Reco is a free data recovery app for Mac. It scans a drive for deleted, lost or formatted-away files, shows you what it found with previews, and saves what you pick to a different drive. Everything is free in full: no license key, no subscription, no cap on how many files or how much data you recover.
It reads the drive and never writes to it, and your files never leave your Mac. Before you start, check the Trash, Time Machine and iCloud. If the file is in any of them, that’s quicker. Our guide on recovering deleted files on a Mac covers those first.
Drives and file systems
- Drives: SD and microSD cards, CompactFlash and other camera cards in a reader, USB sticks, external hard drives and SSDs, your Mac’s own disk, and disk images (.dmg, .img, .iso) through Open Disk Image….
- File systems: APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), exFAT, FAT32 and NTFS.
- Partitions: a drive with several partitions or APFS volumes lists each one, so you can scan just the one you need.
File types
When you choose a drive, you choose what to look for: photos, videos, documents, audio, or any mix. Fewer types make the results easier to go through.
- Photos: JPEG, HEIC, PNG and camera RAW, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm RAF, Panasonic RW2, Olympus ORF, Hasselblad 3FR and DNG. Photos split in two pieces on the drive are rebuilt.
- Videos: MOV, MP4 and camera clips. A clip that won’t play because its index is gone can be repaired; see Fix a Video.
- Documents and audio: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and text; MP3, M4A, WAV and voice memos.
Files macOS stored compressed are recovered too.
How it works, in four steps
- Choose the drive. Plug in the card or disk and pick it from the list, or open a disk image. Pick the kinds of files you want back.
- Scan. A Quick check looks where macOS keeps deleted files before they’re really gone (the Trash, Time Machine and snapshots) and brings them back with their names. A Deep scan reads the drive itself, every sector of its free space, and rebuilds files from their contents. Use it when the Trash was emptied or the drive was formatted or damaged. It runs at the drive’s own speed, and the time left is measured, not guessed. You can pause, quit, unplug or restart, and it continues where it stopped.
- Review. Photos and videos show as thumbnails while the scan is still running, and you can play a video before recovering it. Each file is graded Excellent, Good or Partial, so damaged files are labeled damaged. Original names and folders come back where the drive still remembers them. Show each file once hides repeated copies of the same file.
- Recover. Pick what you want and save it to a different drive. Names and dates come back where they survive, and a recovery report with checksums is saved with every recovery.
Read-only, so the drive is left as it was
Reco opens the drive it scans read-only. It never writes to it, repairs it or formats it. It won’t save recovered files onto that drive either, because anything written there can land on top of files that haven’t been recovered yet. It offers your other connected drives instead, in one click. If there’s no other drive, Save here anyway… is there, after a clear warning.
Reading a whole drive is something macOS protects, so it asks for your administrator password or for Full Disk Access. Reco explains which one before macOS asks, and uses it only to read.
Private by design
There’s no account, no upload and no analytics. Scanning, previews and video repair all happen on your Mac. The only network request Reco makes is checking for updates. The app is signed and notarized by Apple and updates itself.
What no app can get back
No app can promise a recovery, and Reco doesn’t:
- Overwritten files are gone. If new data was saved over a file’s space, it can’t come back. Stop using the drive as soon as you notice.
- Mac SSDs erase deleted data. Your Mac’s built-in SSD uses TRIM, which wipes deleted data soon after you delete it, so scans there usually find little. SD cards, USB sticks and most external hard drives don’t do this, and recovery from them works much better.
- Drives macOS can’t see. If the drive doesn’t appear in Disk Utility, Reco can’t read it either. A physically broken drive needs a data recovery lab.
More ways Reco can help
Under the drive list, and in the Tools menu, Reco has tools for the moments around a recovery:
- Copy first: copy a struggling drive to a disk image once, then scan the copy.
- Fix a Video: repair a clip that won’t play, on your Mac.
- Drive Check-up: what a drive reports about its own health, in plain words.
- Safety Net: keep what you delete for a few days, so you can take it back.
- Before You Pass It On: see what a stranger could recover from a drive, then clear it.
- Forget for Good: delete files, or a whole drive, so they can’t be recovered.
Reco is made by one independent developer. Questions go to support, and they’re answered by the person who wrote the app.
Questions
Is Reco really free?
Yes. Scanning, previews, recovering, video repair and every tool are free, with no license key, no subscription and no limit on files or size. Reco asks, optionally, that you give to the Mersal Foundation instead. See Give.
Does Reco upload my files?
No. Reco has no account and no analytics, and your files never leave your Mac. The only thing it sends over the network is a check for app updates.
Can Reco recover files from my Mac’s internal SSD?
It can scan it, but the chances are usually low. Mac SSDs use TRIM, which erases deleted data soon after you delete it. Cards, USB sticks and external hard drives keep deleted data much longer. See TRIM explained.
Which Macs does Reco run on?
Macs with Apple silicon or Intel processors running macOS 26 or later.
Can Reco damage the drive I’m recovering from?
Reco opens that drive read-only and never writes to, repairs or formats it. It won’t save recovered files onto it unless you choose “Save here anyway…” after a warning.