Hold the power button for about ten seconds.

Hold the power button down for about ten seconds.

That’s the force shutdown on any Mac with a T2 or Apple Silicon chip, which includes all recent MacBook Airs. It cuts power safely without waiting for the OS to ask for confirmation — useful when you can’t see a dialog box.

Don’t bother with keyboard shortcuts like Control+Command+Power unless you’re already logged in and know your way around blind. The power button is physical. You can feel it click.

After the screen goes dark, give it a few seconds, then press the power button briefly to restart (if that’s the plan). If you need to do Recovery Mode, hold Command+R right after pressing power — but again, blind is tricky.

This is one of those rare cases where brute force is the cleanest solution.