Force quit a stuck program
Close a program that has frozen, without restarting the whole Mac.
Force Quit shuts a program that has frozen. It closes that one program and leaves everything else running.
Think of switching off one appliance at the wall. The house keeps its power.
Key points
- Force Quit closes a single program that has stopped answering
- It lives on the Apple menu, which still opens when a program will not
What to remember
- Force Quit is for one program, never for the machine.
- Force Quit closes one program, not the machine.
Try this
Open the Apple menu on your own Mac and find Force Quit. Reading the list is enough — close nothing.
Practice: Force quit a stuck program. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.