Imagine this: you’re working happily on your Mac when the dreaded beach ball of death appears. A program stops responding or worse, the macOS (or OS X) itself refuses to do anything but stare at you, blankly. You have a frozen Mac app or an OS X freeze. Mac OS not responding can lead to lost productivity or even lost work. Let's go over why it happens, what to do when your Mac freezes or when an Mac OS app stops responding, as well as some tips for preventative maintenance.
We’ll go over frozen apps first, so if your whole Mac freezes, you can jump to the part about fixing a frozen Mac.
There are many occasions when you might want to lock apps on Mac. Maybe you want to lock your financial apps when you give away your Mac for repairing. Or maybe you want to lock your FTP apps so other users don’t mess up your website files. Using AppCrypt To Lock Apps On a Mac. AppCrypt ($29.99) is a premium app for Mac that allows you to. To open the main app window, click on the menu bar icon and enter the app password you’ve set previously. To add an app to the block list, click on the Add App button, and navigate to the particular “.app” file on your Mac. To remove a specific app, select it from the list of blocked apps and click on the Remove App button.
Fixing a frozen app: Why Mac OS apps freeze
There can be a few reasons why apps freeze on Mac. First, sometimes an app freezes on its own, and sometimes it takes down the whole Mac with it. Here's what could be happening:
- Apps freeze in the background.
This could mean there are some apps running that you didn't open, they opened themselves. Probably, they're featured in your startup items, so they automatically launch when you start your Mac. If this happens repeatedly, you need to check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup. - Processes freeze in the background.
This one is different from apps. One app may be running multiple processes, also system processes can be running on their own. - Too many apps and processes running.
Same logic as with the previous issue. But the question here is how many is too many? There is no definite answer to this, it very much depends on the hardware capacity of your Mac. You can read how to check it and fix it below. - Mac system is too cluttered with junk to run even simple tasks.
This is fixable, you can get a Mac optimizing app like CleanMyMac X for the job. Run a scan to find and remove the stuff you don't need, and there's a high change your apps will stop freezing after that.
What to do if an app freezes on your Mac
A frozen app becomes unresponsive and brings your work to a halt. In the worst case scenario, it can lead to lost work or a corrupted file. Fortunately, there are several options to try, and most are quite simple. Here’s what you can do when a program freezes on your Mac. First, you need to quit it. Then, if the app keeps freezing when you launch it, try the next options.
How to quit a frozen or unresponsive program
Quitting and then re-starting an app is a good way for Mac OS to handle a crash. You can do this from the OS X Dock or from the Force Quit window. To force-quit an app from the OS Dock, follow these simple steps:
- Click anywhere outside of the program
- Right-click (or Control-click) on the frozen app’s icon in the Dock. A menu appears.
- Hold down the Option key on your keyboard so that Quit in that menu changes to Force Quit.
- Select Force Quit.
That’s it. The app is instantly closed. Re-launch it and try again. If you prefer to work with the Dock hidden — or if the Dock itself is unresponsive — you can simply bring up the Force Quit dialog box to perform the same task.
Here’s how:
- On your Mac’s keyboard, hit the Option, Command and Escape keys simultaneously (alt + ? + esc).
- The Force Quit dialog box appears with a list of running programs.
- Select the frozen app and then click Force Quit.
- The software will stop running and you’re free to re-launch it at this point.
If you’re using a maintenance utility like CleanMyMac X, it has freezes covered. When CleanMyMac spots an unresponsive app, a notification window with a Quit button pops up, so you could force-quit the app without rummaging around in its menu.
CleanMyMac keeps an eye on other performance issues, too, so if you'd like to get alerts like this one when anything goes wrong, download CleanMyMac X for free and give it a try.
How to fix Mac apps that keep freezing
First, check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup.
To do it go to Settings > Users and Groups > Login items.
Uncheck anything you think might be causing trouble. In fact, just to be sure, uncheck every app and restart your Mac.
Now, find out which process or program is causing the problem. How to see what programs are running on Mac in general? You need launch Activity monitor.
How to find Activity Monitor on Mac: You can do it via the Spotlight Search or just open Launchpad and type it in.
How to open Activity Monitor in Finder: launch it from Applications > Utilities folder > Activity Monitor.
When it opens, you'll probably see hundreds of processes in each tab, but the ones you need now are CPU and Memory tabs. Click on the % CPU sign to sort processes by their influence on your Mac's work. The heaviest ones will show up on the top. They could be your main issue, but don’t rush to deal with them. Some, like kernel, are important system processes and you shouldn’t mess with them.
How to kill a process on Mac OS
However, sometimes your problem does lie within a specific process, you can force quit it (Apple doesn't call it 'to kill a process on Mac', they make it sound fancy). But we're not at Apple HQ, so here's how to kill a Mac OS process:
- Open Activity Monitor.
- You see a list of processes. You can sort them by clicking on %CPU or % Memory in relevant tabs.
- Find the process you want to kill and choose it.
- Click on the octagon with an X sign.
- Done.
Occasionally the problem isn’t with the Mac app, but with the Mac OS itself. If you’re experiencing troubles regularly, it’s time to ask why your Mac keeps freezing. There are several possible reasons, so let’s start with the simplest potential solution.
Why Mac Os Lock Some App For Mac
First, the file you were working with at the time of the freeze may be the issue. To help determine if this is true, try opening a different file with that app and work with it for a while. If it behaves normally, quit and then go back to the file you were working with at the time of the crash. If the errant behavior persists, you may have found your problem. Salvage what you can into a new file.
Make sure that your software and OS X are up-to-date. This is easy to do with software purchased from the Mac App Store. The same goes for OS X. Launch the Mac App Store on your Mac, and you’ll see the list of pending updates, including any for the OS X itself. For third-party software purchased outside of the App Store, visit the manufacturer’s website.
What to do if Mac OS X freezes
If you cannot force-quit a program, or if the Mac OS is completely unresponsive, it’s time for the most obvious action — a reboot.
You can bring up the Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog box instantly by hitting Control plus the Power button. Option four, Shut Down, is selected by default.
Alternatively, you can press and hold the Power button for 1.5-2 seconds to bring up the same dialog box. If things aren’t hopelessly messed up, you’ll get a chance to save your work before your Mac shuts down. If that still doesn’t work, a more drastic option is available.
How to force reboot a frozen Mac
Press Command ?, Control and Power (on earlier MacBook models, use the Media Eject key instead of the Power button) to restart your Mac immediately. Note that you won’t have the option of saving anything in this scenario, but it will definitely reboot your icy Mac.
Once your Mac has restarted, you might find that the hard restart has corrupted the file you were working on. Salvage what you can from it and create a new file.
How to fix a frozen Mac
After the reboot, ensure that your Mac has enough free hard drive space for the OS X, and enough free RAM to do what you want. CleanMyMac X can help you here, too. It removes all the useless files that take up space on your hard drive: app leftovers, mail attachments, cache files, and so on. That way, you can free up additional disk space for the OS X without deleting any of your own files. Plus, CleanMyMac X keeps tabs on how much RAM you’re using and lets you free some up with a tap.
Finally, if system cleanup also fails to fix the problem, you can try to run a clean install of your Mac OS. Just follow the instructions: How to clean install macOS Sierra 10.12
Note: If you don’t know which system your Mac runs, click the apple icon in the top left corner and choose About this Mac. You’ll see the name on the popup window.
That’s it, we hope this guide has helped you fix a frozen Mac. Remember, with day-to-day maintenance, your Mac can offer years of reliable work. On the rare occasion of a frozen program or even frozen OS X, these tips will help get you working and productive again. And software like CleanMyMac X can do some of the monitoring and maintenance for you, so you can focus on what needs to be done.
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Technological innovations have grown and improved widely these days. Together with this comes our necessity of securing our personal computers and devices with passwords. However, it is quite inconvenient for us to type in the password every time we want to open our device.
Thankfully, experts have found a new and more convenient way to lock and unlock phones – through the fingerprint scanning.
The first ever mobile phones to use fingerprint scanning was the Toshiba G500 and G900 in 2007. 5 years later, Apple got the service of a company that specializes on fingerprint reading and identification management software, the AuthenTec. Later on, Apple released their first ever smartphone to have fingerprint scanning, or what we called now the Touch ID in iOS devices.
Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition feature designed by Apple Inc., has been a part of all iPhones since their first debut on the iPhone 5s last 2013 and on all iPads since the iPad Air 2.
Touch ID is really a great help in convenience for those people with iPhones but how about those huge Apple fans who also have their Mac computers? Fortunately, app developers, with the approval of Apple Inc., have developed a way for their users to easily unlock their Mac computers using their iPhones, iPads, and/or Apple watches.
The following are the six best recommended apps that allows unlocking Mac computers through iOS devices like iPhones, iPads, and Apple watches:
1. MacID
Mac Os Lock Shortcut
MacID is an application developed and maintained by one person only named Kane Cheshire, which allows iOS users to lock and unlock Mac computers, control audio, and more, with just using your iPads, iPhones, and/or Apple watches.
This app uses the iPhone Touch ID to perform its locking and unlocking operations. This app also allows automatic locking of Mac computers once your iOS device moves away from it using the Proximity Lock.
For devices without Touch ID, like the iPhone 5c and below, however, MacID will ask for the phone’s passcode instead.
Mac ID can also be used to set new unlock settings for your Mac computer. Moreover, MacID also allows you to control audios, share clipboard contents, and start screensavers between your Mac computer and iOS device. Another feature of MacID is that it allows you to play music from your iTunes library right from your iOS device.
Currently, MacID has a new version of MacID 2.0, or the Unlox. Though Unlox is already available in the App Store, MacID 1 is still available since the Unlox requires devices running iOS 11.2 or newer.
Despite the fact of being one of the pricy apps to use, MacID is still the first choice for recommendation as it is versatile and reliable when it comes to locking and unlocking Mac computers through iOS devices.
Price: US$3.99 (App Store) / Free (Mac App)
Compatibility: Mac with Bluetooth LE running OS X 10.10 or newer
iOS device with Bluetooth LE running iOS 8 or newer
2. Knock 2.0
Knock 2.0, created by William Henderson and Jon Schlossberg, is a free update of its previous version, the Knock 1.0, launched last 2015 that unlocks your Mac without a password.
This app interestingly features the “knocking” on your iPhone twice to unlock your Mac, even when it’s inside your pocket! Just make sure that you’re close enough to the Bluetooth connection established between your iPhone and your Mac.
Knock 2.0 also allows you to unlock your Mac computer through your Apple Watch. Just tap your watch once and voila! Your Mac computer is opened! Your Apple Watch also automatically locks your Mac computer as you walk away from it, and unlocks as you go near it, with the use of the Knock Glance. So leaving your iPhone behind is not much of a problem when you have your Apple Watch with you.
This app also claims of not draining your iPhone’s battery even if you are using it all day every day for it uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a new technology that draws very little power, as Knock securely interacts with your Mac computer.
Price: US$4.99 (App Store) / Free (Mac App)
Compatibility: Mac with Bluetooth LE
iOS 7 or newer
3. Near Lock
Near Lock is another application, developed by Filip Duvnjak and designed by Ivan Suvak Martinovic, which allows you to lock and unlock your Mac automatically using your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.
Through this app, your Mac computer can be automatically locked when walking away from it, and unlocks when you go near it. It seems to somehow counter its name, right?
This app gives you the option to let you set the distance on which your Mac should be locked or unlocked. Near Lock also allows you to control multiple Macs from one single device, share clipboard contents, take photos on failed login attempts in case of intruders, and many more features.
This app also features the background mode in which the app can run even when it is in your pocket. However, the Background Mode is available only in the PRO version of Near Lock that can be bought through an in-app purchase.
Price: Free (App Store and Mac App)
Compatibility: OS X Mavericks or newer
iOS 7 or newer
4. Tether
Tether is another free application, made by a UK-based digital innovation studio called FiaFo, for hassle-free unlocking of Mac computers. It functions the same with Near Lock – automatically locks your Mac when you are away and unlocks it when you are near.
Although it is free to download, Tether includes access to extra functionality through add-ons available as in-app purchases in your iPhone. An example of the add-ons is the customization of the app which includes having access to your Mac’s Apple Menu and controlling media playback.
Price: Free (App Store and Mac App)
Compatibility: Mac running OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 or newer
Screen Lock Mac Os
iOS 8 or newer
5. MacLock
MacLock is another application, developed by Giorgos Moustakas, that uses iPhone’s Touch ID and your Apple Watch to lock and unlock your Mac computer. What makes it different from the rest is the shaking feature. You can shake your iPhone to lock your Mac, or you can just simply tap your Mac’s icon on your phone.
Also, with MacLock on your Apple Watch, you can restart or shut your Mac down even if it is far from you. This unique feature comes in handy especially when you need to do an errand or when you just simply forgot to shut your computer down before you sleep.
Price: US$3.99 (App Store) / Free (Mac App)
Compatibility: Mac with Bluetooth LE
iOS 8 or newer
6. KeyTouch
KeyTouch is the cheapest among the mentioned paid apps. It was developed by two very young Dutch software developers namely Erik van der Plas and Tom de Ruiter when they were just 13 and 14 years old, respectively.
Just like how the MacID and Knock 2.0 function, KeyTouch also uses Touch ID from an iOS device to lock and unlock your Mac computer.
What made this application different from the abovementioned is that KeyTouch allows you to login to websites like Safari, and input passwords in password prompts.
Price: Free (App Store and Mac App)
Compatibility: Mac running OS X Yosemite or newer
iOS 8 or newer
So, there you have it. If just mere lock and unlocking Mac computers are your priority, you can choose to try using the free applications first to see what works best for your device.
You would not need to worry about the security of your data, most especially your passwords, because all of these applications store your data in the Apple Keychain and with heavy encryption.
Mac Os Lock Screen Command
The above mentioned are just some of the most recommended applications that Apple users can use to lock and unlock their Mac computers using their iPhones, iPads, and/or Apple Watches without the hassle of typing in the password. Surely, Apple Inc. and app developers have been serving their customers with determination for better comfort and ease.