My Mac keeps freezing when certain apps stop responding, and I end up having to restart the whole computer. I know there’s a way to force close or force quit apps on macOS, but I’m not sure of all the options or shortcuts. Can someone explain the different ways to force close apps on a Mac, and which method is safest so I don’t lose more work than necessary?
Happens to me on my MacBook a lot with Chrome and Photoshop. Here are all the practical ways to force quit without rebooting the whole thing.
- Keyboard shortcut
This is the fastest.
• Press Command + Option + Esc
• A “Force Quit Applications” window pops up
• Select the frozen app
• Click “Force Quit”
This works even when the Dock is slow.
- From the Dock
• Right click the app icon in the Dock
• If it shows “Quit”, hold Option and it changes to “Force Quit”
• Click “Force Quit”
Good when only one app misbehaves and the rest works fine.
- From the Apple menu
Top left of the screen.
• Click the Apple logo
• Click “Force Quit…”
• Same window as Command + Option + Esc
• Pick the app, hit “Force Quit”
Nice when you forget the shortcut.
- From Activity Monitor
Useful when an app fully hangs or you want to kill helper processes.
• Open Spotlight with Command + Space
• Type “Activity Monitor” and open it
• Go to the CPU tab
• Find the frozen app by name
• Click it once
• Hit the X icon on the top left of the Activity Monitor window
• Click “Force Quit”
You can also sort by “% CPU” or “Process Name” to find hogs faster.
- From Terminal
If the UI is laggy, Terminal is your friend. This is a bit more nerdy.
• Open Terminal through Spotlight
• Type:
ps aux | grep -i ‘appname’
Replace appname with something like “chrome” or “word”
• Note the PID number in the second column
• Then type:
kill -9 PID
Example: kill -9 1234
This kills that process hard. Any unsaved data in that app is gone.
- If the whole Mac hangs
If nothing responds, try this before a full shutdown.
• Press and hold Control + Command + Power button until the screen goes black
This forces a restart. You lose unsaved stuff, but it is faster than waiting forever.
Some extra tips so it freezes less:
• Check Activity Monitor when things lag. If one app sits at 300 percent CPU or more, consider changing that app or updating it.
• Make sure you have enough free disk space. macOS likes at least 10 to 20 percent of your disk free for swap and temp files.
• Go to System Settings > General > Login Items and remove junk that starts with the Mac. Fewer auto start apps, fewer conflicts.
• Keep macOS and the problem apps updated. A lot of freeze bugs get patched over time.
I’d start with Command + Option + Esc, then learn Activity Monitor and Terminal as backup when things get ugly.
@andarilhonoturno covered most of the “kill the app right now” angles pretty nicely, so I’ll avoid re-listing shortcuts and menus and add some stuff that can keep you from needing to force quit every other hour.
I actually disagree a bit on relying too much on Terminal kill -9. It works, yeah, but it’s the nuclear option. Before going that far, if Activity Monitor is still usable, try the regular “Quit” from there first (same X button, choose “Quit” instead of “Force Quit”). Sometimes that lets apps shut down more cleanly and you’re less likely to corrupt prefs or temp files.
Couple of extra angles you might not be using:
-
Check for “zombie” helper processes
Some apps freeze because one of their background helpers is stuck, not the main window.- In Activity Monitor, search the app name
- You’ll often see a main process plus a bunch of helpers
- Try force quitting just the helper eating CPU / memory instead of the whole app
This can un-freeze the main app without losing everything.
-
Memory pressure, not just CPU
Everyone looks at CPU, but on Macs with 8 GB RAM or older Intel chips, memory is usually the real villain.- In Activity Monitor, click the “Memory” tab
- Check the “Memory Pressure” graph at the bottom
If it’s yellow or red when stuff hangs, you’re running out of RAM and macOS is swapping to disk like crazy. In that case, closing a few browser windows or quitting one heavy app before it fully locks can save you from needing to force quit.
-
Safe Mode test
If you’re force quitting the same apps constantly, it might be a rogue extension, plugin, or login item.- Shut down
- Turn it on and immediately hold Shift
- Log in and test the app in Safe Mode
If it behaves fine there, the problem is probably some add-on or third party agent you installed.
-
Isolate the browser chaos
Chrome especially can hang the whole system, like @andarilhonoturno said. If that is the main culprit:- Try disabling “Continue running background apps when Chrome is closed” in Chrome’s settings
- Shut off unnecessary extensions
- Use fewer profiles or tab hoarding habits, or switch the heaviest sites to another browser
Sometimes just killing a single insane tab (in Chrome’s own Task Manager, Shift + Esc inside Chrome) is enough so you don’t need a system level force quit.
-
Prevent system wide freezes
Since you mentioned needing to restart the whole Mac:- Make sure you’ve got at least 15 to 20 percent free disk space
- Uninstall old junk and large apps you never use
- In System Settings > General > Login Items, strip it down to the bare minimum
A bloated startup stack can make every freeze worse, because ten things are trying to do “helpful” background stuff while your main app dies.
-
When the UI is frozen but audio still works
Weird one, but if music keeps playing while the screen or cursor is laggy, sometimes it is just the WindowServer bogged down.- Go into Activity Monitor
- Search for “WindowServer”
- If it’s spiking like crazy, try closing or minimizing any app with tons of windows or weird overlays, especially Electron apps like Slack, Discord, some IDEs
If it keeps happening, log out and log back in instead of full reboot. That resets the session and often clears the issues without a hard restart.
Huge thing: whatever method you end up using, try not to mash force quit the instant something stutters. Give it 15 to 30 seconds if the drive is busy. macOS sometimes recovers and you’ll save yourself from losing unsaved edits for no reason.
So yeah, use the shortcuts and menus @andarilhonoturno listed, but also treat frequent force quits as a symptom. If you’re doing this daily, it’s time to hunt the root cause, not just keep slapping the “kill” button and hoping macOS enjoys the abuse.