Install 1.69f4 (SMC 1.7) on MacbookPro8,1 running Yosemite Dec 2018 Update:
I bought a new battery (A1322) in Sep 2016 for S$42 because my battery deteriorated further. My MacBook recognised the battery and it had no random shutdowns for a while. However, it was a bad choice because the new battery barely lasted me for a few months before it started to expand. It pushed against the MacBook trackpad until it cracked the trackpad glass.
With that, I decided to say goodbye to my old MBP and I bought a new MBP in Jan 2017.

My MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (aka MacBookPro8,1) running OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite has just crossed the 1000 battery cycle count mark.
It now suffers from random shutdowns without me prompting anything. I am sure it is not a userland software problem.
What I have done:

reset my SMC several times
checked Console.app for .panic files - none exists

So I read further and found that Apple says upgrade your SMC to 1.69f4 (SMC 1.7). My current SMC version is 1.68f99. However, the update installer throws an alert:

The update is not supported by your system.

Turns out the system requirements are

OS X  10.7.5
OS X 10.8.2

but I am running Yosemite. Any advice?
any luck with your issue? I am having SMC related issues on my early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro (aka MacBookPro8,1) too. Also want to update SMC to 1.69f4 but on Sierra I'm not allowed to.

Curiously, the description for this update on Apple's website doesn't specifically list the 13-inch model. Also curiously, digging into the .pkg file there are 4 other packages, named MacBookProSMCUpdate, MBP18, MBP91 and MBP92, which contain the SMC file for the following models, respectively:


MacBookProSMCUpdate: 2010 17-inch MacBook Pro 
MBP18: 2010 15-inch MacBook Pro
MBP91: 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro
MBP92: 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro


This info was retrieved from the names of folders/files buried within payload files.

That all seems to indicate that, although this update is listed on Apple's website as for the early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro, the software inside is intended to use in other machines. Either that or Apple used totally inconsistent naming for the files and folder inside the package.

With some more digging, I found that I COULD manually install an SMC update through an EFI command-line mode in rEFInd. I have not yet attempted that as I'm aware of the risks and don't want to finish bricking my Mac with a wrong SMC firmware.

So i guess my question is: Has anyone with the same Mac model successfully updated its SMC firmware with version 1.7 (1.69f4) and can confirm that it is INDEED intended for this Mac model (MacbookPro8,1)?

If not, is there any other official word from Apple regarding the right number of the latest SMC update for this model?

Any hints are appreciated!