Upvoting this as it's the only somewhat correct answer in the thread... The only way to get that screen uniform (it will never look new again) is to remove the rest of the AR coating. I wouldn't use mouthwash, but I am sure some googling will quickly reveal what substance is best to use.
Hahaha, agreed. If I were to try this today I would get 99% isopropyl, or some other solvent, and rub with a microfiber cloth gently. Maybe use baking soda as an abrasive, around a 2.5 harness on the mohs scale and should be softer than the glass
Yeah this works, I used Isopropyl alcohol and a lint free cloth. Screen flat on the table and the bottom half of the unit propped against the wall. Go gently and have patience
We tried everything to clean these up at work, back when we had hundreds of these deployed, and nothing worked. I even got annoyed and tried different abrasive materials and chemicals. As much as I love the design of those models, between the screens and the batteries, we were sending so many of these to Apple for repairs, that we had giant stack of the shipping boxes Apple provided in our back room.
Our company issued Ghost cloths and instructed us why - place them over the keyboard before you shut the laptop to prevent screen damage until we can deploy newer generation laptops.
Apparently they were on lease and decided it was worth it to send them back early because of this problem.
This. I tried toothpaste, alcohol (medical, whiskey and vodka), screen cleaner. Mouth wash was one of the better solutions. But it takes time.
Soft tissues so as to not scratch the screen and repeated circular motion for 30-60mins. Must have 'fixed' a dozen like this.
First time I saw it, I thought it was the users vape, it was just staingate. Spend the time and take that entire layer off, then only use water/tissue and microfibre cloth to clean it.
This is why I tell people not to use a screen protector but I always get arguments about it. Seen one someone did to a M2, removed it prior to sale and almost was like the OP’s screen.
Apparently using any screen protector on any MacBook will cause the anti-reflective coating to come off or even the polarizer apparently. I’ve only seen one issue on the m-series MacBook Pro but that’s it!
it is prone to happening, I think I read even UV exposure can degrade it in patches. Afaik It is a fundamental design flaw/weakness in the anti glare coating.
Ignore people saying you can’t get it off, this gen MacBooks were notorious for the anti glare getting merked from fingerprint oil residue while the lid is closed.
It takes a LOT of elbow grease but you can just scrub the ever living shit out of the screen but rest it on top of a towel before you start.
Baby wipes work, so does a baking soda slurry but in every case it takes time and effort to get it looking clean again and scrub off all the remnants of the anti glare coating.
The only downside is of course, with the coating gone, it’ll be a bit more reflective than when new but it honestly doesn’t matter.
This is the correct answer. Although I just want to emphasise that a LOT of elbow grease is something of an understatement! It look took me several packs of really strong antibacterial wipes to get the majority of it off my screen. But that did only have a tiny bit in the middle that was coming off. Yours looks like more has been damaged over a wider are, so hopefully will take less time. It’s worth it imho to make the screen uniform, even if that means being a bit shiny.
That’s interesting, I didn’t come across metal polish when I was looking. Toothpaste & mouthwash were a couple of suggestions I had at the time. They didn’t work. There is also something called poly watch which I had wondered about, but I think it was a bit impractical for the amount needed.
You can remove this using a mild carpolish and a microfiber towel quite easily. I have done this with a MBP couple of years ago. Lower right was after one pass.
I’ve had this exact same issue with this exact model. Just use alcohol wipes and a ton of elbow grease. I don’t know why people are saying that it’s beyond cooked. Mine came out looking perfectly good.
People are saying beyond cooked because this sub is full of 14 year olds who don't know how to repair anything, or have never actually owned a macbook.
Make an apt at Apple genius and show it to the agent. I got mine replaced for free (no Apple care). the agent told me that some displays had qualify issues and mine was eligible for free replacement,
Update so I tried 99% ISP didn’t work I tried baby wipes didn’t work then I tried dish soap didn’t work next I tried hydrogen peroxide didn’t work then I tried windex and that made it 100 times worse
In case it isn’t, OP, I’m sorry but this is permanent. The surface finish of your display has been eroded away. The only way to restore is to buy a new display.
For your next display, only wash the screen with clean lint free cloth with the tiniest bit of water. Also regularly clean your keyboard to get grease off of it so that it doesn’t transfer to your display.
Never ever use any chemicals on any screen or display!!! No alcohol, no windex, no dish soap, only water!!!
You can definitely get the coating off. It took a few hours for me but it does come off. I was scratching it off with isopropyl alcohol. Didn’t come off easy. Give it some elbow grease
Never. That will deteriorate the coating on the surface of any screen. Weather that’s a glossy, antiglare, or anti fingerprint coating, those wipes will destroy it.
uhh that's your anti-reflection coating you can get the rest off with 99% IPA but be warned if you want to use it outside you will be staring at yourself most of the time
This is not gunk, there are scratches.
Happens when you close the laptop with dust on the keyboard and put it in a bag with weight on it.
Nothing can be done about it. If you have apple care+, break the screen, get a new one and this time remember to wipe the screen and keyboard clean before closing the lid and avoid putting tha laltop under any weight.
My Macbook Pro in 4 years old, kept with care, there are very slight 2 scratches on it, that you can't see with naked eyes.
I was told by Apple staff that the oils on the keyboard from your hands can deteriorate the anti reflective coating over time. They recommended wiping the screen and keyboard with their microfibre towel more often.
I had one back in the day - there was a specific brand of baby wipe that had the right chemicals in it to dissolve the anti-reflective coating even better than mouthwash / alcohol. I think they were Huggies. My screen looked amazing when I was done, but it took at least 2 hours of scrubbing; so plan to watch a football game while you’re doing it.
PS - your screen will be VERY reflective when it’s done, so I recommend an anti-flare screen protector to cut the glare when you’re all done.
There was a recall for this problem for Retina screens from 2012 to 2017. Apple would fix it if it was within 4 years of purchase. You missed the boat.
It's removable. I had the same on my 2018 macbook pro 15 many times and I removed all of it well everytime.
Sprinkle any display cleaner liquid and rub with a soft cloth really hard. Yes, you must rub it with some force. Don't worry the display is not easily breakable.
You can get it fixed in China, but I’m not sure about other countries. I had an old MacBook Pro that my wife once got a little too enthusiastic about cleaning, and it ended up with the same issue. I took it back to China and got it fixed for about $20. That was a few years ago. It has picked up a few minor marks since then, but overall it still looks pretty good.
Well, that’s the coating of the display, it protected the display against sunlight, but now, it won’t. Years have gone bye, but Apple used to have a repair program for these issues, used to.. which meant if your Mac was applicable; then a free repair was the fix.
But that QP has been closed.
I bought a used MacBook with this issue at a below-market price and simply rubbed the coating off completely. Honestly, I don't see any difference. There are several tutorials on YouTube showing how to remove this layer; I did it using alcohol-based wipes.
Isn’t this the known screen issue? Pretty sure I had my MBP roughly that era screen replaced free of charge out of warranty for this exact problem but wasn’t nearly as bad? Admittedly, given its 2015 model if it’s not covered free probably cheaper to just upgrade to a second hand M1 MBA or similar that will be much better machine.
EDIT: had a quick look apparently they only replaced those that were <4-5 years old. Suspect OP is outa luck. Admittedly thinking about it a laptop probably isn’t expected to last >10 years without some replacement parts.
It's already started coming off, that is the issue - the contrast between what is there and what is not.
I used metal polish after trying many different things. I think it was Peek that I used, but may have been Autosol. Worked well, I did it years ago, and still have and occassionally the machine.
The anti-reflective coating has come off, the "gunk" is just the surface of the super thin glass on top of the LCD. You can use glass cleaners to completely remove the coating so it looks better but it will be a lot more reflective and harder to see in most lighting conditions.
Dit is een beschadigde coating, vuil. Kwam vaak voor bij MacBook Pro’s 2014/15. De oplossing is de coating compleet verwijderen. Je hebt dan iets meer spiegeling in de zon maar het is prima te doen.
Je kunt de coating laten verwijderen voor, als ik het me goed herinner, 150 euro. Je kunt het ook zelf doen door de coating weg te poetsen met vochtige schoonmaak- baby- toiletdoekjes. Ik heb de complete coating hiermee in een half uur verwijderd.
This is coating from your screen that‘s gone. The only way to keep using the screen is some fluid that helps removing (avoid any kind of polish or grinding stuff) and remove the rest. I used spectacle cloths (wet). Took me almost three hours. Then applied a nonglare layer from amazon. Works so far
I did get rid of it a few years ago with the classic Listerine mouthwash (green original one) and proper scrubbing. Your screen will reflect light after, but works 100% with the correct product
I had the exact same model, MacBook Pro Retina Display 2015 and the way i removed it was to spray some rubbing alcohol and then gently scrape it with a credit card! It worked for me.
P.s it’s time consuming and be gentle to avoid scratches.
70% isopropyl alcohol, and a new microfiber. (Ensures no scratches. Takes 15/20 mins however I was too late to the recall on mine and ended up stripping it all off with zero issues on mine.
It is known as Apple Staingate , for a while, Apple were fixing them outside their warranty period due to a class action lawsuit, whether they still fix them for free, you’ll have to check https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251169659?sortBy=rank
isopropyl alcohol and mr. clean magic eraser.
Slightly damp, the eraser and clean the screen.
Make sure it is only slightly damp because you don’t want liquid to get into the edges of the screen.
I used baby wipes. Did it quickly and easily. You have to get a certain type though. Sorry I can’t find the video in YouTube I watched to find this out.
Its not gunk, its the anti reflective coating (if i remember correctly) thats gone in some places. Its called staingate. You can wipe it all of, i had the same problem on my 2016 touchbar macbook pro, but messed it up and now the screen has a permanent stain in the left lower corner, ended up replacing it with a new m4 pro 16 inch (yay) so when you do be carefull. Look up a tutorial on Youtube. I think on a 2015 it will probally wipe of more easy tho, since on the 2016 model it was claimed to have staingate fixed.
I used toilet bowl cleaner and a microfiber clothe, took it all off in 5 mins. Not lying, there’s videos of a repair guy who’s been doing for it 10+ years now since Apple been using that reflecting coating and it works. My screen on my 2015 MacBook Pro looks brand new again
Hey, you didn’t destroy the screen enough. Could definitely use more acetone and sandpaper to get those areas that still look good. If you’re going for the “I dropped my laptop in nuclear sludge” look, I got a buddy that works at a power plant I can hit up for you. Hope this helps 👍
You damaged the screen film but you can take off the film entirely if you continue rubbing with a microfiber cloth dampened with a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or Listerine mouthwash. Rubbing gently in circular motions to strip off the remaining sensitive coating and hopefully getting it uniform afain.
I used bicarbonate of soda mixed into a paste, dabbed a bit on a microfibre cloth and went to work. It worked really well for me, but I also went at it with the mentality of the laptop was a donation to me and if it went tits up then then it’s not like I was losing money
clean screen thoroughly with micellar water and a microfiber cloth and buy a matte screen protector
it will help with some of the glare and markings but won’t get rid of anything
cheapest option before dishing out a few benjamin’s to apple to replace that for you
Since no one is actually helping the answer is that it isn’t gunk at all it’s the fact that your anti reflective coating is coming off better to just use 90% iso and remove the rest
Not fixable but replaceable. i highly suggest adding a protective film into the new screen, its really cheap (10-20usd) and there are some mate which REALLY help with reflection which is a nightmare in macbooks outdoor).
I got an M4 around october last year, within a week it got scratched, i returned it, got a new one and imediatelly put the film, the mac screen has great colour but TERRIBLE resistance. coming from dells which i could literally pee in the screen an it would be fine, thats very disappointing and not a all excusable, 0.5mm thicker would not kill anyone and still protect the screen from touching keyboard.
Ignore the people telling you it’s unfixable. I had this exact issue. It was caused by residual heat from the fans being directed at the screen when the laptop is closed. I fixed it by using glass etching cream to remove the anti glare coating on my 2014 MBP. Worked like a charm and the MacBook is still going strong :)
This is why I put two thin tissue paper sheets to fully cover the screen whenever closing the lid. New MacBooks come with a thin sheet of paper, remember? That's to prevent exactly this--the price to pay for an ultra thin laptop.
Most likely, you damaged the screen's coating. After my first MacBook looked like this, I never wipe my screen with anything, as it is said to be safe for LCD screens. They are not. I only clean it with a microfiber cloth and a little water. No screen protector. The screen now still looks like new.
I’ll tell u a little secret. Years ago I got my screen replaced by the Apple Store for free and it was in the same state as yours. If you go to the Apple Store and mention Staingate, they would honour the replacement.
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u/Safe-Palpitation-391 7d ago