6 Ways to Restart Your Mac: Apple Menu, Shortcuts, and More

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Restart a Mac desktop or MacBook with these easy methods
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If your Mac computer suddenly becomes frozen or begins to act slow and sluggish, restarting your Mac can help clear its memory and process items at a normal speed upon bootup. There are several ways to restart your Mac, which can be useful in the event you are unable to access certain commands or programs as a result of computer issues. Read on to learn how to restart your Mac, with expert tips from computer and phone repair specialist Gonzalo Martinez.

Ways to Restart a Mac

The easiest way to restart a Mac is by clicking the Apple menu button in the upper-left corner and choosing Restart . You can also use a keyboard shortcut ( Ctrl+Eject or Cmd+Ctrl+Eject ), Terminal, or the power button on your computer. You can also use remote access to remotely restart your Mac.

Method 1
Method 1 of 6:

Using the Apple Menu

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  1. When asked if to confirm that you want to restart your Mac, click Restart to continue. Your Mac desktop or MacBook will restart immediately.
    • If you don't want the windows that are open now to reopen upon startup, deselect the "reopen windows when logging back in" option. [1]
    • According to Martinez, restarting your Mac clears out the cache in your RAM. If your Mac is slow, you can restart it to make sure applications you're no longer using aren't still taking up some of your RAM. Martinez also suggests using Activity Monitor to find out how much memory is being used by applications on your Mac, and giving it a quick restart if too much RAM is in use.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 6:

Using the Shutdown Menu

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  1. Depending on your Mac, you might need to hold the power button instead of the eject button. After a few seconds, you will be prompted to restart your Mac. [2]
  2. Your computer will immediately restart itself.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 6:

Using a Keyboard Shortcut

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  1. If your Mac is unresponsive, try pressing Ctrl + ⌘ Cmd + ⏏ Eject to restart it. This command will prompt you to save any open documents to prevent data loss. You can opt to save them or just allow your Mac to close the associated apps automatically. [3]
  2. 2
    Restart your Mac without prompting. If your Mac is unresponsive and you weren't able to reboot it with the previous keyboard shortcut, press the Ctrl + ⌘ Cmd + Power keys all at the same time to restart it instantly without it asking you to verify your command. Your Mac will not prompt you to save any work or close open apps, so you should only use this option if your Mac is unresponsive and the previous shortcut didn't work.
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Method 4
Method 4 of 6:

Using the Terminal Application

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  1. 1
    Open Spotlight. You can also use a Linux command in your Mac's Terminal to restart it. Click the Spotlight icon, which resembles a magnifying glass, in your menu bar. This opens the Spotlight search feature.
    • Alternatively, you can press ⌘ Cmd + Space to open Spotlight.
    • If there is a magnifying glass icon on one of your function keys on your keyboard, pressing that key will open Spotlight as well.
  2. 2
    Type terminal and double-click it to open it. When you type "terminal" into Spotlight, it will pull up the Terminal app.
    • Be sure to save any open documents before you continue, as you will not be prompted to save your work before your Mac shuts down.
  3. Your computer will restart immediately.
    • Alternatively, you can type reboot or reboot -q . Adding the "-q" will forcefully shut down your computer and restart it.
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Method 5
Method 5 of 6:

Performing a Hard Restart

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  1. If your Mac will not restart or shut down any other way, you can perform a hard restart. It's best to do this when there aren't any applications running or files open. You should also avoid hard restarting your Mac if you're actively transferring or downloading files.
  2. Don't lift your finger from the Power button until your Mac is totally off. [4] This process should take between two and three seconds.
  3. If your Mac doesn't doesn't restart, wait a few seconds before pressing the power button again.
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Method 6
Method 6 of 6:

Using Remote Access

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  1. 1
    Click the Apple icon in your toolbar and choose System Settings . Use this method to make it possible for other people to shut down your Mac remotely.
    • On older versions of macOS, this will say System Preferences .
  2. The Sharing option has an icon of a folder with a yellow diamond on it.
  3. It's in the left-hand menu in the Sharing window.
    • You can now close the System Settings window.
  4. You can also use any search engine that you prefer if you don't like Google.
  5. Google will display your IP address at the top of search results.
    • Copy your IP address or write it down.
  6. This can be a Mac, Linux, or Windows computer.
  7. If you're on Windows, you can use Terminal, PowerShell, or the Command Prompt. On Linux or another Mac, just open a Terminal window.
  8. Replace username with the admin username on your Mac, and replace ip_address with the IP address you copied from Google.
    • You will be prompted to enter your password to continue. Once your password is accepted, you'll see a prompt.
  9. Your Mac will now restart.
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      Tips

      • If your computer has become completely frozen and will not allow you to access menu items on your Mac, use the keyboard shortcut method outlined above to restart your computer. This method will not require you to use any menus to confirm that you want to restart your computer.
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      Warnings

      • Do not hard reboot your Mac unless it's absolutely necessary to do so. Always try to shut your Mac down normally first.
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      • Do not use the Terminal method to restart your computer on a regular basis. This method does not give any running processes the time they need to quit normally and save settings, which could result in eventual degradation of the operating system.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/shut-down-or-restart-your-mac-mchlp2522/mac
      2. ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650
      3. ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650
      4. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/shut-down-or-restart-your-mac-mchlp2522/mac

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