A frozen or misbehaving app is one of such exceptions that can sometimes render your Mac unusable. And although you can try to close this unresponsive app normally by clicking the close button, it’s unlikely to work most of the time.
Those familiar with Windows operating system would be very familiar with the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+Alt+Del” to invoke the Task Manager and ‘kill’ the misbehaving application. So what’s the Mac alternative to “Ctrl+Alt+Del” that helps you force quit an app? We tell you five ways to force quit on Mac that you can use to close unresponsive apps and reinstate your Mac’s functionality.
1. Force Quit an App on Mac From Dock
One of the easiest ways to force quit Mac apps is to use the Dock. The following steps demonstrate how to do this:
2. Force Quit a Mac App From Menu Bar
It might not be apparent to many users, but Apple includes a Force Quit option in its menu, which lets you quickly force quit the app without having to move your mouse much. Follow the steps below to force quit on Mac from the Apple Menu: If you bring up the Force Quit Applications menu while you’re on the frozen program, it’ll already have the app preselected, and you can simply click the Force Quit button to close it.
3. Force Quit Mac Apps With Activity Monitor
If for some reason, the above two methods fail, you can use Activity Monitor to force quit the unresponsive app. Use the steps below to force quit a Mac app using Activity Monitor:
4. Force Quit Mac Application Using Terminal
If you prefer working with a CLI over GUI, you can use the Terminal app to force quit apps on Mac. The Terminal is a powerful Mac application that allows you to access and control various macOS components and services using commands. Follow the steps below to use it to force quit application on Mac OS X:
5. Force Quit Mac Apps With Keyboard Shortcut
While the methods listed so far help you force quit unresponsive or frozen apps on your Mac, they all involve using the mouse/trackpad. But, if your misbehaving app has completely frozen your Mac—to the point where you can’t move the pointer—your only resort to close it is to use your keyboard. To this end, Apple’s got you covered with its predefined keyboard shortcut for the Force Quit Applications functionality. It’s the same functionality that we used in the second method, except that, this time, we’ll trigger it with a keyboard shortcut. Here are the steps to force quit a frozen app using the keyboard shortcut:
Force Quit an Unresponsive App to Resume Mac Operations
In most cases, you can force quit unresponsive apps on your Mac with any of the methods above and restore its functionality to resume working. However, if none of these work or you’re unable to perform any of these operations, you can force a shutdown by pressing and holding the power button the Mac shuts down. Depending on your preference, follow any of the five methods listed above to force quit the unresponsive applications or processes and fix your unresponsive Mac. So, technically, there’s not much that can go wrong when you force quit on Mac, except for losing the current app state and the data you were working with on that app before it froze. Here are the three different ways to Force shut down an unresponsive Mac:
