How To Force Quit An App On Mac Os

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  1. Force Quit a Mac App from the Dock When an app freezes up, just look for its icon in the Dock first. Once you have found it, right-click on it then select Force Quit.
  2. 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. 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.
  3. In the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor window, select the “X.” Related: How to Open Any Folder in Finder from Mac Terminal. If you’re dealing with an application that won’t respond to the previous force quit methods, then the kill command (learn more about the Kill command here) can shut the app down hard.
  4. How to Quit an Application via a Mac OS X Terminal. When an application freezes, shutting down your Mac isn't always a good option, especially when there are unsaved documents open in other windows. Using Terminal is an option to force quit applications using its command line interface. Terminal also has a utility.

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A guide that contains six useful methods to use built-in tools on Mac OS X to force quit Mac applications.

Sometimes, you open an application on your Mac computer, and somehow, it doesn’t respond to any of your actions, then it’s time to force quit that application. But do you know how to force quit a program in Mac?

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.

Whatever your skill level is, just remember these simple ways, and you will be able to force quit apps on your Mac easily. In this article, I will cover six best ways to force quit applications on your Mac computer. These ways will work in all versions of Mac OS X.

Six Ways To Learn How To Force Quit Mac Programs

How To Force Quit An App On Mac Os

I have collected these useful ways from Internet and make this article to help you find out how to force quit an application in Mac OS X, with keyboard shortcuts, your mouse, Apple’s menu or Terminal.

After reading this guide, if you have found any better and faster solution to force applications to stop on Mac OS X, let me know by dropping a comment below or use the contact form. I will update this guide to make it more helpful.

Force Quit Mac Apps With Force Quit Applications

It’s the first method that’s easy to use to force quit programs with a few simple steps:

  1. Press Command + Option + Esc key to launch “Force Quit Applications”.
  2. Select the program that does not respond to your action from the list.
  3. Click on the “Force Quit” button.
  4. The program will be ended immediately.

Force Quit Mac Applications

Force Quit An Active Mac App With Keyboard Shortcut

You can also force quit an active application on Mac by pressing and holding Command + Option + Shift + Esc key for a few seconds until the program forcibly close.

Force Quit A Program On Mac From Dock

Mac

Here is another simple way to close any unresponsive applications on Mac. You just need to do follow this instruction:

  1. Right-click on the app you want to quit on the dock (Mac’s dock), at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Press Alt (or Option) and then select “Force Quit” from the menu.
  3. The selected application will automatically be closed, without any alerts or confirmations.

Force Quit A Program On Mac From Menu

Os X Force Quit

In order to force quit a program from Apple menu, press and hold Shift key on your keyboard, and then click on the Apple logo > Force Quit [Program Name]. For example: Force Quit Finder.

Force Quit Mac Apps With Activity Monitor

To force quit any programs on your Mac computer, open Activity Monitor (also known as Task Manager Mac), select the program you want to close and click on the “Force Quit” button.

Kill A Running Application With Terminal

If you don’t like to use methods that are mentioned above (even though these ways are simpler), then open Terminal app (under Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal), and use any of two commands below:

  • killall [processname]. For example: killall Finder, to force quit Finder.
  • kill -9 [pid]. For example: kill -9 , to force quit Finder.

I hope this article will help you to learn more about how to force quit Mac apps with shortcuts, as well as terminal commands. If you have any further questions, just leave your comment below.

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This article shows how to Force Quit the front-most Mac application immediately with a single keyboard shortcut. This little-known keyboard shortcut is the easiest, fastest and best way to force a Mac application to quit. Yes – it works on Lion.

This shortcut works for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The shortcut also works for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion – I’ve tested it! This key combination does not work for Mac OSX 10.4 and earlier, which probably explains why it’s not well known.

What is Force Quit?

The normal ways to quit a Mac application are to choose Quit from the menu named for the application (e.g. Word, Chrome, VLC, Mail) or to press the keyboard shortcut to Quit, which is Command-Q. Force Quit is a Mac feature to force a Mac program to exit when it won’t respond to these normal ways to quit.

Why is Force Quit Useful?

Force quitting a hung application is useful to restart the app in order to be able to use it again. For example, if Mac Mail locks up while retrieving mail, you can terminate it, and start it again.

Force quit is even more useful when a frozen app stops access to the Finder and other applications, so that you can’t use your Mac. In the situation, that Mac seems frozen. Force quitting the hung app can be necessary to be able to use your Mac again.

An unresponsive app can prevent access to the Apple manu, so that knowing the keyboard shortcut to force quit an app is sometimes the only way to be regain control of your Mac.

Warnings for Force Quit

If you force quit an application, you will probably lose any changes you’ve made in that app that you haven’t saved. (With Microsoft Office, you might get an autosave.) Try quitting with the Command-Q key combination first.

What is the Key Combination to Force Quit a Mac App?

This keyboard shortcut will kill the front-most Mac app, which is usually the app you want to stop. If you want to stop an application which is not at the front, see Force Any Mac App to Quit using Only Keyboard Shortcuts.

The keyboard shortcut to force quit the front-most Mac app is to press and hold Command-Option-Shift-Escape until the app exits. There is around a three second delay until the Mac kills the app, to prevent this feature being applied accidentally.

How To Force Quit An App On Mac Os High Sierra

How to Use the Force Quit Keyboard Shortcut, Step by Step

How To Force Quit An App On Mac Terminal

If you’re unused to complex key combinations, here’s how to do it in steps:

  1. Hold down the Command key.
  2. Add holding the Option key with another finger on the same hand.
  3. Add holding the Shift key with another finger on the same hand.
  4. With these keys held down with one hand, use your other hand hold the Escape (Esc) key until the foreground app exits. This should take about three seconds.
  5. Release all the keys.

Force Close Application Mac

Information sourced from http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3411.

How To Force Quit An App In Mac Os

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