How to Force Quit Mac Applications

When a certain application stops working and becomes unresponsive, usually you just force quit the app and then have it re-launched and it will do the trick. However, there are actually instances that even you are trying to force quit an app, Force Quit Mac does not work and this can be really frustrating.

Have you ever experienced a frozen program or app on your Mac and could not be closed normally? That’s really nettlesome and annoying because it will not only influence your experience and work but most importantly, your Mac system operation.

But don’t be so frustrated, here are the tactics for you to close an unresponsive program on Mac (force quit Mac applications).

Part 1. Why Do We Need to Force Quit Mac Application?

There are actually some reasons as to why you need to force quit a certain application on your Mac. Maybe because it is being unresponsive, it is frozen or it is working too slow on your Mac computer.

However, there are instances that force quitting an app does not work because it was not built well. If this is the situation, then all kinds of havoc get to make your hardware affected because it will have a hard time getting the tools for it to force quit your Mac application.

This kind of situation is actually common to those applications that have not been updated properly for it to be compatible with the new operating system that you have. Or simply because it is not compatible with some other apps that are running on your Mac.

Regardless of what the situation is, if you are not able to force quit Mac application by pressing the Command + Option + Esc on your keyboard, then you can do other troubleshooting steps.

Part 2. How to Force Quit Applications on Mac?

Here are some troubleshooting steps that you can do for you to force quit a Mac application.

Force Quit Mac From Apple Menu

Here is how you can force quit a Mac application on the Apple Menu:

1. Click on the Apple Logo located at the top left corner or your screen.
2. After that, click on Force Quit
3. Then, select the app that is not responding anymore
4. Finally, click on the Force Quit button.

Force Quit Mac From Your Dock

If you would want to know how you can force quit a Mac application on your Dock, then here are simple steps that you can follow.

1. For you to launch the dock menu, just right-click on the application that you want to force quit. You can also click and hold on the application.
2. Hold down an Option (Alt) button to change Quit to Force Quit.
   
3. After that, click on Force Quit.
   

Force Quit Mac Application Using Your Keyboard Shortcut

You can also try and force quit a Mac application that is being unresponsive using some combinations on your keyboard. This solution actually comes in handy in force quitting an application on your Mac especially if your mouse cursor is not working.

1. Press and hold these keys on your keyboard:Command + Option + Esc
2. After that, choose the application that you want to force quit from the pop-up window that appears on your screen.
   
3. And then, click on the Force Quit button.

Force Quit Mac Application Via Your Terminal Mode

If a normal force quit does not work, or you prefer to shut down the app by a command line method, you can try to use the Terminal. What you should do is to:

1. Open the Terminal utility. (By default, this is under the Utilities folder, which is located in the Applications folder.)
2. Type top and press the Return button. (The top command will lead to the information about those currently running)
3. Locate the program that you want to close under the column titled “COMMAND”. (The COMMAND list may use a short or truncated name for the program. Look for a name that looks similar to the program that you’d like to quit.)
4. Look for the PID (Process ID). Once you find the name of the would-like quit program, look for the number to the immediate left of it under the PID column. And then write down the PID number for the following use.
5. Type kill ###. Replace the ### with the PID number that you just wrote down. (For instance: If you were trying to close Skype, and the PID number you wrote down in the last step was 3562, then you should type kill 3562.)
6. Type sudo kill-9 ###if the program does not respond to the kill
7. Exit the Terminal after the application has been closed successfully.

NOTE: This command on the terminal can work on a system level and the auto-save option will not work. Because of this, you have to make sure that you do not lose any unsaved data on your Mac PC.

Force Quit Mac Using Activity Monitor

The activity monitor is one of the most powerful methods that you can use for you to force quit an application, task, daemons, or any processes running on your macOS X. You will find it under Applications > Utilities. Or you can also launch your Spotlight app with Command + Space and then key in “Activity Monitor” and then press the return key.

Making use of the activity monitor is very easy. All you have to do is to choose the process name or the ID that you would wish to close. After that, click on the red “Quit Process” option.