If you are facing a problem with several apps being stuck or taking too long to close then you can try force-quitting them and get back to your work.
Sep 03, 2019 Here is how you can force quit a Mac application on the Apple Menu: Go and click on the Apple Logo located at the top left corner or your screen. After that, go ahead and click on Force Quit And then, go and select the app that is not responding anymore. Apr 02, 2019 You can use the Force Quit tool on macOS to Force Quit App on Mac. This also helps to clear some memory on your Mac and boost the performance speed. Before you Force Quit Mac App, you must know that any of the unsaved work shall get lost. And may not be recovered when you re-launch the app. Apr 25, 2020 How to Force Quit Apps on Mac Force Quit Apps From the Activity Monitor. Similar to a task manager on Windows, macOS has Activity Monitor to let you keep track of CPU, memory, Disk, Energy and Network usage by each app on your Mac. You can close an app using Activity Monitor as well. Here is how to do it. Jun 07, 2018 How to force an app to quit Press these three keys together: Option, Command, and Esc (Escape). This is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a. Select the app in the Force Quit window, then click Force Quit. Jun 23, 2020 Force Quit Currently Active Mac App with the Keyboard Hold down Command + Option + Shift + Escape for a second or two-unit the app forcibly closes. Be sure to do this while the app you want to force quit is the foremost application on the Mac, as.
In this article, we will tell you more than one way that you can use to force quit an app in case of a problem.
Moreover, before we start with the methods, you need to keep in mind one thing and that is, it’s not like how you quit an app usually and a prompt appears to ask you to save your work.
Once you force quit an app, there is nothing like that happening and macOS will shut down the app the moment you force quit. So this is an important thing that you need to keep in mind.
Now let’s start with method breakdown.
Using Finder To Force Quit An App
Force Quit App Windows 10
Using Finder to force quit an app is Apple recommended method for its users.
Here’s what you need to do:
- On the top left corner of your screen, you will see the Apple Icon, click on it
- Choose Force Quit from the given list.
- Then a Force Quit Application wizard will appear on your screen that will display the open application.
Here, you need to select the application that is troubling you and select Force Quit.
Using Keyboard Shortcuts To Force Quit An App:
You can try keyboard shortcuts to force quit an app in case the above method fails.
Here’s what you need to do;
- As on Windows 10, you press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Task Manager, in macOS, you will press Opt + Cmd + Esc.
The classical ‘Ctrl+Alt+Delete’ key combination would be very common to Windows users to assess the last option when an application has crashed.
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete from a Mac won’t do much, you can also use such buttons:
the Alt buttons are named Option on any Mac keyboard, the Control key is there, so it’s similar to a Command key on a Mac, so there’s generally no Delete-marked key.
- In macOS, Force Quit Application windows will appear after pressing these buttons.
After that, all you need to do is to select the application that is troubling you and Force Quit it.
Using Option Key:
Using Option Key to get rid of the troubling application is another manual way that can be helpful for you.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Simply Ctrl-Click or Right-Click the non-responsive app in your system.
- After that, hold down the Option Key that will force Quit selection in the list of options to Force Quit.
Don’t panic if this too does not work, we have other options available for you. Head down to know what else you can try.
Using Terminal To Force Quit Application:
This is the most effective method to get rid of the unresponsive and troublesome app and it you can use it as a last resort if all the other options are not working:
- Launch Application folder,
- In Utilities, open Terminal.
- Wait for a moment when the app opens. When your username and the title appears, input Top inside the box and hit the Return key.
- In addition to various diagnostic details concerning the CPU and RAM use, Terminal lists all programs currently running, plus those running in the background. It’s going to be in the Command column what we’re looking for here. A list of all running applications will be displayed and a numeric column with a PID will appear on the left.
- You can write the mental note of your PID when you see the app you want to close in the command column. Then open a new window after closing this one. Form Kill with the PID for this program ( e.g. kill 4420). Click on the key Return. That ought to be done! Close Terminal and breath deeply.
What You Should Do When Your Mac Is Frozen?
It is a common problem that an app becomes unresponsive and results in a system freeze.
Although such situations are uncommon, they happen and eventually, you can just keep down for a few seconds the power button on your Laptop.
Usually, a message is sent to your system when you press the power button telling it to close.
Usually, the system reacts by sleeping the machine.
When the button is held down longer, the dialogue box will provide you with a variety of choices, including restart, shutdown or sleep.
Yet even this possibility can not occur in a serious system crash.
The last thing is to keep down the button until the computer absolutely cuts down the electricity.
Now that you can restart and return to your Mac, you may notice all unsaved data was lost due to the abrupt nature of the shutdown.
It’s not ideal, but it’s sometimes the only way back to work.
Note that you want to stop opening again the program that triggered the issue when the machine restarts to ensure that the box next to Reopen windows is not ticked after logging back in!
Wrapping It Up!!!
Unresponsive or troublesome apps are a common problem among all sorts of computer platforms.
These app issues are annoying and sometimes they consume a lot of your time.
With this article, our aim was to provide you with effective ways that can help you resolve this problem.
We have mentioned 5 methods and we assure that one of them will be helpful for you if not all.
Having said that, we come to the end of our article. We hoped that this article was helpful for you and you got the information you needed.
Moreover, if you still got some problem, you can contact us, we will try our best to solve your problem and provide you with the best solution.
NB: This post has been updated (20/1/18) and now features 6 ways to restart your Mac and a seventh tip to help you relaunch a frozen Finder.
Mac users is this happening or has it happened to you: You’re working away at something and have multiple windows open on your Mac and suddenly it stalls. You need to quit your apps but the spinning beach ball is spinning spinningly and nothing seems to work. Try working through these sequences:
Force Quit Applications
Type Command+Option+Escape to invoke the ‘Force Quit Applications’ window. Now you can quit on app names to select one and then tap Force Quit to quit the app. (Never underestimate the power of the Option key).
Quit current app
You can use Command + Option + Shift + Escape to force the currently active app to quit, just hold the sequence down for a few seconds.
Use the Dock
Control-Option-click (Ctrl-Alt-Click) an app icon on the Dock and you should see the Force Quit option appear, tap it to Force Quit the app.
Apple menu
While in the app you want to quit, hold down Shift while you tap on the Apple menu at the top left corner of the screen. Look down the drop down menu that appears and you should see Force Quit and the name of the app you are in. Select the command to quit the app.
Activity Monitor
Because I always have too many browser windows open I always have Activity Viewer running on my Mac. I use Activity Monitor to identify which apps or operations are eating my memory and slowing performance. Unresponsive apps will appear in red, you can help your system by selecting these and then tapping the X button at the top left of the app window to invoke the Force Quit command. Tap Force Quit to leave that app. I find Activity Monitor the most reliable of the bunch when all else fails.
Use the Terminal
Open website as app chrome. You can also quit an app in Terminal. The least complex way to achieve this is to use the killall command, which almost immediately quits the app. Here is the command:
- To quit Safari you would type
- To quit Mail you would type
Can't Force Quit Application Mac
Beware — you may find that any windows you have open in the application you quit using this command may not be remembered by the app. You will likely also find that Auto-Save doesn’t work, so anything you are working on will also be gone.
It is, however, a really quick way to quit an app.
Force Quit Finder
You can also Force Quit the Finder. This is a useful fix if the Finder becomes unresponsive for any reason. There’s two very easy ways to do this:
- Option 1: Select Finder in the Force Quit menu item window, then click Relaunch.
- Option 2:Option click the Finder icon in the Dock and choose Relaunch.
In both cases, the Finder will be unavailable for a few moments while it restarts and you may experience a little system lag — don’t worry, this is temporary.
If all of this seems complicated, just be thankful you aren’t involved in extensions management on Mac OS 8, speaking of which, here’s a little video trip down memory lane: