Magnesium alloy is the lightest metal structural material, which has many advantages, such as low density, high specific strength and high elastic modulus. And it can be widely used in the aerospace, automotive industry, electronic communication, and other fields. However, its chemical properties are very lively , and it is easy to corrode at room temperature, which seriously limits its further application. The method of electroless nickel coating showed a lot of features including compact, environment friendly and other advantages, which has become the effective method to improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy and abrasion resistance, but compared with the ordinary matrix, magnesium alloy belongs to metal plating, it may be necessary to remove the original loose long-short oxide film in the substrate surface for electroless nickel plating, and to generate a new film with protection and catalysis. The pretreatment process is a key factor affecting the coating quality and improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy. The results based on process of electroless nickel plating as the research content, introduces the research status of electroless nickel plating on magnesium alloy pretreatment technology at home and abroad, from degreasing and pickling activation, zinc dipping method, pre coating and chemical conversion film and other aspects of the literature review and analysis, which pointes out the advantages and disadvantages of the corresponding process and discusses the research direction. According to the characteristics of R & D process mechanism of pretreatment technology and different grades of alloy magnesium coating, the technology of simple, excellent performance, strong controllability, environmental friendly, strong versatility and low cost process will be the research direction and development trend of electroless nickel plating on magnesium alloy before treatment.