06/03/2012 15:06 6 Ways to Force Quit Mac Applications

Page 1 of 4 http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/02/force-quit-mac-apps/
Mar 2, 2012 - 6 Comments
6 Ways to Force Quit Mac Applications
Is your Mac seeing the infamously dreaded spinning beachball of death? Is an app failing to
respond? Maybe you have an errant process or two? Here are six ways for apps to be force quit on
a Mac, remember a few keyboard shortcuts or sequences now and save yourself a hassle later.
1) Force Quit Currently Active Mac App with the Keyboard
Hold down Command+Option+Shift+Escape for a second or two until the app forcibly closes. This
is the quickest way to force quit the foreground application in Mac OS X and a very good keyboard
shortcut to remember.
2) Bring Up the Force Quit Applications Window
Hit Command+Option+Escape to bring up the simple Force Quit Applications window, then click
to select the app name, followed by clicking the Force Quit button to end the app immediately.
Think of this as a simplified version of Activity Monitor, and its also a great keystroke to remember
to use since it allows for quickly ceasing multiple apps.
3) Force Quitting Apps from the Dock
Option + Right Click on an apps icon in the Dock to bring up the Force Quit option, selecting this
will kill the app without any confirmation.
4) Force Quit from the Apple Menu
Hold the Shift Key and click on the ! Apple menu to find Force Quit [Application Name]. This is
easy to remember but not necessarily the most powerful method, since sometimes an application is
completely unresponsive and the menus are inaccessible.
5) Use Activity Monitor to Force Quit Apps
Bring up Spotlight with Command+Space and then type Activity Monitor. Select the process name
or ID you wish to kill (unresponsive apps will usually appear as red), and hit the red Quit Process
button. Think of this as the Mac equivalent to a task manager from the Windows world and a more
complex version of the second tips Force Quit window. If one of the previous methods fails, this will
almost certainly work.
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06/03/2012 15:06 6 Ways to Force Quit Mac Applications
Page 2 of 4 http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/02/force-quit-mac-apps/
6) Using the Terminal & kill Command
If all else fails, using the command line is a surefire way to force an app or process to quit by issuing
the low-level kill command. Launch the Terminal and type one of the following commands:
killall [processname]
For example, killall Safari would kill all instances of the Safari process. If you know the process id,
which you can find with the ps or ps aux command. Aim kill at that process specifically:
kill -9 [pid]
The kill commands will take out just about anything, and sometimes have the side effect of not
honoring Versions, Window Restore, and Auto-Save, so be cautious of potential data loss.
Bonus: Force Quit on iOS
OK its not quite the Mac, but its useful to know for mobile users: from the iOS side of things, you
can force quit apps on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, by holding down the Power button until the
slide to power option appears, and then hold the Home button until the app closes.


Related articles:
Force Quit apps from the Mac OS X Dock
How to Force Quit App on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
How to Quit the Finder
Kill a frozen program to stop the spinning beachball
Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks, Troubleshooting
6 Comments
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Diane says:
March 2, 2012 at 6:53 am
Thank you! This is great information
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KhaBu says:
March 2, 2012 at 6:54 am
i Just loved the first one thank you
Reply
Bruno says:
March 2, 2012 at 7:49 am
kill like a boss:
# Kill Like a Boss
Killall() {
QSTRING=$*
PROC=`ps aux | grep -i ${QSTRING} | grep -v grep | awk {print $2}`
if [ ! -n "$PROC" ]; then
echo 0 PID found with the matching String: \${QSTRING}\.
else
NUMPROC=`echo $PROC | awk {print NF}`
echo Found $NUMPROC PIDs with the matching String: \${QSTRING}\.
sudo kill -9 $PROC
echo All process Killed.
fi
}
Reply
' ' 6 ] ] (Force Quit) j j | Mac n Life says:
March 2, 2012 at 10:17 am
[...] 3 (osxdaily.com) [...]
Reply
Dave says:
March 2, 2012 at 11:25 am
Had NO idea about the first one (adding shift to command-option-escape): NICE or the last one (killing
apps on iOS). Thankfully, I have had very few problems with stuck apps on iOS.
Reply
Neat Stuff: 3-4-12 | Interlocked Pieces says:
March 4, 2012 at 6:36 am
[...] Ways to Force Quit Mac Applications - http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/02/force-quit-mac-apps
Ways to deal with the dreaded spinning beachball of [...]
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