How to Force Quit on Mac

Macs are highly regarded for their consistent and smooth performance.

But like all things, they’re not perfect: apps can crash them from time to time.

Aside from a drop in performance, the ultimate sign your Mac gives you when it’s in trouble is the spinning rainbow wheel.

Let Apple create a ball with the colors of the rainbow, literally synonymous with anxiety.

However, there is a simple solution.

Let me show you how to force quit on Mac

How to force quit on Mac?

When an application stops responding, most of the time, waiting a few seconds should do the trick.

If it doesn’t resolve itself, you should try closing the app on your Mac through the usual means. These include:

• Right click on the application icon in the Dock and press Exit.
• Click on the app name in the top left corner of the menu bar (next to the apple icon) and select Quit from the dropdown menu (make sure to highlight the app first).
• Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Q.

Some users may be able to reset the power button immediately, however, you just need to do it as a last resort.

Now: how to tell your Mac to force close some applications?

There are several ways to do this, depending on the situation you find yourself in.

Please note that the device won’t ask you to save your work but it will close the app immediately. This is why you should always make sure you have autosave turned on.

Dock app icon

The first thing you should try:

• Right click on the application icon in the Dock.
• Click Force Quit in the menu. If it doesn’t appear, press Option (Alt).

Here’s an example where I force quit preview on my Mac:

If an app has crashed completely, instead of Quit, the menu will show the Force Quit option. That way you’ll know he’s not responding.

a keyboard shortcut

next and probably easier way is to use the shortcut to force close Mac – Shift + Option (Alt) + Command + Esc.

Obviously, this is if you’re good at remembering shortcuts.

This method is especially useful if the application is not responding prevents you from clicking anything in the menu bar or in the Dock. just make sure you do highlighted the problematic program so don’t force close another one by accident.

Using Activity Monitor

The next way to force close an app on Mac is to use Activity Monitor.

Although rare, there are times when the the culprit is an underlying background process or task. Sometimes the problem can be more difficult to remove.

activity monitoring it allows you to detect them and force them to close when all else fails.

exist three ways to open it:

• Use Spotlight search.
• Find it in the default Other folder on the Launchpad.
• Go to Finder-> Applications-> Activity Monitor.
  
• Now you can see the list of all currently active applications and processes. It also tells you how many resources each one is using.
  The easiest way to confirm an offending app is looking at the % CPU indicator. This reading will indicate a very high value.
  
• Now that you have identified the culprit application or process highlight it and press the X icon top left (it will be top center in newer versions of macOS).
• Press Force Quit.
  

Note that when you complete a task on your Mac, this might crash some apps or open files related to her.

surely it is do not mess with any kernel activity or system process. These are directly related to the operating system, so forcing them to quit could cause more problems.

If you’re not sure, you can always search for background activity online and find out what it is related to.

The other way is to use the dedicated Apple Force Quit window. It’s show all open apps in a list that allows you to select and force out what you need. This is especially convenient if you have a lot of things to do.

• Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the menu bar.
• Click Force Quit
• Select the app and then hit Force Quit at the bottom

The list usually says “Not Responding” against the faulty app, making it easy to spot.

If you can’t click the logoyou can use the shortcut Option (alt) + Command + Esc to open the window immediately.

What to do if force quit doesn’t work on a Mac?

Sometimes things can go wrong.

With force quit not working on your Mac, the only option is to restart it.

Ideally you want try shutting down normally using the Apple icon menu. Also, if you can do it, make sure you do it. uncheck the option to reopen Windows at startup. This will prevent your Mac from freezing immediately after turning it on.

If that doesn’t work and you can’t even click or select anything, then press and hold the power button to perform a hard reset.

This is usually a good idea. wait a few seconds before turning it back on.

Forced shutdown must be left as a last resort.

First, because it could cause data loss if you didn’t save before the problem started, and second, because it could damage files you were working on.

While the latter rarely happens, it’s definitely something to be aware of.

To wrap

While Apple systems have rightfully earned their high reputation, they are not immune to poorly built apps or overuse.

Knowing how to force quit a Mac is a must for any user. It will successfully fix a large number of problems that you will encounter on your system.

And now that you are armed with that knowledge, nothing can stop you!