13 Fixes for a Frozen Mac and 10 Methods to Prevent It

A frozen Mac in the middle of work is a clear sign that you’re having a bad day, and as the clock ticks down, you’re left with a Mac that’s all sizzle and no steak. The situation worsens and requires your urgent attention if you often find yourself with a frozen Mac in front of you.

Whether the cursor is stuck, the apps have stopped responding, or the Mac is just lame, there are a number of ways to unfreeze a frozen Mac back up and running and prevent it from happening more often. Read on to get your Mac working like it used to.

Ways to Fix a Frozen Mac

Close Unresponsive Apps

If your Mac is stuck because of an unresponsive app, a better solution is to close it and reboot instead. There are several ways to close an application, the most obvious being to close it from the menu bar and the dock. If your cursor doesn’t work, you can close the application by pressing Command(⌘) + Q.

Force Quit Unresponsive Apps and Close All Others

If an app cannot be terminated using the above methods, you can try to force terminate it. To do so, type the key combination Command(⌘) + esc + option(⌥). To be safer, close all other apps and let the system free itself. If none of the methods work, check out 5 Easy Ways to Force Quit Mac Apps.

Force Quit Heavy Apps Using Activity Monitor

Not only buggy apps, but also heavy apps, such as browsers with multiple tabs open, can cause your Mac to freeze occasionally. Activity Monitor displays your Mac’s active applications and usage statistics in real time, so you can identify and quit the ones you need to.

Let Your Mac Be Its Own Doctor

Sometimes the best thing to do is to leave your Mac as it is and let it fix itself. If the problem is caused by a buggy app, leaving your Mac idle for a minute or two while you get a coffee should fix it in most cases.

Restart Your Mac

It’s recommended to reboot if the problem persists. You can do this by clicking on the Apple logo() in the upper left corner > Restart. If your cursor stops responding, press the power button for 10 seconds to force shut down your Mac.

Alternatively, you can use the Control(∧) + Option (⌥) + Command(⌘) + Power key combination to properly close apps before…