It’s happened to everyone at least once: You accidentally select a file and move it to the trash or unintentionally delete data that you urgently need. So what do you do if a family photo or important documents wind up in the Trash on your Mac? Fortunately, there are several ways to recover deleted data in macOS.
On every Mac, deleted files are first sent to the Trash. If the files are also deleted in the Trash, a copy is saved on the hard drive of your device. This copy is not overwritten by other data until later. In other words, even if you’ve already emptied the Trash, your data is not necessarily lost. In this guide, we’ll explain how to restore deleted data on your Mac, either from the Trash, an old backup, or directly from your hard drive.
Mac: recovering deleted files – a step-by-step guide
When you delete data on your Mac, it is first moved to the Trash. As long as the Trash has not been emptied, you always have the option to manually restore files from the Trash on a Mac. To do this, proceed as follows:
Step 1: Open Trash
Double-click the Trash icon in the dock. You’ll see a list of all files that are still in the Trash on your Mac.
How to Recover Deleted Files on Mac Without Software 2021 Free Though Mac data recovery software is available to recover deleted files on HDD, external USB drive, SD card, or fusion drive on a MacBook and iMac device, it is still good to command the knowledge of how to recover deleted files on Mac without software.
Step 2: Select the file and move it to the desktop
To restore a file, double-click it and select “Put Back”. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the file back to the desktop or into another folder.
All you need is a capable free USB recovery software application for Mac. To recover files from a USB flash drive on Mac: Step 1: Download, install, and launch Disk Drill for Mac. Step 2: Click the Recover button next to the USB flash drive you want to recover. Step 3: Wait until Disk Drill finishes analyzing it. Step 4: Look inside the. Aug 04, 2021 Luckily, you can still recover deleted files on Mac without software bythe Time Machine Backup. Click the 'Spotlight' icon on the top right of Mac. After then, type in 'Time Machine' in the search box and search for it. Find Time Machine in the search result and click to open it. Mac Data Recovery until recently. Deleted file recovery used to be done by reading the filesystem of the disk. If it were a Mac OS disk for example, then the HFS+ filesystem would be interpreted by the software, and an analysis would be made to try to determine what data was previously present before the deletion was performed.
Did you delete a file on your USB flash drive or external hard drive? These devices have their own Trash, which is hidden. You can use a command to show this folder as well as other hidden files and folders on a Mac.
macOS: recovering deleted files using Time Machine
Time Machine is a native macOS application that automatically creates backups. These backups allow you to restore deleted files on your Mac in an emergency. Once configured, Time Machine backs up your applications and settings as well as other personal files at regular intervals.
You should create backups of your Mac regularly to prevent unwanted loss of data.
All you need is an external storage device such as an external hard drive or a USB drive with sufficient storage space. After connecting the device to your Mac, set up backup/recovery as follows:
Step 1: Configure Time Machine
Go to System Preferences and select the Time Machine backup application. Click “Select disk”, enter your storage device, and specify how often you want the application to create backups.
Step 2: Restore the file from an old backup
Open Time Machine. The easiest way to find this application is by using Spotlight. Go to the date of the backup you’re looking for and open the deleted file in the appropriate folder.
Recovering permanently deleted files on a Mac using Disk Drill
What if you can’t recover the deleted file from the Trash or using Time Machine? Fortunately, files that have apparently been permanently deleted can often be recovered on a Mac and are not necessarily lost forever. macOS stores files on the local hard drive until they are overwritten by other data. With special data recovery software and a bit of luck, you can locate and restore lost files on your hard drive.
For example, you can use a program called Disk Drill. This data recovery software scans your hard drive for deleted files that have not yet been overwritten by the system. The faster you react, the more likely it is that you can use Disk Drill to recover the file you want.
Even Downloading or installing Disk Drill could overwrite data on your hard drive. To be on the safe side, first download the software onto an external device such as a USB drive.
The free version of Disk Drill allows you to search your hard drive for deleted data. However, you need the full version to actually recover your data. Nonetheless, Disk Drill is useful for locating files that you think are lost. Once you’re certain that the file is still in your system after scanning your hard drive, you can download the full version and restore the deleted data on your Mac.
Step 1: Install Disk Drill and scan your hard drive
Install Disk Drill. Note that you need to give the application access to your hard drive. Then launch the application and click “Recover” next to the icon for the hard drive with the data you want to restore.
Step 2: Recover data
Once you've found the file you want to recover, right-click “Recover” again and select the directory where you want to save the recovered file.
If you’re using a Microsoft operating system, you also have a range of options for restoring deleted files from the Windows Recycle Bin.
Need file recovery tool for your Macintosh – count on us!
- Undelete, all types of lost or deleted files from a Mac hard drive
- Recover deleted files from various types of drives
- Recover files lost after time machine backup failure
- Recover lost or inaccessible files after catalog record corruption
- Supports all latest Mac OS X versions
- Universal Binary application, supports Intel and PowerPC
Top 3 features of Yodot Mac File Recovery software
- Yodot Mac File Recovery recovers files from not only Mac hard drive but also from other external drives
- Time machine failure can make all your backup files inaccessible, but by utilizing Yodot Mac File Recovery it can be recovered in few minutes
- Two recovery options are provided to recover lost or deleted files much faster and avoids unnecessary full hard drive scan
- Overview
- Features And Scenarios
- Supported File Formats
- System Requirements
- Screenshots
Yodot Mac File Recovery software is the best professional file recovery software for your Mac computers. It is designed using experience gained after years of research to save you from losing critical files on Mac OS X. Recover all your deleted / lost documents, photos videos, music files, and other file types from HFS+, HFSX, FAT16, FAT32 file systems. Most importantly supports all latest versions of Mac operating systems.
Yodot Mac Data Recovery software is the only software which is a true undelete application for Mac OS X, the software can recover lost data where other software only rely on file identification methods. Though, the software has the option for recovering files on the basis of their unique signatures the innovative Mac undelete option is the most advanced and fastest method to recover deleted data files on Mac. Moreover, the software recovers deleted and lost files from SD card, external hard drive, pen drive, USB flash drive, and other storage devices.
How can you use the software to recover files?
Step 1: Download and install the free trial edition of Yodot Mac File recovery application on your Mac.
Step 2: Launch the application and follow the step-by-step instructions to complete the recovery process.
Step 3: Select the option, whether to recover deleted files or to recover lost files.
Step 4: Select the drive / volume from where files are to be recovered and let the software deep scan the drive / volume.
Step 5: View the recovered files in two different view types for easy selection of files, which you want to rescue.
Step 6: Preview the recovered file to ensure that right file has been retrieved.
Step 7: Choose the destination location, to store recovered files. Make sure not to select the source drive otherwise, data will be deleted permanently.
Why Yodot Mac File Recovery?
- Fast and secure recovery of files / folders – Built with advanced scanning algorithms which has the ability to recover lost / deleted files and folders much faster and in a secure manner
- Recovery from any sort of drive – Recover deleted / lost files not just from Mac hard disk but also from any accessible drive like external hard drive, memory card, USB drives etc.
- Recover emptied Trash – Provides efficient recovery of files that are deleted due to emptying Trash
- Recovery from formatted Volumes – Performs quick scan of the drive and easily recovers files and folders from a formatted volume / drive in couple of minutes
- Eminent scanning technology – High-end scanning technology, which ensures recovery of, files even from complex corruption scenarios like MBR corruption, time machine failure, catalog record error etc.
- Two recovery options – Facilitates two recovery options to recover deleted and lost files differently to avoid scanning of entire hard drive
- Search option – The software provides you with search option in order to retrieve particular file by using its unique signature
- Two View Types – Toggle between two different view types for smooth selection of recovered files
- Preview files – The recovered files can be previewed before restoration for satisfaction to ensure whether the correct file has been recovered or not
- Sort files – Arrange the rescued files based on their file name, file size, file extension etc. according to your convenience
- Store Files – Provides facility to save the retrieved data to any storage device
- Handy tool – Every individual can easily use the software and can operate it without much technical skills
How data loss occurs in Mac computers?
Human Mistakes
- Accidental deletion of files and folders from the hard drive while deleting unwanted files from the system
- Emptying Trash which is the temporary storage of files that are deleted from the hard disk
- Files deleted due to accidental formatting of Mac volume
- While deleting a unwanted file, accidentally end up deleting the entire folder
- Unintentionally formatting a memory card or any external drive when connected to your Mac OS system for disk initialization
Mac Os X Deleted File Recovery Free
Time Machine Error
- In a Mac computer, time machine takes back up for nearly everything, any kind of error in your time machine backup can cause heavy data loss
File System Corruption
- Data loss can occur if any kind of corruption occurs in HFS+ and HFSX file system
Partition Errors
- Files or folders deleted while making a new partition in your hard drive
- While locating free space among volumes, the files and folders of the existing volume may get deleted
Catalog Record Corruption
- In a Mac computer, each and every file / folder is provided with a unique no., all this records are stored in catalog record for easy finding of files. Any kind of corruption to catalog record will make the file inaccessible
Journal Corruption
- Each and every change made in your hard disk is recorded in a journal file in order to recover data from data loss situations. But corruption to these journal files can cause heavy data loss
Virus Attack
- Deletion of files can take place due to virus infection
- Virus attack can corrupt your Mac OS leading to OS failure
Bad sectors
- Bad sector(s) in your hard disk may lead to loss of files and folders
- Bad sector causes abnormal freezing of your Mac computer making files inaccessible
Other Reasons
- Files may get delete during file transmission between two storage media
- Sudden system shutdown during file transfer or file processing may result in file deletion
- Sudden power rise leads to data loss
| Supported file formats | Supported storage devices | Supported hard drive types |
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Supported operating systems
- For Mac – Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
Hardware requirements
- Memory –Min 1 GB RAM 2GB recommended
- Disk Space - 50 MB free space (for installation)
- System Type – 32bit or 64bit OS
Supported file systems
Mac Undelete Free
- HFS+
- HFSX