Sometimes apps go awry and become unresponsive, making it difficult to do anything in the app and sometimes even impossible to leave the app. If you find yourself stuck inside one of these frozen apps, no worries as the iPhone, iPad and the Apple Watch allow you to force close an app that has locked up. Read on to find out how this force close procedure works.
iPhone, iPad and upper Touch
Force closing an unresponsive iOS app is simple — just double-click on the home button to display a carousel of all the open applications that are running on your device. You can force close them by swiping up on them and pushing them off the screen in iOS 7 and iOS 8. If you are running an older version of iOS, the procedure is similar.Simply double tap the home button to display a series of icons that represent your open applications and then tap-hold on those icons until they start jiggling. Use the minus sign in the corner to force close the app.
If you are stuck inside an app and the home button is unresponsive, you can use these steps to force close the app and restore your phone to normal operations.
Press and hold the power button on your iOS device until the “Slide to Power Off” notification appears.
When the power off slider appears, you can release the power button and then immediately press and hold the home button.
Continue holding the home button for several seconds while iOS works to force close the app.
If you have followed the steps correctly, iOS should force close the app and bring you back to the home screen.
Apple Watch
Even Apple Watch apps lock up sometimes, leaving you stranded in the app without any way of exiting back to the home screen or your Glances. If you need to force close you app, you’ll have to press the side button on the Apple Watch and hold it until the shut down option appears. Then release the side button and press it again to force quit the app you last had open.
