How to Force Quit on Mac

I think you all would have endured the situation wherein your program (mail, word, etc) gets frozen or hangs or becomes unresponsive and is not allowing you to do anything. To be honest I feel as if my computer has been hijacked when such things happen. In such a case we normally do “End Task” in Windows to end the program, however in Mac there is no such option available. You need a case you need to do a force quit on Mac. Today in this article I am going to guide you on how to force quit on Mac.

Before heading onto the topic I would like to give you a brief intro on what exactly is Force Quit and what are its aftermath.

What is Force Quit:

Force Quit is more or less same to the End Task option available for Windows OS. Usually when you are done using an application (word, media player, internet browser) at Mac you choose to Quit application using the Menu of that application or else you could use a keyboard shortcut (Command – Q) to Quit the application. Now let’s suppose that your internet browser (e.g. chrome) becomes unresponsive while you were trying to watch a video. Mostly in such cases the Quit option does not work and your computer gets frozen or hangs up. In these scenarios, Force Quit comes into picture. Force Quit allows you to forcefully close the application or programs.

Pros and Cons of Force Quit:

Force Quitting is very useful when an unresponsive application prevents you to access your Mac Menu, here Force Quitting comes as a life saver as all you need to do is to press the keyboard shortcut and it will forcefully quit the application and you will regain control your Mac.

The only disadvantage of force quitting is that you might lose unsaved changes and data (if you are using MS Office then you need not worry about this as Auto-Save might have saved the data for you). So it’s always suggested to try quitting using (Command – Q) key only in the first attempt.

How to Force Quit on Mac:

Method 1: How to Force Quit using Keyboard Shortcut on Mac:

Please use below mentioned step by step procedure to use your keyboard for Force Quitting. Before actually starting to hold the keys, please check the location of these keys on your keyboard and try to adjust your hands on them so that you could hold these 4 keys simultaneously.

1. Hold the Command key.
2. Now hold Option Key while holding the Command key.
3. Now simultaneously hold the Shift Key.
4. Now you need to press Escape (Esc) key until the foreground of application exits.

This might take three seconds for the application to quit. After this you could release all keys and regain the control of your Mac.

Method 2: How to Force Quit using Apple Menu Bar on Mac:

If you are able to access apple menu bar then this is gonna be the most easy method for you to force quit. Please use below mentioned step by step procedure through Apple Menu Bar.

1. Click on the Apple icon available on topmost left hand side.
2. Now after clicking it, a drop down menu will appear. This dropdown will provide you some options.
3. Please select “Force Quit” from the drop down.
4. After this Force Quit dialog box will be popped up.
5. Now here in the dialog box select the application or program which you want to force quit.
6. In case you are not able to find it in the list, then it might be that the application is getting displayed with a name like “not responding”.
7. Now select that application or program and click on “Force Quit” button available at the bottom of the window.

This will take some time (few seconds) for the application to quit.

Method 3: How to Force Quit using Dock on Mac:

If you are not able to access Apple Menu Bar or in case you don’t want to stress your fingers using the keyboard shortcut, then here is another way for you to force quit using dock. Please use below mentioned step by step procedure through Dock.

1. Right click the dock icon of the unresponsive application.
2. A menu will appear.
3. Select Force Quit from the listed options.
4. In case Force Quit is not available, then just hold the Option button. After this Force option will be available.

After this your application will be forcefully quitted.

So this was all about, how to force quit on Mac using various options. Please feel free to share your feedback, concerns, or queries in the comments section below.

Cheers

Tagged as: Apple, MAC

Article by Ankit

Ankit is the founder of Geek Revealed. He is tech Geek who loves to sit in front of his square headed girlfriend all day long. :D   You can find Ankit on FaceBook or Google Plus