When your Mac freezes or becomes unresponsive, it can be frustrating and disruptive to your workflow. In such situations, force quitting applications may be necessary to regain control of your computer and continue working. Force quitting allows you to shut down unresponsive applications that are causing your Mac to freeze, without restarting the entire system. Here's a comprehensive guide on how to force quit on a Mac when it becomes frozen:
1. Using the Apple Menu:
- If your Mac becomes unresponsive, start by clicking on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen.
- From the dropdown menu, select "Force Quit…"
- This will open the "Force Quit Applications" window, which displays a list of all currently running applications on your Mac.
- Select the application that is frozen or unresponsive from the list.
- Click on the "Force Quit" button in the bottom-right corner of the window.
- Confirm that you want to force quit the application by clicking on the "Force Quit" button in the confirmation dialog box.
- The selected application will be forcefully terminated, allowing you to regain control of your Mac.
2. Using Keyboard Shortcuts:
- If clicking on the Apple logo and selecting "Force Quit…" is not possible due to the frozen state of your Mac, you can use keyboard shortcuts to force quit applications.
- Press and hold the "Option + Command + Escape" keys simultaneously.
- This will bring up the "Force Quit Applications" window, allowing you to select the unresponsive application and force quit it using the arrow keys and the Enter key.
- Navigate to the frozen application using the arrow keys.
- Once the frozen application is highlighted, press the Enter key to force quit it.
- Confirm that you want to force quit the application by pressing the Enter key again in the confirmation dialog box.
- The selected application will be forcefully terminated, allowing you to regain control of your Mac.
3. Using Activity Monitor:
- If you're unable to force quit an application using the Apple menu or keyboard shortcuts, you can use the Activity Monitor utility to force quit applications.
- Launch Activity Monitor by navigating to "Applications" > "Utilities" > "Activity Monitor."
- In the Activity Monitor window, locate the unresponsive application that you want to force quit.
- Select the application by clicking on it once.
- Click on the "X" button in the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
- A confirmation dialog box will appear, asking if you want to force quit the application. Click on the "Force Quit" button.
- The selected application will be forcefully terminated, allowing you to regain control of your Mac.
4. Using Terminal:
- If all else fails, you can use Terminal, the command-line interface utility on macOS, to force quit applications.
- Launch Terminal by navigating to "Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal."
- In the Terminal window, type the following command:
killall [application name] - Replace "[application name]" with the name of the unresponsive application that you want to force quit (e.g., Safari, Finder, etc.).
- Press the Enter key to execute the command.
- Terminal will forcefully terminate the specified application, allowing you to regain control of your Mac.
In summary, force quitting applications on a Mac when they become frozen or unresponsive is a useful troubleshooting technique to regain control of your computer and continue working. By following the steps outlined above, you can force quit applications using the Apple menu, keyboard shortcuts, Activity Monitor, or Terminal, depending on your preference and the severity of the freeze. Remember to save any unsaved work before force quitting applications to avoid data loss.