Not being as common as it is in Windows, MacOS is not exempt from a program or application freezing to the point of preventing us from even closing or interacting with it. In macOS we have different options when a program or application gives us problems or has an abnormal operation. In this post we are going to explain step by step how to force close an app or program on Mac.
We must bear in mind that the forced closure of an application makes us lose everything we were doing in it, unlike the classical method, where a window appears that warns us. For this reason, once we carry out this forced closure there will be no going back, so it should always be our last resort, although we assume that if you do it it is precisely because you have no other alternative.
Methods to force close applications or programs
We have 5 fairly simple methods to force close of any process, application or program that our Mac is running, which will serve us for the situation we are referring to.
Commands on the keyboard
- We press the keys "Option" + "Command" + "Esc"
- A Task Manager that shows us all the applications that we have open at that moment.
- We select the application that is causing us problems and we click force exit.
If you want to discover how take screenshots with keyboard commands, you can visit a post dedicated to it.
Use el buscador
- We click on the Apple icon that appears at the top left of the toolbar and in the panel that is displayed we select "Force exit."
- A task manager will open that shows us the applications open at that moment.
- Now we select the application that is causing us problems or does not work as it should and click on "Force exit."
Using the keyboard option key
- We click with the right button of our mouse in the icon of the application that is causing us problems, in the doc or the desktop.
- Then we press and hold the key "Option" and the option "Exit" it will become in "Force exit" as long as we hold it down.
Activity monitor
- We look for the Activity Monitor application that is reinstalled on all computers with macOS. We can find it simply by clicking on the magnifying glass that we find in the upper right in the task bar, a window will be displayed where we have to write "Activity monitor" and we select the application in the list.
- This program shows us in detail all the applications or processes that our team is carrying out. We will look for the application that is failing, select it and click on the button that appears a stop sign up to the left.
Use the terminal
This method, even if I include it in the list, I do not recommend it as it requires more knowledge and can cause us to touch or deactivate something that we do not want, so I recommend being cautious if we use it.
- We open Finder and we're going to "Applications" we scroll until we find the «Utilities» folder and execute the application "Terminal".
- Once the application is started, we wait a moment and it will show us our username and a tilde, we write top inside the box and press the return key.
- Terminal will list all the applications that are running at that moment, including those that are working in the background, along with a large amount of information about the CPU and RAM. If we move we will find the column «Command», where we will see a list of all the applications running next to it we will see a column of numbers labeled PID.
- We look for the application that is causing us problems or an abnormal operation and we take note of your PID. Next we close the terminal window and open a new one, where we will write the word "Kill" followed by the PID of said application. We press the Return key and the application or program will be closed permanently.
If we continue with the problem despite having used any of these listed methods, you will We recommend saving everything we find ourselves doing on the Mac and restarting it. If after restarting the problem persists we will have to resort to uninstalling the application completely and wait for an update.
Why does an application freeze?
The main reason for this to happen on most occasions is a process that we have tried to carry out that has involved the consumption of RAM higher than that available at that time, for which it is waiting to release some RAM, the problem is that when it is released the program does not respond and freezes.
It may also be because the application is not fully compatible with your current version of macOS, it usually happens especially in old applications that work in 32bits and are not correctly ported to 64bits. It can also happen to us because the installed application requires a lot of effort from our processor and we cannot have anything else running.
This also happens when in old Macs we want to see a Youtube or Twitch broadcast and we have the comments displayed, the video even being 1080p (executable on any Mac model from 2010) it locks, if we close the comments, the video runs smoothly.
How to avoid it?
If our Mac is old and happens to us more and more frequently, my recommendation is to make a small investment to expand RAM, is undoubtedly a considerable improvement and low cost, this will allow us to have more open applications in the background without interfering with their performance.
I also recommend replace the hard drive if we have HDD for an SSDThis will prevent our computer from suffering when we are downloading content, while we are transferring another to an external drive or using memory to edit. SSDs are constantly dropping in price and the improvement is substantial. The read and write difference between an HDD and an SSD is brutal.
If you don't know what type of hard drive you have on your computer, In this article we show you how to find out.
Finally, I recommend installing only applications with reliable reviews. We can install applications outside the App Store, but always trying to do it from official or trusted sources, where we are sure that what we are downloading is free of Malware.