Are you seeing the infamous spinning beachball of death? Has an application become unresponsive and needs to be closed? There could be too many processes running at once, or you have not one but two or three problematic apps that are putting too much pressure on your hardware. Luckily there is a very simple way to force-quit all apps, and in fact we can even show you how to quit apps in six different ways.
The Difference Between Quit and Force Quit
Force Quit is usually used to close an app that has stopped responding completely and prevents quitting the app normally. To quit (close) the app, you simply need to press Command + Q to choose Quit from the app's menu in the menu bar. A normal closure of the app will display a prompt (if needed) to save any changes you have made and will quit only after answering this prompt. That option disappears when you force the app to quit, similar to choosing “End Task” in the Control Panel after pressing Control + Alt + Delete on a PC.
Six Ways to Quit an App in Any Version of macOS
Quit current app. You can use Command + Option + Shift + Escape to force the currently active app to quit, just hold the sequence down for a few seconds. Use the Dock. Control-Option-click (Ctrl-Alt-Click) an app icon on the Dock and you should see the Force Quit option appear, tap it to Force Quit the app. While in the app you want to quit, hold down Shift while you tap on the. Mar 10, 2016 Apple execs reply to customer emails from time to time on various issues. At least in public, this is the first time we have seen Craig Federighi intervene and reply to an email sent to Tim Cook.
killall [processname]
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Some Mac optimization apps such as CleanMyMac include a handy system monitoring features. Since it keeps an eye on your system, CleanMyMac notifies the user if it spots an unresponsive app and offers to quit it via the notifications window.
How to Quit All Open Apps at Once![]()
macOS includes a very handy feature called Automator, which is used in this trick to close all running applications. And it can also be tweaked by adding exceptions.
With this you have created a new app with a single purpose: to quit all apps. The best part of all is that you can fine tune it by adding exceptions. In our example, the exception was Spotify. Isn't that fun?
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NB: This post has been updated (20/1/18) and now features 6 ways to restart your Mac and a seventh tip to help you relaunch a frozen Finder.
Mac users is this happening or has it happened to you: You’re working away at something and have multiple windows open on your Mac and suddenly it stalls. You need to quit your apps but the spinning beach ball is spinning spinningly and nothing seems to work. Try working through these sequences:
Force Quit Applications
Type Command+Option+Escape to invoke the ‘Force Quit Applications’ window. Now you can quit on app names to select one and then tap Force Quit to quit the app. (Never underestimate the power of the Option key).
Quit current app
You can use Command + Option + Shift + Escape to force the currently active app to quit, just hold the sequence down for a few seconds.
Use the Dock
Control-Option-click (Ctrl-Alt-Click) an app icon on the Dock and you should see the Force Quit option appear, tap it to Force Quit the app.
Apple menu![]()
While in the app you want to quit, hold down Shift while you tap on the Apple menu at the top left corner of the screen. Look down the drop down menu that appears and you should see Force Quit and the name of the app you are in. Select the command to quit the app.
Activity Monitor
Because I always have too many browser windows open I always have Activity Viewer running on my Mac. I use Activity Monitor to identify which apps or operations are eating my memory and slowing performance. Unresponsive apps will appear in red, you can help your system by selecting these and then tapping the X button at the top left of the app window to invoke the Force Quit command. Tap Force Quit to leave that app. I find Activity Monitor the most reliable of the bunch when all else fails.
Use the TerminalI Used To Be Able To Quit Apps On Mac Free
You can also quit an app in Terminal. The least complex way to achieve this is to use the killall command, which almost immediately quits the app. Here is the command:
Beware — you may find that any windows you have open in the application you quit using this command may not be remembered by the app. You will likely also find that Auto-Save doesn’t work, so anything you are working on will also be gone.
It is, however, a really quick way to quit an app.
Force Quit Finder
You can also Force Quit the Finder. This is a useful fix if the Finder becomes unresponsive for any reason. There’s two very easy ways to do this:
Mac How To Force Quit
In both cases, the Finder will be unavailable for a few moments while it restarts and you may experience a little system lag — don’t worry, this is temporary.
I Used To Be Able To Quit Apps On Mac Download
If all of this seems complicated, just be thankful you aren’t involved in extensions management on Mac OS 8, speaking of which, here’s a little video trip down memory lane:
I Used To Be Able To Quit Apps On Mac Computer
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December 2020
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