… It says to restart Finale but it won't let me quit, and the little window won't go away …

You can use Command-Tab to cycle through the open programs - including Finder.

I would switch to Finder, and then go to the  menu, and use the Force Quit command to quit Finale.

Sometimes it may also be necessary to log out of the Mac OS X user account, and log in again.

Or perhaps even reboot the computer.

Also check to see if another program is open and set to monopolize the sound card.

(Dorico, for example, has an audio driver that can take complete control of the audio card unless you set the option telling it not to. Other audio programs may also be set to do the same.)

>Also check to see if another program is open and set to monopolize the sound card<

This isn't supposed to be the issue in Finale 25 that it was in earlier versions. It was a huge source of conflict with any app that required 48k as Finale insisted on 44.1k.

That it isn't supposed to be an issue doesn't mean that conflicts can't occur. I will be surprised if this is the real problem but, if you are using 2014.5 or earlier with Dragon Dictation, it is (wanna guess how I know?).

You do not mention your Mac OS nor your version of Finale.

You can short cut to Force Quit by hitting the Option Command Esc keys. If your Mac freezes and doesn't respond, hold down the power key and it will shut down within 30 seconds.

One thing that can cause this issue is memory leaks (not enough RAM) with browsers and web sites being the major offenders. It's a good idea to reboot before starting and not have any other applications open, especially a browser (unless you need it for the Help Files).

Even though I have 32G on board, Digital Performer or Finale can freeze on me. Whenever this happens, I check available RAM and it is always less than 1G (and my browser is always the culprit). Once I got in the habit of rebooting daily, it pretty much went away.

One thing you can try is to run the following command in Terminal: sudo purge  It will ask for your admin password after you hit Return. This frees up RAM from inactive applications and that is all it does. It is not nearly as effective as rebooting, however.

Mike H,

The situation I mentioned has nothing to do with Finale, it has to do with an audio engine (like the one in Dorico) that is sometimes set to monopolize the audio card, not just for Finale but for YouTube or any other program that uses the card while Dorico is running. The option to take total control of the sound card can be switched off, but for performance reasons, not everyone does so. (Dorico is just an example of one program that can use such an audio driver.)

It was a long shot for the OP, but I thought it worth mentioning.

J Adrian,

You are on Windows. The OP is on a Mac. It makes a difference. In this case, if the OP is using an external audio interface (the only way it can be a different sound card), that hasn't been listed but, if so, you are right, it may make a difference.

In short, we need more information. As I wrote:

You do not mention your Mac OS nor your version of Finale.

With this problem, it makes a big difference. 2014.5 and earlier can have this issue; it was supposed to be fixed for Mac users in 25. Dorico never caused that problem for me but Dragon did big time — that's gone with 25.

If the OP is having that issue w/ 25, it will be very interesting. If earlier as I suspect, then upgrading to 25 would be my first advice. Once we know, that is...

The trouble restarting complaint still makes me think that the real issue was not enough RAM. A reboot will fix that.