How To Force Quit On Mac

Tips
1

My Mac keeps freezing when I open a certain app and I can’t close it normally. I’ve tried clicking the red X and using the dock, but it stays unresponsive and sometimes locks up the whole system. What’s the best way to force quit an app on macOS, and are there any keyboard shortcuts or built-in tools I should use so I don’t have to keep restarting my Mac every time this happens

2

Happens a lot with buggy apps on macOS. Here is what usually works, in order.

  1. Force Quit menu

    • Press Command + Option + Escape
    • Select the frozen app
    • Click Force Quit
    • If it keeps coming back, uncheck “Reopen windows when logging back in” next time you log out or restart

  2. Dock force quit

    • Right click the app icon in the Dock
    • Hold Option, “Quit” changes to “Force Quit”
    • Click Force Quit

  3. Activity Monitor

    • Open Spotlight with Command + Space
    • Type “Activity Monitor” and open it
    • Find the app in the CPU tab
    • Click the “X” button at top left of the window
    • Choose Force Quit
    • If it uses a lot of CPU, that often freezes the whole system

  4. Terminal kill command
    This is a bit more “manual” but works when the UI feels half-dead.

    • Press Command + Space
    • Type “Terminal”
    • In Terminal, type:
      ps aux | grep -i ‘name-of-app’
    • Note the PID number of the frozen process
    • Then type:
      kill -9 PID
    • Replace PID with the number you saw
    • Example: kill -9 3245

  5. If the whole system locks

    • Try Control + Command + Power to force a restart
    • Or hold the power button until the Mac shuts off
    • Then start it again
    • When it boots, avoid reopening the frozen app immediately

  6. Stop the app from auto opening

    • Go to System Settings → General → Login Items
    • Remove the bad app from the list
    • That stops it from loading at login and freezing things again

  7. Check the app itself

    • Update the app from its website or the App Store
    • If the freeze started after a recent update of macOS, check the app site for compatibility notes
    • If nothing helps, uninstall it and reinstall a fresh copy

If the same app locks your Mac every time, it is usually either:

  • a corrupt preference file
  • or a version not stable with your macOS version

You can try nuking its prefs:

  • Quit the app
  • In Finder, press Shift + Command + G
  • Go to: ~/Library/Preferences
  • Find files that match the app name, like com.vendor.app.plist
  • Move them to Desktop
  • Reopen the app and see if it behaves

If the whole OS freezes even with other apps, run Disk Utility:

  • Open Disk Utility
  • Select your main disk
  • Click First Aid
  • Let it finish, then restart

That should give you multiple ways out when the red X does nothing.

3

If the red X and basic Force Quit stuff aren’t cutting it and that one app keeps nuking your Mac, I’d stop thinking “how do I force quit” and start thinking “how do I quarantine this thing.”

@cacadordeestrelas covered the usual force quitting tricks already. I’d focus on preventing the freeze cycle and figuring out what’s actually choking the system:

  1. Boot into Safe Mode
    This loads only essential stuff and disables some third‑party junk.

    • Intel Mac: Restart and hold Shift right after the chime, keep holding until you see the login screen.
    • Apple silicon: Shut down, hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options,” pick your disk, then hold Shift and click Continue in Safe Mode.
      Then try opening that problematic app.
    • If it still freezes in Safe Mode: the app itself is probably garbage or not compatible with your macOS version.
    • If it behaves fine: likely a conflict with some extension, helper tool, or background process that only loads in normal mode.

  2. Create a fresh test user
    Not sexy, but super useful.

    • System Settings → Users & Groups → add a new standard user.
    • Log into that user, install or open the same app.
    • If it runs fine there, your main account has corrupted prefs, caches, or weird login items. In that case, I’d:
      • Move: ~/Library/Caches stuff related to that app to the Desktop.
      • Check ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Application Support for that app’s folder and temporarily move those too.
        This is more aggressive than just deleting the plist and often fixes “app opens = instant freeze” issues.

  3. Check for low RAM / swap thrashing
    A lot of “freeze when opening app” cases are actually the system suffocating on memory pressure.

    • Open Activity Monitor before you launch the app.
    • Watch the Memory tab while you open it.
    • If Memory Pressure goes solid yellow or red and swap usage spikes, the machine is basically crying.
      In that case:
    • Close heavy background stuff (Chrome with 50 tabs, some Electron junk, VMs, etc).
    • If you’re on an 8 GB machine running modern macOS + big apps, you’re going to hit this wall a lot. Not fun, but it explains the freezing more than the app “being evil.”

  4. Check crash and hang logs
    Less intuitive, but actually useful.

    • Open Console app.
    • On the left, under “Crash Reports” or “User Reports,” look for files named with that app.
    • You’ll often see clues like GPU hangs, sandbox violations, Rosetta issues, or plug‑ins causing chaos.
      If you see repeated entries like Application Hang for that same app right when it locks your system, that’s a strong sign it is fundamentally borked on your current setup.

  5. Look for helper processes instead of the main app
    Sometimes the visible app is fine and a background helper is what actually kills the Mac. In Activity Monitor, sort by CPU or Energy and look for weirdly named processes related to that app. Kill those first and see if the UI unfreezes without needing to kill the whole app.

  6. Check for GPU / graphics issues
    If freezes happen only when the app opens a window, uses 3D, or plays video, it might be stressing the GPU.

    • Try disconnecting external monitors.
    • If you are on an Intel Mac with dual graphics, check if the app triggers the discrete GPU (you can use tools like gfxCardStatus, if you’re comfortable with 3rd party utilities).
      Apps that rely on outdated GPU frameworks sometimes hard-freeze the system more than others.

  7. Kill all traces of the app and reinstall “clean”
    Honestly, if one specific app is repeatedly freezing the entire Mac, I’d:

    • Uninstall it fully, including:
      • /Applications/AppName.app
      • Stuff in ~/Library/Application Support/ with that app’s name
      • ~/Library/Containers/ and ~/Library/Group Containers/ items for it
    • Reboot after deleting.
    • Reinstall the latest version from the official source and test again before restoring any old data.

  8. Consider macOS / app compatibility
    People underestimate how often this is the real issue. If you upgraded macOS recently and the freezes started right after, check the app’s site or release notes. Some devs quietly say “not tested on Sonoma/Ventura/etc” while the app half-works and half-freezes.

If you just want a “panic move” when the whole system feels like it’s dying, I actually don’t love using Terminal kill -9 as the first nuclear option like @cacadordeestrelas suggested. It works, but it can sometimes leave behind locked files or unsaved data in a worse state. I’d only do that when the GUI force options and a normal restart fail or are literally inaccessible.

Short version:

  • Use the usual Force Quit tricks when it hangs.
  • Use Safe Mode + new user account to figure out if it’s your profile or the app.
  • If it’s always that one app, fully purge it and reinstall or drop it entirely.
    At some point, if an app keeps freezing the whole OS, the best “force quit” is uninstalling the thing and finding an alternative.