Force Quit Shortcut on Mac: 5 Ways to Close a Frozen App

An app has stopped responding, the spinning wheel won’t go away, and ⌘ Command + Q does nothing. The force quit shortcut on Mac shuts down that one app without restarting your whole computer. Here’s the shortcut, four other methods for when it doesn’t help, and what to do if your entire Mac is frozen.

Before you force quit, give the app 30 seconds or so. Apps that are busy exporting, syncing or loading a large file often recover on their own, and a normal quit is always safer than a forced one.

The force quit shortcut on Mac: ⌥⌘Esc

The fastest way to force quit is the keyboard shortcut ⌥ Option + ⌘ Command + ⎋ Esc. It’s the Mac version of Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

1. Press ⌥⌘⎋ together.
2. In the Force Quit Applications window, click the frozen app. Unresponsive apps are often marked “(Not Responding)”.
3. Click Force Quit.
4. Click Force Quit again to confirm.

The shortcut works even when the frozen app is in front and ignoring every other key. On older MacBook Pro models with a Touch Bar, Esc is on the left end of the Touch Bar.

Tip: To force quit the app you’re currently using without the window, you can also open the Apple menu while holding ⇧ Shift: the item changes to Force Quit followed by the app’s name.

Force quit from the Apple menu

If you’d rather use the mouse, or you forget the shortcut:

1. Click the Apple menu (the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen).
2. Choose Force Quit.
3. Select the app and click Force Quit.

This opens the same Force Quit Applications window as the keyboard shortcut.

Force quit from the Dock

This is handy when you can see the app’s icon and want to skip the extra window.

1. Right-click (or ⌃ Control-click) the app’s icon in the Dock.
2. Hold down ⌥. The Quit item at the bottom of the menu changes to Force Quit.
3. Click Force Quit.

If macOS already knows the app is hung, Force Quit may appear in the menu without holding Option.

Force quit with Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor shows every process running on your Mac, including background helpers that don’t appear in the Force Quit window. Use it when an app has vanished from the Dock but is still eating CPU, or when the Force Quit window doesn’t help.

1. Press ⌘Space, type Activity Monitor and press Return. (It also lives in Applications › Utilities.)
2. Click the CPU tab and find the app. Click the % CPU column to sort the heaviest processes to the top, or use the search field.
3. Select the process.
4. Click the Stop button (the X icon) in the toolbar.
5. Click Force Quit. (Quit asks the app nicely first; use it if you want to give it one more chance to save.)

Warning: Only stop processes you recognize. Quitting system processes such as WindowServer or kernel_task can log you out or freeze your Mac.

Force quit from Terminal

Terminal is the last software option, and it works even when an app ignores the other methods.

1. Open Terminal from Applications › Utilities or Spotlight.
2. Type killall followed by the app’s name and press Return:

killall Safari

If the name has spaces, put it in quotes: killall "Google Chrome". The name is case-sensitive and must match the process name shown in Activity Monitor.

If the app still won’t close, send a stronger signal that can’t be ignored:

killall -9 Safari

You can also kill a single process by its ID (PID). Find it with pgrep, then pass it to kill:

pgrep -l Safari
kill -9 12345

Replace 12345 with the number pgrep returns. Don’t use sudo with these commands unless you know exactly what the process is.

How to force quit Finder

Finder is special: it’s always running, so you can’t force quit it the normal way.

1. Press ⌥⌘⎋.
2. Select Finder.
3. Click Relaunch.

Finder closes its windows and restarts a second later. This often fixes a desktop that won’t respond or a Finder window that’s stuck.

What to do if your whole Mac is frozen

If the pointer won’t move, or no shortcut gets a response, the problem isn’t one app. Try these in order:

1. Wait a minute. A Mac that’s out of memory or disk space can stall briefly and then recover.
2. Try ⌥⌘⎋ again. If the Force Quit window opens, quit the heaviest app first.
3. Restart normally from the Apple menu › Restart if the menu still opens.
4. Force a shutdown. Press and hold the power button for up to 10 seconds until the screen goes black. On MacBooks with Touch ID, hold the Touch ID button.
5. Wait a few seconds, then press the power button again to turn the Mac back on.

A forced shutdown is safe for the hardware, but every open app loses its unsaved work, not just the frozen one.

Will force quitting lose your work?

Yes, it can. Force quitting stops an app immediately, so it doesn’t get the chance to save open documents or finish writing files. What you lose depends on the app:

• Apps with autosave, such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, TextEdit and Notes, usually restore your latest changes when you reopen them.
• Microsoft Office and Adobe apps often offer recovered versions on the next launch.
• Anything else may lose everything since your last manual save.

That’s why it’s worth waiting a moment, and trying a normal quit (⌘Q) first. After a force quit, reopen the app right away and look for a recovery prompt before you start new work.

If the same app keeps freezing

Force quit fixes the moment, not the cause. If an app hangs repeatedly:

• Update it from the App Store or its own Check for Updates menu, and update macOS in System Settings › General › Software Update.
• Free up disk space. A nearly full drive slows everything down. See how to free up space on Mac.
• Clear the app’s cache. Corrupted cache files are a common cause of crashes; here’s how to clear cache on Mac safely.
• Reinstall it. Remove it completely, including leftover files, using our guide to deleting apps on Mac, then download a fresh copy.

For more time-savers like ⌥⌘⎋, see our full list of Mac keyboard shortcuts. Apple also documents these steps on its force quit support page.