Summary :

If an application freezes on your Mac computer, here we cover 4 ways to help you force quit the app on Mac. To recover lost data or mistakenly deleted files on a Mac computer, MiniTool software provides a professional Mac data recovery program.

This discarding trick has been around for a while, and it can apply selectively to every single Mac application. Set to Always Close Windows When Quitting Apps. Disabling window restoration impacts all applications used in Mac OS X: Through the Apple menu pull down to System Preferences, then choose the “General” panel. Jul 02, 2014 Most Mac users know that hitting the Command+W keyboard shortcut will close the currently active window, but with a slight modification and by adding an additional key press, you can close all windows in just about any Mac OS X app or the Mac Finder. What is this super excellent keyboard shortcut for closing everything?

When a program is not responding on your Mac computer, you can force quit the app to close it on Mac. How to do it? In this tutorial, we introduces 4 ways to help you force quit Mac.

1. Hold it and click the red button in the upper-left corner of a window, and it will close all that app’s windows just like Command+Option+W.
2. The Mac keyboard shortcut command W will perform the Close Tab action. If you are using an application that supports tabs, the keyboard shortcut will close the current tab. If there is only one tab open or if the application in use does not support tabs, the keyboard shortcut may close the entire window.

How to Force Quit an App on Mac – 4 Ways

Normally you can shut down an application on Mac by clicking Quit from the app menu bar, or you can press Command + Q key on the keyboard at the same time to close the app.

If you can’t close the app in the normal way, you can try the 4 ways below force an app to quit on Mac.

Method 1. Force Quit Mac Keyboard Shortcut

Is there a Ctrl + Alt + Delete Mac function to help force quit applications on Mac?

Unlike Windows, Mac computer doesn’t use the typical Ctrl + Alt + Delete keyboard shortcut to force close a program. The equivalent keyboard shortcut keys to open the Force Quit window on Mac is Command + Option + Esc.

Step 1. You can press Command + Option + Esc keys simultaneously on Mac to open Force Quit Applications dialog.

Step 2. Choose the app that doesn’t respond in Force Quit Applications window, and click Force Quit button to force quit the app on Mac.

Method 2. How to Force Quit on Mac from Apple Menu

Step 1. You can also click Apple icon at the top-left corner of Mac screen and select Force Quit from the Apple menu to access Force Quit Applications window.

Force Close Window Mac

Step 2. You can see the list of all running applications in Force Quit window. Find the frozen application and click it. Then hit Force Quit button to close it on Mac.

Windows 10 repair, recovery, reboot, reinstall, restore solutions. Learn how to create Windows 10 repair disk, recovery disk/USB drive/system image to repair Windows 10 OS issues.

Method 3. How to Force Quit on a Mac with Activity Monitor

We know that the Ctrl + Alt + Delete shortcut is used to open the Task Manager window. There is a similar alternative on Mac to monitor and end unresponsive process in task manager Mac. This alternative to Windows Task Manger is called Activity Monitor.

You can force kill an app on Mac using Activity Monitor.

Step 1. Open Activity Monitor on Mac. You can press Command + Space key at the same time to open Activity Monitor. You can also click the Spotlight icon at the upper-right corner of Mac screen, and type activity monitor to open it.

Close Window Macro Access

Step 2. Click the app you want to close, and click the X icon at the top-left corner to force a process to quit on Mac.

Learn how to use the 10 best free Windows 10 backup and recovery tools to backup and restore Windows 10, and recover lost/deleted data from Windows 10 PC.

Method 4. Mac Force Quit with Dock

You can find the app icon in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. Press the Option key on the keyboard and right-click the app icon in the Dock. The Quit option in the list would turn to Force Quit. Click Force Quit to force the application to shut down on Mac.

At last, if Force Quit Mac is not working, you can force restart Mac computer.

If you happen to lose some important data on Mac, you can use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to easily recover deleted/lost data from Mac computers. Its Premium edition also has a video repair and photo repair funtion that allows you to repair corrupt videos and photos with ease. (Compare Edition)

How to format SD card on Mac without losing data? This tutorial provides 2 ways with step-by-step guide to format micro SD card on your Mac and keep your data.