8 Easy Ways to Troubleshoot a Frozen or Unresponsive Mac

Quickly unfreeze your Mac or MacBook with this in-depth guide

Is your Mac laptop or desktop computer frozen and unresponsive? Your Mac may be frozen due to a variety of issues, such as lack of memory or disk space. To get your Mac to respond again, force restart by holding the power button until the screen shuts off. When it turns on again, you may need to clear up space in your hard drive by uninstalling apps or programs and deleting files. This wikiHow will show you how to troubleshoot and fix a frozen Mac or MacBook.

Things You Should Know

  • Force restart by holding the power button until the screen turns off. Wait a few minutes, then turn it on again.
  • Press "Command" + "Esc" + "Options" to open the Force Quit Menu. Select a frozen app, then click "Force Quit".
  • Uninstall unnecessary apps and use cloud storage to free up space if your hard drive is impacted.
Method 1
Method 1 of 8:

Use Force Quit on Frozen Apps

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    On your keyboard, press ⌘ Command+Esc+⌥ Option at the same time. The Force Quit menu should open.
    • Use this method to force quit a frozen application on your Mac.
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    Select the frozen application. You'll see a list of open applications.
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    Click Force Quit. This is the blue button at the bottom-right corner.
    • The frozen app should close. You can now reopen the app.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 8:

Force Restart with Button

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    Press and hold the power button. In most cases, the power button with be a circular or rectangular button with the power icon. Hold down until the screen turns off. This may take around 10 seconds.
    • On MacBooks with a Touch Bar, use the button at the top-right of the keyboard, above the Delete key. The power button will be unmarked and black.
    • On Mac Pros, the power button is located behind the screen in the bottom corner.
    • On Mac Pro (Rack), the power button is the pill-shaped button on the front of the computer.
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    Turn on your Mac. Press the same power button to turn it back on again.
    • If this doesn't work, disconnect all your peripherals (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc), and force restart again.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 8:

Check the Power Source

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    Make sure your Mac is getting power. If you're using a MacBook and it won't turn on, check that the power supply is plugged firmly into your laptop and in the wall. Once it's plugged in, let it charge for a few minutes before trying to boot it up again.
    • If you're using a desktop Mac, make sure the wall outlet has power and is switched on.
    • If you're not getting any power, the issue may be your power adapter. You can contact Apple on their website to order a new power adapter.
Method 4
Method 4 of 8:

Uninstall Unresponsive Apps

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    Uninstall unresponsive apps. If you experience freezing regularly due to a specific app or program, force-quitting them is only a temporary solution. You'll need to uninstall the app or program.
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    Reinstall apps (optional). If the app is needed, uninstalling and reinstalling could fix common issues.
    • Open the App Store on your Mac, click your name in the bottom-left corner. Locate the app you want to install, then click the download icon.[1]
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Method 5
Method 5 of 8:

Free Up Disk Space

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    Uninstall unnecessary apps. If your Mac is running slower than it used to, the problem could lie in your disk space. Uninstall apps that you haven't used in a while to increase your Mac's performance.
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    Use iCloud to store files. iCloud is Apple's cloud-based storage platform. You can store files from your Mac in iCloud an access them from another iOS device. This will clear up lots of needed space.[2]
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Method 6
Method 6 of 8:

Update MacOS

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    Update your operating system. The freezing you're experiencing may be a known bug that was fixed with a more recent version of the program or the OS X operating system. Updating your software may fix the problem you're having.
    • To update, click the Apple Menu → System Settings → General → Software Update → Update Now
    • On Mac Ventura, click the Apple Menu → System Preferences → Software Update → Update Now.
Method 7
Method 7 of 8:

Perform a Safe Boot

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    Perform a Safe Boot. If none of the above methods have helped fix your freezing issue, a Safe Boot may do the trick. This will only load the essential files that OS X needs to run, and will automatically perform a variety of troubleshooting scripts.[3]
    • To start a Safe Boot, restart your Mac and hold the ⇧ Shift key as soon as you hear the startup sound. This will load the Safe Boot mode. If your Mac reboots automatically while in Safe Boot, it is likely working a fixing a problem with the boot drive.
    • If the computer isn't freezing in Safe Boot mode, reboot your computer as normal to see if the problem was fixed during the Safe Boot.
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Method 8
Method 8 of 8:

Repair Boot Disk in Recovery Mode

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    Repair your boot disk in Recovery Mode. If there's a problem with your boot disk, you may be able to repair it using the Disk Utility in Recovery Mode.[4]
    • Reboot your computer and hold ⌘ Command+R during startup.
    • Select Recovery HD from the menu that appears.
    • Choose the Disk Utility option.
    • Select the drive that you want to check for errors and then click the Repair or First Aid tab.
    • Click Repair Disk to begin scanning for problems. If problems are found, Disk Utility will attempt to automatically fix them. This may take a while to complete.

Expert Q&A
Did you know you can get expert answers for this article? Unlock expert answers by supporting wikiHow

  • Question
    What if my Mac still isn't working after I force reboot it?
    Chiara Corsaro
    Chiara Corsaro
    Phone & Computer Repair Technician
    Chiara Corsaro is the General Manager and Apple Certified Mac & iOS Technician for macVolks, Inc., an Apple Authorized Service Provider located in the San Francisco Bay Area. macVolks, Inc. was founded in 1990, is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an A+ rating, and is part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN).
    Chiara Corsaro
    Chiara Corsaro
    Phone & Computer Repair Technician
    Expert Answer

    Support wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.

    If at that point you're still experiencing freezing issues, I would say as a precaution, especially if you do not have a backup, to turn your computer off completely. Because when you do experience slow performance issues sometimes—not to say every time—but sometimes that can be an indication of a hardware failure, specifically the hard drive, or even possibly the memory.
  • Question
    What should I do if my Mac isn't responding?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Manually restart it using the ON/OFF button.
  • Question
    What do I do if my Mac is freezing periodically?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Back up your hard disk using Time Machine! These periodic freezes are warning that the system is deteriorating. Save everything before it does.
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References

  1. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/app-store/install-and-reinstall-purchased-apps-fir0fb69db23/mac
  2. ↑ https://support.apple.com/icloud
  3. ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
  4. ↑ http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/08/repair-boot-disk-mac-os-x-disk-utilit/

About This Article

Chiara Corsaro
Co-authored by:
Chiara Corsaro
Phone & Computer Repair Technician
This article was co-authored by Chiara Corsaro and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly. Chiara Corsaro is the General Manager and Apple Certified Mac & iOS Technician for macVolks, Inc., an Apple Authorized Service Provider located in the San Francisco Bay Area. macVolks, Inc. was founded in 1990, is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an A+ rating, and is part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). This article has been viewed 484,214 times.
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Co-authors: 22
Updated: March 2, 2023
Views: 484,214
Categories: Mac
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