The invention relates to a method for recovering the valuable metals in a waste nickel-cobalt-manganese-lithium ion battery by an ion exchange method, which comprises the following steps of disassembling, discharging and crushing the waste nickel-cobalt-manganese-lithium ion battery, leaching, replacing the leachate with nickel powder or cobalt powder to remove the copper, and hydrolyzing with a valuable metal alkali solution as a neutralizer to remove the iron and aluminum; regenerating the chelating resin with a lithium hydroxide solution, adsorbing the nickel, cobalt and manganese in the impurity-removed solution, and backwashing with sulfuric acid to obtain a nickel-cobalt-manganese mixed solution; and recovering the lithium in the liquid after resin adsorption in the form of lithium hydroxide. According to the method, the stripping and leaching of the waste nickel cobalt lithium manganate ion battery are completed in one step, the impurity elements are not introduced during the leachate impurity removal and valuable metal separation and extraction process, the lithium hydroxide used for ion exchange resin is regenerated via the lithium hydroxide, at the same time, the nickel-cobalt-manganese is absorbed, so that the lithium is prevented from being adsorbed and entering a nickel, cobalt and manganese solution to be lost, and the lithium recovery is prevented from being influenced due to the high sodium ion content in the solution with the sodium hydroxide. According to the present invention, the recovery rate of nickel, cobalt and manganese reaches 98% or above, the recovery rate of lithium reaches 90% or above, the technological process is short, the equipment is few, and the cost is low.