Image: James Martin/CNET

For many, MacOS is the most user-friendly operating system on the planet. Along with that user-friendliness come rock-solid applications that will never let you down.

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In theory.

The reality can be a bit different. Apps crash. I have it happen with some regularity. 

This is especially so with Apple Mail. It might seem to be working fine, but out of nowhere it'll stop syncing with my IMAP accounts, and the usual method of closing the app does no good. 

What do you do? Restart the machine? That's one way of taking care of the situation. It's also not the most efficient method. Not only do you lose your flow, but you could accidentally lose work. I've had this very thing happen when I'd forgotten that a particular document was opened and not saved. Reboot, and blammo! Document lost.

That's not an option anyone wants to deal with.  

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And so, we're back to that question, what do you do?

Fortunately, Apple has made it very simple to close stubborn applications. And for those really stubborn applications, there's also the command line. I'm going to show you both ways.

How to force-quit a stubborn app in MacOS

First, the easy route. The first method we'll discuss is the GUI tool, aptly called Force Quit. 

1. Open the Force Quit app

If you have an application that is no longer responding, click the Apple menu at the top left corner of the desktop, and select Force Quit. 

2. Close the offending app

In the resulting pop-up, you'll see a list of all your currently running applications. Locate the app you want to force-quit, select it, and then click Force Quit. That should close the app in question. You can then reopen it and it should return to its regularly scheduled reliability.

You can force-quit any user-facing app in MacOS with the Force Quit tool.

Image: Jack Wallen

Also: How to delete apps on your MacBook in 3 steps

The command line method

You might not know this, but MacOS is very much in line with Linux on many levels. For instance, MacOS includes a powerful command line tool that can simplify a lot of tasks