How to Unfreeze a Mac

How to Unfreeze a Mac

A frozen Apple iMac or MacBook is a big nuisance. When the “Spinning Ball of Death” appears, you’re stuck. Reasons for Mac freeze-ups vary, so to unfreeze the computer, you might need to try different strategies, such as performing a “Force Quit” or turning off the Mac’s power. In most instances, however, clearing up the freeze is simple and quick.

“Spinning Ball of Death”

When your Mac is busy, it’s normal to see the “spinning ball” cursor from time to time. This means the computer is processing a particularly difficult task. Normally, this lasts a few brief moments or maybe several seconds; then, the ball goes away, and the normal cursor pointer reappears when the task is finished. However, when the Mac hits a serious snag, the spinning ball will appear and stay there. The Mac is partially frozen. Although the current app or document you’re working on is temporarily disabled, you might be able to switch to another and work on that. But under more serious circumstances, all your Mac’s programs are stuck; the trackpad or mouse won’t respond, and nothing seems to work. In this situation, even the spinning ball stops. Your Mac is completely frozen.

Take a Break

Sometimes, the Mac has many demanding tasks piled up and simply needs time to work through them. If the keyboard and mouse are unresponsive, walk away from the computer for a few minutes and take care of other business. When you come back, the problem might have sorted itself out, and you can go back to using your Mac. If this is the case, your Mac might be very low on free hard drive space or RAM memory. Do a backup with Time Machine; then delete any old files you don’t need and empty the Mac’s Trash Can. Talk to your tech support person about memory upgrade options for your Mac.

Mac Force Quit

Sometimes, one of your Mac’s apps will freeze, but the others will be running fine. In this instance, the cure is to perform a “Force Quit.” Go to the Apple menu and select “Force Quit,” or press the Option-Command-Escape keys as a shortcut. The Mac will display a list of programs; click the one that’s frozen, and the Mac will close it down without affecting any of the others. Depending on the app and what you were doing with it, performing a Force Quit on your MacBook might result in the loss of some of your work. For example, if you were editing a proposal in Mac Pages and performed a Force Quit on that program, you might lose some of the changes you made, but probably not the document itself.

Power Down, Power Up

In rare instances, your Mac might be completely frozen. The mouse cursor won’t move, and the keyboard is completely unresponsive, so Force Quit isn’t an option. If your Mac has been in this state for several minutes, your best bet is to turn off the power to your Mac. Before turning it back on, unplug any external devices, such as cameras or scanners, that might have caused the hang-up. Your Mac will automatically restore the apps and documents that were open at the time it was shut down. When you shut down normally, a dialog box appears that lets you choose whether to restart all your apps or not. However, when you turn the Mac’s power off and on, it reopens your apps by default.

References

Warnings

• After a Mac freezes, ensure that your software is up to date by clicking the “Apple” menu and selecting “Software Updates.”
• If the Mac becomes unresponsive on a regular basis, consult a certified technician.

Writer Bio

Chicago native John Papiewski has decades of IT consulting experience, and has worked with a wide range of businesses including finance, real estate, distribution and publishing. His articles have appeared in various outlets including azcentral.com and seattlepi.com. Please, no workplace calls/emails!