We ‘ll show you how to fix your freeze Mac with a force closure. Unlike a standard closure or resume, a storm closure powers off your Mac without letting it save files or close down apps inaugural. You besides might hear this referred to as a hard reset, a push restart, or a force boot .
Before You Force Shut Down Your Mac
You should only use a wedge closure on your Mac as an absolute last repair. It can cause you to lose cursed advancement in open documents and might even result in corrupt files in your operating system .
It ‘s a particularly regretful theme to force shut down your Mac during a software update, which might leave your Mac with only half an operate on system installed .
If possible, try to shut down your Mac normally by opening the Apple menu and clicking Shut Down from the menu cake. This is a lot safe, but you might find your Mac takes a farseeing prison term to shut down if it needs to finish updates or close down apps foremost .
If your Mac wo n’t shut down normally, use the be steps to reduce the risk of data loss before forcing your Mac to shut down .
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Save Open Files
Your Mac is most likely to freeze when you ‘re working on a big undertaking. If this is the case, you do n’t want to lose any cursed build up by forcing your Mac to shut down excessively soon .
Try to save each of your open files by pressing Cmd + S or selecting File > Save from the menu bar .
If your Mac is freeze and you ca n’t save anything, take a photograph of your work-in-progress on your call so you can recreate it by and by. obviously, this is n’t ideal, but it ‘s better than losing your cultivate forever .
Eject External Storage
Forcing your Mac to shut down does n’t give it a chance to safely squirt external drives. Whether you use these drives for Time Machine backups or external repositing, ejecting them unsafely might cause irreparable damage to their data .
To eject your external storage safely, go to your Desktop and drag the external drive to the Trash icon in the Dock. alternatively, afford Finder and click the Eject push button next to your drive in the sidebar .
Quit Every App
If your Mac wo n’t shut down normally, it ‘s probably because one of your apps has frozen and refuses to quit. You can help matters by manually closing each app yourself. There ‘s a opportunity that doing this will unfreeze your Mac so you do n’t need to force it to shut down or restart after all .
Press Cmd + Q to quit your current app or click the app name in the menu barricade and blue-ribbon Quit [App]. Cycle between your open apps using Cmd + Tab to find out which other apps are inactive running .
If any apps refuse to quit, press Option + Cmd + Escape to open the Force Quit window. Select the unresponsive app in this window, then click Force Quit to close it down .
After closing every app, try to shut down your Mac normally using the Apple menu. If you still ca n’t do that—or if you ca n’t close every app—then find out how to force shut down or restart your Mac below .
How to Force Shut Down or Restart Your Mac
If your Mac is frozen and completely unresponsive, the only way to fix it is using a force closure or wedge resume. The methods for how to force shut down or restart your Mac are precisely the like for a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or any early kind of Mac, whether it uses an Apple silicon or Intel nick .
here are the three different ways to do it .
1. Hold the Power Button
Every Mac has a office button. On a laptop—like a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air—you normally find it at the top-right of your keyboard or touch Bar. It may have a power symbol or an eject symbol on it, or it may be a blank Touch ID detector .
On an iMac, you ‘ll find the baron release behind the bottom-left corner of the screen. If you ‘re looking at the back of your iMac, it ‘s on the bottom-right. On a Mac miniskirt, it ‘s a belittled clitoris on the back .
To force shut down your Mac, press and hold the power button until the screen door goes black. This might take 10 seconds or more ; just keep holding the button. After your Mac shuts down, wait a few moments to let it cool off, then briefly press the power push button again to restart it .
If the screen was already black when you started, keep holding the world power button until the Apple logo appears .
2. Use a Keyboard Shortcut
There are two keyboard shortcuts you can use to shut down your macintosh : the first shortcut attempts to safely close apps first ; the moment forces your Mac to shut down without closing anything. Because of this, it ‘s best to try the first gear shortcut first .
To safely shut down your Mac, press Control + Option + Cmd + Power. Do n’t hold down the ability clitoris or you ‘ll force shut down your Mac ; give it a abbreviated press with the other buttons alternatively .
That shortcut might not work if your Mac ca n’t safely close every app, in which case you need to force your Mac to shut down rather. Press Control + Cmd + Power ( without Option ) to do sol. This time you need to hold the keys for a few seconds before your Mac shuts down.
3. Drain the Battery
even when your Mac is freeze, you can normally force it to shut down using one of the two methods above. still, there are some rare situations when they do n’t work either .
If that ‘s the case, the adjacent good method is to remove the power provide or drain the barrage. Again, it ‘s crucial to know that powering off your Mac this way is potentially damaging. You might lose cursed data—or worse, you might create corrupt files on your arduous drive .
You should alone remove the world power add from your Mac as a last haunt .
Related : admonition Signs Your Mac Has a Problem ( And What to Do About Them )
If you have a MacBook, a MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro, unplug the might cable and expect for the barrage to die. You might need to wait overnight for this to happen, depending on the health of your battery. But finally your Mac will might off. When it does, charge it spinal column up and turn it on .
With older MacBook models, you can remove the battery from the bottomland of the calculator alternatively. This is a agile way to force your MacBook to shut down .
If you have an iMac, a Mac mini, or a Mac Pro, merely unplug the might cable from the second of the computer. Wait a few moments to let your Mac cool down, then reconnect the world power cable and power it back on .
Find Out What to Do if Your Mac Won’t Turn On Again
Most of the fourth dimension, your freeze Mac should boot up again normally after forcing it to shut down or restart. Any apps that were n’t working should run smoothly and you can carry on with whatever crucial projects you were working on .
That said, your Mac might refuse to boot up again if an underlying problem caused it to freeze in the first seat. potential problems range from outdated software to faulty hard drives. fortunately, you can fix a draw of these problems yourself .
Mac Wo n’t Boot or Start ? How to Fix Issues With a Mac not Turning On
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About The writer
Dan Helyer
( 193 Articles Published )
Dan edits iPhone, iPad, and Mac content for MakeUseOf, making use of his past experience working in an Apple Store to do so .
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