How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac
This wikiHow teaches you how to quit an application that has stopped responding on your Mac. Open the Apple menu. It's the black Apple on icon in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Method 1 of 5:
Using the Apple Menu
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Open the Apple menu. It's the black Apple on icon in the upper-left corner of the screen. -
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Click on Force Quit… toward the middle of the menu. -
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Click on the app you want to quit.- The note "(Not Responding)" will appear next to frozen apps.
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Click on Force Quit. The app will quit and can be restarted.- If your computer is frozen, you may need to restart it.
Method 2 of 5:
Using a Keyboard Shortcut
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Press ⌘+⌥ Option+Esc. The "Force Quit" dialog box will open. -
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Click on the app you want to quit.- The note "(Not Responding)" will appear in red next to frozen apps.
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Click on Force Quit. The app will quit and can be restarted.
Method 3 of 5:
Using the Dock
- Press ⌥ Option on your keyboard.
- Right-click or control-click the application in the Dock.
- Click Force Quit.
Method 4 of 5:
Using Activity Monitor
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Click on Spotlight. It's the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen. -
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Type "Activity Monitor" in the search field. -
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Click on Activity Monitor under "Applications." -
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Click on the application you want to quit. -
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Click on "Quit Process" in the upper-left corner of the window. This will stop the application from running.
Method 5 of 5:
Using Terminal
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Open the Terminal utility. By default, this is in the Utilities folder, located in the Applications folder.- If a normal Force Quit doesn't work, you may need to use this method to end the program.
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Type "top" and press ⏎ Return. The 'top' command displays information about the applications that are currently running. -
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Find the program you want to close. Under the column titled "COMMAND", find the name of the application you wish to quit.- The COMMAND list may use a truncated name for the program. Look for a name that looks similar to the program you are trying to close.
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Find the PID (Process ID). Once you find the name of program, find the number to the immediate left of it, under the PID column. Make a note of the PID number. -
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Type "q". This will exit the list of applications and return you to the command line. -
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Type "kill ###". Replace the "###" with the number from the PID Column you just located. For example: If you were trying to quit iTunes, and found iTunes to have PID number 3703, you would type "kill 3703".- If the program does not respond to the 'kill' command, type 'sudo kill -9 ###', replacing ### with the PID number.
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Exit the terminal. The application should quit and you can be relaunched.
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