How to clear background apps and processes on Mac

In this tutorial, we’ll share various easy ways to find and kill apps and hidden system processes that are running in the background on your Mac.

Closing unnecessary or problematic background apps or processes can help if:

• Your Mac feels slow and laggy
• It has run out of application memory
• Apps are repeatedly crashing
• Your computer is heating up
• The internet feels super slow

It can also save battery on your MacBook. So, we’ll share how to do that.

But before you read further, please note that this guide explains a topic that’s different from the “Background Items Added” warning you may see on your Mac. You can manage these app background items in System Settings > General > Login Items > Allow in the Background.

Quit the app

This is one of the most fundamental things you can do if an app isn’t working correctly. For instance, after you change a setting on your Mac, you may need to quit the open app and relaunch it before those new settings can take effect.

If you’re new to Mac, you should know that clicking the red close button in the top left corner of an app window will not necessarily quit it. To actually do that, click the app name next to the Apple icon  and choose Quit app name. In addition to this, you can explore five other ways to quit a Mac app.

Force quit a problematic app

If an app stops responding, you won’t be able to quit it normally. In that case, click the Apple icon  > Force Quit. You can also press the Command + Option + esc keys together.

Now, select the app in question and hit Force Quit. You can also highlight all listed items by pressing Command + A and clear everything in one swoop.

Remember that force quitting an app won’t give you a chance to save your unsaved work.

Learn what to do if you can’t use the Force Quit option.

Look at the menu bar to see if an app is running

Some apps or extensions that are open and running won’t show up as traditional apps in the Dock or the Force Quit window.

You can quit such apps by clicking their icon in the top menu bar and selecting the Quit option. Some also reveal the close option if you right-click on the app icon in the menu bar.

Use Activity Monitor to find and kill the running app or process

Activity Monitor is a built-in Apple tool that lists all the apps and processes running on your Mac. Among other things, it shows the CPU, RAM, and network utilization by each app and process.

If a specific app feels slow or your computer overall appears more sluggish than usual, look for the problematic app or process in Activity Monitor and close it. Here are the needed steps:

1. Open Activity Monitor on your Mac using Spotlight Search, Launchpad, or the Applications folder.
2. Make sure you’re in the CPU tab.
3. The processes taking the most system resources should be at the top. If not, click the %CPU subsection to sort the list with the most demanding services on the top.
4. Select the one consuming the most resources, even though you’re not actively using that app or service. You can also look for unresponsive apps or processes. These have the words (Not Responding) next to their name.
5. After you’ve selected the problematic app or process, click the X button from the top and choose Quit or Force Quit. You can also double-click a process name and choose Quit > Quit or Force Quit.

Note: The Quit option won’t work if it could lead to data loss or interference with another app. So, it may fail for some non-responding apps. Force Quit is a brute method and will close the app forcefully without caring about unsaved data or app interference.

Important: Do not close all processes using Activity Monitor. Secondly, do not close ones whose importance or purpose you do not understand. If you do quit them, it may freeze the machine or lead to a system crash. In that case, your mouse and trackpad inputs will be frozen, and you will have to hold the power button for a while until your Mac does a force reboot.

Restart your computer

Regularly turning off your Mac and turning it back on is another time-tested method to clear running apps and processes. It gives your Mac a fresh start, which generally improves resource management and makes your computer work smoothly.

Click the Apple icon  from the top left and choose Restart.

If you notice that some apps open automatically after you restart your computer, and you do not want that, here’s how to stop that from happening.

Use the Terminal to see and close a running process

You can use Terminal to see running processes and end them. However, if this method fails to work for you, use the other options mentioned in this guide.

1. Open Terminal on your Mac.
2. Type top and hit the enter/return key to get a list of all currently running processes. Like the Activity Monitor, you will also see the resources these processes are consuming.
3. Go through the list, find the process you want to end, and note its Process ID (PID) number.
4. Now, click Shell > New Window from the top menu bar to open another Terminal window. Type kill -PID number like kill -712 and hit the return key to kill this process.

Use third-party tools like QuitAll

Lastly, you have the choice to rely on third-party apps for this job. One of the options I love is a little utility called QuitAll. You can try it out from their official website or through a Setapp subscription.

Once you install the app, open it and click its icon in the top menu bar. You can now hit the Quit All button to close all running apps. You can also use the power button next to an individual app to just close it.

Furthermore, clicking the preferences icon in the bottom right and choosing View background apps will present a long list of running processes. You can kill them all or just close them individually.

Check out next: Why your iPhone may be slow and 18 solutions to fix it