As we all know, once keycaps get greasy and shiny (“oiled”), it’s almost impossible to restore them by simply wiping. I once tried sanding the keycaps, but not only did it make things worse, the plastic debris also fell into the gaps between the keys. (You can see my sanded Shift and Space keys in the photo — they look terrible.)

While some say you can go to an Apple Store to get them replaced¹, it’s said they only allow a few keycaps to be replaced each time. For someone like me whose entire keyboard is shiny, DIY replacement is clearly the more practical option.

I’m writing this blog post because I found it incredibly difficult to locate a complete guide on how to replace MacBook Pro M1 keycaps. Most of the videos online² only show how to remove regular letter and number keys — they deliberately skip over the longer keys like Space, Caps Lock, ESC, and the arrow keys. These keys have different internal structures and require a different disassembly approach.