How To Force Quit An App On Mac

Whether MacOS is giving you a spinning beach ball of death or a particular app is taking too long to close, sometimes you just need to immediately close an app and get back to work. Thankfully, you've got options, and there's more than one way to force quit an unresponsive app in MacOS.

Keep in mind that unlike the normal method for quitting an app, there aren't going to be any prompts asking you to save your work or confirming your decision. Once you hit force quit, it's too late for all of that, and MacOS will immediately shut the app down without any prompts. Just a word of warning — using force quit should be a last resort.

Now let's get to it. Here's how to force quit on a Mac.

These methods are compatible with MacOS Big Sur.

Method 1: Use the Finder

First up is Apple's recommended course of action for when an app starts to wear out its welcome.

Step 1: Click on the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and select Force Quit from the list.

Step 2: This should bring up the Force Quit Applications window that displays your open applications.

Step 3: Just select the one that's giving you trouble and click Force Quit at the bottom.

Method 2: Keyboard shortcuts

If that doesn't work, it's time for keyboard shortcuts.

Step 1: Similar to Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows 10, hit Opt + Cmd + Esc on your keyboard (on some Mac keyboards, Opt is labeled as Alt).

Step 2: Like other methods, this will bring up the Force Quit Applications window.

Step 3: Just select the application that's giving you trouble and click Force Quit.

Also, if you're looking for even more keyboard shortcuts to speed up your computing on MacOS, check out our handy guide.

Method 3: Try the Option key

This program can be tricky and fickle, causing issues that might be hard to solve. You're probably better off handling issues yourself by going in and choosing the specific apps you want to shut down.

Step 1: Just Right-Click or Ctrl-Click on the misbehaving app in your Dock.

Step 2: Then, press and hold the Option key, which turns the Quit selection to Force Quit in the list of options.

There's no need to panic if this doesn't close down the app because there are other avenues to find a solution. It's just time to get creative.

Method 4: Launch Activity Monitor

Step 1: Open the Activity Monitor by clicking on theSpotlight icon — i.e., the magnifying glass in the top-right corner of your screen — and typing Activity Monitor in the text box. Then select the app from the list.

Step 2: From the task manager that displays everything running on your computer, find the misbehaving app, select it, and click the button that resembles a Stop Sign in the top-left corner.

If that still doesn't do the trick, it might be a good idea to save all your open work and restart your iMac or MacBook , which will likely solve the problem. There is one last method you can try if restarting your device is out of the question.

Method 5: Use Terminal

For technically savvy users, this method is complicated, but it's the last trick we have up our sleeve if nothing else has worked.

Step 1: Open your Applications folder, scroll down to Utilities , and launch Terminal .

Step 2: After a few moments, Terminal will display your username, followed by a dollar sign. Using your keyboard, type the word Top and press the Return key.

Step 3: Terminal displays your CPU and RAM usage diagnostics, along with a table that shows all of your open applications. This includes background applications, which often use a lot of RAM without us realizing it. The Command column displays the name of each active application. The column on the very left displays the process identifier (PID) for each application. The PID is how your computer keeps track of open applications.

Step 4: Choose the application you need to quit from the Command column and copy the application's PID. You can do this by highlighting it and typing the keyboard shortcut Cmd + C to copy. Close this Terminal window.

Step 5: Open a new Terminal window and type the command Kill. Hit the spacebar once, and type Cmd + V to paste the PID you previously copied. You will get a message similar to "Kill 93142." Hit the Return key to tell Terminal to close the problematic application.

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How To Force Quit An App On Mac

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-force-quit-an-app-on-a-mac/

Posted by: battintanderies.blogspot.com

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