What To Do When Mac Apps Are Not Responding

 

Safari is one of the most used browsers, which allows users to surf the web safely and securely. But, sometimes something may go wrong even with the best software, that’s why Safari not working issue is so common. When Safari is not responding or keeps crashing, you need to find out why it behaves like that in order to fix it.

Update your Safari. You may be having your issue with your Safari because you are using an old. Or choose Force Quit from the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen. (This is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a PC.) Then select the app in the Force Quit window and click Force Quit. You can even force the Finder to quit, if it stops responding: Select Finder in the Force Quit window, then click Relaunch. Restart Your Mac. Restarting your Mac is by far the best solution users have tried and tested. Many times a simple clean boot has solved the app not responding issue for me. A clean boot ensures no startup app or service is conflicting with the not responding app. To clean boot Windows 10, press Windows + R keys and type msconfig in the Run dialog to open the System Configuration window.

In this article, we will discuss common issues with Safari and reveal ways to resolve them. If you are using Safari as your primary browser, you will find this article useful.

Why Safari isn't working on Mac?

Apple has devoted a lot of efforts to create one of the most used browsers - Safari. They update it regularly, fixing more and more bags with every release. But, new issues appear as well, giving Apple developers room for improvement. Here are some of the problems with Safari users experience:

  • Safari crashing
  • Safari not responding
  • Safari not opening
  • 'Safari can not be opened because of a problem' message

One of the frequent issues users experience is Safari crashing. There can be plenty of reasons why Safari doesn't respond and result in either crashing or freezing. The problem becomes even more complicated when users can't open Safari even after the reset. What may cause Safari issues described above:

  • Too many tabs opened
  • Too much cache, downloads, and history logs that were cleaned a long time ago
  • An extension, plugin or website you're browsing is causing Safari to crash/freeze
  • Outdated version of Safari
  • Older version of macOS

Sometimes, users confuse the slow performance of Safari with the overall laggy behavior of their Macs. If your Activity Monitor is full of tasks and processes, Safari also may stop responding due to the overload of your Mac's CPU. In this case, optimizing your Mac with CleanMyMac X can be a solution for you.

CleanMyMac X is an excellent Mac cleaning tool that helps enhance the performance of your machine by cleaning its memory of unnecessary files and data. Using its Optimization module, you can speed up your Mac in seconds and continue browsing.


Safari crashing

If your browsing experience has been interrupted by a sudden crash of the Safari browser, here are some of the solutions you can try.

Close all tabs

Almost each of us once opened tabs on Safari and kept them opened to read that article or watch that video later. Although, I end up ignoring such windows while adding more and more of them. But, too many tabs, as well as processes running in each of them, can affect browser performance.

So, closing all tabs can offload Safari and stop it from crashing:

  1. Open Safari and click File.
  2. Select Close All Windows.

Clear website data

Whenever you visit a new website in Safari, it stores it in a cache to load it faster the next time. Cache and cookies help sites to recognize your Mac more quickly. But it may also considerably slow it down sometimes. You don't need to remove cache and cookies every day to avoid Safari crashing on Mac. Though, if you have issues with your browser, a must thing to do is to clear website data.

To remove cache, follow the instructions:

  1. Open Safari and go to Preferences from the Safari menu.
  2. Select Advanced.
  3. Check Show Develop menu in menu bar.
  4. Select the Develop menu and choose Empty Caches.

Here’s how to remove cookies in Safari:

  1. Open Safari and go to Preferences.
  2. Select Privacy and click Manage Website Data.
  3. Choose Remove All to clear cookies.

To give Safari a fresh start you also need to clear history.

  1. Open Safari, click History and select Clear History.
  2. Choose all history from the drop-down list.
  3. Confirm your action.


The history will be removed on all devices where you use the same iCloud account.

Check for updates

Apple frequently releases Safari updates to fix the bugs that may appear. Updating your software in time can prevent many issues. So, if you started having problems with Safari, maybe you forgot to update it to a newer version. Go to Safari and select About Safari. In the window that appears, you will see your current Safari version.

As Safari updates come with new macOS releases, it’s worth checking whether you updated your Mac to the latest version.

  1. Click the Apple menu.
  2. Select About This Mac.
  3. In the window that appears click Software Update.
  4. Update your macOS if there’s an update you’ve missed.

Disable extensions

Safari extensions may considerably make your like easier, but the downfall is that some of them aren’t given regular technical maintenance they need. A faulty extension can crash itself and cause Safari issues. Consider turning off all extensions in case Safari is no longer runs smoothly.

  1. Open Safari.
  2. Choose Preferences from the Safari menu.
  3. Select the Extensions tab.
  4. Uncheck extensions you want to disable or click Uninstall to completely remove it.

Installing extensions in Safari you actually getting an app on your Mac. That’s why when you press Uninstall you will see a notification like this:

If you select Show in Finder, you will be redirected to Finder, where you can delete the app. Note, though, when you remove the app manually, you may stumble upon its remaining files left after deletion. If you want to save space on your Mac and clear it of unneeded leftover data, we recommend using CleanMyMac X to delete apps. Remove the app safely with the Uninstaller module and then go to the Leftovers tab to prevent decluttering your Mac with app leftover remnants.

Here, CleanMyMac X detected the remaining file after I deleted an extension on Safari:

Safari not responding

If Safari suddenly stopped responding you can as well try the solutions described above. Sometimes, you can quickly fix Safari not responding issue by restarting the application. If those methods didn’t help, here’re some of the actions to start with.

Force quit Safari

If you have trouble with Safari responding, try force quitting the app.

  1. Click the Apple menu.
  2. Select Force Quit.
  3. Choose Safari from the list of apps and click Force Quit.
  4. Confirm your action.

What To Do When Mac Apps Are Not Responding Enough

After your force quit Safari, wait for a couple of minutes before relaunching to let it restart properly.

Remove website data from Finder

There is another way to delete cache and history except doing it straight from Safari. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Go to Finder.
  2. From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
  3. Enter ~/Library/Safari and click Go.
  4. Remove all files that contain History.db in their name and a file LastSession.plist.

You can safely delete these files as Safari will recreate them during your next session.

Terminate specific frozen processes

If the restart of the app doesn’t help to solve the issue, you may be dealing with some specific processes that cause Safari freezing. You can attempt to terminate them in Activity Monitor.

Open Activity Monitor and enter Safari the search field. You will see all the processes running. Activity Monitor may run a little diagnostic and mark some processes as Not Responding in case some of them cause Safari to freeze.

If you see red-colored Safari-related lines in Activity Monitor, these are the issues that affect the apps performance. Double-click on such processes and quit them. This may help you if Safari stopped responding to a faulty extension.

Safari won't open

If Safari isn’t opening, it can be difficult to reset it properly. This case is less frequent, but it still has a couple of solutions. The first thing to do when Safari doesn’t want to launch is to to go to Activity Monitor and see what’s holding your browser back. As the previous step suggests, terminate the red-colored processes if there are any. You can also do the full reset of the app.

Consider fully resetting Safari

Unfortunately, there is no magic Reset Safari button that would make your browser function properly in a minute. But, CleanMyMac X allows you to reset apps on your Mac with just a push of a button.

  1. Download your free version of CleanMyMac X and launch it.
  2. Click the CleanMyMac X menu and select Preferences.
  3. In the Ignore List tab, select Uninstaller.
  4. Uncheck Ignore system application.
  5. Close the Preferences window and go back to CleanMyMac X.
  6. Choose Uninstaller.
  7. Scroll the list to find Safari and right-click it.
  8. Click Select “Safari” for reset and press Reset.

Launch Safari after the reset to check if CleanMyMac X fixed what had been wrong.

'Safari can not be opened because of a problem' message

It is a rare case with Safari, but some users reported receiving a message that Safari cannot be opened because of a problem. It was impossible to launch Safari, and the message appeared at every attempt to open the browser.

It appeared that the iTunes 12.8.1 update somehow made Safari unavailable for users. Some Apple enthusiasts discovered the solution: it was necessary to go to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ from Finder and delete the MobileDevice.framework file.

Some users who experienced the issue found that the iTunes version release updated the MobileDevice.framework file to the version incompatible with Safari. That's why deleting the file was the only way to get Safari back to normal work.

Are

This case showed that sometimes its Apple users themselves who find solutions for issues with Safari. But what if it occurs again and deleting the file mentioned wouldn’t help?

Make sure you have another browser on your Mac

We can't predict what will happen to Safari next time, so it's better to back yourself up with another browser installed on your Mac. Having a Safari alternative means you can always Google up the answers you need and troubleshoot Safari with the help of other users or Apple support.

As you see, Safari is not that innocent and is sometimes to blame for malfunctioning due to various reasons. If you notice that Safari starts behaving not the way it should, removing cache and other website data may help. Consider force quitting Safari and checking Activity Monitor for any hints that may tell you what's wrong with the browser. Also, don't forget to install an alternative browser for any issues that may arise.

Ok, I get it. There is no equivalent to the PC’s Ctrl+Alt+Del shortcut on a Mac® to force quit an application. So how do I quit that annoying program that’s not responding?

Luckily, Apple® has you covered and gives you multiple options. The shortcut actually exists, and moreover, there are a few other extremely convenient ways to fight buggy apps. Today I’m going to list three easy ways to force-quit an application on a Mac, without harming the system.

Let’s dive in!

Is it Safe to Force Quit?

Forcing a frozen application to quit is the same as killing the symptoms when we get sick versus curing the virus. We need to see the bigger picture and understand what causes the problem and how to cure it while understanding how to avoid it from happening again.

The number one reason we have a problem with frozen applications in a Mac is insufficient RAM—or, in other words, a lack of computer memory to operate the system compared to the number of applications you usually open (including those numerous open tabs in a browser). So anytime your system utilizes all of its existing resourses to run the task, it becomes unresponsive. Think of RAM like a physical workbench. The more space (memory) you have to work, the more projects you can have out to work on. Less space? Less ability to work on multiple things at once.

Forcing Mac to quit the application does resolve the problem but may have downsides. When you close an application in the traditional manner, it will clean everything it runs in the background and alert you to save the work. When you force close on Mac, you may end up losing files and data, or mess things up on the drive. Although the effect will only be related to that one particular application that got stuck, sometimes it can hurt.

Using a smart app like Parallels Toolbox can help you to free up unused memory on the fly and prevent the applications from getting frozen over and over again. The package includes over 30+ useful apps for everyday needs that any Mac user will benefit from, including downloading videos and music from sites like YouTube, taking screenshot or record videos, optimize your Mac performance, free up extra space and so much more.

You can download Toolbox and try it out for free here (no registration needed).

1. Force Quit Using the Apple Menu

The most conventional and effective way to close frozen programs is to go to the macOS® menu bar, located along the top of the screen in the Finder menu.

To force quit an application, simply do the following:

  1. Click on the black apple icon in the upper-left corner.
  2. From the drop-down menu, select “Force Quit…”. You will be directed to the new window named “Force Quit Application” where all the magic happens.
  3. Now all you have to do is select the application you want to close and choose “Force Quit.”

If you don’t know which application is stuck, pay attention to the ones that have the note “Not Responding.” This usually appears next to frozen applications.

2. Force Quit with Mac Shortcut

To do the same thing but faster, use Mac shortcut keys to close frozen applications.

  1. On your keyboard, press and hold Command + Option + Esc. It will immediately bring up a “Force Quit Application” window.
  2. Select the frozen application from the dialogue box and select “Force Quit.”

This could be your go-to method if the mouse or trackpad is lagging.

What To Do When Mac Apps Are Not Responding Important

3. Close Application from Activity Monitor (Ctrl+Alt+Del Alternative)

Here’s the pinnacle of this article.

Very few Apple owners know that macOS provides an almost identical alternative to the traditional PC Control+Alt+Delete shortcut—and does it better. Yes, we all know that in Windows that keyboard shortcut is often used to open the Task Manager window. (To be honest, it’s needed too often, which is why we’re on a Mac.) From Task Manager, you can track applications, services, performance, and processes, and kill some of them when they’re unresponsive.

You can easily do all of that and more on the macOS native application called Activity Monitor.

To kill an application using Activity Monitor, do the following.

1. On your keyboard, press Command + Space, or click on Spotlight in the top-right corner of the screen.

2. In the “Spotlight Search” window, start typing “Activity Monitor.”

3. Once Activity Monitor is highlighted, hit Enter.

4. In the Activity Monitor processes list, select the application you want to quit and click “Force a process to quit” in the left corner.

What to Do If Force Quit Isn’t Working?

If all the applications stop responding and you can’t quit them using one of the methods described above, you can force your Mac to restart. To do so, press and hold the Control+Command+Power buttons.

Alternatively, you can force Mac to shut down by pressing and holding the power button, or use one of the many other shortcuts.

What’s the Solution?

Since your Mac doesn’t have enough space to run all those applications you need, the most obvious step would be to increase the RAM. If you own an iMac® or the older generation of MacBook Pro®, you can simply buy memory and upgrade your existing computer. With the new Mac generation, you don’t have that option anymore because the RAM is glued and soldered to the motherboard. You either buy a new computer or struggle.

Alternatively, you can clean your memory to free up space using Parallels® Toolbox. Parallels designed a tool set for macOS and PC users to efficiently manage their computer with just a few clicks—without any professional knowledge needed. Within the application (which is available to try for free), you can easily free up unused computer memory, clean your drive, and help your Mac run at max speed with a dozen other useful utilities.

If you’re interested in learning how easily one click can save precious disk space, check out how much space I took back with the Parallels Toolbox tool Clean Drive:

In one click (and about 10 seconds), I successfully removed 4 GB of clutter and reclaimed space on my hard drive.

So there you have it. Take care of your Mac with those quick tips, and remember to always save your work!