How to force quit on Mac from the Apple menu However, when using the force quit feature it is important to know that if your work isn't saved, you may lose it when force quitting a frozen application like Microsoft Word or any web browser. The simplest thing to do when faced with the spinning wheel is to force quit the frozen application.įorce quit is a feature that effectively shuts down the unresponsive application. Sometimes, though, you don't know how long that will take. When an application isn't responding how it normally would, you could wait until your screen unfreezes. Have a great tip or an idea for a tutorial? Shoot us your submissions to and we’ll take your best ideas into account in our coverage planning.Mac users will tell you there are few things more frustrating than the spinning rainbow wheel - also known as the wait cursor, which signifies your computer is struggling to handle its current tasks. As always, we’re interested to hear your opinion so hit us in comments.
Other apps may install plug-ins or other enhancements. Some apps install kernel extensions that may cause the system or the app to misbehave. You may have just connected a peripheral device like a printer, a USB thumb drive or external storage that may not be compatible with your version of macOS. If the misbehaving app was obtained outside the Mac App Store, visit its developer’s website to see if there are any updates available. Now hit the Updates tab to see if there are any crucial updates available for macOS or your apps.
If there’s indeed a problem with the original file, try opening another one.Ĭhoose App Store from the Finder’s Mac menu to open the Mac App Store. The file you’re trying to open may be causing the app to break. Yes, read the bloody documentation that came with your app to see if it’s compatible with your version of macOS or if there are any known issues you should know about. Sometimes force-quitting the misbehaving app wouldn’t release system resources it’s claimed to itself. If the app freezes upon reopening-and force-quitting won’t do any god-there are several additional things worth trying out that may help rectify the situation. In case you were wondering, you may lose any unsaved changes after force-quitting an app. “Generally, you shouldn’t need to use Force Quit unless you can’t close an app normally,” cautions Apple. To bypass the Force Quit window and force quit the currently active app, you can also use Option + Command + Shift + Esc. Tip: If the app quit, you can reopen it by clicking Reopen in the dialog that appears. Step 2: Select the offending app in the Force Quit window and click the blue Force Quit button to end the process. This is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a PC. Step 1: Press Option + Command + Esc on the keyboard to bring up the Force Quit window. How to force quit Mac app using keyboard shortcut Step 2: Select the unresponsive app in the Force Quit window, then click Force Quit. Step 1: Choose the Force Quit option in the Finder’s Apple menu. Step 1: Locate the unresponsive app in the Dock and right click on its icon. Force-quitting an app removes it from memory and macOS will try to purge any claimed resources, if possible.Īs a result, your Mac and apps will perform and multitask more smoothly. If an app isn’t responding, or is unresponsive or has monopolized system resources, you can force it to close using macOS’ Force Quit command.
In this post, I’m going to teach you several methods to force quit apps on Mac. They’ll come in handy when an app starts to slow your system to a crawl or gets wacky to the point when force-quitting is the only remaining option left. Please take a minute to check out Apple’s easy to remember shortcuts for force-quitting apps. On iOS, it’s easy to force-quit any app iPhone or iPad app, and watchOS also provides a similar shortcut for purging an unresponsive task from its memory.Īs it turns out, you can also force-quit any Mac app just as easily. If you run macOS, you’re going to run into issues when a misbehaving app like Safari eats up system resources while refusing to quit the normal way.