How to Force Quit Apps or Programs on Mac

Updated Oct 19,2016 | by Niko

If your Mac apps or programs are stuck and become unresponsive, no need to reboot your Mac, you can easily force quit them and get your Mac back to normal. For Windows operating system, you must be very familiar with Ctrl-Alt-Delete combination. How about Mac system? In the following, we will show you how to force quit apps or programs on Mac in different ways.

Force Quit Mac Apps in the Dock

According to Apple, the Dock, which is available on Mac, is the bar of icons that sits at the bottom or side of your Mac screen. It offers Mac users en easy and fast access to many of apps, and you are allowed to drag your favorite app items in the Dock.

Normally, to quit apps in the Dock, you can move the mouse over the icons, right click to open Options Menu and choose “Quit”. If one of the apps in the Dock becomes unresponsive, you still can follow these steps, and you will find that Quit option changes to Force Quit. Now, click Force Quit and the app would be force closed immediately.

How to force quit Mac apps in the Dock: move the mouse over the app icon > right click > choose Force Quit.

Force Quit Mac Apps Using Command + Option +Esc

Moreover, you can make use of key combinations to force quit apps on Mac. For both apps in the Dock and apps in the Launchpad, this way always works.

Press and hold Command + Option +Esc, and wake Force Quit Applications Windows, you will see the list of the running apps. Choose the one or multiple apps (hold Command key and choose) you want to force quit, and click Force Quit. Now, you can relaunch the app and see the responsive problem has already been solved.

 Force Quit Mac Apps via Activity Monitor

There is another way available to let you force quit Mac apps: Activity Monitor. Activity Monitor on Mac shows the processes running on your Mac, and it will give the information of CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk and Network. To force quit Mac app, you can take advantages of Activity Monitor.

Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > open Activity Monitor. How to force quit Mac app via Activity Monitor? Find the app you want to force quit, double click, choose Quit and confirm Force Quit.

Bottom Line

Generally, the three ways can force quit Mac apps and resolve a responsive app issue. If the whole Mac system is stuck, and you cannot activate Command + Option + Esc key combination or open Activity Monitor to force quit apps, the last thing that you can do is to hold Power button, and force shut down your Mac and then reboot it.

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