How to Force Quit Apps on a Mac (and Stop the Spinning Pinwheel of Death)

What do you do when your computer stops working? If it's a single application causing the issue, those with Windows machines can use the ever-popular Control-Alt-Delete command to shut down offending programs. But if you're on a Mac, what are your options?

Mac users can close out the app from the Dock, open the Force Quit Applications window, or open Activity Monitor, Apple's version of the Windows Task Manager. Here's how to perform all three methods.

1. Close App From the Dock

If a program you're using simply hangs when you try to close it out or interact with it, you can shut it down from the Dock. Control-click on the program's icon to open a menu, then select Quit. Even if it takes a few seconds, the app in question should close like normal. If not, you may need to take more drastic measures.

2. Force Quit Applications

You can also click Apple > Force Quit to open the Force Quit Applications window that will list all your open programs. Those who love to use the Mac's keyboard shortcuts can use Option-Command-Esc to open the same window. For computers with a Touch Bar, the Esc key is located to the left of the Touch Bar.

This is similar to the Control-Alt-Delete (or Ctrl-Shift-Esc) command that calls up the Windows Task Manager. With the Force Quit Applications window open, select the app that is having the problem and choose Force Quit to shut it down (or Relaunch, if you're having an issue with Finder).

3. Open Mac's Task Manager

If you were hoping for something more full-featured along the lines of the Task Manager in Windows, macOS Activity Monitor offers views of CPU status, memory usage, energy usage, and more. Open Launchpad, go to the Other folder, and select Activity Monitor.

There is no direct keyboard shortcut, but you can press Command + Shift + U to open the Utility folder and select Activity Monitor from there. With the Activity Monitor open, select the program that is misbehaving and click the Stop button at the top of the window that looks like a stop sign. You can then choose to Quit or Force Quit the application.

4. Force Quit From the Terminal

macOS also has its own command line application that allows you to quit open applications with the help of a little code. Head to Launchpad, open the Other folder, and choose Terminal. You can also press Command + Shift + U to open the Utility folder and select Terminal from there.

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With the Terminal window open, use the command line code killall, then name the program to immediately close out of the open application. If you wanted to close out the OpenEmu game emulation app, you would write the following:

killall OpenEmu

Make sure the program's name is capitalized—Spotify, Messages, Steam, etc.—and the open application will be closed.