Deleting a file on a Mac rarely destroys it straight away. macOS marks the space it used as free, and the data stays there until something new is written over it. That’s why recovery is possible, and why the first rule matters most: stop using the drive the files were on, and save anything you recover somewhere else.
Work through these in order. The first three cost nothing and don’t risk the files at all.
1. Check the Trash and Recently Deleted
Open the Trash in the Dock. If the file is there, select it and choose File ▸ Put Back. Photos deleted in the Photos app go to Recently Deleted in its sidebar for 30 days first. Notes, Files on iCloud Drive and many other apps keep a similar folder.
2. Restore from Time Machine
If you back up with Time Machine, open the folder the file was in, then choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Go back to a date when the file was there, select it, and click Restore. This also works for files you overwrote by mistake.
3. Look in iCloud
Files in iCloud Drive (including Desktop and Documents, if you sync them) can be restored for 30 days at iCloud.com ▸ Drive ▸ Recently Deleted. Photos and contacts have their own restore options on iCloud.com too.
4. Scan the drive with a recovery app
If there’s no copy anywhere, the file has to be found on the drive itself. A recovery app reads the drive, including the space marked as free, and rebuilds the files it finds there. With Reco, which is free:
- Download Reco onto your Mac, not onto the drive you’re rescuing.
- Choose the drive. Plug in the card or disk; it appears in Reco’s list. A drive with several partitions or APFS volumes lists each one, so you can scan just the one you need.
- Scan. A deep scan reads every part of the drive at the drive’s own speed: minutes for a small card, hours for a big hard drive. You can pause, quit or unplug, and Reco carries on where it stopped.
- Review. Photos and videos show as thumbnails as they’re found. Each file shows how intact it is, and original names and folders come back where the drive still remembers them.
- Recover to a different drive. Pick what you want and save it somewhere else. Reco won’t save onto the drive it’s reading, and it never writes to that drive at all.
macOS will ask for your password or for Full Disk Access, because reading a whole drive is something it protects. Reco explains which one it needs before it asks.
What usually comes back, and what doesn’t
| Where the files were | Chances | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SD or microSD card, camera card | Good | Cards don’t erase deleted data on their own. Even after a quick format, most photos and videos are usually still there. |
| USB stick | Good | Same as cards, as long as little has been saved since. |
| External hard drive | Good | Spinning disks keep deleted data until it’s overwritten. |
| External SSD | Varies | Depends on whether macOS sends TRIM to it, which erases deleted data. |
| Mac’s built-in SSD | Low | TRIM usually erases deleted data within minutes. See why SSD recovery is hard. |
Two things end any chance of recovery: new data written over the old, and an SSD that has already trimmed the space. No app can undo either, whatever it promises.
If the drive is failing
If the drive clicks, disconnects, or makes Finder hang, don’t scan it over and over. Each pass can wear it further. Use Reco’s Copy first to make one careful copy to a disk image, then scan the copy. If macOS can’t see the drive at all, not even in Disk Utility, no software can read it, and a data recovery lab is the next step.
So it doesn’t happen again
- Turn on Time Machine with an external drive, or another backup you can restore from.
- Turn on Reco’s Safety Net, which keeps what you delete for a few days so you can take it back.
- Copy camera cards to your Mac before you format them, and format them in the camera, not on the Mac.
Questions
Can I recover files deleted from the Trash on a Mac?
Sometimes. If you have a Time Machine or iCloud backup, restore from that. Otherwise a recovery app has to find the file’s data on the disk. On an external hard drive, SD card or USB stick that often works if nothing new has been saved since. On a Mac’s built-in SSD the space is usually erased within minutes by TRIM, so the chances are low.
Is there a free data recovery app for Mac with no limit?
Yes. Reco is free in full, with no limit on how many files or how much data you recover, and no license key or subscription. PhotoRec is also free and open source, but runs in Terminal and doesn’t keep file names or folders.
Do Mac data recovery apps work on SSDs?
On a Mac’s internal SSD, rarely: TRIM erases deleted data soon after you delete it. On external SSDs it depends on whether macOS sends TRIM to them. SD cards, USB sticks and hard drives don’t use TRIM, so recovery works best on them.
Should I install the recovery app on the drive I lost files from?
No. Anything you write to that drive can land on top of what you’re trying to recover. Install and save recovered files on a different drive. If the lost files were on your Mac’s own disk, use the Mac as little as possible until you’ve scanned it.