Apple / How-Tos / Tech

How to Force Quit an app on your Mac

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Mac Force Quit

Last updated on August 4th, 2019

If an app on your Mac freeze up and you can’t quit the app normally, use Force Quit to close the app. There are few different ways to close it using Force Quit.

Apple Menu

  1. Click on the Apple logo in the top left corner of your screen.
  2. Select Force Quit.
  3. Choose the app that’s not responding.
  4. Click on the Force Quit button.

Dock

  1. To open the dock menu, right-click on the application icon you want to shut down or click on the item and hold.
  2. Hold an Option (Alt) button, so the Quit menu changes to Force Quit.
  3. Click Force Quit.

Keyboard Shortcut

  1. Press and hold the following keys: Command + Option + Esc.
  2. Select the program you want to quit from the dialogue box.
  3. Click Force Quit.

Terminal

  1. Launch the Terminal.
  2. Type the following command: killall [application name]. For example, if Safari isn’t responding, type killall Safari.
  3. Click Enter. Your application will be shut down immediately.

Note: killall command works at the system level and the auto-save option doesn’t work. Be careful not to lose your unsaved data.

Activity Monitor

  1. To open up Activity Monitor, go to Finder, go to the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder, and the shortcut to open Activity Monitor is right there.
  2.  Highlight the app you want to close.
  3. Click the X button in the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
  4. Click the Force Quit button.

CleanMyMac 3

A smart maintenance utility like CleanMyMac 3 has a problem of force quit on Mac covered. You can easily force quit program on your Mac with CleanMyMac Menu.

It alerts you when an app hangs, so you can force quit it immediately, without waiting a program to become responsive. A direct access saves you time and allows to fix a frozen app in a matter of seconds.

CleanMyMac 3 also takes care of other performance issues, so if you want to get alerts when something goes wrong on your Mac, download CleanMyMac 3 for free and give it a try.

With Force Quit, you receive no such such warning and may lose any unsaved changes. Then again, if an app is not responding, you may have no other recourse than to use a bit of force to close it.

If none of your apps are responding, you can force your Mac to restart.