8 Ways to Force Quit Apps on a Mac

macOS generally delivers a smooth user experience, though occasional app freezing can still occur. Whether it’s the dreaded spinning beach ball or a completely stuck window, you may eventually run into an unresponsive app.

The good news? macOS gives you multiple ways to deal with frozen apps. In this guide, we’ll show you all the ways to force quit apps on your Mac—from simple tricks to more advanced tools—so you can get back to work without losing your mind.

Know the Difference: Hide vs. Close vs. Quit vs. Force Quit

Before we jump into how to force quit apps on a Mac, it’s important to understand what other actions are available. On macOS, closing an app doesn’t always mean it’s fully shut down. Here are all the options available and what each of them does:

• Hide: It simply makes the app window disappear from your Desktop, but the app keeps running in the background.
  
  Shortcut: Command+H.
• Close: Clicking the red “X” in the top-left corner of an app window closes the current window, not the whole app.
• Quit: This shuts the app down completely.
  
  Shortcut: Command+Q.
• Force Quit: It’s used when an app becomes unresponsive and doesn’t close normally. This cuts it off immediately.

Understanding the difference between these methods helps you decide whether you actually need to force quit or just close or hide an app.

When Should You Force Quit an App on Your Mac?

You should only force quit an app on your Mac when it freezes, becomes unresponsive, or shows the spinning beach ball for too long. In some cases, the app might not even let you close it normally. Force quitting kills the app immediately, which can be useful, but it also means you might lose any unsaved work.

How to Force Quit Apps on a Mac

With the basics out of the way, let’s check out all the different ways to force quit apps on a Mac.

1. Using Keyboard Shortcut

The quickest and easiest way to force quit an app on your Mac is using the force quit keyboard shortcut like so:

1. Press Command+Option+Esc on your keyboard.
2. A small Force Quit Applications window will appear. Select the app that’s not responding.
3. Click Force Quit.
   
   

If Finder is the problem, select it and choose Relaunch.

2. From the Apple Menu

If you find pressing the keyboard shortcut to access the Force Quit Applications window cumbersome, you can bring it up from the Apple menu:

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select Force Quit.
   
   
3. Choose the unresponsive app.
4. Click Force Quit.
   
   

This is the same window as the shortcut above but accessed via Trackpad or mouse.

3. From the Dock

Another easy way to force quit an app on your Mac is through its icon in the Dock. Here’s how you do that:

1. Locate the app you want to force quit in the Dock.
2. Control-click the app icon.
3. If it’s frozen, hold the Option key to replace the Quit option with Force Quit.
4. Click Force Quit.
   
   

This works well when the app’s window won’t respond, but you still have access to the Dock.

4. Using Activity Monitor

You can think of Activity Monitor as the Mac version of Windows Task Manager and, as such, you can use it to force quit any app as shown below:

1. Press Command+Space, then type Activity Monitor and hit Return.
2. Go to the CPU tab and find the frozen app.
3. Click to highlight it.
   
   
4. Click the X (Stop) button in the top bar.
   
   
5. Choose Force Quit.
   
   

This method is especially helpful if the app doesn’t show up in the Force Quit window.

5. Using Terminal

If you’re dealing with a stubborn app—wherein you’re unable to access the above ways options—or prefer working in the command line, you can force quit apps on your Mac using the Terminal app:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type: killall AppName (replace AppName with the actual app name, e.g., killall Safari)
3. Hit the Return key.
   
   

If the app name has spaces, use quotes. Example: killall "Google Chrome".

6. Force Quit All Apps at Once (Use With Caution)

For situations when your Mac is completely unresponsive or multiple apps get frozen at once, you can use force quit all apps at once:

1. Press the Command+ Option+Esc+Shift shortcut.
2. Keep holding the keys for a few seconds, and macOS will attempt to force quit all running apps.

Warning: This will close everything, so make sure you’re okay with losing any unsaved work.

Also read: How to force quit apps on an iPhone and iPad

Automate Force Quitting Apps on Your Mac With a Shortcut or Script (Advanced)

If you often find yourself force quitting the same apps (like Chrome or Photoshop), you can automate the process. Here are a couple of ways to do it.

1. Using Automator

Automator is a built-in app on macOS that lets you automate trivial actions, including force quitting apps. Here’s how to use it to create an app that lets you force quit apps with a simple click:

1. Launch Automator.
2. Click New Document when the app launches.
   
   
3. Choose Application as the document type.
   
   
4. In the search bar on the left, type Run Shell Script.
5. Drag and drop Run Shell Script into the main workflow pane on the right.
   
   
6. In the text box that appears, type: killall AppName (replace AppName with the actual name of the app you want to force quit, e.g., killall Safari).
   
   
7. You can list multiple apps if you want to close force quit multiple apps at once.
   killall "App1"
killall "App2"
8. Click File in the menu bar, then select Save.
   
   
9. Name your Automator application (e.g., Force Quit Safari) and choose Desktop as the save location for easy access.
   
   
10. Now, whenever you open this app either through Spotlight, Application folder in Finder, dock or from Desktop, it will force quit the specified app(s).

2. By Creating a Shell Script (Manual Method)

You may even write a Shell script to force quit apps on your Mac. This is a more advanced approach and best suited for those who need more control over the action. For example, you may use it if you want to automate force quitting an app on a schedule.

Here’s a simple script to force quit apps, which you can modify per your requirements:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command to create a script file: nano ~/Desktop/forcequit.sh
   
   
3. In the Nano editor, type your script, for example:
   #!/bin/bash
killall "App1"
killall "App2"
   Replace “App1” and “App2” with the actual names of the apps you want to close.
   
   
4. Press Control+X, then Y, and hit Return to save and exit Nano.
5. Make the script executable by typing: chmod +x ~/Desktop/forcequit.sh
   
   
6. Run the script anytime by navigating to the desktop in the Terminal using cd ~/Desktop
   
   
7. And type: ./forcequit.sh
   
   

This gives you a repeatable method to quit multiple apps quickly, ideal for advanced users or multitaskers.

Tips to Prevent Apps From Freezing Again on Your Mac

While it’s easy to force quit apps when they start acting up, here are a few things you can do to prevent apps from freezing on your Mac:

• Update your apps regularly to make sure they work with the latest macOS version.
• Restart your Mac once in a while to clear memory and system resources.
• Close unused apps to prevent overload.
• Keep an eye on Activity Monitor to see which apps are hogging CPU or memory.
• Disable login items that may slow down your system at startup.

Take Back Control of Your Mac

Frozen apps don’t have to slow you down. Whether you prefer keyboard shortcuts, visual tools like Activity Monitor, or Terminal commands, now you know every way to force quit apps on your Mac. Keep this guide handy—you’ll be glad you did the next time your Mac runs into the same issue.

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