How to Force Quit Finder

Finder is the default file manager and graphical user interface shell on macOS systems. As such it is an essential process tasked with launching other applications while leveraging the user management of files stored on the system, connected disk drives, and network volumes. However, like any software product, sometimes even Finder can hang or become unresponsive. In those cases, users may need to restart it. Outlined below are two fast and easy methods to force quit Finder.

Open Finder from the Dock, and then click on the Apple menu icon followed by pressing and holding the Shift key on your keyboard. From the available options, select 'Force Quit Finder' to restart it. Users also can use the keyboard shortcut Option+Shift+Command+Esc pressed simultaneously to force quit Finder.  

The second method uses the Terminal application. Open Terminal which is usually located in the Utilities subfolder of the user's Application folder. Once the Terminal window is up, type the killall Finder command in it and press Enter on your keyboard.