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Mac OS 10.15.2 applications do not quit

Shortly after installing 10.15.2, I've begun to have the problem of applications not quitting. Selecting "quit" causes the screens for the app to close, but it's still present in the "force-quit" list, sometimes (but I don't think all the time) its icon remains in the dock, and in all cases the app is thenceforth "dead," that is, I cannot use it again without a system restart. Force-quit sometimes appears to work (the app's icon disappears from the list), but in fact the app's still ghosting somewhere because I still can't use it. A normal system restart doesn't work, presumably because these ghost apps are interfering (sometimes I get the message that they cancelled restart, sometimes not), and so I have to hold down the start button for the requisite 10 seconds or so. This has happened with Firefox, Dreamweaver, and MS Excel, possibly others as well; it's a very frequent problem, but of course it doesn't always happen.


Anybody have a suggestion?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 17, 2020 6:02 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 17, 2020 9:04 AM

Boot into Recovery (Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities>  Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well if Catalina) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.

Recovery: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904



To trouble shoot further you can:


Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc. Login and test. Reboot and test will take a little longer as caches get rebuilt. Reboot as normal—sometimes this is all it takes to resolve issues

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.


Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 


Similar questions

4 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 17, 2020 9:04 AM in response to William Williams

Boot into Recovery (Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities>  Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well if Catalina) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.

Recovery: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904



To trouble shoot further you can:


Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc. Login and test. Reboot and test will take a little longer as caches get rebuilt. Reboot as normal—sometimes this is all it takes to resolve issues

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.


Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 


Jan 17, 2020 10:47 AM in response to BORg529

These are standard recovery procedures of course, and I should have mentioned that I'd already tried them, except: ;) I didn't actually try running for very long in safe mode. I had tried leroydouglas's suggestion of starting in safe mode and then immediately restarting, but that didn't seem to help. But I've been running in safe mode all morning, and everything seems to run fine (that is, quit fine, LOL) while actually in safe mode. So now, of course, I'm going to have to go through the laborious procedure of bringing in my various additions one at a time and trying to figure out the source of the problem. Creative Cloud? My VPN? My anti-virus app... etc. So, thanks the reply, which I've dutifully marked "helpful," and wish me luck!

Mac OS 10.15.2 applications do not quit

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