What to Do If Your Mac Won’t Shut Down: A Quick Guide

Mac variants come with their own efficient software, which gives it a performance boost. Though Apple products are known for their quality and efficiency still these products also face certain issues sometimes. These issues include speed-related problems and other performance issues. The most common performance-related issues include the slow speed of the system, startup and shutdown process issues. It happens sometimes when your Mac doesn't shut down even after putting in all possible efforts. You can follow the below-mentioned steps to deal with such situations. You can also follow certain steps to free up space on Mac to enhance its performance.

Mac Won’t Shut Down? Take these steps

Force quit frozen applications first: 

System crash or freeze problems that happen due to a single program most of the time. In such a situation force quitting that program will prevent further damage to other programs in the memory. To force quit frozen application press and hold Command + Shift + Option + +Esc. Else press Command + Option + Esc to open Force Quit window. Use up and down arrows to select a program and press ‘Return’ to force quit the program.

After you have regained control over your system, there are things that you should do and check before you start working again with the same applications. Check if the same application is freezing your system time and again. If yes, then:

• Update the application
• Update the package (If the application comes as a package with other applications, like Adobe CC)
• Update Drivers
• Check for any patch releases on the operating system
• Reinstall that particular application

If you are getting random crashes on your system then check for:

• Storage (It should not be filled upto the brim)
• Check for antivirus status
• Status of drivers and updates
• Updates on OS
• You can even try creating a new user account and check if your system crashes in there or not

Use the shutdown shortcut: Hold down Control + Option + Command + the Power button simultaneously to quit all applications and restart the system. You can also press the ‘Eject’ key instead of power button if available. This way you can save your work before you shut down the system. If the cursor isn’t working, try the ‘Return’ button.

Hold down power button: Hold down the power button for a few seconds to force the shutdown. It will force your Macbook to shut down even if an application/s fails to quit. Using this step, it can cause damage to your open application or you can lose unsaved changes. Use this step precautionary as it has its own limitations.

Fix post-restart issues:

Start system in safe mode: If the system freezes even after forced shutdown, restart if and press ‘Shift’ as soon as you hear start-up sound. Release the ‘Shift’ key once you see the Apple logo on your system. This way your system will start in Safe Mode and will try to repair issues with your disk.

Repair disk permissions: Version 10.11 El Capitan has added automatic permission repair. If you are on 10.10 Yosemite or earlier, you can fix slowdown issue this way:

• Open Application > Utilities > Disk Utility
• Choose your hard drive > Click ‘First Aid’ > click ‘Repair Disk Permissions’

This process may take some time to complete and your computer may work slowly until it finishes.

Repair your disk: If your system isn’t tied to a specific program then you can follow these steps to repair your disk.

• Restart your system and hold down the Command + R key as it starts up.
• Select startup disk and click on ‘Repair Disk’.
• Wait for a few seconds to finish the process then restart your computer.

If you are using old OS X 6 Snow Leopard or earlier, you will require booting your system from the OS X install disk to repair disk.

You can follow the above-mentioned steps when your Macbook won’t shut down. You can also reset your System Management Controller (SMC) to fix the problem. Other than startup and shutdown issues you may encounter with certain performance-related issues. These issues on the system caused due to various reasons like unorganized and cluttered data, duplicate files and many other issues. You can deal with these issues using the best Mac cleaning apps. These applications can help you organize and declutter your data instantly. It helps you to improve your system performance and releases some precious disk space. If you still feel that your issue hasn’t been solved or is something else entirely, I would suggest that you approach Apple Support for a proper diagnosis and solution. You can also raise queries on Apple Support Community for professional advice.

Thanks for reading!