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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

  1. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 1How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 1
    Open the Apple menu. It's the black Apple on icon in the upper-left corner of the screen.
  2. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 2How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 2
    Click on Force Quit… toward the middle of the menu.
  3. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 3How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 3
    Click on the app you want to quit.
    1. The note "(Not Responding)" will appear next to frozen apps.
  4. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 4How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 4
    Click on Force Quit. The app will quit and can be restarted.
    1. If your computer is frozen, you may need to restart it.
Method 2 of 5:

Using a Keyboard Shortcut

  1. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 5How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 5
    Press ⌘+⌥ Option+Esc. The "Force Quit" dialog box will open.
  2. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 6How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 6
    Click on the app you want to quit.
    1. The note "(Not Responding)" will appear in red next to frozen apps.
  3. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 7How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 7
    Click on Force Quit. The app will quit and can be restarted.
Method 3 of 5:

Using the Dock

  1. Press ⌥ Option on your keyboard.
  2. Right-click or control-click the application in the Dock.
  3. Click Force Quit.
Method 4 of 5:

Using Activity Monitor

  1. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 8How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 8
    Click on Spotlight. It's the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen.
  2. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 9How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 9
    Type "Activity Monitor" in the search field.
  3. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 10How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 10
    Click on Activity Monitor under "Applications."
  4. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 11How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 11
    Click on the application you want to quit.
  5. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 12How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 12
    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

  1. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 13How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 13
    Open the Terminal utility. By default, this is in the Utilities folder, located in the Applications folder.
    1. If a normal Force Quit doesn't work, you may need to use this method to end the program.
  2. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 14How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 14
    Type "top" and press ⏎ Return. The 'top' command displays information about the applications that are currently running.
  3. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 15How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 15
    Find the program you want to close. Under the column titled "COMMAND", find the name of the application you wish to quit.
    1. 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.
  4. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 16How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 16
    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.
  5. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 17How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 17
    Type "q". This will exit the list of applications and return you to the command line.
  6. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 18How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 18
    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".
    1. If the program does not respond to the 'kill' command, type 'sudo kill -9 ###', replacing ### with the PID number.
  7. How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 19How to Force Quit an Application on a Mac Picture 19
    Exit the terminal. The application should quit and you can be relaunched.
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