Apple Featured

Terminal Hacks - Force macOS to Shut Down

Is your Mac refusing to shut down? Most likely an application or background process has frozen, preventing the process to close and in turn preventing macOS to shut down. This LectroHack will show you how to use terminal to force a shut down.

James Pearson

Dec 31, 2021 • 1 min read

LECTROHACK #5 Terminal Hacks: Force macOS to Shut Down artwork.

Force Shut Down

Open Terminal: Finder > Applications > Utilities

In Terminal, type or paste the following…

shutdown -r now

(return)

Force Shut Down (sudo)

If the above command fails to initiate the Mac's shut down process, place the word sudo (super user do) in front to switch to administrative root access.

Open Terminal: Finder > Applications > Utilities

In Terminal, type or paste the following…

sudo shutdown -r now

(return) (enter Mac password) (return)

::TIP:: if you know which application is causing the issue then: click on  > Force Quit... (on the top menu bar), select the offending application and click on the Force Quit button. Once the application has closed you should then be able to shut down.

_{Originally posted 1o November, 2021.}