JUST MAKE IT STOP ! ! ! !
January 9, 2012 5:06 PM Subscribe
How can I force Firefox to quit on a Mac? Real-time problem.
I've got Firefox running on a Macbook Air and it's hung, with the little color wheel spinning. How can I stop Firefox only, without a forced shutdown? (On Windows I'd use Ctrl-Alt-Delete and end the process.) Note that I need a keyboard solution -- I can't use my mouse in Firefox in this situation.
I've got Firefox running on a Macbook Air and it's hung, with the little color wheel spinning. How can I stop Firefox only, without a forced shutdown? (On Windows I'd use Ctrl-Alt-Delete and end the process.) Note that I need a keyboard solution -- I can't use my mouse in Firefox in this situation.
Click on the apple upper-left. Force quit is in the pull down menu.
posted by plastic_animals at 5:08 PM on January 9, 2012
posted by plastic_animals at 5:08 PM on January 9, 2012
Oh, shoot, now I notice the keyboard restraint.
posted by plastic_animals at 5:09 PM on January 9, 2012
posted by plastic_animals at 5:09 PM on January 9, 2012
Option-Shift-Command-Esc (hold for three seconds)- to force quit the front-most application.
posted by plastic_animals at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by plastic_animals at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2012 [2 favorites]
If firefox isn't fullscreen you can also try clicking outside firefox to get back into the finder, that should let you access the apple menu/force quit.
Sometimes that doesn't even work. Firefox is the worst, on OSX, when it beachballs.
posted by zomg at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2012
Sometimes that doesn't even work. Firefox is the worst, on OSX, when it beachballs.
posted by zomg at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks all. herrdoktor got it in 1 minute flat. Gotta love this site.
posted by SallyHitMeOntheHead at 5:18 PM on January 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by SallyHitMeOntheHead at 5:18 PM on January 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, option-click on the icon in the dock. This lets you easily choose which application to force-quit.
posted by leahwrenn at 7:12 PM on January 9, 2012
posted by leahwrenn at 7:12 PM on January 9, 2012
Just for the sake of having another way: You can also use the terminal to kill any process. Here's me killing firefox. First, I find the PID (first number on the line) using ps and grep. Then, I kill that process with the 'kill' command. (notice that grep is also going to find itself, so you'll get two lines of output from that part.)
dexter:~ ctmf$ ps -ax | grep firefox
3059 ?? 96:15.39 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -psn_0_1696158
9536 ttys000 0:00.00 grep firefox
dexter:~ ctmf$ kill 3059
dexter:~ ctmf$
More complicated, maybe. But I can't remember all these dumb key combinations for every-damn-thing on the mac, so I just use my unix tools when I know how.
posted by ctmf at 8:20 PM on January 9, 2012
dexter:~ ctmf$ ps -ax | grep firefox
3059 ?? 96:15.39 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -psn_0_1696158
9536 ttys000 0:00.00 grep firefox
dexter:~ ctmf$ kill 3059
dexter:~ ctmf$
More complicated, maybe. But I can't remember all these dumb key combinations for every-damn-thing on the mac, so I just use my unix tools when I know how.
posted by ctmf at 8:20 PM on January 9, 2012
Here are a couple of other ways:
- Click on the Apple menu (apple icon in the top left of the menu bar) and choose "Force Quit"
- Open Spotlight (mouse method is to click the magnifying glass icon at the top right, keyboard method is command+spacebar), then type "activity monitor". The activity monitor is very similar to what you get with ctrl+alt+delete in Windows, so it should be pretty easy to figure out what to do.
posted by The Lamplighter at 11:28 PM on January 9, 2012
- Click on the Apple menu (apple icon in the top left of the menu bar) and choose "Force Quit"
- Open Spotlight (mouse method is to click the magnifying glass icon at the top right, keyboard method is command+spacebar), then type "activity monitor". The activity monitor is very similar to what you get with ctrl+alt+delete in Windows, so it should be pretty easy to figure out what to do.
posted by The Lamplighter at 11:28 PM on January 9, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Smash em all at once.
posted by herrdoktor at 5:07 PM on January 9, 2012 [2 favorites]