Mac OS X

Force shutdown / restart in Mac OS X

First see if it’s just one program, or the whole machine. If the foreground program is unresponsive, before you force a restart check to see if other programs still work, because a lot of times, only one program is stuck and the rest of the system is OK. It’s actually very rare for all of OS X to freeze up. Try switching to the Finder or another program in the Dock or by pressing Command+Tab to use the Application Switcher. If these work, your whole system is not frozen, only the foreground program is.

Forcing just one program to quit. Use the Force Quit command from the Apple menu (or press Option+Command+Esc) to select the unresponsive program and make it quit. This is the Mac version of the Ctrl+Alt+Del “three finger salute” in Windows.

Force Quit Application dialog box

Forcing the entire system to shut down. If you cannot switch to other programs and you can’t choose the Shut Down command on the Apple menu, force a shutdown by holding down the Power button; don’t let go until the machine powers off. To verify that it really is shut down, press one of the keys that lights up, like Caps Lock or Num Lock. If the key’s LED lights up, power is still on. After you are sure the machine is fully off, press the Power button to start up normally. For an emergency restart on a notebook while the machine is still running, press Command+Ctrl+Power. Using either method, any unsaved changes in open documents will be lost.

Holding the Power button to force an immediate complete shutdown works on many Macs and PCs, and also works on a lot of electronic devices in general. Use this technique only in an emergency.

In normal use on a notebook, pressing the power button without holding it down is the same as choosing Shut Down from the Apple menu; either way, you see the dialog box below. (Apple changed this in OS X 10.9 Mavericks. To see this dialog box you have to hold down the power button for a few seconds.) On a desktop, the shortcut is Control+Eject. If those techniques bring up this dialog box, the machine is not frozen and you should not have to force shut down; you can just click the button you want.

A normal Shut Down dialog box

Failing to wake up from sleep mode. If a Mac doesn’t wake from sleep when it should, or pressing the Power button doesn’t start up a Mac that appears turned off, the computer may be in a state where the screen is blank but it’s still running. This sometimes happens when something’s gone wrong while a Mac was in or waking from sleep mode.

First press Caps Lock to see if it lights up. If it does, the machine is still on. In that case, press the Increase Screen Brightness button to make sure it’s not because the screen backlight is off. If none of that brings the screen to life but you know the machine’s getting power, your machine is in a sort of coma. You might as well do an emergency shutdown at this point.

Remote access. One other advanced user trick you can try is to log into the unresponsive Mac from another computer. This only works if it’s on the network and Remote Login is already turned on in the Sharing preference pane, and you’re familiar with how to log into other networked computers by typing commands into the Terminal utility. But if the machine is really hung up, that may not work either. Trying to get in via Screen Sharing/VNC usually doesn’t help because typically, if the normal user interface isn’t responding, Screen Sharing won’t either. It doesn’t hurt to try, though.

Safari: Open link as a tab in another Safari window

The shortcuts for opening a link in another tab in Safari are fairly well known. But you can also view a link in a tab in another browser window. First, arrange both browser windows so that you can see the tab area in the second window. Then, simply drag and drop the link into the tab area in the other window. You can also replace the contents of a tab by dragging a link onto the tab.

AirPort: Can’t connect to password-protected wireless network (Log error “Rx’d mesg P-1”)

If you can’t connect to an AirPort network, and the network requires a password that you’ve tried to enter correctly, try the following:

1. Open the Console utility in your Utilities folder.
2. Choose File > Open System Log.
3. Look for a line that includes the message:
kernel[0]: AirPort: Rx’d mesg P-1
4. If the message is there*, try the steps that follow.
5. Open System Preferences, and click Network.
6. Edit AirPort. (If you see the Network Status list, double-click AirPort.)
7. You might have AirPort set to “By default, join: A Specific Network.” Confirm that the network name is correct.
8. Here’s the important part. Re-enter the network password.
9. Click Apply Now. (Don’t change your Location before clicking Apply Now, or your changes probably won’t be saved.)

*If you aren’t getting that error, I don’t know what the problem is. This tip won’t help you if you’re trying to get into a network where you don’t know the password.

Cancel drags with the Esc key

If you’re in the middle of dragging a file or other object, you can press the Esc key to cancel the drag without having to remember where you dragged from. After you press Esc, you’ll see an animation of the dragged icon jumping back to its original location. This is especially useful when the original window location is out of view, which can happen due to the autoscrolling and spring-loaded folders that OS X provides when you drag. The reason Esc trick is better than just letting to is that when the original location is out of view, letting go of the mouse button might drop the icon somewhere other than the original location or the intended destination. Esc guarantees that it goes back to where it was.