How To Restart a Frozen Mac

Mac devices are generally considered to be extremely stable but alas, critical issues appear even on them. Users can sometimes find that their Macs have become frozen and unresponsive completely. The most effective solution in these cases is to restart the whole system. 

First, see if you can control the cursor. If it moves at all, even if it lags a bit, try to select the 'Apple' menu and then choose 'Restart' from the available options. Click 'Restart' again in the new menu that appears.

If the Mac is not responding at all, it is time to force restart it. There are two ways to do this. The first is to simply press and hold the Power button until the Mac shuts down. Then, start the system back up again. If the Mac is frozen and the pointer is inactive, you may wish to try pressing the Power button while also holding the Control/Command key (or Eject if you have that key). Doing so should force the restart of the system. 

To force shut down an unresponsive MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, press and hold the Power button for at least a couple of seconds. You should see several options appear on the screen. Choose either Restart, Sleep, or Shut Down. If you wish to continue where you left off before the system crashed, leave the 'Reopen windows when logging back in' option selected. Alternatively, if you wish to get a clean start or your Mac is low on RAM, uncheck the corresponding box to deactivate the option to speed up the boot.