How To Fix When Steam Won’t Run On Mac

If Steam is freezing or hanging on startup — whether it’s simply trying to load or is installing an update — the first thing to try is a restart. You may need to Force Quit first if Steam isn’t responding by pressing Command + Option + Esc, which will pull up the “Force Quit Applications” window. From there, select Steam, click “Force Quit,” then click “Force Quit” again to confirm.

Reopening Steam may not make a difference, however, in which case the next step is to try reinstalling the program entirely. First, make sure Steam isn’t open, then go to Finder > Applications and drag the Steam app icon into the Trash, then empty the Trash. After that, download and install the newest version of Steam, then start it up.

If, after all that, Steam still won’t run for you, one more option is to do the above steps but also restart your Mac during the process. Specifically, you’ll need to do so after Steam has been forced to quit or after it has been removed but before it has been reinstalled — though you can also try a restart after reinstallation. Finally, if Steam still isn’t working, there’s one last approach that will hopefully do the trick.