How to Kill Background Processes on Your Mac: 8 Best Methods

Written by

Hashir Ibrahim

Reviewed by

Ojash

Last updated: August 26, 2023

Expert verified

Background processes, running silently without your direct interaction, can eat up valuable memory, CPU, or network resources, leading to system lag, overheating, or even application crashes. Luckily, there are several effective methods to kill these background processes and ensure a smoother, more responsive Mac experience.

In this guide, I’ll explore the best methods to kill background processes on your Mac, optimizing your Mac’s performance and ensuring a more seamless user experience. So, let’s dive in to reclaim your Mac’s resources and give it a much-needed performance boost.

Why Should You Kill Background Processes on Your Mac?

Killing background processes on your Mac can offer several benefits that improve your computer’s performance and overall user experience. Here are some reasons why you should kill background process on your Mac:

• 🚀 Increased speed and responsiveness: Background processes can consume a significant portion of your Mac’s resources, including CPU, memory, and network bandwidth. By terminating these processes, you can free up resources, resulting in a faster, more responsive system.
• 🔋 Enhanced battery life: Running multiple background processes can drain your battery quickly. By killing unnecessary processes, you can extend your Mac’s battery life, making it ideal for those on the go.
• 💥 Reduced risk of system crashes: When multiple processes run simultaneously, they can cause your system to become unstable or even crash. By managing background processes, you reduce the risk of system crashes and potential data loss.
• 🔄 Improved multitasking: With fewer background processes running, your Mac can handle more open applications and tasks, allowing you to multitask more efficiently.
• 🛠️ Optimal resource allocation: Killing background processes allows your Mac to allocate resources to the applications that matter most to you, ensuring optimal performance.
• 🌡️ Avoidance of overheating: Background processes can cause your Mac to work harder and generate more heat. Terminating these processes can prevent your Mac from overheating and prolong its lifespan.
• 🌐 Better network performance: Some background processes use network resources, which can slow down your internet speed. Managing these processes can improve your network performance and offer faster internet speeds.
• ⬆️ Smoother system updates: Background processes can sometimes interfere with system updates, causing them to take longer or even fail. By killing these processes, you can ensure smoother, more successful updates.

8 Best Ways to Kill Background Processes on Your Mac

As the number of active processes increases, so does the demand on your Mac’s resources, which can lead to slowdowns, lags, or even crashes. But there are multiple methods to kill background processes on your Mac effectively.

Below, I’ve shared the 8 best ways to terminate these processes, each with its advantages, catering to different levels of user expertise and preferences.

Method 1: Using the Force Quit Feature

The Force Quit feature is a built-in tool on your Mac that allows you to forcibly terminate unresponsive or unwanted applications, including background processes. Here are three different ways to use the Force Quit feature on Mac:

1. Using a Keyboard Shortcut

1. Press the Command ⌘ + Option ⌥ + Escape keys simultaneously.

2. A window will appear, displaying a list of active applications.

3. Select the application you want to terminate from the list.
4. Click the Force Quit button at the bottom of the window.

5. Confirm that you want to force quit the application, and it will be terminated.

2. From Apple Menu

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select Force Quit from the dropdown menu.

3. A window will appear with a list of active applications.
4. Select the application you want to terminate.
5. Click the Force Quit button at the bottom of the window.

6. Confirm that you want to force quit the application, and it will be terminated.

3. In the Activity Monitor

1. Open the Activity Monitor from your Applications folder or by using Spotlight search (press Command ⌘ + Space and type Activity Monitor).

2. In the Activity Monitor, you’ll see a list of active processes, including background processes.
3. Select the process you want to terminate by clicking its name.
4. Click the X button in the top toolbar of the window.

5. Click Force Quit on the pop-up to terminate the process.

Method 2: Via the Dock

The Dock is a convenient feature of the macOS interface that allows you to access your favorite and recently used applications. You can also use it to terminate background processes or applications that are currently running.

Here’s how to kill unused programs via the Dock:

1. Look at the Dock at the bottom of your screen and identify running applications by a small dot under their icons.

2. Once you’ve identified the application you want to terminate, right-click its icon in the Dock.
3. A context menu will appear. Select the Quit option from the menu.

4. The application and any background processes it may be running will be terminated.
5. If the application is unresponsive and doesn’t quit, you can force quit it from the Dock. Right-click the application icon again, press and hold the Option ⌥ key on your keyboard, and the Quit option will change to Force Quit.
6. Select Force Quit from the context menu, and the application will be forcibly terminated.

Method 3: Using Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor, the Mac Task Manager equivalent, is a powerful utility that comes pre-installed with macOS. It provided detailed information about your Mac’s system processes, applications, and overall performance.

This comprehensive tool for managing background processes allows you to easily terminate unwanted or unresponsive tasks. Here’s how to use Activity Monitor to kill background processes on your Mac:

1. Open Activity Monitor by going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.

2. Once Activity Monitor is open, you’ll see a list of active processes displayed in the main window, sorted by their usage of system resources such as CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, Network, or Cache.
3. Identify the background process you want to terminate by browsing the list or using the search box at the top-right corner.

4. Select the process you want to terminate to highlight it and click the X button in the top toolbar.

5. A confirmation window will appear, asking if you want to Quit or Force Quit the process.
6. Click the Quit button in the confirmation window to terminate the selected process.

Method 4: Using a Command in macOS Terminal

The Terminal in macOS allows you to interact with your Mac using text-based commands. It provides a powerful way to manage background processes by giving you direct control over system operations.

Here’s how to use the Terminal to kill background processes:

1. Launch Terminal by going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal, or use Spotlight search by pressing Command ⌘ + Space and typing Terminal.

2. Type the following command in Terminal and press Enter:

top

3. It will display a list of running processes and their corresponding process IDs (PIDs).

4. Locate a process using excessive system resources and note its PID. It’s written to the left of the process name.

5. Next, use the following command to kill the process and press Enter:

kill -9 <PID number>

For example, if the PID is 12345, type kill -9 12345 and press Enter.

Method 5: Using MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner

MacKeeper is a popular utility software that offers a range of tools to optimize your Mac’s performance. One of its useful features is the Memory Cleaner, which can efficiently kill background processes, clear up RAM, and boost your Mac’s speed.

Here’s how to use MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner to free up RAM on your Mac and kill background processes:

1. Download and install MacKeeper on your Mac.
2. Open MacKeeper and click Memory Cleaner under the Performance tab.

3. Click Open.

4. Click Clean Memory.

5. It will clean your Mac and free up available memory. You can see how much memory it freed under Last Cleanup.

Method 6: Removing Startup Items in System Settings

Startup items are applications, files, or processes that automatically launch when your Mac starts up. Over time, having too many startup items can slow down your Mac’s boot time and consume valuable resources, as these processes continue to run in the background.

Here’s how to remove or disable unwanted startup items on Mac:

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings.

2. Select General and click Login Items in the right menu.

3. Here, you’ll see the items that launch when you start up your Mac.
4. Select the login item you want to remove and click the – button at the bottom of the list to remove the login item.

5. After removing the unwanted startup items, restart your Mac to see the changes take effect.

Alternatively, you can use MacKeeper to remove unnecessary login items on your Mac. Here’s how to use MacKeeper’s Login Items to stop unnecessary apps from starting up automatically on startup:

1. Download MacKeeper and install it on your Mac.
2. Open Login Items under Performance in MacKeeper.

3. Click Start Scan.

4. Select unnecessary items from the list and click Remove Selected Items.

5. Tap the Remove button on the pop-up.

6. It will remove your selected items from the system startup list. You can click Rescan to repeat the process.

Method 7: Reboot Your Mac

Rebooting your Mac can be an effective way to kill all background processes and start with a fresh system slate. While this method doesn’t allow for targeted process termination, it can be particularly useful when your Mac becomes slow or unresponsive due to a high number of running background processes.

Here’s how to reboot your Mac:

1. Before rebooting, save any open documents or files to avoid losing unsaved data.
2. If possible, close all apps on Mac to ensure a smooth and safe reboot process.
3. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen to open the Apple menu.
4. In the dropdown menu, click the Restart option.

5. A confirmation dialog will appear, asking if you’re sure you want to restart your Mac. Click the Restart button in the confirmation dialog to initiate the reboot process.

6. Your Mac will shut down and restart automatically. Wait for the startup process to complete and for your desktop to appear.

While rebooting your Mac can be a quick and easy way to kill background processes and improve performance, it may not be the most efficient method if you’re dealing with recurring issues. For targeted process management, consider using one of the other methods mentioned in this guide.

Method 8: Log Out and Log In

Logging out of your user account and logging back in is another effective way to kill all background processes associated with your user session. This method is similar to rebooting your Mac, but it doesn’t require restarting the entire system.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen to open the Apple menu.
2. In the dropdown menu, click the Log Out [Your Name] option.

3. A confirmation dialog will appear, asking if you want to log out.
4. Click the Log Out button in the confirmation dialog to initiate the logout process.

5. Your Mac will close your user session and display the login screen.
6. Enter your username and password to log back into your user account.

Prevent Background Processes from Hogging System Resources

Background processes can make your Mac slow. Now that you know how to kill background processes on your Mac, you can preserve your system resources for other useful functions.

Here are some more tips for you to optimize your Mac’s performance:

• Learn how to speed up a slow Mac to avoid lags, crashes, and random shit downs.
• You should regularly check your Mac’s temperature to ensure it’s not overheating due to excessive system resource consumption.
• MacBook battery is draining fast, it indicates an underlying issue that you must resolve quickly or you’ll have to replace your battery or buy a new Mac.

Frequently Asked Questions