How to Find an Application PID on a Mac

An application's PID number stands for process identification number. With an application's PID number you can force an application to quit or find out more information about that application. To find an application's PID on a Mac you don't have to do anything complicated, as long as you are running Mac OS X 3.0 and higher. If you are running an older version of the Mac OS you will need to use the Terminal to find an application's PID number.

Things You'll Need

• Mac OS X 3.0 and higher

Instructions

1. Open the application whose PID you would like to find.

2. Open Activity Monitor on your Mac. Activity Monitor is found in the Utilities folder. You can also find it by typing in "Activity Monitor" in the search function at the top right hand corner of your screen and pressing "Return." Double click on Activity Monitor to open it.

3. Select "Active Processes" from the pull-down menu in the top right hand corner of the Activity Monitor window.

4. Find your application in the list. The number under the "Process ID" column to the left hand side of the window is the application's PID.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find an application's PID using Terminal with older Macs. Open Terminal and type in the command "top" then press "Return." The application's PID is the first number next to the application's name.

• Do not select "Quit Process" from the Activity Monitor window unless you want to force quit an application.

References

• University of Ohio: Killing Programs/Processes Under Mac OS X

Resources

• Apple Support: Mac OS X: How to Find Background Applications