It will be so nice to wake up one day and be like “Oh, yeah, remember when that was a thing.” 
2 Likes
Last week I noticed a single inch or so long crack on the bottom cover of my 6 month old Framework 12. Within 24 hours Support shipped me a new bottom cover and it should arrive tomorrow. Just wanted to chime in and say thank you and that I’m quite pleased with how my case was handled.
3 Likes
Your SN shows new material. I replied to your DM as well. You should be good.
“Should be good” or will be good? Don’t understand why you posted instructions on how to identify affected covers and now tell me to ignore the 11/2025 molding stamp? What’s the correlation between molding stamp an SN? Why is it safe to ignore now?
SN stamp is more specific as it gives year, week, day… but I don’t mind getting the product team to clarify for you. For your SN 26103 Year 2026, Week 10, Day 3 (Wednesday)
So… your cover would be dated March 4, 2026
So what is the molding stamp? Why does it say 11/2025 if the cover is the new material and was produced in week 10/2026?
It seems you are sure the cover is a good one. I’ll trust your judgment. Just don’t want to waste time swapping and endangering all components during the procedure if it just cracks again and I have to do it all over again.
1 Like
I just noticed cracks on the bottom of my FW12, around each of the corner screws. I am in the first batch – I was one of (if not the) first US preorder last year. I have been using my laptop heavily since it arrived in early August, but have been keeping it in a padded compartment in my purse. I haven’t caught up on the entire thread, but I wanted to add my voice here and will be opening a support ticket.
1 Like
Those are some of the nastier ones I’ve seen. Dang. They really do just get worse over time.
Anyone have the fixed bottom installed yet? I’m curious if it holds up better.
Received my cover earlier this week and literally finished the swap 15 minutes ago. Will for sure keep an eye on it. Did not notice any difference to the old version, but I trust Eagle that it’s fixed. Especially since the manufacturing SN said week 10/2026 on mine.
Procedure was OK and even interesting. Best tip from others in the forum was to not even bother unplugging the wifi card and just leave it dangling. Worked well that way.
Only thing that bothers me: the replacement bottom cover does not have the compliance stickers that you find in the expansion card bays. Not sure why they are not included. Would not have minded applying them myself.
But yeah - it will take some time to see if all is well now. Fingers crossed it is.
Edit: @Sam_Lewis did you get replacement compliance stickers?
Edit 2: According to Eagle the stickers are tied to the specific machine and that is why replacement covers come without them. I’m based in Europe and air travel regulation got stricter Jan 1, 2026 concerning CE labels. AFAIK it was due to an increase in cheap battery banks from China catching fire. To be fair - personally have never seen anyone check a laptop for a label. But I could see security having a bad day and making a trip hell. Just to be safe I was able to transfer the stickers. They don’t look pretty anymore, but I think it’s good enough. Would be cool if Framework would find a solution to either get new ones or transfer the old ones more easily in the future.
4 Likes
Mine still looks okay, but I’m not sure if I got the new material.
1 Like
I am happy to report that I finally got to join the club 
I haven’t contacted support yet, but I’ll do so in a bit, once I am back home.
2 Likes
Recently swapped the colors on my FW12 because I got it second hand and it was frustrating that the stickers didn’t come with the new bottom cover. Its good to know this is a known issue. I work in spaces that require this information and I can’t bring my FW12 in because of this.
How did you remove them form the old cover? I would also like to move mine over.
I did not.
1 Like
Luckily the stickers are kinda plastic / stretchy and not the paper kind. I used a thin blade to start peeling it from one corner that was easiest to access. They can take some force and don’t rip easily.
At the beginning - as soon as the corner lifted a tiny bit - I tried to immediately start gripping the corner with fingers alone. I later learned that it’s much better to pin the corner between finger and blade and keep peeling that way until you have lifted half or so off. Otherwise you’ll get the initial corner all wrinkly and if you use just fingers the adhesive might suffer a lot too. Also try peeling slowly with constant force and not with too much yanking. Otherwise you risk leaving parts of the sticker behind.
By sticker three and four I had pretty good technique 
Even if a corner is a bit wrinkly it’s not too bad. You just stick it on the new cover and then try to “iron” it out with your fingernail.
Edit: You can also be tactical about order of stickers. Starting with the big QR code one you can practically do a test-run without risking much.
1 Like
You are awesome, thank you!
Thank you, Lesbian Carwash
2 Likes
My bottom cover I got at the beginning of April still has no cracks, I think this may be the one!
6 Likes
Your Suggestion worked flawlessly. FW should use your post as a guide.
2 Likes