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When I plugged my Macbook Pro (Early 2015) yesterday, the lid was closing perfectly. This morning I woke up early and left without checking on the laptop. 8 hours later, I came back and realized the lid wasn't closing properly by a huge margin (look at picture).

It's like something is preventing it from closing all the way... I'm currently in vacation in a hot country and few months ago I received some warnings about changing the battery. Could it be that the battery is getting swollen and is deforming the case preventing the lid from closing properly?

If so is it dangerous? Will it stop getting swollen if I stop using the Macbook? I kind of want to repair it myself but I don't want to wait a month to replace the battery if it's dangerous...

Thank you for your help

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Here the information on the system information panel:

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EDIT: I Just checked on a flat surface and the bottom case is definitely deformed:

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The most obvious diagnosis at this time would be a swollen battery.

A swollen battery can cause different symptoms from a misaligned track pad to a malformed keyboard. In your case, it appears it's mis-aligning the case causing the lid to not close properly.

A battery swells because the off gasses that are normally vented are trapped (see the first link for more info); the battery swells like a balloon. Suffice to say, this is more than an inconvenience, this can cause something called "thermal runaway" where it could cause a fire.

I strongly suggest that you get this addressed as quickly as possible. It's impossible to predict if/when this could occur, but it is very dangerous. You cannot put out a thermal runaway fire as the chemical reaction will continue. This is why firefighters simply allow hybrid and electric cars to burn out; they will try to contain the fire, but they cannot extinguish it.

At a minimum, from a non-safety point of view, the battery is warping the aluminum structure - it could be permanently be bent, or unlike it's counterpart steel, will tear once it reaches a certain point.

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  • It would also be prudent to unplug the computer, so the battery receives no more charging current. This may slow or stop the swelling. It won't solve the problem — only battery replacement will do that — but it'll make the time before repair less risky. Even better would be removing the battery from the MacBook, but ifixit.com reports that job is "difficult" at ifixit.com/Guide/… The article "Take Extra Precautions" linked on that page contains additional useful information.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jul 30, 2020 at 17:11

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