First, identify the app that is unresponsive.How to force quit on Mac from the Apple menu However, when using the force quit feature it is important to know that if your work isn't saved, you may lose it when force quitting a frozen application like Microsoft Word or any web browser. The simplest thing to do when faced with the spinning wheel is to force quit the frozen application.įorce quit is a feature that effectively shuts down the unresponsive application. Sometimes, though, you don't know how long that will take. When an application isn't responding how it normally would, you could wait until your screen unfreezes. This will work in the vast majority of cases you will come across while using a Mac.Mac users will tell you there are few things more frustrating than the spinning rainbow wheel - also known as the wait cursor, which signifies your computer is struggling to handle its current tasks. If the app is truly unresponsive, you may have to resort to force quitting to make it close. If the app won’t close, try Alt + click to force quit.Right click or Ctrl click the icon and select quit.Navigate to the Dock and the app icon you want to quit.Nevertheless, it is a useful way to force quit on a Mac. I tend to forget this utility is there as I’m a big fan of the keyboard shortcut. The Dock is the center of everything app-related so is inevitably useful when quitting or force quitting unresponsive apps. You can also highlight the app in question and click the ‘X’ icon in the top left of Activity Monitor.Double click the app in question and select Quit.Open Activity Monitor by select Applications, Utilities and then Activity Monitor.If you don’t like keyboard shortcuts, you can force quit from Activity Monitor. It shows you what apps you have running, what resources are being used and any unresponsive or misbehaving apps that aren’t always obvious from the desktop. Use Activity Monitor to force quit on MacĪctivity Monitor is the go-to place to find out what’s going on within a Mac.

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