◆Error Codes Wiki

Mac Application Not Responding

Warningapplication

Overview

Mac "Application Not Responding" means an app has frozen and is no longer processing user input or system events.

Key Details

  • App shows spinning beach ball (SBBOD)
  • Finder title bar shows "Not Responding"
  • App may recover on its own or need force quit
  • macOS waits before declaring app unresponsive

Common Causes

  • Application performing heavy computation
  • Insufficient RAM causing memory pressure
  • App bug or infinite loop
  • Disk I/O bottleneck from slow storage

Steps

  1. 1Wait 30-60 seconds — the app may recover
  2. 2Force Quit: Command+Option+Esc, select app, click Force Quit
  3. 3Check Activity Monitor for CPU and memory usage
  4. 4If recurring, try deleting app preferences and cache

Tags

macmacosapplicationapp not respondingfixtroubleshooting

More in Application

windows-C0000005-access-violationWindows Error 0xC0000005 — Access Violation
Error
windows-C000007B-bad-image-formatWindows Error 0xC000007B — Bad Image Format
Error
windows-C0000142-application-init-failedWindows Error 0xC0000142 — Application Init Failed
Error
windows-SxS-Error-side-by-side-configuration-errorWindows Error SxS-Error — Side-by-Side Configuration Error
Warning
windows-DLL-Missing-dll-not-foundWindows Error DLL-Missing — DLL Not Found
Warning
windows-app-runtime-r6025Windows Runtime Error R6025 — Pure Virtual Function Call
Warning

Frequently Asked Questions

Wait 30 seconds first. If the app does not recover, force quit.