However, this usually doesn’t work with a frozen app. To force quit an app from the dock, hold the Option key on your keyboard while you right-click on the frozen app’s icon and you’ll see that “Quit” is now “Force Quit.” Click it to force quit the app. 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. To open Activity Monitor app navigate to Applications - Utilities - Activity Monitor. To force quit app on Mac using Activity monitor, you need to select the process, click on the kill button from the top left corner and click Quit to kill the process. Use the Kill Command to Force Quit Apps on Mac. If everything else fails then you may.
Although it is very rare, Mac users face the spinning ball kind of app freezing issue on their computer as well. Despite having such good configuration, you might have already encountered with such problem when your PC stopped working like usual. Like Windows, you need to close the non-responding application to fix the issue and run your Mac like nothing happened. Therefore, you should check out this article to know the best ways to force quit apps on Mac. No matter whether you have MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you can certainly follow this tutorial and fix the frozen application issue.
2) Force Quit Through Dock Panel. It is the best way to close the mac application as well as quite simple too. Whenever you right-click on any application in mac, there is an option to force quit which may not work when the app hangs. Suppose you open the app, and your pc hangs now you will not getting the force quit option by right click. Select Force Quit. Choose the app that’s not responding. Click on the Force Quit button. Force quit from the Dock. If you wonder how to force quit an app on Mac using the Dock, check out these simple steps: To open the dock menu, right-click on the application icon you want to shut down or click on the item and hold. Hold an Option (Alt. Quit current app. You can use Command + Option + Shift + Escape to force the currently active app to quit, just hold the sequence down for a few seconds. Control-Option-click (Ctrl-Alt-Click) an app icon on the Dock and you should see the Force Quit option appear, tap it to Force Quit the app.
#1: Use General Panel
Can't Force Quit App Mac
There is a simple method that can be used to force quit apps on MacBook Pro as well as MacBook Air. It is quite easy, and most of the people use this method only to get the job done. The good thing is there is no need to use any third-party software or anything else since it can be done with the help of in-built options. However, in this case, you need to use the trackpad or mouse.
At first, click the Apple logo visible on the top-left corner of your screen or navigation bar. Here you can find an option called ‘Force Quit.’
Click on this option. It should open the Force Quit Applications panel. Now, you can choose an app, and click the Force Quit button.
That selected will be closed forcefully.
#2: How To Force Quit An App On Mac Without Mouse
If your trackpad or mouse pointer is frozen along with the application, and you want to force quit an app on Mac without mouse or trackpad, here is what you can do. This is same as the previous trick. In other words, you need to use a keyboard shortcut to open the Force Quit Applications panel. The keyboard shortcut is Option+Command+Esc. You need to press these three buttons together.
After that, the corresponding panel would appear. Now, you need to select the app using up/down arrow. If you want to close the selected app, hit the Return button.
Then you need to confirm the whole thing.
#3: Use Option Key
Option or Alt key plays a vital role in various cases, including this one. You can force quit an application without opening the Force Quit Applications window. All you need to do is to use the Option key on your keyboard. In this case, you need to use mouse s well as keyboard to get the job done.
To use this method, make sure you are on the frozen app window. After that, press and hold the Option key. Now right-click on the app icon in the Dock. Here you should find an option called Force Quit. Use this option to force quit apps on Mac.
#4: Force Quit Apps On Mac Using Terminal
If you cannot force quit apps on Mac using those aforementioned methods, you can do the same with the help of Terminal. Like Command Prompt on Windows, Terminal is an in-built program for Mac. Being said that, you do not need to install anything to use Terminal. To close a running process using Terminal, you need to follow this method.
Open the Terminal first. After that, type ‘Top’ and hit the Return button. Following that, find out the corresponding PID number of the running process that you want to close.
Return to the Command Prompt panel, and type a command like this-
How To Force Quit App Of Mac Os
kill PID
The process will be closed immediately.
#5: Use Activity Monitor To Force Quit All Apps on Mac
You can use the Activity Monitor tool to force quit apps on Mac. No matter how many apps are frozen, you can certainly close them all with the help of Activity Monitor. This tool is mainly designed to check all the running processes and some system-related background processes.
To utilise this tool, you need to open it first. Following that, select the process that you want to kill. After selecting, click the close button. Here you can find two options, i.e. Force Quit and Quit. You need to use the Force Quit option to get the job done.
That’s all! These are some of the best methods to force quit apps on Mac. However, many people ask whether it is bad to force quit apps on Mac or not. The answer is yes and no. If you are working on a document in the Pages app and you force quit the app, your work won’t be saved. It would be deleted immediately. On the other hand, if you do not kill the app, you need to stay with a concurrent spinning ball.
Summary :
If an application freezes on your Mac computer, here we cover 4 ways to help you force quit the app on Mac. To recover lost data or mistakenly deleted files on a Mac computer, MiniTool software provides a professional Mac data recovery program.
When a program is not responding on your Mac computer, you can force quit the app to close it on Mac. How to do it? In this tutorial, we introduces 4 ways to help you force quit Mac.
How to Force Quit an App on Mac – 4 Ways
Normally you can shut down an application on Mac by clicking Quit from the app menu bar, or you can press Command + Q key on the keyboard at the same time to close the app.
If you can’t close the app in the normal way, you can try the 4 ways below force an app to quit on Mac.
Method 1. Force Quit Mac Keyboard Shortcut
Is there a Ctrl + Alt + Delete Mac function to help force quit applications on Mac?
Unlike Windows, Mac computer doesn’t use the typical Ctrl + Alt + Delete keyboard shortcut to force close a program. The equivalent keyboard shortcut keys to open the Force Quit window on Mac is Command + Option + Esc.
Step 1. You can press Command + Option + Esc keys simultaneously on Mac to open Force Quit Applications dialog.
Step 2. Choose the app that doesn’t respond in Force Quit Applications window, and click Force Quit button to force quit the app on Mac.
Method 2. How to Force Quit on Mac from Apple Menu
Step 1. You can also click Apple icon at the top-left corner of Mac screen and select Force Quit from the Apple menu to access Force Quit Applications window.
Step 2. You can see the list of all running applications in Force Quit window. Find the frozen application and click it. Then hit Force Quit button to close it on Mac.
How To Force Quit App In Mac Pro
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Method 3. How to Force Quit on a Mac with Activity Monitor
We know that the Ctrl + Alt + Delete shortcut is used to open the Task Manager window. There is a similar alternative on Mac to monitor and end unresponsive process in task manager Mac. This alternative to Windows Task Manger is called Activity Monitor.
You can force kill an app on Mac using Activity Monitor.
Step 1. Open Activity Monitor on Mac. You can press Command + Space key at the same time to open Activity Monitor. You can also click the Spotlight icon at the upper-right corner of Mac screen, and type activity monitor to open it.
Step 2. Click the app you want to close, and click the X icon at the top-left corner to force a process to quit on Mac.
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How To Force Quit App On Mac
Method 4. Mac Force Quit with Dock
You can find the app icon in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. Press the Option key on the keyboard and right-click the app icon in the Dock. The Quit option in the list would turn to Force Quit. Click Force Quit to force the application to shut down on Mac.
At last, if Force Quit Mac is not working, you can force restart Mac computer.
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