Force quit an application on a Mac

Overview

Sometimes applications will not work exactly how they are supposed to and need to be shutdown completely to start working again, but simply clicking the red x will not completely shut down the app. Follow the instructions below to force quit an application on your MacOS computer.

Instructions

Menu bar

  1. Make sure the application you need to shutdown is selected, if it is, the name of the app should show at the top left of the menu bar
  2. Click the name of the application and select 'Quit'

Hotkey

  1. Make sure the application you need to shutdown is selected, if it is, the name of the app should show at the top left of the menu bar
  2. Press Command + Q on the keyboard

Non-responsive apps / not quitting as expected

  1. Press Command + Option + Escape on the keyboard at the same time, this should open the Force quit applications window
  2. Select the app you want to quit and click the 'Force Quit' button

If you are having trouble, or have any questions, please give us a call at 1-877-899-1499 and we can assist you further.

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