How to Quit Mail on Mac, Including When It Stops Responding
To quit Mail on Mac, click Mail in the menu bar and choose Quit Mail, or press Command-Q. Apple’s Mac User Guide gives the rule: “To quit an app, choose App Name > Quit App in the menu bar”.
Apple’s pages use Preview and Safari as their examples, so the Mail version of that step is this site’s reading of the same rule. The guide’s own example reads: “For example, choose Preview > Quit Preview (or press the keyboard shortcut Command-Q).”
Clicking the close button in the top left corner of the Mail window closes that window, and Mail stays open. Apple’s warning: “the window closes, but the app remains open (a small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock indicates that the app is still open).”
Why quit Mail normally before you force it?
A normal quit lets Mail finish its own housekeeping first, and Apple’s page says “before you decide to force an app to quit, try to quit the app normally”. The reason it gives: “When an app quits normally, it can do what it needs to do before quitting, such as to save changes.”
Apple’s normal routes are the shortcut and the menu: “Press Command-Q.” or “choose Quit from the app’s menu in the menu bar.” For Mail, that menu is the one named Mail.
How do I force quit Mail when it is not responding?
Force quit is Apple’s answer when the app is not responding, and Apple states the condition: “If you can’t quit an app normally because it isn’t responding, you can force the app to quit.”
- Press Option (or Alt), Command, and Esc at the same time, which Apple words as “Press these three keys together: Option (or Alt), Command, and Esc.” If your Mac has a Touch Bar, Apple adds that “Esc is on the left side of the Touch Bar”.
- Or open the Apple menu in the corner of your screen and choose Force Quit.
- In the Force Quit window, select Mail, then click Force Quit. On Apple’s page that step reads “Select the unresponsive app, then click Force Quit”.
Picking Mail from that list is this site’s substitution. If Finder is the one stuck instead, Apple’s page says to “Select Finder in the Force Quit window, then click Relaunch.”
What if Mail will not force quit?
Restart the Mac. The next step on Apple’s page carries its own condition: “If you can’t force the app to quit, try restarting your Mac: From the Apple menu” in the corner of your screen, “choose Restart.”
If your Mac won’t restart, Apple’s next step is to hold the power button. The page puts it this way: “If your Mac won’t restart, force your Mac to turn off: Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.”
On a laptop with Touch ID, that button is the Touch ID button, as the same page notes: “On laptop computers that have Touch ID, press and hold the Touch ID button.” Then “Press and release the power button to turn your Mac back on.”
Will Mail reopen its windows the next time I open it?
Yes, unless you turn on one setting. The Mac User Guide’s tip: “If an app has windows open when you quit the app, the windows are shown the next time you open the app.”
To change that, open System Settings from the Apple menu, click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar, go to Windows, and turn on “Close windows when quitting an application”. Apple adds that in the sidebar “you may need to scroll down”.
What Apple’s two pages do not cover
The Mac User Guide quit page and the force quit article cited below print no Dock route: the strings Dock menu, right click and Control click, with or without a hyphen, count 0 on both pages. This article gives no Dock route.
Neither page prints Activity Monitor, and neither names a Mail cause such as a stuck outbox: Outbox and frozen count 0 on both. The strings macOS 26 and macOS 15 count 0 on both pages, so this article gives no version number.
More Mac and Mail help on this site: deleting multiple emails in Mail on an iPad, clearing system storage on a Mac, and backing up a MacBook to iCloud.
Frequently asked questions
What is the keyboard shortcut to quit Mail on a Mac?
Command-Q. Apple’s force quit article lists it first under quitting normally: “Press Command-Q.” The menu route is the same result: Mail, then Quit Mail.
Why does Mail stay open after I close its window?
Closing a window and quitting the app are two different things on a Mac, and the Mac User Guide spells it out: “the window closes, but the app remains open (a small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock indicates that the app is still open).”
How do I force quit Mail on a Mac that is not responding?
Press Option (or Alt), Command, and Esc together, or choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, then select Mail and click Force Quit. Apple ties this to a condition: “If you can’t quit an app normally because it isn’t responding, you can force the app to quit.”
What if Mail still will not quit after a force quit?
From that point Apple’s page says “If you can’t force the app to quit, try restarting your Mac”, and “If your Mac won’t restart, force your Mac to turn off” by holding the power button “for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.” Then press and release the power button to start it again.
Does Apple list a way to quit Mail from the Dock?
Apple’s two pages cited below print none: Dock menu, right click and Control click count 0 on both, with or without a hyphen.