Shutting down your Mac should be the easiest thing in the world. You just click on the Apple menu and choose Shut Down, then confirm that you want to shut down, right? Usually, that’s what happens. Sometimes, however, your Mac just refuses to shut down. So what do you do? Read on, that’s what.
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This is not only a quicker way of doing things on the Mac but is also useful when your Trackpad or Mouse stops working, or your Mac gets stuck for some reason. Read on to learn about the super useful keyboard shortcuts for OS X. Shut down or Restart with keyboard shortcut. Power button: Press the power button to turn on the Mac or wake from sleep. Sometimes it's best to quit all of your open Mac apps, be it for troubleshooting, to free up system resources, or just to prepare to log off at the end of the day. If you have many open apps, however, it can be a pain to close them one-by-one. A solution is to use the power of Automator to create a small app that will close everything for you in one click. Here's how to do it. One way Mac OS X differs from Windows is that when you close the last window, the app itself stays open. If you look at the Dock, you will still see a small dot underneath the app icon to indicate. You can shut down an app directly from the dock by right- (or Ctrl-) clicking the icon and selecting Quit. If you want to add an app's icon to your Dock to make opening the app easier, read: How. Mission Control Plus works with keyboard shortcuts as well; you can close a window, close all windows, hide an app, hide all apps, or kill an app with them. To view all the keyboard shortcuts, click the app’s icon in the menu bar and look under Preferences. This may seem trivial but Mission Control is a great way to clean up app and window.
How to shut down your MacBook Pro (or any other Mac)
Go to the Apple menu and choose Shut down. It’s that simple!
However, what happens behind the scenes on your Mac isn’t so simple. It’s worth taking a minute to go through exactly what happens when you shut down your Mac, so you can understand where problems might occur. Here’s what happens.
Any problem with any one of these processes can cause the cut down procedure to stall or even stop completely.
One of the most common reasons for a Mac failing to shut down is that it’s prevented from doing so by an application that freezes and won’t quit. On my own Mac, Microsoft Outlook often runs into problems when I try and shut down.
What to do if your Mac won’t shut down
Sometimes, all the things your Mac has to do before shutting down take a little time, so give it a few minutes before trying anything else.
2. Check for applications that have failed to quit
Normally, when an application prevents your Mac shutting down, it will display a dialog box telling you that. However, if you use two displays or have lots of windows open, you may not see it. So, check the Dock to see if there are any icons bouncing. If not, check to see if and app icons have a dot underneath them signifying they are still open. If so, right-click on them and choose Quit or Force Quit. If the app still doesn’t quit, choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, or press Alt-Command-Esc, select the app in the dialog box that opens and press Force Quit. Your Mac should now shut down. If not, try choosing Shut Down again from the Apple menu.
3. Press and hold the power button
If your Mac still won’t shut down once all applications have quit, or if an app just won’t quit, or if your Mac is beach balling and you can’t select anything, press and hold the power button until the screen goes black.
What to do if your Mac regularly has problems shutting down
Frequent shut down problems suggest that there is something wrong, beyond the odd bit of bad behaviour from apps. Can i run an ios app on my mac. There are a number of steps you can take to deal with the problem, ranging from those that cause no, or very little, inconvenience, to a full reinstall of macOS, which, obviously, takes time and requires you to back up your Mac first. Follow these steps one at a time, in order, until you resolve the problem.
1.Update macOS
Whenever you have a regular problem with your Mac, updating to the most recent version of whichever OS you’re running is a good idea
3. When System Preferences opens, wait for it to check and if it reports that there is an update available, install it.
2. Update applications
3. Repair disk permissions
In modern versions of macOS, there are very few circumstances in which you need to repair disk permissions. However, it can still help. Disk Utility in El Capitan and every subsequent version of macOS no longer allows you to repair permissions. However, you can do it using the app like CleanMyMac X.
4. Check File Vault is turned off — sometimes this can cause problems.
5. Check for malware
Sometimes malware threats can prevent your Mac shutting down. Again, the easiest way to do this, if you don’t have an anti-malware program installed, is to use CleanMyMac X.
4. If CleanMyMac X finds anything, it will tell you and allow you to remove it with one click.
6. Repair your startup disk
If Disk Utility can’t repair your startup disk, you can try restarting in recovery mode and then repairing it. When you do that, your Mac restarts from a different volume and so it might be able to repair your regular startup volume.
7. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
There are a number of different ways to do this, depending on which Mac you have.
Pre-2018 laptop with a removable battery
Pre-2018 laptop with a non-removable battery
Desktop Mac, excluding iMac Pro and 2018 Mac mini
iMac Pro, 2018 Mac mini, 2018 MacBook Air, and 2018 MacBook Pro
Once you’ve worked your way through each of the above steps, your Mac should have resolved the problems it was having shutting down. However, if that’s not the case, and it’s still misbehaving, there is one final option: reinstall macOS. You’ll have to perform a clean reinstall, which means erasing everything on your hard drive first. So it’s definitely a last resort. The upside is that you’ll have a Mac that’s as good as new, with all the junk files cleared out and it should run much more smoothly than before.
There is a much easier way to get rid of junk files on your Mac. Just launch CleanMyMac X again and run a scan, then remove the files it recommends. It’s recommended by lots of the top tech websites, including iMore, which said in its review: “I love CleanMyMac because it’s so much easier to use than digging around my system, removing old files, clearing caches, deleting cookies, freeing up memory, and all the other Mac cleaner tools that it does for me with just a click.”
Before you reinstall macOS, you should back up your Mac. If you use Time Machine to perform regular backups, you can restore from that when you’ve reinstalled. However, make sure you haven’t excluded any folders you need from being backed up. If you don’t use Time Machine, you can use backup software to clone your Mac.
Being unable to shut down your Mac can be frustrating, but if it happens only once, it’s not a serious problem and is likely caused by a misbehaving app. If it happens repeatedly, there’s an underlying problem. You can identify and fix it by following the steps above. And remember, if you need to repair permissions, scan for malware or update the apps instantly, the easiest way to do it is to use CleanMyMac X. I use it all the time and it really helps.
Although it is quite rare, you must have come across incidents of apps becoming unresponsive or frozen once in a while on your Mac. You will find below multiple ways to Force Quit Apps or Programs on your Mac, instead of waiting forever and getting frustrated.
Force Quit Apps or Programs on Mac
Most native Apps and Services on your Mac are designed to run smoothly, without freezing up or lagging in any way. However, some third party Apps that are not exactly optimized to run efficiently on a Mac may end up freezing or becoming completely unresponsive.
In such cases, it becomes difficult to close the unresponsive App in a normal way and the only option left is to Force Quit the application on your Mac.
Unlike regular closing of the Apps, Force Quitting abruptly closes the application and does not save your work or settings. However, sometimes you need to be prepared to lose unsaved work and settings, in order to get your Mac back to its normal self.
Force Quit Apps or Programs Using Dock
Perhaps the easiest way to Force Quit Apps on a Mac is through the Dock, located at the bottom of your Mac’s screen.
1. Locate the App that you want to close on the Dock of your Mac
2. Next, right-click on the App icon and then click on Force Quit in the little menu that appears (See image below).
Note: The Force Quit option may also appear as “Quit” in some cases, however most of the times when the application is frozen or unresponsive it appears as “Force Quit”.
3. Depending on the App that you are Force-quitting, you may see a pop-up asking to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the App. Tap on the blue Force Quit button to quit the unresponsive app.
Force Quit Apps or Programs on Mac Using Keyboard
You can also force quit Apps on your Mac by using keyboard shortcuts. There are 2 keyboard shortcuts which allow you to Force Quit unresponsive apps.
1. On the keyboard of your Mac, press Command + Option + Esc key combination to Force Quit any unresponsive App. In case you are using a Windows keyboard with your Mac, press Windows + Alt + Esc keys.
Note: Do not press all 3 keys at the same time, rather press them in a sequence, first Command then Option and then Esc.
2. Pressing above keys will open the Force Quit Application Manager Window on your Mac (See image below)
3. Next, click on the unresponsive App in the Application Manager and then click on the blue Force Quit button to close the unresponsive app.
4. Depending on the App that you are quitting, you may see a pop-up asking to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the App. Tap on the blue Force Quit button to quit from the unresponsive App.
How To Quickly Shut Down All Apps On Mac DesktopForce Quit Apps On Mac Using Apple Menu Bar
Another way to Force Quit Apps on your Mac is by accessing the Force Quit Applications manager by using the Apple Menu Bar. Defrag apps for mac.
1. Click on the Apple icon in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on Force Quit… option in the drop-down menu (See image below)
2. Clicking on Force Quit will open the Applications Manager Window on the screen of your Mac.
3. In the Application Manager, click on the App that you want to Force Quit and then click on the Blue Force Quit button to Quit the selected App on your Mac (See image below)
4. Depending on the App, you may see a pop-up. Click on the blue Force Quit button in the pop-up to close the selected App.
Force Quit Apps On Mac Using Activity Monitor![]()
The Activity Monitor on a Mac is quite similar to the Task Manager as found on a Windows Computer. The Activity Manager on a Mac allows you to take a look at the amount of Memory, CPU, and Storage space used by the apps and also allows you to Force Quit Apps.
1. Click on the Finder icon (Happy Face!) in the Dock of your Mac (See image below)
https://yellowbeat129.weebly.com/blog/best-mac-third-party-apps. 2. Next, click on Applications and then click on the Utilities Folder.
3. In Utilities Folder, locate Activity Monitor and click on it (See image below)
4. On the Activity Monitor screen, click on the app that you want to Force-close and then click on the X icon, located in top left corner of the window (See image below)
How To Quickly Shut Down All Apps On Mac Shortcut
5. Next, you may see a pop-up, asking you to confirm that you do want to Force Quit the application. Click on Force Quit (or Quit) to close the application.
Force Quit Apps On Mac Using the Terminal Window
In addition to above ways, you can also make use of the Terminal Window to Force Quit Apps on your Mac.
1. On the keyboard of your Mac, press Command + Spacebar to open the Spotlight Search
2. Once Spotlight Search opens up on your Mac, type the word Terminal and click on the Top Hit suggestion Terminal to open the Terminal Window on your Mac (See image below)
3. On the Terminal Window, type in ps –ax (there is a space after ps) and press the Enter key (See image below).
Note: There is a space after ps
4. The above Terminal Command will list all the processes that are currently running on your Mac. Locate the App that you want to Force-close and note down its PID Number (See image below)
5. Once you have noted down the PID number of the app. Type kill (PID number) in the Terminal Windows and hit the enter key (See image below)
Once you type in the above command, the unresponsive/frozen application will be closed. For example, in our case we closed the stuck Safari App on our Mac by typing kill 279 in the terminal Window.
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