Apple says my Mac is “vintage”. What does that mean?

Someone came in recently having been told by Apple that their MacBook Pro was “vintage” and couldn’t be repaired. They took it to mean the machine was finished.

It wasn’t. It’s still going.

“Vintage” and “obsolete” are Apple’s internal labels for how long Apple will service something. They are not a verdict on whether your computer works, or whether anyone can fix it.

Apple’s two labels

Vintage — Apple stopped selling it more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. Apple says parts “may be obtained… subject to parts availability”. That last clause does the heavy lifting: in practice it means maybe.

Obsolete — more than 7 years. Here Apple is blunt: it “discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts”. That’s a hard stop.

Note what the clock measures: not how old your Mac is, and not when you bought it. It’s when Apple stopped selling that model.

The exception worth knowing

Apple allows an extended battery-only repair period for Mac laptops — up to 10 years from when the model was last sold, subject to parts. So if your older MacBook’s only problem is the battery, it may still be within Apple’s window. Batteries only; it doesn’t extend to anything else.

Which Macs are currently vintage?

The list moves every few months. At the time of writing it includes the MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019 and 2020), MacBook Pro 13-inch 2019 models, MacBook Pro 15-inch 2019, MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017), the 21.5-inch iMac from Early 2013, various Retina iMacs from 2015–2019, Mac mini (Late 2014 and 2018) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012 and Late 2013).

Anything meaningfully older is likely obsolete rather than vintage. Apple menu → About This Mac will tell you which model you have.

So what happens when Apple says no?

This is the part that isn’t obvious, and the reason that MacBook Pro went home working.

Apple’s parts cutoff binds Apple and its authorised service providers. It doesn’t bind independent repair shops.

We’re independent. We’re not restricted to Apple’s parts channel, which is precisely why we can often help when they can’t. Screens, batteries, drives, memory, keyboards, fans and charging boards for older Macs are available from other sources.

We should be straight about the limits. Some parts are genuinely hard to find. Some repairs stop making financial sense — a logic board on a twelve-year-old iMac usually isn’t worth it, and we’ll say so. And a Mac too old to run a current browser is a security problem regardless of whether the hardware works.

What we won’t do is turn you away because a label on Apple’s website says “obsolete”.

The repairs usually still worth doing

• A battery — the most common reason an older MacBook feels finished when it isn’t
• An SSD — from £84, transformative on any Mac still running a mechanical drive
• More memory — from £180 plus the drive
• A screen — from £72

The other clock

Worth joining up with something that landed this month: macOS Golden Gate arrived on 14 September and doesn’t run on any Intel Mac at all.

So there are now two clocks on an older Mac — Apple’s parts clock and Apple’s software clock — and they don’t run in step. Yours might be repairable but not updatable. If it’s an Intel machine, Apple has said security updates continue for three years, which makes the case for a battery or an SSD rather than a new machine.

If Apple has told you your Mac can’t be repaired, that’s worth a second opinion. Bring it into the workshop on Station Road or ring 01753 884700. We’ll tell you honestly whether it’s fixable — and if it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.