How to Force Restart or Hard Reset MacBook

If your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro suddenly freezes up you should be able to fix the issue with a simple hard reset, also known as a force restart.

If your mouse cursor still works, clicking the Apple icon in the top left corner and selecting “Restart…” will usually unfreeze your MacBook.

That being said, if your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro locks up, and you’re unable to shut it down normally, you need to hard reset it.

A hard reset is a fast solution and it should return your computer to a normal state. Before you hard reset your MacBook, note that this process won’t wipe your computer’s data, it just reboots the device.

Here are the steps to follow in order to fix your frozen MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

How to Hard Reset MacBook Air or MacBook Pro

This is where you will find the power button on your MacBook

In order to force restart your MacBook, you need to know where the power button is. On newer MacBook models, the power button is the Touch ID button that’s located in the upper right-hand corner of the computer.

On some newer MacBook models, you’ll find the Touch ID button on the Touch Bar’s surface. It’s the button furthest to the right.

On MacBook models with physical F1-F12 keys, it’s located in the upper right-hand corner. If you own an older MacBook with an optical drive, the key doubles as the Eject button.

If your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro stops responding, here’s how to force restart it:

1. To force a restart your MacBook, you need to press and hold down the Command (⌘) button, the Control (Ctrl) key, and the power button at the same time.
2. Hold the keys down until your MacBook’s screen goes blank and the computer restarts.
3. Once your computer reboots, you’ll need to sign back in.
4. If force restarting doesn’t help alleviate the lockups and freezes, you should try charging your MacBook for up to an hour and/or rebooting it into Diagnostics Mode to see if the issue is hardware-related.
5. If you can’t find anything wrong, you’ll want to get in contact with Apple customer support.

You shouldn’t have to force restart your MacBook regularly as it can make you lose your work. If your MacBook is frequently locking up, you’ll want to check out our guide to fixing common macOS problems. You may even want to get in touch with Apple support.

If your MacBook is freezing up all the time, you update your applications via the App Store, update your Mac’s software, or investigate other potential solutions.

Sometimes the solution is as simple as force closing apps that are hogging resources in the background or otherwise causing your MacBook to freeze.

Install macOS Sonoma 14.5 for Better Security

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If security is important to you, think about installing Apple's macOS Sonoma 14.5 update right away. macOS Sonoma 14.5 delivers 20+ security patches and these will help protect your device and it data from harm.  You'll also get patches from macOS updates you missed when you upgrade to macOS Sonoma 14.5. macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 included two security patches while macOS Sonoma 14.4 brought 50+ security updates to compatible Mac devices. The latter also delivered quantum security protection for iMessage. Apple says the upgrade gives iMessage "the strongest security properties of any at-scale messaging protocol in the world." Apple's macOS Sonoma 14.3 update brought 16 new security patches to Mac. These will help keep your device and its data protected from harm.  macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 featured one security patch and it fixed an issue where a user who shares their screen may unintentionally share the incorrect content. macOS Sonoma 14.2 included a whopping 20 security patches for your Mac. If you want to learn more about them, head here. The software also included iMessage Contact Key Verification which improves the security of iMessage. macOS Sonoma 14.1.2 delivered two security patches, both related to WebKit. These patches were extremely important. macOS Sonoma 14.1 had numerous security patches on board and they addressed issues with Photos, Safari, Siri and more. You can learn more about them over at Apple. macOS Sonoma 14.0, the first version of macOS Sonoma, brought a ton of new security patches to Mac. And when we say a ton, we mean a ton.  It delivered over 50 security updates to Mac users. You can learn more about the particulars over on Apple's security site. In addition to the patches, macOS Sonoma brings additional enhancements to privacy and security including improvements to Communication Safety beyond Messages. It now includes content sent and received in the systemwide photo picker and third-party apps. You also have an option to blur out sensitive photos and videos before you choose to view them. There's also an expanded Lockdown Mode which will help protect you against cyber attacks and improved sharing permissions which means you have more control over what you share with the apps on your device.  If you skipped older versions of macOS, you'll get the security patches from those updates with your macOS Sonoma 14.5 update.

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