How to kill a running Mac app from the command line

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Most of the time, apps for MacOS work as expected.  But their maybe times when an app doesn’t close (or gets stuck exiting) when you use the key combination [Command] + [Q].

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When an app gets “stuck”, you can use a terminal command to bypass the normal quit command.  However, this option should only be used as a last resort as it could result in damaged or lost data.

Here’s how:

1. Open Terminal (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
2. At the command prompt, type: killall nameofapp
3. Close the Terminal windows with [Command + Q].
4. That’s it.

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Dan Uff

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