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How to Force an App to Shut Down on Mac OS X

February 12, 2024 by admin Category: How To

You are viewing the article How to Force an App to Shut Down on Mac OS X  at Tnhelearning.edu.vn you can quickly access the necessary information in the table of contents of the article below.

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This article is co-authored by a team of editors and trained researchers who confirm the accuracy and completeness of the article.

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This article has been viewed 2,794 times.

This wikiHow teaches you how to turn off an unresponsive application on your Mac OS X computer.

Table of Contents

  • Steps
    • Use the Apple menu
    • Use keyboard shortcuts
    • Use Activity Monitor
    • Using Terminal
  • Advice
  • Warning

Steps

Use the Apple menu

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 1

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 1

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Open the Apple menu with the black apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 2

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 2

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Click Force Quit… in the middle of the menu.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 3

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 3

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Click the application that you want to close.

  • A “(Not Responding)” note will be displayed next to the suspended application.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 4

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 4

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Click Force Quit . The application will be exited and restarted.

  • You will need to restart if the computer freezes.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 5

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 5

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Press the key combination ⌘ + ⌥ Option + Esc . The “Force Quit” dialog box will open.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 6

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 6

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Click the application that you want to exit.

  • A note “(Not Responding)” will appear next to the app that crashes.
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Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 7

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 7

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Click Force Quit . The application will be exited and restarted.

Use Activity Monitor

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 8

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 8

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Click the Spotlight app with the magnifying glass, located in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 9

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 9

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Type “Activity Monitor” into the search data area.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 10

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 10

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Click Activity Monitor under “Applications”.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 11

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 11

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Click the application that you want to close.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 12

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 12

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Click “Quit Process” in the upper-left corner of the window. The application will stop running.

Using Terminal

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 13

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 13

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Open the Terminal utility. By default, applications are located in the Utilities utilities folder of the Applications large folder.

  • If the usual Force Quit method does not work, apply this method to close the program.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 14

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 14

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Type “top” and press ⏎ Return . The “top” command will display information about running applications.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 15

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 15

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Find the program you want to close. Underneath the column titled “COMMAND”, find the name of the app you want to disable.

  • The COMMAND list can use the shortened name of the program. Look for a name that looks similar to the program you want to close.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 16

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 16

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Find the PID number (Process ID – the code identifying the process you want to stop). Once you find the program name, look at the number just to the left of the program, below the PID column. Then write down this code.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 17

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Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 17

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Type “q”. This command will exit the list of applications and return you to the command line.
Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 18

Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 18

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Type “kill ###”. Replace the “###” signs with the number you just specified from the PID column. For example, if you want to close iTunes and the program has a PID number of 3703, you would type “kill 3703”.

  • If the program does not respond to the “kill” command, type “sudo kill -9 ###”, replace the ### sign with the PID number. [1] X Research Source
  • Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 19

    Image titled Force Quit an Application in Mac OS X Step 19

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    Exit Terminal. The application will close and restart by itself.
  • Advice

    • You cannot force the Finder application to shut down. If you select Finder, the “Force Quit” button will respond with “Relaunch”.
    • Before clicking “Force Quit”, check again if the application still crashes. Sometimes the application will return to normal when you open the “Force Quit” window.

    Warning

    • Forcing a running program to shut down can cause you to lose unsaved changes to that program.
    X

    This article is co-authored by a team of editors and trained researchers who confirm the accuracy and completeness of the article.

    The wikiHow Content Management team carefully monitors the work of editors to ensure that every article is up to a high standard of quality.

    This article has been viewed 2,794 times.

    This wikiHow teaches you how to turn off an unresponsive application on your Mac OS X computer.

    Thank you for reading this post How to Force an App to Shut Down on Mac OS X at Tnhelearning.edu.vn You can comment, see more related articles below and hope to help you with interesting information.

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