It should be easy to turn off and shut down your Mac . At least that ’s the theory . In true statement switching off a Mac can sometimes be a real pain . In this feature we look at how to trade off a Mac , and what to do if your Mac does n’t shut down by rights .

How to turn off a Mac

We cover this in detail separately , but here arethe footstep you need to shut down a MacBook or Mac .

It ’s usually easy to become off a Mac . Here ’s what you need to do :

However , as we said , sometimes this does n’t mold so smoothly . We ’ll look at some of the reasons for this below .

How to Shut Down a Mac

Give your Mac a little more time

If your Mac is n’t shut down the first thing to do is give it a bite of time . Sometimes shutting down can be a farsighted process as macOS sorts through its open file and seek to close all the programs . This is peculiarly reliable if you have a tidy sum of programs and documents overt .

All of this should n’t really take longer than a minute , but time conk out tardily when you ’re gaze at a screen waiting for something to happen .

Select Apple > close Down and leave the Mac alone for five minutes . Go make a cup of tea while macOS does its matter .

App failed to quit when shutting down

Close all apps before shutting down

The Mac operating system needs to close all apps before it can shut down . Problems in the Shut Down procedure are sometimes because of apps that go wrong to close . This is often because the app has an unredeemed document in it . But it could also be because the program has crash or glacial .

To find out if there is a trouble with one of your apps we suggest you do the pursual :

Once all your apps are closed you should be able to close down your Mac without any issue . However , if you are still have problems with it , read on …

iMac won’t shut down

Also scan : How to prepare a MacBook that wo n’t bill .

What to do if your Mac is frozen

Sometimes your Mac wo n’t shutdown because it has frozen . If you think that might have happened , attempt to move the cursor around and if it does n’t move your Mac may have freeze out .

Obviously this is blend in to make choosing Apple > Shut Down from the carte elusive .

There are a brace of mode you could shut down your Mac if this is the type :

If your Mac still does n’t shut down you may have to force it to switch off .

It ’s good not to get into the riding habit of shutting your Mac down this way because macOS will work well if it sire to shut down decently ( allowing it to clean up and store computer code properly ) . If your Mac is routinely refuse to shut out down , and you ’re not leaving apps and document unsaved , then you should look at what is causing the problem rather than rely on weightlift and hold the superpower clitoris .

For a more elaborated description of what to do readHow to touch on a frozen Mac .

How to fix a Mac that won’t shut down

There ’s no simple solution to pay off a Mac that has job keep out down . It could be triggered by a assortment of different problem . Here are some hassle - shoooting steps that we advise you to prove . Go through each one at a time and see if it puzzle out the trouble :

Once you ’ve shut down your Mac it ’s a good idea to run some checks to regain out what was causing the problem . It could be a faulty peripheral , buggy package , or something could be wrong with your Mac ’s hardware or package . There ’s lots of advice here : How to sterilise a Mac , see also : How to secure a Mac that wo n’t turn on .

And if you ’re inquire if you need to trouble deform it off , readShould I shut down my Mac every night ?