Among many other things, Macs are known for their excellent reliability, which is why so many professional and regular computer users couldn’t imagine life without them. Unfortunately, many third-party Mac applications don’t offer nearly the same reliability as the operating system itself, causing many Mac users to wonder how to force quit a program on Mac that has stopped responding.
This article covers a host of different ways how to force quit unresponsive Mac apps to help you regain control over your computer.
How to Force Quit an App on Mac
For such a stable operating system as macOS, users can choose from surprisingly many ways how to force quit a program on Mac computers.
Suppose you open the app and its show black screen but what if the request is running so wait a minute then force quit the app. It is the simplest way to close the app. Step 1: Go to the upper apple menu on the left side and click there. Part 2: Completely Remove Unwanted Apps that Won't Delete on Mac (Easy Way) When any app is fishy enough not to get deleted from a Launchpad or Finder then you will have to use some sort of force to delete that. TunesBro CleanGeeker is one of the most powerful Mac app remover that helps to remove any app or software as well as the trace from.
Force Quit Mac Apps Using the Apple Menu
- Uninstall Mac apps using Trash. Whether you're running macOS Catalina or an earlier macOS, like.
- 01 – Stellar Wipe Mac Files/Disk $40. Permanently wipes unwanted sensitive data from any Mac.
- Force Delete Stubborn Files on Mac OS Latest update on July 14, 2020 at 03:24 AM by Aoife McCambridge. At least once a month you should empty the trash folder of your Mac, but sometimes the files or folders you want to delete refuse to disappear.
- How to Force Quit an App on Mac. For such a stable operating system as macOS, users can choose from surprisingly many ways how to force quit a program on Mac computers. Force Quit Mac Apps Using the Apple Menu. Force quitting Mac apps using the Apple menu is the official method how Apple advises users to deal with unresponsive apps.
Force quitting Mac apps using the Apple menu is the official method how Apple advises users to deal with unresponsive apps.
- Choose Force Quit from the Apple menu to invoke the Force Quit window.
- Select the name of the app you want to force quit in the Force Quit window.
- Click on the Force Quit button.
Force Quit Mac Shortcut
The lazier among us can use the force quit command Mac to invoke the Force Quit window with a keyboard shortcut.
- Press Command-Option-Esc to invoke the Force Quit window.
- Select the name of the app you want to force quit in the Force Quit window.
- Click on the Force Quit button.
If, for some reason, you can’t leave the app you want to force quit, you can hold down the Cmd+Alt+Shift+Esc buttons to close whichever app you’re currently in. Just make sure to release the buttons as soon as the app disappears because you might accidentally kill more apps than you intended to and lose important data.
Force Quit Mac Apps Using Activity Monitor
Those of you who are familiar with the Windows operating system are probably used to force quitting misbehaving apps using Task Manager, which is a system monitor and startup manager included with Microsoft Windows systems. A nearly identical tool is also present on all Mac computers, and its name is Activity Monitor.
To open Activity Monitor, go to the Finder and navigate to Applications → Utilities → Activity Monitor. Alternatively, you can also click on Spotlight and type “activity monitor” in the search field.
The Activity Monitor app itself is divided into several sections. You want to focus on the left section, which lists all active processes. Among these processes should be the app that you want to force quit. Click on its name and then click on the “Quit Process” button in the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor app window. The app should stop as soon as you click on the button. If it doesn’t, something is seriously wrong, and you need to restart your computer.
Force Quit Mac Apps from Dock Panel
Normally, when you right-click on an app icon in the Dock, you see the Quit option. When you click on this option, the app closes. But when you’re dealing with an unresponsive app, the Quit option seldom works. You click on it, and nothing happens.
In that situation, what you need to do is hold the command key while right-clicking on the icon of the unresponsive app to invoke an alternative menu with the option to force quit the app. This option works identically to all the other methods how to force quit a program on Mac computer that are described in this article.
Force Quit Mac Apps Using Terminal
If you’re not afraid of working with Terminal, you can use it to force quit any application with a simple command: killall [application name].
Launch Terminal, type in the command, and hit the enter key. The application name usually corresponds to what’s written in the title bar of the unresponsive app, but some applications, such as Terminal itself, use the title bar to display other information.
How to Restart Your Mac
Even when you know how to force quit on a Mac, some apps might still be impossible to close. What’s even worse, they might freeze your entire operating system, leaving you with only one option how to solve the situation: restart your Mac.
Mac users have three options how to perform a system restart:
- Press the power button and click on the Restart button in the dialog box that appears on the screen.
- Press the Apple key and click on the Restart option.
- Press the Control-Command-Power button key combination.
The last option mentioned is the most reliable way how to restart a Mac computer because it works even when the Mac operating system is unresponsive.
As a last resort, you can also hold down the power button until your computer shuts down and then start it again by pressing the power button as you would normally. While this won’t cause any damage to your beloved Mac, you may lose unsaved data.
How to Reset a Mac to Factory Settings
As we’ve said at the beginning of this article, Macs are known for their stability and reliability. If you keep having problems with freezing apps, the chances are that your operating system is such a mess that the only solution is to erase and reinstall it. Fortunately, Apple made it easy to do just that using the built-in recovery disk. Make sure to back up all important data before you proceed because the following steps will remove all information from your disk.
- Open Apple menu and select the Restart option.
- Hold down the Command and R keys as your Mac restarts to open the macOS Utilities window.
- Select Disk Utility and then click Continue.
- Select your startup disk on the left and then click Erase.
- Open the Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended, enter a name, and click Erase.
- Quit Disk Utility.
Select Reinstall macOS and follow the onscreen instructions.
Quick question – how do you uninstall programs on Mac?
If your answer is to drag the app to the Trash, we’re sorry to say that you’ve been doing it wrong.
You probably know or guess that you can remove apps by dragging them to the Trash bin, but it is not quite so. Dragging normal files like documents and movies to the Trash works fine. But doing the same for apps leaves gigabytes of leftover junk files on your hard drive. We’re going to show you what gets left behind and what you can do to completely uninstall apps from here on out.
How to uninstall on Mac
If you are trying to delete an old application, reinstall a corrupted software or just free up disk space on your Mac, removing all components of the program is important. These include the app, its preferences and support files, and sometimes other hidden files.
To completely uninstall a program on Mac you have to choose one of three options:
- Using Trash.
- Using Launchpad.
- Using a native uninstaller
The ways mentioned above include navigating your Mac’s in search of the apps you want to remove and then locating their remaining data. The latter can take even more place than the app itself and can be stored anywhere in your folders.
I prefer clearing my Mac from apps using special software made for this particular task - CleanMyMac X. It’s Uninstaller feature, is an app-killer that sweeps away any program you don’t want on your Mac and clears remaining junk.
Now let’s go ahead and delete some apps!
1. Uninstall Mac apps using Trash
Whether you're running macOS Catalina or an earlier macOS, like Mojave or Sierra, the process of manually uninstalling remains relatively similar. Here’s what you need to do:
- Open Finder.
- Go to Applications.
- Choose the app you want to delete.
- Press Command + Delete (⌘⌫).
- Open Trash.
- Click the Empty button in the upper-right corner of the window.
And the app is gone.
Even uninstalling apps on macOS Catalina requires getting rid of leftovers, despite the fact that it's the latest and the most sophisticated system for Mac. Apple has done such a good job on macOS 10.15 but left this unfortunate issue unresolved for another year.
To completely remove programs from Mac manually, you have to find all the associated files that come along with the app. That means not just dragging the app icon to the Trash from your Applications folder, but searching the depths of the system files on your Mac.
Mac Os Delete Application
We’re going to reveal the locations of the most common files that are associated with apps. To remove the app leftovers from your Mac just navigate to each of these folders and hunt for the app you want to remove. If you find files with the app name you can send them to the Trash.
So, when uninstalling any software, you have to go over each of these folders one by one and remove the following:
- Binary and dock icons are located in
/Applications/ - Application support files are located in
~/Library/Application Support - Support Caches can be found in
/Library/Caches/and~/Library/Caches - Plugins are located in
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ - Library can be found in
~/Library/ - App preferences are located in
~/Library/Preferences/ - Crashes are found in
~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/ - App saved states are located in
~/Library/Saved Application State/
There are many more hidden files, some of which cannot be accessed by the user. And macOS/OS X will prevent you from deleting some app files.
As you can see, it's not that easy to uninstall applications Mac doesn't need, even when you know what to do. By the way, be sure to look for the name of the app in the file names of the files you remove. Don’t remove anything you don’t know! Do your due diligence before removing something from your system.
When you delete software on Mac manually, be sure only to remove an app file or folder when you’re sure of what it is. Look at the name very carefully before you nuke it. Removing the wrong files could cause problems with your system.
Remember, please be careful when deleting system files — you never know how it will affect your Mac if you remove the wrong ones (or the right ones for that matter!).
2. Uninstall Mac programs with Launchpad
How to uninstall on Mac by using the Launchpad? It's easy and this manual method works like this:
- Click Launchpad icon in your Mac's Dock.
- Find the app you want to delete.
- Click and hold the app until it starts shaking.
- Click X in the top-left corner of the app icon.
- Click Delete.
This will uninstall the app from your Mac. However, keep in mind that after removing the program, you should also delete its leftovers as we've described above.
Can't delete apps on Mac?
Unfortunately, manual methods won’t get everything. Some apps are pre-installed macOS components and protected by the system while others will refuse to delete because they are already open (even though that’s often not true).
So, how to delete the apps on Mac that won't delete? You can try the manual removal after force quitting the app in question (press Command-Option-Esc and if the app is on the list shut it down) or rebooting your Mac.
If you're still unable to delete apps on Mac or if you’re worried you won't do it correctly and want a safer alternative, there’s the easy method of uninstalling apps from your Mac so you don't have to force delete applications. It actually does a better (and safer) job and in a fraction of the time. Read on to learn how to delete apps on Mac automatically.
3. Uninstall apps with CleanMyMac X
When I referred to the easy method of uninstalling apps, I meant using CleanMyMac X. As for me, deleting apps is a pretty tiresome task. I’ve always put away this chore, as it will waste a huge amount of my time. But, my Mac was running low on free storage, so I decided to try CleanMyMac X to fix this problem and uninstall programs on Mac with ease. I used the Uninstaller module to get rid of multiple apps at once. Here’s what you need to do:
- Download CleanMyMac X, install, and launch it (it takes less than a minute).
- Go to Uninstaller.
- Choose All Applications.
- Check the boxes next to the app you want to remove.
- Press Uninstall.
As you can see, CleanMyMac X shows precisely how much place each app takes, so it’s easier to detect the heaviest programs. Another benefit is that you can bulk uninstall programs on Mac without dragging each app and its files to the Trash.
Force Delete Mac Os
Is it possible to delete system files on Mac?
CleanMyMac X doesn’t let you delete system apps like Safari. Neither of Mac cleaners can do that. But, CleanMyMac X allows you to delete the data associated with system apps and reset them completely. Click CleanMyMac X’s menu in the upper-left corner and choose Preferences. Go to Ignore List and click Uninstaller. Here uncheck the box next to “Ignore system applications.”
Now, you can close Preferences and go back to Uninstaller. Click ► next to the app's icon to show its files. Then check the data you want to delete and choose Reset from the drop-down list next to the app’s icon. Then press Remove.
It will help to clear some space on your Mac. Note that your app logs may also disappear after the reset.
4. Use the native uninstaller
Many applications are designed to clean after themselves. They come with a built-in uninstaller — a self-destroying utility bundled with the main app. This is mostly true for third-party apps that you download from the internet. That’s why native uninstallers remain more of a Windows thing, not much heard of in the Mac world.
The original uninstallers can be found in Finder > Applications. If your app looks like a folder (within the Applications folder) most likely it will have a separate uninstaller. The name will read [Your app] Uninstaller or Uninstall [Your App].
Open the folder, find the launcher, and just follow the onscreen instructions. After the removal is complete, you can enjoy your extra storage space!
Clear app leftovers: preferences files and caches
No sane developer wants people to delete their application. As your desperate ex, they would do everything to stay on your Mac, like planting pieces of their software around your Mac so one day they can return. Support files, preference files, and caches — all these will likely remain even if you’ve deleted the app itself.
Here I’ll show you how to root out these remaining traces. I’ll use the Telegram app as an example.
Delete application support files
Click on Finder > Go to Folder… (in the upper menu).
Paste in: ~/Library/Application Support/Your App Name
In my case it's: ~/Library/Application Support/Telegram
Now, delete the content of this folder.
Delete application Preferences
The Preferences folder contains your user settings. These files are tiny but there’s no reason not to delete them, just out of principle.
Click on Finder > Go to Folder…
Paste in: ~/Library/Preferences/
Open the folder. Now type the name of your app in the search bar. Click to search 'Preferences.” Delete the found items.
Delete the caches
In the same vein, you’ll have to delete the remaining app caches.
This time, use the following command to paste in Finder > Go to Folder...
Paste this: ~/Library/Caches/Your App Name
Note: In some cases, you need to search for the app developer's name, rather than the name of the app.
Delete leftovers with CleanMyMac X
If you’ve been doing a 'spring cleaning' in your Applications folder, chances are some files are still left somewhere in your Mac’s system. CleanMyMac X detects and collects them into the Leftovers tab.
Go to Uninstaller once again and select Leftovers. Select all the remaining files and press Uninstall to say goodbye to the app remains.
Now you are just as good at uninstalling applications on Mac as any Apple engineer. Hopefully, you now have plenty of free space. Don't miss a few related articles below.