Get a data lifeguard for Mac
This software can show you both existing and deleted files on your computer. If you only want to recover the deleted files, you can click Show Lost Files to make this software only show you the deleted items on the select drive. If you still remember the name of the file you want to recover, you can click the Find button. Then, there will. Software to recover deleted or lost files from Windows,Macintosh & Android operating system. Retrieves & restores data from partitioned,corrupted,formatted hard drives,USB drives,memory cards,flash drives on Win & Mac OS X. Supports recovery of data from smartphones having Android OS.
Are you sure you want to delete “THIS REALLY IMPORTANT FILE”?
*Hits Delete*
Wait! I mean Cancel. I meant to press Cancel. I NEED THAT FILE.
Noooooo!
We’ve all been there. Inexplicably deleting a file and regretting it immediately. It sucks. It really does. But it’s not the end of the world. There are ways and means of recovering your files. More specifically, there are tools, tips, and tricks to help you recover your files.
Best File Recovery Apps for Mac
Recover deleted files with Setapp. So that nothing ever gets lost in the shuffle.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to recover deleted files on Mac with the help of an extensive selection of solutions. They will be suitable for a variety of different scenarios that you might find yourself in when trying to recover lost or missing data.
Let’s dig in.
Common reasons leading to lost data
Besides the human error — an example we’ve started this article with, — there are other reasons for having lost files and data on your laptop. Some of the most widespread are software corruption or critical errors, malware, and hardware failure.
While hardware failure can mean your data is unrecoverable, other types of data loss can often be reversed with various Mac files recovery techniques.
Is it possible to recover deleted files?
If you are wondering if it’s possible to retrieve a deleted file on your Mac after you’ve mistakenly removed it or there’s been a software malfunction, don’t worry, it likely is. One of our favorite solutions for undeleting files on Mac is dedicated file recovery app Disk Drill (which we will go on in detail about later in the article), but there are other ways which we shall discuss first, so read on.
The best ways to recover deleted files on Mac
From restoring deleted files from your Mac’s Trash to recovering a completely deleted file, let’s look at some of the best ways to address the recovery of your deleted files.
Check the Trash bin
This might be an obvious one, but just to be sure you didn’t miss anything, click on the Trash icon in your Dock and go through the files there. If you spot the file you need, just double-finger click on it and select Put Back menu option to restore your file:
Retrieve deleted files with Undo command
If you’ve just deleted your file and haven’t performed any other actions on your Mac, here’s how to recover this file from Trash on Mac almost instantly.
Without exiting the folder, press Command + Z hot key combination to see your file return immediately to the folder.
That’s it, just like magic.
Recover deleted files with Disk Drill
Disk Drill is a popular solution among Macintosh users to recover deleted files. The app can help find files you’ve deleted from your Trash or that were lost in a software glitch.
To see all the files that can be restored, install the app and run the Disk Drill scan on your Mac:
Browse the results or search for exact file name or extension:
Select the files you want back and click the blue Recover button at the bottom right. Select where to put your file and you are done.
Recover files from backups on a Mac
To be absolutely sure all your data is secure, your best bet is creating a backup. You can use the built-in Time Machine option or third-party solutions like Get Backup Pro or ChronoSync Express.
All of them have their strengths and weaknesses, so let’s take a closer look and see what fits best with your style of file management and the type and size of data you work with.
To create a backup with Time Machine, open the Apple menu, go to System Preferences, and find Time Machine:
Next, connect a hard drive to create a Time Machine backup and select the files folders you want backed up. You can either back up your full machine (this takes more time and requires more space on your drive) or exclude some of the files and folders to only focus on the items you really need.
After your backup is done, you can go back to that version of your machine any time you want and select the files you’ve lost or accidentally deleted.
To do that, open Finder > Applications and double-click on Time Machine.
You’ll see a set of windows, one after the other. Click on the arrows to the right of the window stack to navigate your Time Machine versions. Once you find the correct time of the backup, browse through folders to locate your missing file:
Click Restore to put it back where it originally was. The Restore button will be greyed out for the files that haven’t been deleted and don’t need restoring. And yes, this method will help you recover emptied Trash on your Mac — if the file you deleted was saved in an existing Time Machine snapshot.
Alternatively, you can use apps to create backups and sync files with more flexibility and customization.
Get Backup Pro is one such solution. The app allows you to set up backup tasks for various projects, create a backup schedule, and customize multiple elements of the process.
Once you set up your preferences, drag and drop the items you want backed up onto the backup project you’ve customized and click the blue play button to do the initial backup.
ChronoSync Express is a stellar synchronization option if you want to avoid multiple versions of the same files and folders.
With the app, you can sync folders, create backups, and schedule tasks:
As you can see, these apps are excellent for a targeted approach with detailed backup management and syncing individual folders at the exact time you require it.
Is it possible to restore files via Terminal?
If you did a quick search for ways to recover deleted files on your macOS, you might’ve seen guides on recovering files placed in Trash with the help of Terminal.
The step-by-step tutorials suggest to open the app (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and type in cd. Trash command. Next, to see the files in Trash, the command ls is entered. Finally, to move the file out of Trash to home directory, mv One option is to create Time Machine backups to keep all your important info on an external hard drive. And for times when you want to have versions of files without having to connect an external drive, you can choose to backup your data to cloud storages, like Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, etc. You can use tools like Dropshare to easily move any important files to an online storage: The app is as simple as setting up the drive you want to sync to and then dragging and dropping any file or item you need synced onto the app’s icon in the Menu bar: As for the apps we talked about earlier, ChronoSync Express is also a great choice to facilitate scheduled backups and help protect any of your important data in the future. Try all these apps for free Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go! If you’ve accidentally deleted a file or a folder, or a chunk of information has gone missing due to a system or app crash, you have a few options to try and recover your info. Even if you think your file is not in the Trash anymore, your first step is always to double check your Mac’s Trash to see if you can retrieve your items from there. Next, you can explore options like Time Machine or third-party backups if you have them. You can also browse through file version history in some apps, like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. Apps like Disk Drill can help you restore permanently deleted files. ChronoSync Express can help sync files and folders, while Get Backup Pro is an excellent tool to create and schedule targeted backups of your data. Dropshare is a handy tool for placing files onto cloud storage and sharing. The mentioned apps — Disk Drill, Get Backup Pro, ChronoSync Express, and Dropshare — along with over 210 more can be found in app suite Setapp. If you already have a subscription, you can try these apps right now and make sure none of your info gets lost. And if you are not a Setapp subscriber yet, use Setapp’s free 7-day trial to try out all these apps plus dozens more hand-picked productivity solutions. By Vernon Roderick, Last updated: June 16, 2020 The Downloads folder can mean a lot to many users. It’s where most files go when you download something from the internet. And we all know that this folder is built-in, meaning it is already there before you even got your Mac. Despite being built-in to the Mac computer, it is still as vulnerable to data loss as other folders on your Mac. In fact, quite a few users have already been complaining about losing their Downloads folder out of the blue. This article will talk about how you can restore deleted Downloads folder Mac so you may also restore the files contained within the folder. Let’s start with what I consider the best solution. Our very first entry involves a third-party tool that specializes in file recovery. File recovery software is known to have the capability of recovering files and even folders altogether. As such, a data recovery tool is a must, and for that, I recommend FoneDog Data Recovery. FoneDog Data Recovery is a tool that is capable of restoring files from their original state. It supports all kinds of files and can even include folders. Since it supports Mac, it is the perfect tool for the job. Here’s how you can restore deleted Downloads folder Mac with this tool: Data RecoveryRecover deleted image, document, audio and more files.Get deleted data back from computer (including Recycle Bin) and hard drives.Recover loss data caused by disk accident, operation system crushes and other reasons. Open the FoneDog Data Recovery software on your computer. Now on the main page, there will be a selection of file types and storage drives. For the file type, I suggest selecting the Check all file types option since the Downloads folders are likely to have all kinds of files. For the storage drive, select the drive where the Downloads folder is located, which is most likely to be the C: drive. Once you have configured the settings on the first page, click on the Scan button. This will initiate a Quick Scan by default. However, you may continue with Deep Scan if you want to get more results. The scanning will start after you click on the Scan button. At that point, you will get a list of files on the next page. However, all you have to do is look for the Downloads folder and click on its box. Then, click on the Recover button. It should be very easy to restore deleted Downloads folder Macwith this tool. However, some people may find it very difficult to trust a tool that they haven’t heard of before. If that’s you, then this solution may not be the most suitable option for you. So you may want to look elsewhere for the best solution. The keyboard of Mac is the same as of Windows’. They both have the Delete key that is used to delete items on your computer. That’s why if Windows users can unintentionally delete folders in their computer, Mac users can also do the same. If your case is an unintentional deletion, there is a high chance that you will be able to restore deleted Downloads folder Mac. This is pretty common since there are two ways to send files and folders to the trash. The first one would be by pressing the Command + Delete, and the second one is selecting Move to Trash. Files and folders that go through this process will always be sent to the Trash, but since it is common, a solution was made immediately. If that’s the case, you can restore deleted Downloads folder Mac by first opening the Trash by clicking on its icon on the Mac Dock. Once you are in the Trash, you can restore deleted Downloads folder Macin several ways: This is a very quick solution since it won’t take long even if the Downloads folder is filled with files. However, there are many occasions where you won’t be able to use this method. You now have the Downloads folder again. Now, what if you can’t find the Downloads folder in the trash? How will you restore deleted Downloads folder Mac then? Although most files that are lost get sent to the Trash, sometimes you just need to look harder since it was probably sent somewhere else and not deleted. This is the problem with some users. They often assume immediately that the files are deleted just because they can’t find it the same way they did before. Fortunately, there is a way to automatically go to where the Downloads folder is located and possibly put it into the Dock once again. This is so you can restore deleted Downloads folder Maceasily. Here are the steps to do put the Downloads folder into your Dock again: The Downloads folder is now on the Dock once again. With this, you can restore deleted Downloads folder Mac by simply finding it and not recovering it from deletion. However, there are actually two possible reasons why you can’t find the Downloads folder in the Trash. The first one would be because it wasn’t deleted in the first place, which is that case you can solve it with this method. The second reason would be if it was permanently deleted, thus explaining why it wasn’t sent to the Trash. This is often the case when the user presses Shift + Delete instead of the Delete key only. How do I restore my Downloads folder? If your case involves deleting the Downloads folder permanently, there is only one solution left, and that would be to revert your whole computer altogether into its original state. In other words, you have to turn back time on your computer, which will return the Downloads folder along with other files and folders. Altogether it is quite extreme; there is an easy way to do this. And it involves a function that is literally named “Time Machine”, and you can probably guess what this function can do. Time Machine is a built-in function in all Mac devices that allows users to turn back time on their computers. It is often used to solve any issues that may be related to the operating system. Follow these steps if you are ready to restore deleted Downloads folder Mac: This will not only restore deleted Downloads folder Mac, but it will also restore other files that you have lost, regardless of whether you intend to recover them or not. The only downside of this is that you will lose some of your files, most likely the ones that you didn’t have before or the ones you have recently downloaded or transferred into your Mac. Data RecoveryRecover deleted image, document, audio and more files.Get deleted data back from computer (including Recycle Bin) and hard drives.Recover loss data caused by disk accident, operation system crushes and other reasons. A lot of users complain about not being able to access their Downloads folder the same way they did before. This often leads to many complications, but that just goes to show how important the Downloads folder is to Mac users. Although it is quite difficult, you can always learn how to restore the deleted Downloads folder Mac. Once you have gained such skills, you can always keep tabs on your Downloads folder and possibly retrieve it if the worst comes to pass.Conclusion
Recovering Deleted Files On Mac
Part 1: Restore Deleted Downloads Folder Mac with Mac Data Recovery
Step 1: Choose File Type and Storage Drive
Step 2: Scan for Files
Step 3: Restore Deleted Downloads Folder Mac
Part 2: Restore Deleted Downloads Folder Mac from Trash
How Do I Recover Deleted Files On My Mac For Free
Part 3: Restore Deleted Downloads Folder Mac from Home
Part 4: Restore Deleted Downloads Folder Mac with Time Machine
Part 5: Conclusion