{"id":42219,"date":"2021-03-02T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=42219"},"modified":"2021-03-02T13:14:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:14:01","slug":"tech-tip-how-to-force-quit-a-macbook-pro-with-touch-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/42219-tech-tip-how-to-force-quit-a-macbook-pro-with-touch-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Force Restart MacBook Pro With Touch Bar & MacBook Air"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"macOS<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have a very<\/i> embarrassing admission to make: after 33 years of being a Mac user, I was completely stumped when I recently tried to force quit and restart my 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar<\/a>. Fortunately, I was able to figure it out, so I thought I’d pass along this tip to readers of the Rocket Yard who might also run into this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update<\/strong>: March 2, 2021 \u2013 This tip also applies to 2018, 2019, 2020 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 MacBook Air With Touch ID models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all happened while I was upgrading the MacBook Pro to macOS 10.13 High Sierra beta 8<\/a>. During the installation process, my MacBook Pro restarted several times, and at one point, I was asked to log in. I did so and then followed the prompt to log into iCloud. So far, so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next time I looked at the MacBook Pro screen, it was black except for a progress bar that didn’t seem to be making any progress. I waited about a half-hour and finally decided it was time to force quit the laptop, reboot, and see if that solved the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On just about every recent Mac I’ve ever owned, there’s a simple method of doing a force restart \u2014 just hold down the power button until the machine reboots. On old Macs, the power button was useful for a similar method \u2014 shutting off the Mac and then turning it back on. So I started searching for the power button on the MacBook Pro…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The (nearly) invisible power button of the 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you see it in the picture above?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t. And believe it or not, in the months that I had owned the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, I had never needed to use a power button. The login screen was always there when I flipped the display up, and the MBP always went to sleep when I flipped the screen back down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Force Restart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What I didn’t realize is that the Touch ID<\/strong> button at the far right end of the Touch Bar is actually a button \u2013 the power button<\/em>. I had placed my finger on it plenty of times to log in but never actually pushed it. All it takes to force a restart of a frozen MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is to press down on the Touch ID button until the device reboots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one case where I think Apple carried its simplistic design a little bit too far. Would it have been that much of a bother to just put a small power button graphic above the Touch ID button? The only clue that the Touch ID button is also a power button is at the very bottom of this Apple support page<\/a> in a discussion on Touch Bar accessibility features:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Press<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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*Sigh*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 Originally posted on July 12, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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