repair. Individual keycaps and scissor clips can be replaced on these, so a single failed key is often a genuinely small job.
Spills are the other common cause and are treated differently again. If liquid has gone in, the keyboard is usually the first casualty but rarely the only one, and what matters most is getting the board cleaned before corrosion spreads. That is a liquid damage job rather than a keyboard job, and we would rather deal with the cause than sell you a keyboard that the same corrosion will take out again.
Not in Newcastle? Post it to us
We repair MacBooks by post for customers right across the UK. Book online, send it in, and we diagnose it and confirm a fixed price before any work starts — no charge if you decide not to go ahead. It comes back to you tracked and insured.
- Free diagnostic before any quote
- Tracked, insured return delivery
- 30-day warranty, same as in store
Other MacBook repairs
Book your MacBook keyboard repair
Bring it in to 119 New Bridge Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 2SW with free private parking in front of the shop, or post it to us from anywhere in the UK. We diagnose it and quote a fixed price before any work starts.
iRepair Labs is an independent repair workshop with no affiliation to Apple Inc. MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc.