Although it is quite rare, you must have come across incidents of apps becoming unresponsive or frozen once in a while on your Mac. You will find below multiple ways to Force Quit Apps or Programs on your Mac, instead of waiting forever and getting frustrated.
Force Quit Apps or Programs on Mac
Aug 04, 2019 2) Force Quit Through Dock Panel. It is the best way to close the mac application as well as quite simple too. Whenever you right-click on any application in mac, there is an option to force quit which may not work when the app hangs. Feb 20, 2017 Poprika May 10, 2015 6:39 AM. I tried force quit. Trying force quit again yielded the same results. Now, my mac won't shut down because it can't close the program. You can force a shutdown of the Mac by holding the power button for an extended period.
Most native Apps and Services on your Mac are designed to run smoothly, without freezing up or lagging in any way. However, some third party Apps that are not exactly optimized to run efficiently on a Mac may end up freezing or becoming completely unresponsive.
In such cases, it becomes difficult to close the unresponsive App in a normal way and the only option left is to Force Quit the application on your Mac.
Unlike regular closing of the Apps, Force Quitting abruptly closes the application and does not save your work or settings. However, sometimes you need to be prepared to lose unsaved work and settings, in order to get your Mac back to its normal self.
Force Quit Apps or Programs Using Dock
Perhaps the easiest way to Force Quit Apps on a Mac is through the Dock, located at the bottom of your Mac’s screen.
1. Locate the App that you want to close on the Dock of your Mac
2. Next, right-click on the App icon and then click on Force Quit in the little menu that appears (See image below).
Note: The Force Quit option may also appear as “Quit” in some cases, however most of the times when the application is frozen or unresponsive it appears as “Force Quit”.
3. Depending on the App that you are Force-quitting, you may see a pop-up asking to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the App. Tap on the blue Force Quit button to quit the unresponsive app.
Force Quit Apps or Programs on Mac Using Keyboard
You can also force quit Apps on your Mac by using keyboard shortcuts. There are 2 keyboard shortcuts which allow you to Force Quit unresponsive apps.
1. On the keyboard of your Mac, press Command + Option + Esc key combination to Force Quit any unresponsive App. In case you are using a Windows keyboard with your Mac, press Windows + Alt + Esc keys.
Note: Do not press all 3 keys at the same time, rather press them in a sequence, first Command then Option and then Esc.
2. Pressing above keys will open the Force Quit Application Manager Window on your Mac (See image below)
3. Next, click on the unresponsive App in the Application Manager and then click on the blue Force Quit button to close the unresponsive app.
4. Depending on the App that you are quitting, you may see a pop-up asking to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the App. Tap on the blue Force Quit button to quit from the unresponsive App.
Force Quit Apps On Mac Using Apple Menu Bar
Another way to Force Quit Apps on your Mac is by accessing the Force Quit Applications manager by using the Apple Menu Bar.
1. Click on the Apple icon in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on Force Quit… option in the drop-down menu (See image below)
2. Clicking on Force Quit will open the Applications Manager Window on the screen of your Mac.
3. In the Application Manager, click on the App that you want to Force Quit and then click on the Blue Force Quit button to Quit the selected App on your Mac (See image below)
4. Depending on the App, you may see a pop-up. Click on the blue Force Quit button in the pop-up to close the selected App.
Force Quit Apps On Mac Using Activity Monitor
The Activity Monitor on a Mac is quite similar to the Task Manager as found on a Windows Computer. The Activity Manager on a Mac allows you to take a look at the amount of Memory, CPU, and Storage space used by the apps and also allows you to Force Quit Apps.
1. Click on the Finder icon (Happy Face!) in the Dock of your Mac (See image below)
2. Next, click on Applications and then click on the Utilities Folder.
3. In Utilities Folder, locate Activity Monitor and click on it (See image below)
4. On the Activity Monitor screen, click on the app that you want to Force-close and then click on the X icon, located in top left corner of the window (See image below)
5. Next, you may see a pop-up, asking you to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the application. Click on Force Quit (or Quit) to close the application.
Force Quit Apps On Mac Using the Terminal Window
Force App To Quit Mac
In addition to above ways, you can also make use of the Terminal Window to Force Quit Apps on your Mac.
1. On the keyboard of your Mac, press Command + Spacebar to open the Spotlight Search
2. Once Spotlight Search opens up on your Mac, type the word Terminal and click on the Top Hit suggestion Terminal to open the Terminal Window on your Mac (See image below)
3. On the Terminal Window, type in ps –ax (there is a space after ps) and press the Enter key (See image below).
Note: There is a space after ps
4. The above Terminal Command will list all the processes that are currently running on your Mac. Locate the App that you want to Force-close and note down its PID Number (See image below)
5. Once you have noted down the PID number of the app. Type kill (PID number) in the Terminal Windows and hit the enter key (See image below)
Once you type in the above command, the unresponsive/frozen application will be closed. For example, in our case we closed the stuck Safari App on our Mac by typing kill 279 in the terminal Window.
What happens when you are using an app on your Mac and suddenly it stops responding? While some apps recover in a few seconds/minutes and work normally, some apps may get stuck with an unresponsive app and you can’t wait to recover. If you encounter an unresponsive app on your Mac, here’s what you can do to.
Although the apps get back to the normal state, sometimes the apps get stuck on the screen due to several reasons, say not getting enough memory or CPU resources (waiting for it to be free to get back to normal), or maybe the version of your Mac is not compatible with the app or vice versa, or you can say app itself has a bug that crashes or makes the app unresponsive.
No matter what the problem is, you start getting frustrated because the app is working fine for you but suddenly stops responding. It happens with me when I open multiple tabs of Chrome and since the app is hungry for memory, the app starts responding slowly until it gets stuck. Similarly, with the iMovie.
So, the solution here is to wait for a long time to recover which may not be guaranteed or quit the app forcefully and relaunch for a fresh start.
How To Force Quit An App That’s Not Responding On Your Mac
To quit an app normally, you can always choose ‘X’ icon in the top left corner of the app, use the menu bar and select Quit or simply quit the app using the shortcut Command + Q. If an app on your Mac stops responding and you can’t quit the app normally, use Force Quit to close the app.
Follow these steps to force quit an app on your Mac.
Launch the Force Quit using the keyboard shortcut,
- Command + Option + Esc
This is similar to pressing Control + Alt + Delete on a Windows PC to open the task manager.
- Or use the Menu bar on the top left corner, go to the Apple icon and click on it.
- Choose Force Quit from the options and select the app you want to close forcefully.
- Click Force Quit.
You can even force quit the Finder if it stops responding. Select Finder in the Force Quit window, then click Relaunch, it closes the app forcefully and launch the app again.
Force Close Application Windows 10
If none of your apps are responding, and even force quit isn’t functioning as it should. You have the last option to restart the Mac. Press and hold the Power key to turn off your Mac and start again.
Note: Force Quit an app will lead to data loss. If you haven’t saved the files or project or anything that is needed to be saved from within the app may get lost. For example, if you are using photoshop or typing something in the word editor, you may lose your unsaved projects.
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