How to recover deleted photos on my mac?? HELP!!!

[PrincePle]

Hi everyone, I need to know if it’s possible to recover my deleted photos in my situation… I shot my friend’s wedding with my camera, and when I got home, I transferred all the photos to my MacBook Air M2 2022. Once all the files were saved on my desktop, I deleted them from my SD card.

 

Everything seemed fine, but not for long 😓 because then I decided to transfer these photos to an external hard drive so I could give it to my friend for her to copy them. I thought I had successfully transferred the photos, so I deleted them from my Mac. Later, I gave the drive to my friend, and she said the photos aren’t on it, not in any of the folders.

Please help, how can I recover deleted photos on Mac?
MacBook 13’ 2022 M1 chip
External HDD Apacer 1TB AC632
 

[UrbanExplorer7]

56 minutes ago, PrincePle said:

Hi everyone, I need to know if it’s possible to recover my deleted photos in my situation… I shot my friend’s wedding with my camera, and when I got home, I transferred all the photos to my MacBook Air M2 2022. Once all the files were saved on my desktop, I deleted them from my SD card.

 

Everything seemed fine, but not for long 😓 because then I decided to transfer these photos to an external hard drive so I could give it to my friend for her to copy them. I thought I had successfully transferred the photos, so I deleted them from my Mac. Later, I gave the drive to my friend, and she said the photos aren’t on it, not in any of the folders.

Please help, how can I recover deleted photos on Mac?
MacBook 13’ 2022 M1 chip
External HDD Apacer 1TB AC632
 

Hey, buddy, just check the Trash on your Mac, ’cause by default, deleted files go straight there.

[D_Harris_05]

I agree with @UrbanExplorer7; the first place to check is the Trash—it exists on your Mac for a reason, haha.

If your files aren’t there, do you have Time Machine set up for backups?

[Lizzy Smith]

16 hours ago, PrincePle said:

Hi everyone, I need to know if it’s possible to recover my deleted photos in my situation… I shot my friend’s wedding with my camera, and when I got home, I transferred all the photos to my MacBook Air M2 2022. Once all the files were saved on my desktop, I deleted them from my SD card.

 

Everything seemed fine, but not for long 😓 because then I decided to transfer these photos to an external hard drive so I could give it to my friend for her to copy them. I thought I had successfully transferred the photos, so I deleted them from my Mac. Later, I gave the drive to my friend, and she said the photos aren’t on it, not in any of the folders.

Please help, how can I recover deleted photos on Mac?
MacBook 13’ 2022 M1 chip
External HDD Apacer 1TB AC632
 

If you just deleted them, those photos may end up in the trash. But if you deleted them permanently, a photo recovery program can help. Also, I suggest you not use the SD card and MacBook, as these devices get overwritten by continuous usage.

[PrincePle]

Thank you, @UrbanExplorer7 and @D_Harris_05, for the advice, but I forgot to mention that, out of habit, I emptied the trash after deleting the files. It’s a habit I kept from when I used to have a laptop with a 128GB drive, and I had to save every megabyte of space…

 

I have Time Machine set up, but the backup drive wasn’t connected, and it’s set to back up once a week, so there won’t be any files there.

[D_Harris_05]

23 minutes ago, PrincePle said:

Thank you, @UrbanExplorer7 and @D_Harris_05, for the advice, but I forgot to mention that, out of habit, I emptied the trash after deleting the files. It’s a habit I kept from when I used to have a laptop with a 128GB drive, and I had to save every megabyte of space…

 

I have Time Machine set up, but the backup drive wasn’t connected, and it’s set to back up once a week, so there won’t be any files there.

Great news (sarcasm)! How much time has passed since you deleted the files? But maybe (!) that doesn’t even matter…

 

The thing is that Time Machine creates local snapshots of your system every hour, so your files might be saved in one of those snapshots. To check, go to your desktop, open Time Machine (click the icon in the menu bar and select “Browse Time Machine Backups”—though you probably know this already) and look for the deleted files as you move through the snapshots on the timeline.

 

Alternatively, you can view the date and size of available snapshots in Disk Utility. Click View > Show Local Snapshots. Then, select your Macintosh HD to see the snapshots along with the specific day and time.

[PrincePle]

20 minutes ago, D_Harris_05 said:

Great news (sarcasm)! How much time has passed since you deleted the files? But maybe (!) that doesn’t even matter…

 

The thing is that Time Machine creates local snapshots of your system every hour, so your files might be saved in one of those snapshots. To check, go to your desktop, open Time Machine (click the icon in the menu bar and select “Browse Time Machine Backups”—though you probably know this already) and look for the deleted files as you move through the snapshots on the timeline.

 

Alternatively, you can view the date and size of available snapshots in Disk Utility. Click View > Show Local Snapshots. Then, select your Macintosh HD to see the snapshots along with the specific day and time.

Wow, to be honest, I didn’t know about these local snapshots; that’s actually a really useful feature, but unfortunately not in my situation 😞 I have one snapshot, but it was created after the files were deleted, so they’re not there.

 

I’ll remember this advice, though—hopefully, I won’t need it, but as they say, forewarned is forearmed.

 

Any other ideas on how I can recover these deleted files using my Mac?
 

[UrbanExplorer7]

On 11/21/2024 at 4:22 PM, PrincePle said:

Thank you, @UrbanExplorer7 and @D_Harris_05, for the advice, but I forgot to mention that, out of habit, I emptied the trash after deleting the files. It’s a habit I kept from when I used to have a laptop with a 128GB drive, and I had to save every megabyte of space…

 

I have Time Machine set up, but the backup drive wasn’t connected, and it’s set to back up once a week, so there won’t be any files there.

Hey, dude, did you check the Trash on the SD card itself? And have you used the card since it happened?

 

Just connect the SD card to your Mac and open the Trash from the Dock. macOS has this thing where files from any device, even connected SD cards, go into a hidden Trash folder on each device, but they show up in the main macOS Trash.

 

If you don’t see the files in the regular Trash, try to use CommanderOne to check the hidden .Trashes folder on the SD card. Since some version of macOS—think it was Big Sur—Finder blocked access to that folder, so now you need third-party apps to view it. Sometimes files ‘hang’ out there but won’t show up in the regular Trash.
 

[PrincePle]

12 minutes ago, UrbanExplorer7 said:

Hey, dude, did you check the Trash on the SD card itself? And have you used the card since it happened?

 

Just connect the SD card to your Mac and open the Trash from the Dock. macOS has this thing where files from any device, even connected SD cards, go into a hidden Trash folder on each device, but they show up in the main macOS Trash.

 

If you don’t see the files in the regular Trash, try to use CommanderOne to check the hidden .Trashes folder on the SD card. Since some version of macOS—think it was Big Sur—Finder blocked access to that folder, so now you need third-party apps to view it. Sometimes files ‘hang’ out there but won’t show up in the regular Trash.
 

I checked, the macOS Trash is empty, and I don’t even have the .Trashes folder, even with OneCommander. Now that I’m re-reading my first post, I realize I said I deleted the files from the SD card, but I actually formatted it 🤦‍♂️
And no, I haven’t used it since then.

[D_Harris_05]

24 minutes ago, PrincePle said:

I checked, the macOS Trash is empty, and I don’t even have the .Trashes folder, even with OneCommander. Now that I’m re-reading my first post, I realize I said I deleted the files from the SD card, but I actually formatted it 🤦‍♂️
And no, I haven’t used it since then.

It’s great that you haven’t used your SD card. Even though you formatted it, that likely hasn’t erased the files permanently—they’re probably still on your card, but macOS’s standard tools won’t retrieve them. You’ll need a third-party app for that.

 

I have some experience with file recovery from SD cards. Disk Drill worked well for me actually. You could have heard of it. It’s pretty user-friendly and supports a wide range of data types; I believe it should support your photo format too. You can check their supported formats here https://www.cleverfiles.com/help/file-types/.

 

While Disk Drill isn’t free—it costs $89—it’s worth trying tho. I don't think you will find something better to recover deleted photos on a Mac. Plus, you can test it before you buy, as it allows you to scan and preview any number of files. This will help you confirm that your files are intact and can be recovered before you make the final decision on whether or not to go all-in.

[UrbanExplorer7]

Ohh, @D_Harris_05 is onto something! I also recovered files with Disk Drill back in the day, and it worked well. Just look for some coupons or promo codes—they seem to post them sometimes.

 

However, if Disk Drill’s too pricey for you, try PhotoRec. It’s free and supports tons of file types, but here’s the catch: it only finds files based on their signatures and totally ignores the file system records, so the results might be messier than Disk Drill’s. Plus, it’s a command-line tool, which can feel a bit weird if you’re not used to it.

 

P.S. By the way, if you're wondering why we suggest you scan the memory card instead of your MacBook directly, it’s because your Mac has an SSD. When you delete files on it, it sends a TRIM command, which makes recovery nearly impossible. If you’re curious, there’s plenty of stuff online about it.
 

[PrincePle]

Thank you for the recommendations. I tried PhotoRec first, and it was a bit tricky to understand the ‘interface’ and recovery process, but I figured it out and managed to recover about 70% of the lost photos, and even some old photos from other shoots. After that, I scanned the card with Disk Drill, it was A LOT easier to use, lol. It found all the missing photos and was able to preview them. Now I’m thinking about buying the Pro version to recover everything…

 

Thanks, everyone, for the advice and recommendations! Now my friend and I have all the funny guest photos again, the ones no other wedding photographer managed to capture 😅 The only downside is that, on top of my wedding gift, I now have to add the cost of macOS recovery software for deleted photos 😅

[D_Harris_05]

28 minutes ago, PrincePle said:

Thank you for the recommendations. I tried PhotoRec first, and it was a bit tricky to understand the ‘interface’ and recovery process, but I figured it out and managed to recover about 70% of the lost photos, and even some old photos from other shoots. After that, I scanned the card with Disk Drill, it was A LOT easier to use, lol. It found all the missing photos and was able to preview them. Now I’m thinking about buying the Pro version to recover everything…

 

Thanks, everyone, for the advice and recommendations! Now my friend and I have all the funny guest photos again, the ones no other wedding photographer managed to capture 😅 The only downside is that, on top of my wedding gift, I now have to add the cost of macOS recovery software for deleted photos 😅

You’re very welcome; I’m glad I could help!
Always make sure that your photos or any files have successfully copied to where they need to be before you delete the originals.

[oleksandr-lukashyn]

🔰 To help others who might encounter a similar issue with deleted photos, here’s a checklist of steps to consider:

• Check the Trash for deleted files. On removable devices, you may also look in the hidden .Trashes folder with a file manager like OneCommander.
• Review Time Machine backups and local snapshots. If the deleted files were on the system disk and within folders included in backups, there’s a chance they are in a recent backup.
• Use third-party data recovery software. As recommended earlier in this thread, consider PhotoRec as a free option or Disk Drill as a more versatile solution. Keep in mind that SSDs use the TRIM command, which reorganizes memory blocks after deletion and makes file recovery more challenging. Complete recovery is not guaranteed and depends on the specific circumstances.

Additionally, when @PrincePle formatted the SD card, it’s possible they chose a different file system than the original. This could have allowed Disk Drill to recover more files than PhotoRec, which relies on file signature recovery alone. If you format into a different file system, you may preserve more metadata from the previous file system, and this enables better file identification compared to when you reformat with the same file system.

 

[PrincePle]

15 minutes ago, oleksandr-lukashyn said:

🔰 To help others who might encounter a similar issue with deleted photos, here’s a checklist of steps to consider:

• Check the Trash for deleted files. On removable devices, you may also look in the hidden .Trashes folder with a file manager like OneCommander.
• Review Time Machine backups and local snapshots. If the deleted files were on the system disk and within folders included in backups, there’s a chance they are in a recent backup.
• Use third-party data recovery software. As recommended earlier in this thread, consider PhotoRec as a free option or Disk Drill as a more versatile solution. Keep in mind that SSDs use the TRIM command, which reorganizes memory blocks after deletion and makes file recovery more challenging. Complete recovery is not guaranteed and depends on the specific circumstances.

Additionally, when @PrincePle formatted the SD card, it’s possible they chose a different file system than the original. This could have allowed Disk Drill to recover more files than PhotoRec, which relies on file signature recovery alone. If you format into a different file system, you may preserve more metadata from the previous file system, and this enables better file identification compared to when you reformat with the same file system.

 

Yes, @oleksandr-lukashyn, you’re right! I decided I wanted to reformat the SD card not as FAT32, like it was, but as exFAT. Looks like my impulsiveness actually helped me recover more files—awesome!