Photos and videos deleted from an SD card are usually still on it. Cards don’t erase deleted data on their own, so the files stay until new ones are written over them. Even after a normal format in the camera or on the Mac, most of the old photos are usually recoverable. The one rule: stop using the card, then scan it from your Mac and save what you find somewhere else.
This works for SD, SDHC, SDXC and microSD cards, and for CompactFlash and other camera cards through a reader.
Before anything else
- Take the card out of the camera, drone or phone. Each new photo or clip can land on top of an old one. Cameras usually write new files from the start of the card, which is often where the lost ones are.
- Don’t format the card, even if the camera or your Mac suggests it.
- Don’t copy anything onto it, including a recovery app.
- If your Mac says the card isn’t readable, click Ignore, not Initialize. Initializing erases it.
If the card has a lock switch on its side, sliding it to the locked position tells the Mac not to write to it. That’s a reasonable precaution while you recover.
1. Connect the card to your Mac
Use the Mac’s SD card slot if it has one, or a USB card reader. A microSD card needs an SD adapter or a microSD reader. Insert full-size cards with the metal contacts facing down and toward the Mac.
It’s fine if the card doesn’t show up in Finder, or shows up empty. What matters is whether macOS can see the card as a device. If it doesn’t appear anywhere, work through SD card not showing up on Mac first.
2. Check for copies you already have
Before scanning, spend a minute looking for copies. If you imported the card into Photos or Lightroom before, the pictures may already be in that library. In Photos, check Recently Deleted under Utilities in the sidebar. Some cameras and drones also send copies to their phone app.
3. Scan the card with Reco
Reco is free in full: scanning, previews and recovery, with no limit on files or size.
- Download Reco onto your Mac, not onto the card.
- Choose the card from Reco’s list. If it has more than one partition, each one is listed, so you can scan just the one you need. macOS asks for your password or for Full Disk Access to read the whole card; Reco explains which before it asks, and uses it only to read.
- Scan. The deep scan reads every part of the card. Reco opens it read-only and never writes to it. You can pause, quit, or unplug the card, and the scan continues where it stopped.
- Review. Photos and videos show as thumbnails. Each file is graded Excellent, Good or Partial, so you can see how intact it is. Original names and folders come back where the card still remembers them. Show each file once hides duplicates.
- Recover to a different drive, such as your Mac’s disk. Reco saves a recovery report with checksums alongside the files.
Reco recognizes JPEG and HEIC photos, camera RAW files (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm RAF, Panasonic RW2, Olympus ORF, Hasselblad 3FR and DNG), MOV and MP4 videos, and audio such as MP3, M4A and WAV. You can choose which file types to look for. Cards formatted as exFAT or FAT32, which is how cameras format them, are supported. For RAW files in detail, see recovering RAW photos.
What can come back
| What happened | Chances | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Photos deleted in the camera or on the Mac | Good | If few or no new photos were taken since. |
| Quick format (the camera’s normal Format) | Good | Only the card’s index is rewritten. Names may be lost, the photos usually aren’t. |
| Card error, or “card not formatted” | Often good | The index is damaged but the photos are usually intact, if macOS can see the card. |
| Photos taken after deleting or formatting | Partial | The new photos replaced some of the old ones. Those are gone. |
| Full or low-level format in the camera | None | Some cameras offer this (Sony’s Full Format, Canon’s Low level format). It erases the whole card. |
| Card not seen by the Mac at all | Needs a lab | If it’s not in Disk Utility, no software can read it. |
No app can bring back photos that new ones were written over. If Reco’s scan finds nothing, that is often the reason.
Videos that won’t play
A clip that was recording when the battery died or the card was pulled out often won’t play, even when it was saved. Recovered videos can have the same problem. Reco’s Fix a Video repairs a video that won’t play, on your Mac, without uploading it. It needs one working clip recorded by the same camera with the same settings, which is often still on the card. For drones and action cameras, see recovering drone and GoPro footage.
If the card is failing
If the card disconnects during the scan, reads very slowly, or makes the Mac hang, don’t scan it again and again. Use Reco’s Copy first to copy the card to a disk image once, then scan the copy. You can stop the copy and pick up where you left off. A card that’s cracked, bent or has a broken connector needs a data recovery lab.
So it doesn’t happen again
- Copy cards to your Mac, and check the copies, before you format them.
- Format cards in the camera you’ll use them in, not on the Mac.
- Use more than one card on an important shoot, so one problem doesn’t cost you everything.
- Before selling or giving away a card, clear it properly with a secure erase.
Questions
Can you recover photos from a formatted SD card?
Usually, if it was a normal (quick) format and you haven’t taken new photos since. A quick format only rewrites the card’s index, so the photos are still there to be found. A full or low-level format in the camera erases the whole card, and then nothing can be recovered.
Can I recover deleted photos from an SD card for free on a Mac?
Yes. Reco is free in full, with no limit on how many photos or how much data you recover. It reads the card read-only and saves what it finds to a different drive.
My camera says “card error.” Are my photos gone?
Not necessarily. Stop using the card, don’t format it in the camera, and connect it to your Mac with a card reader. If the Mac can see the card, even in Disk Utility only, a recovery app can usually read what’s on it.
Can I recover a microSD card from my phone on a Mac?
Yes, with an SD adapter or a USB card reader. One exception: if an Android phone set the card up as internal storage, its contents are encrypted to that phone, and recovering them on a Mac usually isn’t possible.
How long does it take to scan an SD card?
Reco reads every part of the card at the card’s own speed, so it depends on the card’s size and speed: often minutes for a small card, longer for a large or slow one. Reco shows a time left based on how fast the card is actually reading.