Has your computer hung and stopped responding to any of your commands? In this case, you can force shut down the Mac. If you have a network from Macs, you can force shut down computers from this network. We will discuss both of these options in this guide.
Method #1 – How to shut down the Mac using a hotkey combination
To turn off the computer, two options for hotkey combinations should be used:
- Ctrl + Alt (option) + cmd + Power button.
- Ctrl + Cmd + Power button
Is there a difference between them? Yes, there is.
In the first case, the system will ask you about the need to save changes in open applications. For those apps that operate properly, it makes sense to save the necessary changes.
But for those ones having been hung, this cannot be done so as not to wait for an answer from them.
The second method works harder.
When you press the three keys indicated, the Mac shuts down and then reboots.
In this case, the system will not ask you about the need to save the changes. It will simply close all programs. And if you don’t save anything, your data will be lost.
Method #2 – The forced shutdown of the Mac using the power button (eject)
This alternative is suitable for cases when the device doesn’t respond to keys pressing, mouse movements and other commands at all.
In this case, you just need to perform the following actions:
- For devices manufactured up to 2016, with a physical on/off button, press and hold this button for a while. It usually takes about 10 seconds.
- For the MacBook manufactured after 2016, with Touch ID, put your finger on the touch button and wait for a while. After the laptop shuts down, you need to close and open its cover to turn it on again.
Method #3 – Forced shut down of the Mac via the terminal
If some programs don’t respond, and the Mac still responds to some commands (for example, to mouse movement), you can shut down the device through the terminal.
- For this purpose, run the terminal. For example, by clicking “Launchpad” -> “Others” -> “Terminal”:
- Then, type the command: ‘sudo shutdown –h now‘ in the window appeared. And press “Return”. The computer will shut down.
- Another shorter command is available as well. It also shuts down the Mac. This command is also typed via the terminal; it is ‘sudo halt‘. When pressing “Return”, the device also shuts down.
How to force close on Mac remotely from another computer
This method is relevant for a local network consisting of several Macbooks.
- First of all, you need to prepare the computer by sharing it. For this purpose, go to the system settings:
- You should enable sharing of the device screen in the window appeared. To do this, check the box next to “Screen Sharing”. And close the window to save the changes.
Now, everything is ready, and you can remotely shut down the Mac if necessary from another computer of this network.
- Run “Finder” on the remote device to shut down the Mac hung.
- Select the network and the computer that you want to force shut down in the left column (where disks and devices are displayed) under the “Shared” item.
- By pointing the desired Mac, click the “Share screen” button in the upper right corner of the window.
After that, a window with a desktop of the computer which you need to force shut down should appear on your desktop. Here, it will not be difficult to force close the Mac using standard means (via the menu, for example).
