Force quit feature becomes essential in your Mac OS in certain circumstances. Sometimes necessity arises to close an application that performs several activities on your computer. Hence, the force quit feature plays a vital role in your Mac OS device. You can force quit through some keystrokes of your keyboard on your device. In case it not working, you have to go for further methods of force quitting.
‘Mac OS’ is the simplified term for Macintosh Operating System. Mac OS computers belong to the Apple Company. It manufactures and designs the Mac OS personal computers. There are many versions of Mac OS. Classical Mac OS up to Mac OS 8 and later versions of Mac OS X series. The latest version of Mac OS is Mac OS 12 Monetary.
‘App’ or Application
In computer terminology, an application is a program that users use widely. They use it to ‘apply’ something to the device they are using. The device might be a Mac OS computer or any other device such as Windows and Linux. Moreover, an application is computer software that runs above the operating system of your Mac OS. Think for a moment you have a Mac OS device without external applications. In such an instance, you will find your device to be limited to use.
The term ‘App’ usually refers to an application used on mobile devices or phones. Further, it is referred to as the ‘Application’ in short form. The functions and properties of applications vary between them. An application can read texts, figure out numbers, interpret audio or manipulate graphics. It can also function by combining all these.
There are two types of applications;
- Single-task applications such as word processors.
- Integrated Software combining more than one application, for example, Microsoft Office.
Examples of Applications
- Web browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Bing, and Safari.
- File Viewers: Adobe Acrobat Reader, PDF viewer.
- Media editors
- Messaging programs: WhatsApp, Viber, and IMO.
- Mail Readers
- Games: video consoles such as Apex Legends.
- Finder: This is an application that finds and launches other applications on your device.
Force Quit Feature
Sometimes it becomes necessary to force quit an app. For example, the instance the app occupies more space on your Mac OS device’s RAM, you need to force-stop it. Too much-occupied space on your Mac computer can cause it to lag or not respond. It can cause performance issues on your device. So the necessity to force quit the app arises.
However, most of the time, even though you quit an app, it runs in the background. That is because the app is designed so as to run in the background most of the time, to imply an efficient output. Hence, the app restarts itself sometime back. Therefore, the force quit feature becomes necessary.
You can see the force quit feature on Mac OS computers. It allows you to close the applications before saving them. In other words, the documents or settings will be closed prior to saving. You can apply force quit in emergency instances. It also acts as a troubleshooting technique.
Before force quitting the application, you can save changes. A pop-up icon remaining you to save the changes that will occur. Force quit feature is utilized in getting rid of malware programs. It is an excellent feature where your Mac OS device is protected from harmful instances.
Force quit feature and Mac OS
In some instances, the application which is utilized with the force quit option doesn’t affect the rest of the system. For example, in Mac OS X. In Mac OS X 10.3, the user can submit a crash report to Apple, the company which owns Mac, if the program closes suddenly.
The user is able to open the closed applications again with Mac OS X 10.4. Also, they can report the crash to Apple. With classic Mac OS, it is advisable to save the app before being forced to quit. Restarting after the force quit feature is applied is also advisable. It is when you use former versions of Mac OS such as Mac OS 8.
The following situations might prompt the user to force quit an application. Even though the program acts up and is responsive, force quit might become essential in such circumstances.
With classic Mac OS or with Mac OS 8, when there is no space or memory available, a red dialogue box would appear. It will ask to force quit all the applications. And then restart the system simultaneously.
With Mac OS X, it is rear when the system needs more space. It is when virtual memory occupies all the space. And then the hard drive becomes preoccupied. Virtual memory can be called as extra memory derived from the hard drive. Hence, force quitting becomes essential in such a situation.
How to force quit an application on Mac?
There are three ways to force quit an app on Mac. These methods would work on any version of Mac iOS.
Method 1 – Alt, Command and Escape Keys
- On your keyboard, you will see the three keys; Alt or option key, Command and Escape keys.
- You will see Command and Option keys successively on the bottom left corner of your keyboard. You will find the Command key on the top right corner of your keyboard.
- Hold them down together for some time.
- This would bring down a window showing all the apps which are being open. In other words, it would open up the force quit menu.
- Choose from that the app or apps you want to force quit.
- Press the force quit option.
Method-2 Relaunch Finder
- Go to finder which searches and brings you what you want, on your Mac.
- Type the application you want to quit.
- Go to the suitable application.
- Right-click on it.
- You will find two options; Quit and Force Quit.
- If you click the quit app, it will pause for a while.
- If you want to shut the program altogether, click on force quit.
Method 3 – Activity monitor
- The activity monitor reveals all the programs which currently run on your Mac.
- Go to activity monitor using finder.
- You will see a set of applications that are ongoing at the moment.
- Select the application you want to force quit.
- On the top left corner of the activity menu, you will find a cross mark. (×).
- Click on it.
- Choose from options quit and force quit what you want.
- Since you want to force quit, Click on that option.
Closing Remarks
Using keystrokes of your Mac OS device’s keyboard is the most convenient method used commonly to force quit. Making use of Relaunch finder is also a fine way to do the force quitting process. If the above two methods didn’t work; or you were unable to force quit an application while using these methods; you can attempt through making changes in your Mac device’s activity monitor. Thereby you can achieve your target of force quitting.
Force quit is an option on your Mac OS device, which makes its performance smooth and convenient. You can optimize your device’s output and capacity through the force quit feature. The Applications’ or Apps’ functionality becomes normal through this process. Hence you can follow the above methods to force quit one or more applications in your Mac OS device.