How Can You Quickly Force Quit a Frozen App on Mac?

Sometimes, an app on your Mac might freeze and stop responding. When this happens, clicking the close button (x) won’t work. Instead of restarting your Mac, you can force quit the app and get back to work quickly.

1. Use the Force Quit Menu (Easy Method)

This is the simplest way to close a frozen app:

🔹 Press Command (⌘) + Option (⌥) + Escape (⎋)

A window will pop up showing all open apps. Select the unresponsive app and click “Force Quit”.

2. Use the Dock (Quick Mouse Trick)

If the app is stuck but you can still move your mouse, try this:

1. Right-click (or Control + Click) the app icon in the Dock.
2. Hold Option (⌥) and click Force Quit.

This method is great if only one app is frozen and you don’t want to use shortcuts.

3. Use Activity Monitor (Advanced Users)

If an app keeps freezing often, you can force quit it using Activity Monitor:

1. Open Activity Monitor (press Command + Spacebar, type “Activity Monitor,” and press Enter).
2. Find the frozen app in the list.
3. Click it and then click the ❌ (X) button at the top.
4. Choose Force Quit.

This method is useful when multiple apps are causing problems, and you need to check which one is using too much memory or CPU.

4. Use the Terminal (For Tech-Savvy Users)

If everything else fails, you can kill the app using Terminal:

1. Open Terminal (search for it in Spotlight).
2. Type the following command and press Enter:
   killall AppName
   (Replace “AppName” with the actual app’s name, like “Safari” or “Word”).