Forced Restart

A method of restarting a device when it becomes unresponsive by forcing an immediate shutdown and restart through hardware button combinations.

What to Know

Forced Restart provides a critical emergency recovery option when devices become completely unresponsive and won’t react to normal shutdown commands. Unlike graceful shutdowns, forced restarts immediately cut power to all components, clearing locked processes and corrupted memory states that prevent normal operation. This is often the only way to recover devices experiencing kernel panics, infinite boot loops, or complete UI lockups without waiting for battery depletion.

Common Scenarios

Enterprise IT: IT teams instruct users to perform forced restarts when corporate devices freeze during critical tasks or become unresponsive after software updates. This self-service recovery option reduces help desk calls and minimizes downtime without requiring IT intervention.

MSP: MSPs guide clients through forced restarts during remote support calls when devices are completely frozen and unresponsive to mouse or keyboard input. This avoids unnecessary on-site visits for issues that can be resolved with a simple hardware button sequence.

Education: School IT trains teachers and students on forced restart procedures for classroom iPads and MacBooks that freeze during instruction. This empowers front-line users to quickly recover devices without interrupting lessons or requiring IT support.

In Addigy

While forced restarts must be performed locally by users, Addigy admins can deploy user-facing documentation, self-service guides, or support alerts that provide device-specific forced restart instructions. After a forced restart, Addigy management automatically resumes, and any pending policies or apps are re-applied.