Before we get our hands dirty, here’s a word of warning. If you’re wondering how to reboot a MacBook Pro, bear in mind it’s the last resort when all other methods to unfreeze your Mac had failed. Don’t try it too often as it may harm your system. No question, your Mac can handle rapid power losses and your hardware most likely won’t be hurt. What’s at risk though, is your data because each time you force reboot a Mac it affects the consistency of the file system. Now that you’ve been warned, let’s go.
But if it’s just a particular app that is frozen, and OS X remains responsive behind the unresponsive app, you may want to try to force quit the misbehaving app. This feature allows you to immediately shut down any application so that you can get back to using your computer as quickly as possible. Here are five ways to force quit an app in OS X. To safely shut down your Mac, press Control + Option + Cmd + Power. Don’t hold down the power button or you’ll force shut down your Mac; give it a brief press with the other buttons instead. That shortcut might not work if your Mac can’t safely close every app, in which case you need to force your Mac to shut down instead. If you wonder how to force quit an app on Mac using the Dock, check out these simple steps: To open the dock menu, right-click on the application icon you want to shut down or click on the item and hold. Hold an Option (Alt) button, so the Quit menu changes to Force Quit. Click Force Quit.
- The force quit application setting in Apple menu is one of the most efficient ways to force quit an app on Mac. To access, click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner and select Force Quit. You will then see the list of all available apps for force quitting. Click to highlight the annoying app and finally hit “ Force Quit ” button.
- Why force quit might not work in the first place. A lot of the time, this can happen when an app isn’t well built. When this happens, all kinds of havoc can be wreaked on your hardware that makes it tough for your Mac to process the tools necessary to force quit an app. Memory leaks can be a big source of these kinds of issues.
Symptoms your frozen Mac needs a force restart
- Applications are not responding
- Pointer is not responsive
- Loud fan noise
- The screen goes black
- Mac unable to restart
Can you move the cursor? If yes, try this
Before you force restart a Mac, it’s always recommended to first try a software solution.
Go to the Apple menu
Choose Restart
Click Restart in the menu that appears
Choose Restart
Click Restart in the menu that appears
Two ways to force restart a Mac
The simplest method: hold down the Power button till your Mac shuts down. Press the button again to restart it.
If your Mac hangs for good and the pointer is inactive:
Hold down Control + Command while pressing the Power button.
Hold down Control + Command while pressing the Power button.
This is an alternative key combination to force restart a Mac. By the way, if you are on an iMac, the Power button is found on the back of your Mac. Voila!
Is Shut Down any different from Restart?
The difference between Shut Down and Restart is quite self-explanatory. When you perform a restart, your Mac will turn on again loading its previously active apps. As for shut down, your Mac won’t start until you press the Power button again. Interestingly, all new Macs have an automatic reboot feature built-in. So even if you sit and do nothing, your frozen Mac would eventually reboot by itself, though it takes a bit of patience.
How to force shut down a frozen Mac
If you need to force shut down a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, all you need is again to press a Power button on your Mac’s keyboard.
Hard Shutdown Mac
Press and hold Power button for 2 seconds
Choose Restart, Sleep or Shut Down in the menu that appears
Choose Restart, Sleep or Shut Down in the menu that appears
Force Shutdown Windows
If you don’t want to reload the baggage of your previously opened apps, tick off “Reopen windows when logging back in”. We do recommend you to deselect this option when your Mac is slow in order to lighten the weight on your RAM.
If your Mac won’t shut down:
Press and hold Power button for about 6 seconds
Hold the button until the Mac shuts down.
Hold the button until the Mac shuts down.
Needless to say that when you force restart a Mac all your unsaved projects may be lost. It’s unfair, we know.
Why does my Mac keep freezing?
The obvious explanation is your Mac lacks memory. Or to put another way, there are too many active processes running on your Mac. First off, go to Activity Monitor to check your memory usage. Best of mac clone apps.
Go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
Click the Memory tab
Click the Memory tab
Now, look into how heavily your Memory is loaded. Quit apps that eat up too much memory for no reason. While this may work as a temporary solution, it doesn’t stop your Mac from freezing up again. You can either force reboot your Mac each time or opt for a radical solution. Below are a few more ideas you can try.
How To Force Shutdown App On Mac
![How To Force Shut Down App On Mac How To Force Shut Down App On Mac](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134042304/279410850.jpg)
More ways to fix a frozen Mac
Restart your Mac in the Diagnostics mode
Shut down your Mac and reboot while pressing D key. Within the menu that appears, launch the Apple Diagnostics tool. This will check your Mac’s drive for errors. From then, follow the prompts to finish the diagnostics.
Clean up your Mac
Remove old unused apps, system junk, and pervasive browser extensions. For this purpose, try running CleanMyMac application on your Mac.
It’s quite effective in removing all junk from your Mac and has a number of helpful utilities, like RAM free up or app uninstaller. Download it for free here .
Reinstall your macOS
This is the most radical of all methods, that’s why it’s so effective.
Check out how to clean install macOS Sierra
Instructions for macOS High Sierra
How to clean install macOS Mojave
Instructions for macOS High Sierra
How to clean install macOS Mojave
How to clean install macOS Catalina
Hope this guide has helped you. Before you force shut down this article, feel free to share it, using the social buttons below. Cheers!
Force Shutdown Mac Terminal
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There are many simple and basic Mac functions that everyone should learn how to do. These functions can serve a lot of different purposes but they all help simplify things or can make operating your MacBook more efficient and easier to use overall. Some of these functions can help you navigate through your system faster while others help to perform essential operations.
One of these essential operations that everyone needs to know is how to shut down your MacBook. Sometimes you might leave your MacBook powered on for extended periods of time or put it to sleep instead of shutting down. Regardless of your everyday habits or how often you shut the Mac down, you need to know how to complete this easy task when the time comes.
When to Shut Down Your MacBook
There are different reasons to shut down your MacBook Pro. Some are simply personal preferences while others are important for the longevity and long-term health of your Mac. No matter what the reason, shutting down your computer is really easy to do whenever you decide it’s time.
To Save Power and Battery
If you are using your Mac but don’t have reliable options when it comes to charging it back to full power, shutting down when not in use can save your battery. By shutting down the computer completely, you will make certain that your display or other power-hungry functions do not come on while your Mac is not in use. Keeping your MacBook shut down when not in use also saves power, if an environmental impact or overall power use is a concern.
You Will Not Use Your Mac For Awhile
Another reason to shut down your MacBook is if you are not going to be using it for a while. Maybe you are headed on vacation and not bringing your computer along or maybe you will just be away from your desk for a few days. Either way, shutting down your MacBook in these instances can save power, make sure nothing operates while you are not present, and can prevent family or friends from logging in.
To Prevent Automatic Processes
Whether you know it or not, there are a handful of automatic processes that occur on your MacBook whether it is fully on or even if it is in Sleep mode. Computer maintenance tasks such as loading new emails, downloading updates, and storing data to the cloud can all happen automatically. This is pretty handy, but if you don’t want these processes to occur automatically, you can shut down your Mac instead of putting it to sleep.
How to Shutdown Your MacBook (3 Ways)
If you want to shut down your MacBook for any of the above reasons or if you just want to learn how, it is really simple and there are a few different methods for accomplishing the task. Once you learn the different methods for a shutdown, you can use whichever one you wish or have options in the rare event that one method does not work correctly.
Before you shut down your MacBook, always make sure to close and/or save and programs or applications that are open in order to save your data.
Method 1: Standard Shutdown
This is the most common way to shut down your computer and is used frequently (sometimes daily) by some MacBook owners. Before you do that, always make sure to close and/or save and programs or applications that are open in order to save your data.
To perform a standard shutdown:
- Click on the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen.
- Then click on Shut Down from this drop-down menu.
That’s all there is to a standard shutdown. It might take your computer a few seconds or a few minutes to prepare for the shutdown and actually turn off, but the steps above will get your Mac shut down most of the time.
Method 2: Key Command Method
You can also initiate your MacBook to shut down through the use of a simple key command. This is my personal favorite method of shutting down as it is really fast and easy to do once you know the command.
https://jadeever311.weebly.com/blog/what-language-is-used-to-code-mac-apps. The key command to shut down your MacBook is Control, Eject.
Simply hold down the control button and then press the eject key which is usually on the top left of the keyboard on most Apple keyboards. When you press these keys together the shutdown dialog box will appear and you can click on shutdown to turn off the Mac completely. If you hit your computer’s power but once, this dialogue box will also appear and you can shut down that way as well.
Method 3: Force Shutdown
The final way to shut down your computer is through a force shutdown. You could use this method if your computer freezes or locks up and no other keys or commands work to gain control back over the machine. These forced shutdowns should only be used if your Mac becomes unresponsive or frozen and should not be done every time you wish to shut down your computer as it can lead to loss of data and other issues.
To force shutdown your MacBook:
Press and hold the power button on your computer until it shuts down or hold down the Control, Option, Command, and Eject keys all at once until your computer shuts down.
Final Thoughts
If you need to shut down your computer for whatever reason, now you know the three main ways to do so on your MacBook Pro. Remember to always save any unsaved information in any running programs or apps before you shutdown. Also, do not conduct a forced shutdown unless it’s absolutely necessary to an unresponsive computer.
How often do you shut down your computer? What is your main reason for shutting down?