"The cursor keeps spinning as a rainbow beach ball," "an app is not responding," "the entire screen is completely frozen and nothing works" -- Mac freeze symptoms may look similar, but the cause and fix differ greatly depending on whether it is a freeze in one specific app, system-wide resource pressure, or a hardware-related freeze. This article explains how to diagnose the symptoms and recover step by step for macOS Sonoma / Sequoia and later. If your Mac will not start, also see What to Do When Your Mac Will Not Start, and for broader Mac troubleshooting, see Mac Troubleshooting Guide.
Table of Contents
- First, Identify the Symptom: Classify How Your Mac Is Frozen
- Force Quit the Frozen App
- Use Activity Monitor to Identify the Problem App
- Restart Finder When Finder Freezes
- Force Restart When the Mac Is Completely Frozen
- Quit Processes from Terminal
- When Low Memory Is the Cause
- SMC, NVRAM, and PRAM Reset
- Boot in Safe Mode to Narrow Down the Cause
- Long-Term Fixes and Freeze Prevention
- Summary: The Right Order of Steps When Your Mac Freezes
First, Identify the Symptom: Classify How Your Mac Is Frozen
Treating every "my Mac froze" situation the same way can waste time. Start by classifying the symptom into three types so you can avoid unnecessary restarts.
Only one app is not responding (rainbow cursor)
This is the pattern where the rainbow beach ball cursor keeps appearing when you move the pointer over a specific app, such as Safari, Photoshop, or Excel, and clicks do not respond. Only that app has stopped responding, while other apps and Finder still work normally. If you force quit only that app with ⌘ + Option + Esc, the Mac usually recovers within a few dozen seconds.
Everything feels slow, including Finder
The cursor moves, but every app responds a beat late, and even opening folders in Finder is slow. This means system-wide resources such as CPU or memory are under pressure. The standard approach is to use Activity Monitor to identify and quit the process causing the load.
Complete freeze: mouse and keyboard do not work
The cursor itself does not move, and keyboard shortcuts do not respond. This is a system-wide freeze or a state close to a kernel panic. In this case, a forced shutdown is the only practical option.
Quick reference table by symptom
- Only one app is not responding: ⌘ + Option + Esc -> Force Quit
- Everything is slow: Identify the heavy process in Activity Monitor -> Quit it
- Complete freeze: Hold the power button -> Force shutdown -> Restart
- If it happens often: Reset SMC / NVRAM, diagnose in Safe Mode, and check memory and storage
Force Quit the Frozen App
This is the first thing to try when only one specific app is not responding.
Use ⌘ + Option + Esc to open the Force Quit dialog
Press ⌘ + Option + Esc (the Mac equivalent of Ctrl + Alt + Del on Windows) to open the "Force Quit Applications" dialog. Apps that are not responding appear in red with "(Not Responding)" next to them, so you can select that app -> click "Force Quit" to close it cleanly.
If the dialog itself does not appear, the whole OS is likely starting to freeze, so move on to a forced shutdown.
Force quit an app from the Dock with right-click
If the dialog can still open and the system responds, you can also right-click the app icon in the Dock (or control-click) -> hold the Option key to change "Quit" into "Force Quit." This lets you target the app directly, so it is fast and convenient when you know exactly which app you want to close.
Force quit from the Apple menu
You can open the same dialog from the Apple menu in the top-left corner -> "Force Quit...". This is a useful alternative when ⌘ + Option + Esc is hard to press or you do not remember the shortcut.
Use Activity Monitor to Identify the Problem App
When the symptom is "everything feels slow," you need to check what is consuming CPU or memory before deciding what to do.
How to open Activity Monitor
Open the "Applications" folder -> "Utilities" folder -> double-click "Activity Monitor". You can also launch it quickly with Spotlight (⌘ + Space) -> type "activity" -> Enter.
Find abnormal CPU usage
Open Activity Monitor -> select the "CPU" tab at the top -> click the CPU column to sort descending. If a process is using close to 100% CPU, it is the likely source of the load. If you recognize the app name, decide whether to quit it; if it is an OS process such as kernel_task or WindowServer, suspect a system-side issue.
Check memory pressure
Switch to the "Memory" tab -> sort descending by the Memory column. If multiple processes are using 3 to 4 GB or more, your physical memory may be insufficient. If the "Memory Pressure" graph at the bottom is red, the memory shortage is serious; green means no issue, and yellow means caution.
Quit the relevant process from here
Select the problem process -> click the stop icon in the upper-left corner (the x mark) -> "Force Quit" to quit it immediately. If you quit the main app process, its child processes will also disappear with it, so related processes are usually cleared automatically.
Restart Finder When Finder Freezes
When Finder itself is not responding, simply restarting Finder often resolves the problem.
Restart Finder from Apple menu -> Force Quit
Apple menu -> "Force Quit..." -> select "Finder", and the button changes to "Relaunch". Click it and Finder will quit, then restart automatically. Finder is expected to stay running, so macOS automatically launches it again.
How this differs from restarting the Dock
The Dock is also a major macOS process, and it can occasionally become sluggish. If you want to restart only the Dock, run this in Terminal:
killall Dock
The Dock will quit and then restart automatically. This is useful when only the Dock has a problem and Finder is normal.
Reset Finder settings
If Finder still does not improve after restarting, one option is to delete the Finder preferences file and reset it:
defaults delete com.apple.finder
killall Finder
However, this removes all Finder customizations, including sidebar settings and view settings, so treat it as a last resort.
Force Restart When the Mac Is Completely Frozen
This is the last resort when neither the cursor nor the keyboard works.
Force shut down by holding the power button
Hold the power button for at least 10 seconds. On models with Touch ID, the Touch ID button also acts as the power button. The screen will go black and the Mac will turn off completely. Any unsaved work will be lost, so this is a last resort, but it is faster than staying stuck in a frozen state.
After shutdown, press the power button again to start the Mac normally.
Power button behavior on Apple Silicon Macs
On M1 / M2 / M3 / M4 Apple Silicon Macs, holding the power button forces shutdown. If you keep holding it longer, the Mac proceeds to the startup options screen, including recovery options. Think of it as holding for about 10 seconds to turn it off, and holding longer to enter recovery.
Control + ⌘ + power button on Intel Macs
On Intel Macs, Control + ⌘ + power button forces an immediate restart without fully shutting down first. If you want a complete shutdown, use Control + Option + ⌘ + power button. Apple Silicon Macs do not use this key combination; they rely on holding the power button.
Quit Processes from Terminal
If the GUI responds, Activity Monitor is usually enough. But when responses are slow or you want to handle multiple processes at once, Terminal is faster.
Basics of the kill command
Open Terminal.app ->
kill -9 <PID>
<PID> is the process number, which you can get with commands such as ps or top. -9 is the strongest signal, SIGKILL, and it forcefully terminates the process.
Quit multiple processes with killall
killall Safari
killall "Google Chrome"
This command specifies a process name and quits all processes with that name. App names that contain spaces should be enclosed in quotation marks. It is faster when there are multiple processes because they can be handled in one batch.
Find the relevant process with ps
ps aux | grep <アプリ名>
Search for the relevant app from the list of running processes. The second column in the output is the PID, which you pass to kill -9. Compared with Activity Monitor, the advantage is that you can do everything from the keyboard.
When Low Memory Is the Cause
If "everything feels slow" happens frequently, suspect low memory. Using an 8 GB model while keeping a large number of browser tabs open has real limits.
Limit the number of apps you keep open
Keeping simultaneously running apps to 3 to 5 can greatly reduce memory pressure. Simply building the habit of closing apps when you are done with them can noticeably change the perceived speed. For ways to make this easier with Stage Manager or virtual desktops, see How to Split the Screen on a Mac.
Do not keep too many browser tabs open
Chrome and Safari can consume several hundred MB per tab. Opening 50 tabs can easily burn through several GB. Move "read later" tabs to bookmarks or Reader Mode, and realistically keep no more than 10 tabs actively in use.
How to read the Memory Pressure indicator
Activity Monitor -> bottom of the Memory tab, Memory Pressure graph:
- Green: Plenty of headroom
- Yellow: Caution (swap is starting to be used)
- Red: At the limit (performance clearly slows down)
If red appears frequently, the Mac fundamentally does not have enough memory. When buying your next Mac, choose 16 GB or more; if you need to keep using the current machine, change how you work by limiting the number of apps open at the same time.
SMC, NVRAM, and PRAM Reset
These hardware-adjacent settings resets can help with frequent freezes or startup problems.
SMC reset steps (Intel Mac)
The System Management Controller (SMC) manages low-level behavior such as the battery, fans, and power button. On Intel Macs:
- MacBook with T2 chip: Shut down -> hold the power button for 10 seconds -> release it and start normally
- MacBook without T2: Shut down -> hold Shift + Control + Option + power button together for 10 seconds
- Desktop Mac: Shut down -> unplug the power cable for 15 seconds -> reconnect it and start up
NVRAM / PRAM reset
NVRAM / PRAM stores Mac startup-related parameters. To reset it, shut down -> immediately after startup, hold Option + ⌘ + P + R for 20 seconds. Release the keys after confirming that the startup sound plays multiple times. On Apple Silicon Macs, NVRAM reset is automated, so this operation is not needed.
What to do instead of SMC reset on Apple Silicon Macs
Apple Silicon Macs do not have a separate SMC because it is integrated into the Mac chip. If there is a problem, turn the Mac off normally -> wait 30 seconds -> turn it on; this resolves many issues. If that still does not help, DFU mode or similar steps from recovery mode may be needed, but those are advanced operations, so refer to official support separately.
Boot in Safe Mode to Narrow Down the Cause
If freezes happen frequently during normal startup, boot in Safe Mode to narrow down the cause.
Boot Apple Silicon Macs in Safe Mode
Shut down -> hold the power button -> keep holding until the "startup options" screen appears -> select the startup disk and click "Continue in Safe Mode" while holding the Shift key.
Boot Intel Macs in Safe Mode
Shut down -> immediately after pressing the power button, keep holding the Shift key -> release the key when the login screen appears. "Safe Boot" appears in red in the upper-right corner.
What to check in Safe Mode
If the Mac can boot in Safe Mode, you can determine that the OS itself is normal, and the likely cause is a third-party app, kext (kernel extension), login item, or similar component. Uninstall the problematic app or clean up login items. If the Mac still freezes in Safe Mode, the OS itself may have a problem, so consider reinstalling macOS or contacting AppleCare.
Long-Term Fixes and Freeze Prevention
If freezes happen often, prevention matters more than temporary fixes.
Keep macOS and apps up to date
Go to "Settings" -> "General" -> "Software Update" and update to the latest macOS. Also check apps regularly from the "Updates" tab in the App Store. In many cases, known freeze issues are fixed in newer versions, and the risk increases the longer you leave updates unapplied.
Keep at least 15% of your storage free
When storage is nearly full, macOS virtual memory (swap) cannot work properly, which can cause frequent freezes. Go to "Settings" -> "General" -> "Storage" to check free space, then organize your files so you keep at least 15% free (150 GB on a 1 TB SSD).
Review startup items and login items
Go to "Settings" -> "General" -> "Login Items & Extensions" and clean up apps that launch automatically at startup, as well as apps that stay running in the background. It is common for apps installed years ago to remain active at startup and consume resources.
Summary: The Right Order of Steps When Your Mac Freezes
The right response to a Mac freeze depends on the symptom. Work through the issue step by step and choose the most appropriate fix:
- Only one specific app is not responding: ⌘ + Option + Esc -> Force Quit
- The whole system is slow: Identify the problem process in Activity Monitor -> Quit it
- Only Finder is slow: Apple menu -> Force Quit -> Finder "Relaunch"
- Complete freeze: Hold the power button for 10 seconds -> Force shutdown
- It happens frequently: Check memory and storage, reset SMC/NVRAM, diagnose in Safe Mode
- Still not fixed: Reinstall macOS or contact Apple Support
Force quitting an app solves most everyday problems. If that does not fix it, move on to Activity Monitor, then force restart if necessary. Following the steps in order will help you understand the patterns specific to your own Mac.
