When deciding how to recover deleted files on Mac, you need to take into consideration the following factors:
Factor | Description |
š§ Your skills | Thereās absolutely no shame in admitting that your computer skills are limited. If you donāt feel confident enough to use some of the more difficult methods described below, you can simply pick an easier one and retrieve deleted files on Mac just as reliably. For example Disk Drill is do-it-yourself data recovery software for Mac users of all levels. |
š The limitations of each method | All recovery methods have certain limitations that dictate when they can be used. You need to keep these limitations in mind to avoid wasting time on a file recovery method that has no chance of working. |
ā How much time you have | Some data recovery methods are more time consuming than others. While the difference tends to be fairly small, being able to recover lost files just a few minutes faster when youāre about to give an important presentation may be the difference between success and failure. |
Use the following comparison table of different recovery methods to pick the right one for you.
As you can see, you have quite a few options when it comes to recovering deleted files on Mac. Regardless of which option you pick, you should always make data recovery your top priority and avoid writing new data to the storage device on which the deleted files were located.
When you delete the wrong file on Mac and notice your mistake right away, you can instantly recover it using the Undo command. As its name suggests, this command reverses the last completed action, and there are several ways to invoke it.
Step 1. Highlight the application that was used to delete the file (such as Finder).
Step 2. Open the Edit menu in the menu bar.
Step 3. Click Undo Move of āfilenameā.
Alternatively, you can press Command + Z on your keyboard to invoke the Undo command straight away. Just keep in mind that the correct application must be in focus for the Undo command to do what you intend it to do.
When you delete a file on Mac, it usually (not always!) ends up in a special folder called Trash, where it stays until you manually/automatically empty Trash. While the file is in Trash, you can recover it to its original folder with a few simple clicks and know that the recovery will be 100% successful.
Step 1. Click the Trash icon in the Dock.
Step 2. Select your files (you can use the search bar if you remember the name of the file you want to recover).
Step 3. Right-click on any of the selected files and choose the Put Back option.
If you donāt want to recover the deleted files to their original folders, you can drag and drop them to any folder you wish.
On Mac, there are always several ways to accomplish the same thing, and you can use whichever you like the most. If youāve always loved Macintosh computers because of their Unix roots and powerful command-line interface, you may like the idea of using Terminal to recover your files from Trash.
Step 1. Launch Terminal from /Applications/Utilities or using Spotlight.
Step 2. Enter cd .Trash to navigate to the Trash folder.
Step 3. Enter ls -al ~/.Trash to view the content of the Trash folder.
Step 4. Enter mv filename ../ to move a specific file to your home folder (replace filename with the name of the file you want to recover).
Since Terminal commands are really just alternatives to the graphical user interface of Trash, they wonāt help you recover Trash that you or your Mac has emptied.
There are multiple categories of backup tools that can be used to reliably recover deleted files on Mac. All Macs with macOS 10.5 or newer are equipped with an incremental backup tool called Time Machine, which allows users to restore the entire operating system or specific files from a local backup stored on a dedicated backup drive. Starting from macOS 11 Big Sur Time Machine is able to make āfaster, more compact, and more reliable backupsā. This is how you can restore deleted files from a Time Machine backup:
Step 1. Open the folder that contained the deleted files using Finder.
Step 2. Click the Time Machine icon located in the Menu Bar and choose Enter Time Machine.
Step 3. Select the files you want to recover. Use the timeline on the right edge of the screen to find the most recent version of your files.
Step 4. Click Restore to restore the selected files.
Some Mac users may prefer the convenience of cloud backup solutions like Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox, whose biggest advantage is the fact that you can access them from anywhere.
Regardless of which backup tool you prefer, you will be able to recover your lost files with it only if you had created a backup beforehand. If you donāt have an up-to-date backup to recover from, you need to try some other method.
Data recovery for Mac can also be performed using specialized recovery software applications. Such applications cost anywhere from $0 to several hundred dollars, and they target casual home users and professionals alike.
Unlike the methods weāve described so far, recovery software applications can recover emptied Trash on Mac and get back permanently deleted files that were never in Trash in the first place. Some recovery software applications, especially those that cost money, include various file protection and backup features, which you can use to avoid data loss in the future.
Letās take a closer look at how to recover deleted files on Mac OS X and macOS with one free file recovery software application and one paid recovery software application.
Available for macOS 10.15.7ā13.x.
Step 1. Download and install Disk Drill for Mac.
Step 2. Launch Disk Drill, select the drive where your files were stored, and click Search for lost data.
Step 3. Wait for the scan to finish, with the help of Disk Drillās scan results filters and preview feature, select all files that you want to recover, and then click the Recover button.
Step 4. Specify the recovery destination and click Next to begin the recovery process.
Available for Mac OS X 10.14 or later.
TestDisk is a freeware disk repair and data recovery tool for macOS that also supports Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems. It is a command-line tool that may be difficult for non-technical users to navigate.
Here is an overview of the recovery process using TestDisk. More detailed step-by-step instructions can be found on the toolās website.
Step 1. Install TestDisk using Homebrew.
Step 2. Launch TestDisk from Terminal and choose to create a new log file.
Step 3. Select the storage device you want to recover and specify the partition table type.
Step 4. Navigate to the Advanced category.
Step 5. Choose the partition where your files were located and select the Undelete option.
Step 6. Locate and select your deleted files.
Step 7. Choose a location where recovered files will be written.
Step 8. Perform the recovery.
Some macOS apps, like the Photo app, store recently deleted items in a specially designated folder to enable their quick recovery. Here are the steps you should follow to recover a lost file using this method.
Using a data recovery service like the CleverFiles data recovery center can help you get back lost data when other options have failed. Professional data recovery experts will employ advanced hardware and software techniques to clone your damaged storage device and recover its files.
Here is an overview describing how to engage a data recovery service.
Step 1:Contact the service for an initial consultation and to obtain instructions on how to ship them your storage device.
Step 2:Ship the storage device to the recovery center.
Step 3:Upon receipt, the service will examine the device and provide the customer with a recovery price. Reliable sites will not charge you if they cannot recover your data.
Step 4:Data will be recovered and shipped back to you on new storage media.
Using the above-described methods, you can recover just about any file type and file extension you encounter.
Here are some common file types and file extensions Mac users often want to recover:
File Type | File Extension |
---|---|
Video | 3G2, AVI, CRM, FLV, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, OGM, RM, WEBM, WMV |
Audio | AA, AAC, CDA, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP2, MPA, OGA, OGG, RA, WAV, WMA |
Images | AI, BMP, C4D, CR2, DJVU, ICO, JP2, JPG, NEF, PNG, PSD, SVG, TIFF, WMF |
Documents | DOC, DOCX, ENL, EPUB, FB2, HTML, ICS, NUMBERS, ODT, ODS, ODP, PAGES, PPT, PPTX, QBB, RTF, TTF, XLS, XLSX, XML |
Archives | 7Z, ARJ, CAB, DMG, ISO, JAR, MBX, PST, RAR, RDB, TAR.XZ, ZIP |
Weāve collected detailed guides on how to recover specific file types, and we encourage you to read them so that you understand the recovery process as much as possible:
Unfortunately, not all attempts to recover files from Trash and other places have a good ending. Sometimes, the deleted files canāt be recovered because theyāve become overwritten, but there are also other factors that may jeopardize your recovery attempts, such as data corruption, physical damage, or user error.
The good news is that there are certain things that you can do to significantly increase the chances of successful recovery:
With just these three simple tips, you should be able to get files from Trash or any other folder without much trouble.
With the solutions described in this article, you should be able to recover all deleted files from healthy storage devices, including traditional spinning hard drives, modern solid-state drives, USB flash drives, and memory cards.
However, they canāt reliably recover files from storage devices that have suffered physical damage, which may occur when a storage device is exposed to extremely high or low temperatures, moisture, dust, or simply dropped on the floor.
In such cases, thereās zero room for DIY solutions since most attempts to repair a damaged storage device at home do more harm than good. Instead, you should use a data recovery service and let professionals with state-of-the-art equipment recover your data for you.