How to Troubleshoot Frozen Mac Apps

Normally, we use multiple software products simultaneously in our work life and while at home. There is little that causes more frustration, however, than having the specific application that you need to use currently freezing and becoming unresponsive suddenly. Even more so, if that sudden crash could potentially lead to hours of lost progress. Mac users have several methods at their disposal to deal with this problem.

The fastest way, at least usually, is to simply quit the frozen application and then start it again. This can be achieved either through the macOS Dock or the Force Quit window. 

Closing Applications from the Dock

1. Click somewhere outside of the frozen's applications window. 
2. Right-click the application's icon on the Dock. 
3. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard. This should change the 'Quit' option displayed in the menu to 'Force Quit.' 
4. Click 'Force Quit.'

This should close the program so just relaunch it and continue where you left off. 

Using the Force Quit Window

1. Press the Option+Command+Escape keys on your keyboard simultaneously. This command opens the "Force Quit" dialog box. 
2. Navigate through the list of currently running programs looking for the frozen application.
3. Select it and then click on 'Force Quit.'
4. Relaunch the application.

Stopping a Process on macOS

Sometimes users may wish to stop a specific process instead of the whole application. To do so, first open Activity Monitor. You will be presented with a list of all running processes. Sort them by either using the %CPU or %Memory tabs according to your needs. Find the process that you wish to stop, select it, and click on the 'X' sign.