How To Recover Deleted Files On Mac – Step By Step Tutorial

You never think it would happen —until it does. One minute, you are glancing your Photo library or your file. When you realize you’ve accidentally deleted a ton of photos and files, even you have emptied the trash on Mac. You panic. Would these precious memories or important files lost forever?

Never fear, if you act quickly you might be able to recover deleted files on Mac OS X. Here is a checklist for you to undelete files on Mac without/with software. Also, we’ll give you some advice on how to recover permanently deleted files from mac, so that you never have to experience this panic again.

Check Mac’s Trash Can

Mac has trash can where deleted files hang around for a while. So If you have deleted a file on Mac (within 30 days), the first thing to check is Mac’s Trash Can. Below are the steps.

Step 1: Open Trash on Dock. (Usually located at the end of the dock.)

Step 2: Find the files you need and drag it to any place you like. This will recover your deleted files back to Mac.

Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Emptied Trash

However, if you deleted files permanently after emptying Trash, you cannot find the deleted files on Trash nor easily undo empty Trash. But you can still get back your files with Time Machine or Data recovery software.

Recover lost files on Mac from Time Machine backup

If you permanently deleted files on Mac, and you have regular backups of Mac files with Time Machine. It’s very easy to recover individual files. This works perfectly whenever the file is permanently deleted or even overwritten. Here’s how:

Step 1: In System Preference choose Time Machine and launch it.

Step 2: Time Machine will list the available backups. Press the up arrow and scroll through backup files.

Step 3: If you find the file you want to recover, press the spacebar to preview the file, and if it’s the one you want, click Restore. The selected file will restore.

Why Recover Deleted Files on Mac is Possible?

When you permanently deleted files on Mac, it’s not physically removed from the disk. The system just hides the files and you just cannot access the file from the system. It simply marks the space of the file as free and available for writing new data. That’s the reason why we can use some software to recover the permanently deleted data.

As the space of the deleted files is marked as free, if you using the device, it’s possible the files you save or download will overwrite these deleted files. And it’s getting hard to recover the files. That’s it. Please stop writing data to the drive that contained the deleted file.

Recover Files without Time Machine Backup

If you don’t have back up on Time Machine, you don’t have to be too worried too. you can still use a data recovery software to get the lost files back. 

When it comes to data recovery software for Mac There are many, many options. And they also have free or paid ones. I’ve tested most of the tools on the market and recommend three utilities. Recuva, Cisdem Data Recover, and Stellar Data Recovery. All the three tools scan your Mac for deleted files, with the paid option you can easily preview files to check if its the file you need.

Most data recovery software works the same way, though the exact steps can differ from program to program. Here we’ll show you how to recover deleted files on Mac with Cisdem Data Recovery.

With Cisdem Data Recovery you can run a quick scan for recently deleted files. And do a deep scan for files that deleted long ago or deleted by formatted hard disk, or data lost after virus attack, etc.

Step1: Free download

Data Recovery on Mac and Install it to a different hard drive from the deleted files.

Step2: Scanning Deleted Files

To restore deleted files on Mac, you need to select a location or hard disk where the deleted files used to exist. If you want to recover files from an external device, please connect it to your Mac firstly. then click Click Scan for the application to find deleted files on your Mac.

The application provides two modes of file recovery: Quick Scan and Deep Scan. Quick Scan can recover files that are deleted recently while Deep Scan can find out all deleted files on a Mac.

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Step 3: Preview and Recover Deleted Files Mac

When the scan finished, the app will categorize all recoverable files by file type. you can preview some recoverable files like photos, documents and media files. Once you see the deleted files that you need, just select the file and click “Recover” button to get your files back.

With Cisdem Data Recovery, I was able to get back all my recently deleted files and most of the files I deleted long ago. The Deep Scan was especially effective, with this option I restore most of the files which I thought I’d lost forever.

Mac Data Recovery: The Last Resort

If you have accidentally deleted files on Mac, first you should check trash for your lost files. If unfortunately, you have emptied the trash or the files have been permanently deleted, try to get the files back from Time Machine backup if you have one. If you don’t have a time machine back up then you can try the above data recovery software we recommend. If none of the methods work, the last resort is to use a data recovery service.

| About the Guest Author: Rosita Roland


Rosita Roland is Chief editor from Cisdem, who is dedicated to offering tips and tricks to boost productivity both in work and life. Also, a passionate blogger willing to share the expertise and experience in the field of computer science.

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