What is the best file recovery software for Mac?

[Patalain]

Hello everyone, I recently lost my files from an external SSD SanDisk Extreme Portable E61 V2 because my kid accidentally formatted my drive instead of their own flash drive. This drive had a lot of important data that I was storing there because I did not have enough space on my internal SSD. I read some articles about data recovery and realized that my only option is special software, but every software vendor claims they are the best and I would really like an independent opinion from real people about the best data recovery software for Mac. 

 

I am open to any suggestions including paid solutions because these files are REALLY important. Extra info about my disk and system macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 the disk used to be APFS but now it is exFAT and I lost over 900GB of files mostly photos videos and office documents like Word PDF and Excel.

UPD: I stopped by the forum again and realized I completely forgot to add an update here. Long story short, I tested several of the suggested options, and for me, Disk Drill turned out to be the best. It was the one that managed to recover all of my data, 900 GB in total. Really impressed with how it handled it. By the way, I keep Disk Drill in my toolkit and actually used it again recently - it helped me recover some Word documents I had accidentally deleted.

Edited February 27 by Patalain

[MikeB76]

6 minutes ago, Patalain said:

Hello everyone, I recently lost my files from an external SSD SanDisk Extreme Portable E61 V2 because my kid accidentally formatted my drive instead of their own flash drive. This drive had a lot of important data that I was storing there because I did not have enough space on my internal SSD. I read some articles about data recovery and realized that my only option is special software, but every software vendor claims they are the best and I would really like an independent opinion from real people about the best data recovery software for Mac. 

 

I am open to any suggestions including paid solutions because these files are REALLY important. Extra info about my disk and system macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 the disk used to be APFS but now it is exFAT and I lost over 900GB of files mostly photos videos and office documents like Word PDF and Excel.
 

Hey, your situation is a perfect example of why I never let anyone use my laptop. From my own experience, I’d only recommend Disk Drill it’s the only tool I’ve used for real file recovery, and it actually brought back lost data for me and my friends even after a format. It’s not free, but you can preview as many files as you want. I got it a couple of years ago with some coupon, so maybe you can still find a discount online.

 

P.S. Good thing your kid formatted it to a different file system, it usually boosts your chances of recovering those lost files.

[Patalain]

16 minutes ago, MikeB76 said:

Hey, your situation is a perfect example of why I never let anyone use my laptop. From my own experience, I’d only recommend Disk Drill it’s the only tool I’ve used for real file recovery, and it actually brought back lost data for me and my friends even after a format. It’s not free, but you can preview as many files as you want. I got it a couple of years ago with some coupon, so maybe you can still find a discount online.

 

P.S. Good thing your kid formatted it to a different file system, it usually boosts your chances of recovering those lost files.

I saw on their website that they support recovering files from SSDs only if TRIM is disabled. Do you know what that might mean?

[MikeB76]

5 minutes ago, Patalain said:

I saw on their website that they support recovering files from SSDs only if TRIM is disabled. Do you know what that might mean?

Look, TRIM is a command your SSD controller uses to reorganize memory blocks, helps it last longer and run faster but once it runs you can’t recover data after that. For TRIM to work on an external SSD the controller has to support it and it needs to be connected through Thunderbolt. If you’re using a hub I’m guessing TRIM won’t work.
I’ve got a SanDisk Extreme 55AE connected through Thunderbolt, checked System Info and couldn’t find anything about TRIM support so it’s probably not working. macOS would’ve shown it like it does for the internal drive.

[TechieGuru99]

37 minutes ago, Patalain said:

Hello everyone, I recently lost my files from an external SSD SanDisk Extreme Portable E61 V2 because my kid accidentally formatted my drive instead of their own flash drive. This drive had a lot of important data that I was storing there because I did not have enough space on my internal SSD. I read some articles about data recovery and realized that my only option is special software, but every software vendor claims they are the best and I would really like an independent opinion from real people about the best data recovery software for Mac. 

 

I am open to any suggestions including paid solutions because these files are REALLY important. Extra info about my disk and system macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 the disk used to be APFS but now it is exFAT and I lost over 900GB of files mostly photos videos and office documents like Word PDF and Excel.
 

It’s an unfortunate situation you’re dealing with, but don’t lock the kid in a closet over it (just kidding). I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. For your case, I’d recommend testing the following programs to see which one works best for recovering your files:

📌 Quick note: Switch your drive to read-only mode to avoid accidentally overwriting deleted data. You can do this with the command diskutil mount readOnly /dev/diskX. There are plenty of methods available online—pick whichever suits you best.

1. PhotoRec. A free Terminal tool that identifies and recovers files based on their signatures. It supports around 470 file types and doesn’t rely on the file system, so it doesn’t matter what was or is currently in use. If your files haven’t been overwritten, it can recover them. The downside? In your case, with 900GB of lost files, it will restore them without their original names or folder structures. So, you’ll need to manually sort through all that data afterward. 🫡 Press F
2. Disk Drill. As mentioned by @MikeB76, this is a solid option. It offers a user-friendly interface and delivers excellent recovery results, particularly with APFS disks, which is crucial since your files were stored in the APFS file system. It specifically looks for remnants of APFS rather than scanning for exFAT, which would be irrelevant here.
3. EaseUS Data Recovery. I’d consider this an alternative to Disk Drill. It has a similar interface, but in my experience, the results can sometimes be slightly less effective. If you go this route, you could also try Cisdem Data Recovery, which is a clone of EaseUS but $30 cheaper. Despite being a clone, the scanning results can vary, so be sure to test it before committing to a purchase.

These three are, in my opinion, the top tools for your situation. There’s little point in listing additional options when these are the best recovery software for Mac. Good luck!

[UrbanExplorer7]

Gonna have to agree with @TechieGuru99 on this one. PhotoRec has bailed me out more than once, and I didn’t spend a single cent on it 🙌. That said, I was mostly recovering stuff from flash drives with not a ton of data, so it was pretty quick to sift through the results and grab what I needed.

[PixelDreamer5]

I want to highlight software like DMDE. It might not be as user-friendly as the ones mentioned earlier (except maybe PhotoRec, haha 😅), but it’s not too hard to figure out. It’s been pretty reliable for recovering data from APFS-formatted devices in my experience. While it’s not free, it’s priced lower than most similar tools.
 

Heads up: don’t hate me when you’re trying to make sense of the scan results—especially the layout in Main Results and Additional sections!

[UrbanExplorer7]

2 minutes ago, PixelDreamer5 said:

I want to highlight software like DMDE. It might not be as user-friendly as the ones mentioned earlier (except maybe PhotoRec, haha 😅), but it’s not too hard to figure out. It’s been pretty reliable for recovering data from APFS-formatted devices in my experience. While it’s not free, it’s priced lower than most similar tools.
 

Heads up: don’t hate me when you’re trying to make sense of the scan results—especially the layout in Main Results and Additional sections!

Yo, bro, if I were you, I wouldn’t even mention that software. Like, do you even know who made it? Hint: it’s some dude from Russia. And with everything going on in the world right now, sending money their way is a big nope. You might say, “Oh, but their site doesn’t say that…” blah blah blah. Yeah, no kidding—they removed that info. Check Web Archive, man—back in ’23, they had contact details in Russia. Plus, if you dig up the software dev’s signature online, you’ll see it was registered in Novosibirsk.

 

I wouldn’t recommend that software to anyone, not just because of the money thing, but also ’cause I just don’t trust it. Like, do you really want to use a program that messes with your files when you have no idea what it’s doing behind the scenes? Hard pass from me.

[D_Harris_05]

Among all the options mentioned, I noticed no one brought up R-Studio, which is quite a powerful data recovery tool. It supports APFS systems and covers a wide range of file signatures. While some might argue it’s a professional-grade application with features that casual users don’t need, R-Studio also offers a basic version. This version excludes advanced functionalities, comes at a reasonable price, and still provides robust recovery algorithms for standard file systems.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. As others have suggested, test out the applications first and then decide which one to use for your recovery.

 

P.S. Professional doesn’t always mean better. In many cases, user-friendly applications like Disk Drill can recover all your lost files just as effectively while offering a more intuitive interface.

[TechieGuru99]

@D_Harris_05 mentioned some excellent software! I don’t know how I managed to forget about R-Studio when writing my comment. It’s great that this is a forum where you can get input from more than just one “expert” - you get advice from all of us 😂

[GeladeN]

Among the more professional-grade software, I’d also recommend UFS Explorer. Its top-tier configuration offers an impressive range of features, but the pricing is definitely not aimed at the average user looking to recover their files. To give you an idea, the most advanced version costs €800 per year!

 

That said, for standard data recovery tasks, their basic version priced at €60 should be more than enough to meet your needs. It’s a solid choice for less complex scenarios.

[Patalain]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was kind of hoping there would be a clear favorite, so I wouldn’t have such a tough decision to make. I’ll start scanning and see the results, and then pick what works best for me!

[Patalain]

A (not so) quick update, maybe someone will find it interesting which software I ended up using and how much I managed to recover. I tried a few programs, among them Disk Drill, R-Studio and EaseUS.

 

I started with R-Studio, scanned my disk and began looking at the results. That was my first disappointment, because after the scan, I got a few partitions - I guess it found them or maybe that was how it sorted the results. I really wasn’t sure. Honestly, it was pretty tough to figure out, but I tried checking through them anyway. What bugged me was that in the demo version I couldn’t restore my files at all. I wasn’t expecting it to restore everything, but I at least wanted to see if any recovered files were actually okay. The preview didn’t help much, because it mostly showed standard image files, and for everything else it opened a HEX view, which wasn’t useful for me. After dealing with all that, I decided to try other software.

 

Next, I tried EaseUS. I downloaded the trial, opened it up, and had no clue what was going on. I couldn’t figure out which drive was mine or what to scan. It was showing random disks with millions of terabytes, so I realized that probably wasn’t going to work for me. I’m not saying it’s a bad program, but something was definitely off, so I closed it right away.

 

Finally I decided to try Disk Drill, and it turned out to be my lifesaver. I liked the interface (kind of like EaseUS, but without the weird many-terabyte drives) and, in a couple of clicks, I started scanning my disk, then went to sleep. When I woke up, I checked the results and saw almost 2TB of recovered files, even though I’d only lost around 900GB. Turns out part of the files were recovered with their original names and folder structure, while the rest were sorted by file type. I later found on their site that these are the files detected by scanning their signatures. I browsed a bunch of them in Preview, just to confirm they were what I needed, and it was really handy that I could even see Excel files right there. In the end, I grabbed an unused HDD and restored absolutely everything with a single “Recover” click. Of course, I had to buy the software before doing the final restore - guess they didn’t want to let me recover 2TB for free, ahah.

 

All in all, if somebody out there needs to recover files, I’d say try Disk Drill first and maybe you won’t have to bother with any other software. It’s honestly quite convenient.

 

Edited February 13, 2025 by Patalain

[PippoX0]

Good to know :-)
In case of disaster recovery …

[locococo]

I came to this forum with a problem very similar to the OP’s, except I didn’t format my SSD. I accidentally hit something on the keyboard while cleaning up files and deleted several folders, around 400GB in total. While searching for recovery software, I found this thread and saw several people mentioning PhotoRec. Since it’s free, I thought it would be the perfect solution. MISTAKE!!!

 

The scan took almost an entire day. When it finished, I opened the results folder and just stared at the screen. Thousands of files with completely random names. Before this, everything on my drive was neatly organized with clear folder structures and proper filenames but now it’s just chaos (files like f1234567.jpg and recup_file_000981.mp4 everywhere). So PhotoRec might technically recover the files, BUT if you care about keeping your original folder structure and filenames, it completely fails. Seriously, don’t use PhotoRec unless your day somehow has 48 hours and your month has 60 days.

Edited March 12 by locococo

[TechieGuru99]

16 minutes ago, locococo said:

Thousands of files with completely random names. Before this, everything on my drive was neatly organized with clear folder structures and proper filenames but now it’s just chaos (files like f1234567.jpg and recup_file_000981.mp4 everywhere).

 

 

You weren’t very attentive, that’s literally what I wrote about and warned people about when I posted the list of software earlier. My guess is you saw the part that interested you the most (free) and just skipped the rest of the text. Go back and read the replies here again, and pick something with a GUI that can actually preserve your folder structure. Disk Drill has been recommended here several times already, so maybe take a look at that one.
That said, I wouldn’t expect the scan itself to be any faster. I’m guessing your SSD is around 1TB or maybe even larger, and with drives that size the scan usually takes quite a while no matter which recovery software you use.

[Patalain]

@locococoman, that’s kind of a strange choice. If your situation was similar to mine, why did you go with PhotoRec? I didn’t even dare to test it when I was dealing with that amount of data.
It’s been more than a year since I posted my original question here, but I still keep Disk Drill installed and have actually used it a few more times since then to recover deleted files. Every time it worked great for me. One thing I really like is how the scan results are organized. After the scan, the files are grouped into categories like Existing, Deleted, and Reconstructed. When I checked the Deleted section, I could see my files in their original folders exactly as they were before they were lost, which made recovery much easier. So I’d definitely suggest giving it a try. You don’t have to buy the Pro version right away, just run the scan first and see what it finds.
 

[locococo]

Ok, I was just being a blind idiot. People literally warned about the whole "you’ll have to sort everything manually" part, and I still went for it. I don’t want to pay for recovery software if I can avoid it, but spending weeks organizing 400GB of files doesn’t sound any better. But Patalain sounds pretty convincing. Ok, I’ll try running a Disk Drill scan tonight and see what it finds. But if it gives me the same kind of results PhotoRec did, I don’t know how I’ll react.

Update: Guuuys, oh my god, thank you. This is so much better than what I got with PhotoRec. I can actually see my file names and the folders look exactly like they did before. Everything is neatly organized instead of that massive pile of random files. Sorry for causing a bit of a scene here before even trying the alternatives that were suggested. That one’s on me. Sending virtual hugs to all of you!!

Edited March 13 by locococo

[TechieGuru99]

Glad it worked out for you 👍 Just be a little more careful next time, both with your files and with reading the replies here. It can save you a lot of trouble.