In Mac OS X, how do I quit an application that isn't responding?

In Mac OS X, you may occasionally find that certain applications lock up and do not respond to any commands you issue to them. Because the application will not respond to any command, including Quit, its icon will remain in the Dock and its windows may stay open. When this happens, sometimes the only solution is to issue a Force Quit command.

Force quitting an application will quit the application without saving your latest changes, but it's often the only course of action to revive the misbehaving application short of restarting your entire computer. Fortunately, with Mac OS X, force quitting will usually allow you to relaunch the application after you force quit it, so you can continue to work normally.

To force quit an application, from the Apple menu, choose Force Quit... . Then select the misbehaving application from the list, and click the Force quit button. Alternatively, you can also bring up this window by pressing Cmd-Option-Esc.

Note: You cannot quit the Finder application, which is why the only option available within the force quit window for the Finder is Relaunch. Clicking Relaunch will reload the Finder. You will be able to continue to work after doing this.

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