Free Data Recovery For Mac

This page uncovers 5 best completely free data recovery software for macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, older versions and morden Mac OS X, etc. All those Mac data recovery software share one commonality, they are free and useful for casual Mac users. Pick up one and let it take care of your Mac data now.

  1. Data Recovery For Mac
  2. Free Data Recovery For Mac Book Pro
  3. Mac Data Recovery Software Free

A good Mac data recovery program, this free program can be used to recover all types of data including videos, music, photos and documents among many others. Although the program is completely free to download, you get 20 credits to recover data and have to pay for additional credits if you need to recover more data. The Most Powerful Data Recovery Software with Photo and Video Recovery features Try Stellar Data Recovery Premium Data Recovery Software for Windows & Mac Stellar Data Recovery is now Stellar Data Recovery Professional, a powerful software to recover data from all types of Windows devices “ PCs, laptops, ultrabooks etc.

  1. Disk Drill is one of the best data recovery software applications for Mac users. It is a full-featured and comprehensive data recovery tool that offers advanced features to raise the level of data protection on your computer and peripheral devices.
  2. This software is compatible with Mac OS X Lion and other versions of Mac based PC. Its all features of Free Mac recovery tool is making itself widely accepted among Mac user. You can use this tool when you Mac data has been lost, corrupted, formatted or crash. For using this tool you do not have to require any specific technical knowledge as following its easy and simple to use step by step.

This article covers the top five completely free data recovery software for Mac, which varies from features, functions, and performance. However, they all have one thing in common: they are free.

Compare the five tools carefully, and select the one that fits your needs best.

PAGE CONTENT:
Top 5 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac
1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
2. Disk Drill
3. PhotoRec
4. TestDisk
5. Exif Untrasher
3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery
People Also Ask

Top 5 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

When you get data loss on your Mac due to accidental deletion, partition/hard drive formatting, system crash, macOS upgrade, file system or hard drive corruption, stay calm and pick up one of the recommended data recovery software in the below for help.

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is one of the free top and handy Mac data recovery software that enables you to recover data from the emptied trash bin, Mac notebooks, desktops, hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, digital cameras, etc. It works on internal APFS/HFS+/HFS X drives, and FAT/FAT32/exFAT/NTFS file systems used in USB flash drives and external hard drives connected to Mac.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. All-in-one data recovery software

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is fully compatible with the latest macOS 10.15(Catalina), 10.14 (Mojave) and all the former versions. It enables all Mac users to perform a full recovery of lost valuable data in only 3 steps: Scan > Preview > Recover.

# 2. HFS+ Fusion Drive Recovery

The latest update of EaseUS Mac data recovery software has improved its support of Fusion Drive, which makes it work even better in retrieving files from Mac computers which are installed on fusion drives.

# 3. Encrypted Drive Recovery

Another great update in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is that it supports encrypted drive recovery by offering guidance to assist Mac users in decrypting and unlocking their drives with password.

# 4. Data Protection

Once the data protection feature is enabled, it will automatically back up the deleted files to a safe location. If you unexpectedly delete files and want to recover later, you can quickly restore the lost files from the created backup.

Pros:

Data recovery for mac
  • Support to restore 200+ file types on Mac, including recovering lost Word/Excel/PPT documents, photos, videos, music files, emails, archived files, and more.
  • Quick Scan + Deep Scan technology greatly enhances recovery probability.
  • Real-time Preview allows you to preview found files while scanning and before proceeding with data recovery.
  • No quality-loss recovery brings your lost photos, videos perfectly back in its best performance.

Cons:

  • The completely free version is limited to a maximum of 2GB data recovery. (The outstanding Windows data recovery free version also provides 2GB free file recovery.)

2. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a popular Mac data recovery application developed to recover lost partitions or files from Mac internal and external hard drives. Also, the Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery options in the free trial version support to monitor the file deletion activity and retain metadata so as to quickly undelete files.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Undelete Protected Data (Not Available in Free Version)

Being similar to the Data Protection feature in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, Disk Drill also contains an undelete protected data feature that requires Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery features to be enabled in advance.

With these two features enabled, Mac users could quickly undelete files from a Trash Bin reference or shadow copy of each file to a user-specified folder.

# 2. Allocate Existing Files

When Finder fails to read data, Disk Utility reports the drive as unformatted, Disk Drill can scan the partition and retrieve data from Mac.

Pros:

  • Compatible with all the Mac OS X and macOS systems.
  • Recover 200+ file types.
  • It is packed with free and useful disk tools for all users.
  • An intuitive user interface to recover lost files effortlessly.

Cons:

  • The free version only allows a preview of data recovery.
  • Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery are not available in the free version.

3. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free, open-source program that works very well in data recovery on older operating systems like OS X, Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, and Windows.

It allows users to restore most common files, like photos, audios, documents, ZIP archives, and others from internal or external devices, such as digital cameras, memory cards, USB flash drives and partitions/hard disks.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Advanced File Carving

PhotoRec first searches for the data block or cluster size. The program will quickly load value from superblock like ext2/ext3/ext4 or volume boot record like FAT/NTFS if the file system is not corrupted. When file system corrupted, PhotoRec will check the device by a sector level, using the first 10 found files to calculate the block or cluster size so as to locate and find more lost files.

# 2. Block or Cluster Level Recovery

This program will read the Mac device block by block, cluster by cluster, checking against different file signatures so to recuperate available files.

Pros:

  • Support data recovery cross-platforms, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.
  • 100% open-source program, not only the software but also the source code.
  • Nice tool to recover personal files.

Cons:

  • Not very user-friendly for ordinary computer users.
  • Technical skills required. It uses command lines to operate.

4. TestDisk

TestDisk, like PhotoRec, it's also an open-source, freeware product that allows for multiple file types recovery.

It mainly focuses on partition recovery. It enables users to find deleted or lost partitions by fixing the partition tables due to software crash, virus attack, mistaken formatting, etc.

Free Data Recovery For Mac

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Partition Recovery

When a partition lost or disappeared on Mac due to corrupted partition tables, Mac users can apply TestDisk to rebuild and repair the corrupted partition table.

# 2. Rebuild Boot Sectors

GTasks Pro - Tasks for Google 1.3.11 MAS Multilingual macOS 4 mb. Sync your tasks with Google and across your Mac, iPhone & iPad devices. Gtasks for mac. Download gTasks Pro and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. ‎A SINGLE PURCHASE COVERS ALL YOUR IPHONE AND IPAD DEVICES. Sync your tasks with Google and across your Mac, iPhone & iPad devices. Never liked your tasks app? You’ll love this one:) MAIN FEATURES Sync your tasks with Google Tasks. Sync tasks between your iPhone & iPad. GTasks is a fairly simple application that can function as a standalone task manager, but becomes especially useful when integrated with Google Tasks. The gTasks app enables you to synchronize your data using a Google account, allowing you to organize tasks from your Mac, iPhone or iPad, aided by the. And across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and your Google account. GTasks keeps your lists and tasks in perfect sync across all your devices. Your important data is always backed up in the cloud utilizing Google Tasks Sync. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for gTasks Free.

When the Mac bootable drive fails to boot, it corrects problems in bootable drives that are failing to boot.

Pros:

  • Completely free and open.
  • Runs on several operating systems, including macOS and Mac OS X versions.
  • Recover lost partitions and rebuild the partition table.

Cons:

  • Use the command line to make data recovery.
  • Not user-friendly for regular computer users.

5. Exif Untrasher

Exif Untrasher is another completely free Mac data recovery tool that mainly restores deleted or JPEG files from digital cameras, external drive, USB stick, SD card, etc. You can easily download and install this software on your Mac running Mac OS X 10.10 and all the later versions.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Highly Efficient in JEPG Recovery

Exif Untrasher is a tool that mainly designed to locate photos in JEPG formats on any kind of storage device like SD card, CF card, memory stick or Mac hard disk.

External storage device needs to be mounted as a volume on Mac for the utility to access and attempt a restore.

Pros:

  • Simple and quick to recover lost images from the memory card.
  • Free with no quantity limits.
  • It is updated by the developer regularly.

Cons:

  • It only works for JEGP file recovery. It doesn't support extra file formats.

3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery

Full free data recovery software

To help more Mac users to bring their lost files are soon as possible, we are here to show you a 3-step tutorial of free Mac data recovery. If you are eager to bring your lost files back on Mac or external storage devices, apply the brief and innovative EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help.

Remember to connect your USB, SD card, or external hard drive to Mac computer if your lost data were saved on it.

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover Now' button to have them back.

Conclusion

On this page, you are presented with the top 5 completely free Mac data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, Exif Untrasher. When you are facing unexpected data loss on Mac, the programs demonstrated above can help you recover lost files effectively.

What's more, if your lost data is less than 2GB, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is highly recommended as it provides the most user-friendly interface and most powerful data recovery function.

If you simply want to restore JEGP images, Exif Untrasher is worth to try.

People Also Ask

Some Mac users may still have doubts about Mac file recovery. Here we have collected the top frequently asked 4 questions and left brief answers below. Check out and find your own answers here.

1. Is Mac data recovery free?

It depends. If you lost deleted files to Trash, you can restore them from the Trash for free.

When you lost files on a local Mac hard drive or an external storage device, if you apply free Mac data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help, it's free.

If you take your computer to a local data recovery center, it will charge you a big bunch of money.

2. What is the best free data recovery software?

  • For Windows users, you may refer to Top 10 Free SD Card Data Recovery Software.

The Recommended software also works perfectly in Windows OS for data recovery and you can find out the most suitable for you to apply and restore lost files with ease.

  • For Mac users, as we recommended on this page, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, Exif Untrasher are all good to help.

3. Is there any free data recovery software?

Sure! Many data recovery software producers all have released their free data recovery software. Here we have collected some of them for you to pick up one and apply to guard your own data.

10 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Windows Users:

  • 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free
  • 2). Recuva
  • 3). Stellar Data Recovery
  • 4). Disk Drill
  • 5). R-Studio
  • 6). Acronis Revive
  • 7). Remo Recover
  • 8). Recover My Files
  • 9). Puran Data Recovery
  • 10). TestDisk

5 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Mac Users: (We have uncovered on this page)

  • 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
  • 2). Disk Drill
  • 3). PhotoRec
  • 4). TestDisk
  • 5). Exif Untrasher

4. How can I recover deleted files without software Mac free?

There are two ways for you to recover deleted files on Mac for free without using data recovery software.

  • One way is to undelete files from your Mac Trash bin.

When you mistakenly deleted files on Mac computer to the trash, and you didn't empty the trash, you can undelete them from your Trash for free.

  • The other way that you can try is to recover deleted files from your Mac Time Machine backup.

If you have the habit of backing up files on Mac computer using the Time Machine, congratulations. When you delete some of them, luckily, you can bring them back immediately from your Time Machine backup. You can follow to Recover Files from Time Machine Backup for a detailed guide.

Summary :

Are you looking for the best and free Mac data recovery software? If yes, you come to the right place. MiniTool Software collects some professional and reliable Mac data recovery software and shows them in this article. You can select a suitable one according to your actual situation.

Quick Navigation :

If you are a Mac computer user, a free Mac data recovery software is a necessary configuration. When your Mac files are lost or deleted for some reason, you can use such a tool to get them back.

When you search for Mac file recovery software free on the internet, you will see many choices. To guarantee the safety of the current data on your computer, you’d better select a professional and reliable Mac file recovery tool. And it is also the topic we will talk about in this article: best and free Mac data recovery software.

We will list you some Mac data recovery programs that are worth trying. You can select one according to your requirements.

Tip: No matter which data recovery software you are using, it can only recover the lost and deleted files that are not overwritten by new data. Thus, when you find your files get lost or deleted, you’d better stop using the device as soon as possible to prevent the missing files from being overwritten.
Recovery

This post will show you how long it will take before a deleted file is unrecoverable, how to make files unrecoverable, and how to undelete a file on Windows.

Top 5 Best and Free Mac Data Recovery Software

  1. Stellar Data Recovery for Mac
  2. Disk Drill for Mac
  3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac
  4. Wondershare Recoverit for Mac
  5. Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac

1. Stellar Data Recovery for Mac

Stella Mac Data Recovery for Mac is a highly recommended choice. It is specially designed to retrieve different kinds of files from your Mac machine. The supported files include documents, photos, audios, videos, music files, and more.

It works under multiple situations like file deletion, virus invasion, disk failure, partition loss, system crash, etc. Besides, it can recover data from APFS, HFS, HFS+, ex-FAT, and NTFS drives. So, it can fully meet your demands for Mac data recovery.

Are you bothered by the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer when using an external hard drive on a Mac computer. Now, get some solutions here.

This software has a trial edition. You can use it to scan the drive you want to recover data from and then check whether you can find your needed files from the scan results. Now, you can go to the MiniTool download center to get this Mac file recovery tool.

After downloading and installing this software on your Mac device, you can use it to restore your lost and deleted files. Here is a guide:

1. Open Stellar Data Recovery for Mac.

2. On this Select What To Recover interface, you can choose Recover Everything. You can also customize the scanning ranges based on your own requirements.

3. Click Next to continue.

4. On this Select Location interface, you need to select the drive you need to scan. If you want to perform a deep scan, you need to turn on the Deep Scan button that is on the bottom-left side of the interface.

5. Click Next to start the scanning process.

6. When the scanning process ends, there will be a small pop-up window saying Scanning Completed Successfully! You need to click OK to close this window and see the scan results.

7. By default, this software will show you the Classic List that contains both existing and deleted files on the Mac PC. If you only want to recover your deleted data, you can switch to Deleted List to make this software only show you the deleted items. Then, you can open each folder to find the deleted files you want to recover.

This software allows you to preview some types of files like images, videos, and more. If you are not sure whether it is the file you want to restore, you can double-click on that file to preview it.

Since it is the trial edition of this software, you are not allowed to use it to recover your needed files. But you can update this freeware to a full edition and then recover files to a suitable location. Here you need to know that you’d better not save the data to its original location. Otherwise, the deleted files can be overwritten and become unrecoverable.

When every step is done, you can access the specified storage location to directly see and use the recovered files.

Comprehensive Evaluation

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac: ★★★★☆

Pros:

  • It can recover all types of files.
  • It supports multiple types of storage devices.
  • It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
  • It supports previewing files.

Cons:

You need to update to a full edition if you want to use it to recover data from the scan results.

Stellar Data Recovery is one of the best data recovery tools we’ve used, with highly customizable searches, a huge file-type library, and deep scan abilities. techradar.com

2. Disk Drill for Mac

Disk Drill is a very famous Mac data recovery software. It supports the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina. It can recover all your lost and deleted files on your Mac computer. No matter you want to recover data from a hard drive, SSD, memory card, SD card, or pen drive on your Mac computer, this software can always work.

It is very easy to use this software to retrieve deleted files from your Mac computer. You just need to download this tool to your device, drag it to the Applications folder, launch it, and then select the drive you want to recover data from to scan. When the scanning process ends, you can preview the scanned files and then select your needed files to recover.

On the other hand, this software also has some other useful features like disk cleanup, duplicate finder, data backup, and more. These are also some necessary features for your Mac computer.

Do you want to delete duplicate files from your Windows computer? This article shows you how to find and delete duplicate files using duplicate file finders.

Comprehensive Evaluation

Disk Drill for Mac: ★★★★☆

Pros:

  • It supports many storage devices like internal Macintosh hard drives, external hard drives, cameras, iPhones, iPads, iPods, Android devices, USB flash drives, Kindles, and memory cards.
  • It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
  • It supports previewing files.
  • It has more functional features like disk cleanup, duplicate finder, data backup, and more.

Cons:

If you want to recover all your files without limits, you need to use a Pro or Enterprise edition.

If you have Mac with a traditional hard drive, Disk Drill Pro offers one of the most advanced data recovery utilities available. pcmag.com

3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac

EaseUS is a professional computer supplier and its products include partition manager, data recovery software, data backup tool, etc. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is one representative and it is specially designed to recover your Mac data under different situations.

Like other Mac file recovery tools, this software can recover your lost images, videos, documents, music files, and more from various types of data storage devices like internal hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and more.

After getting this software, you can open it, select the target drive to scan, and then choose your desired files from the scan results to recover. With the free edition of this EaseUS Mac data recovery free edition, you can recover 2GB data without paying any cent.

Comprehensive Evaluation

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac: ★★★★

Pros:

  • You can use the free edition to recover 2GB files.
  • It can recover 1000+ types of files, including documents, images, videos, archives, and more.
  • It supports many storage devices like external HDD/SSD, fusion drive, USB drive, SD card, CF card, Digital Camera, Video Player, and more.
  • It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
  • It supports previewing files.

Cons:

You need to update to the Pro edition if you want to recover your data without limitations.

Overall, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is one of the most powerful file recovery programs we’ve used. It’s backed by highly advanced features, a great user interface, and a fast deep scan tool, among other things. techradar.com

4. Wondershare Recoverit for Mac

Recoverit for Mac is a software from Wondershare. It is also specially designed to get your lost data back under different situations like system crash, virus attack, file deletion, formatting, and more. It supports the latest macOS and APFS, ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32, HFS+, NTFS, Ext2, Ext 3, and Ext4 file systems.

After entering this software, you can select the target drive to scan and then find the files you want to recover from the scan results.

Comprehensive Evaluation

Wondershare Recoverit for Mac: ★★★★

Pros:

  • It can recover 1000+ types of files.
  • It supports many storage devices like hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SSD, digital camera, Drone camera, SD card, CF card, etc.
  • It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
  • It supports previewing files that are less than 15 MB.

Cons:

Not all files are recoverable.

Wondershare Data Recovery is the best data recovery tool I have ever used in my life, it allows to recover huge range of file formats on nutshell, though, data recovery solutions are generally used to recover accidentally or system-deleted files, corrupted, deleted or formatted partitions, or data on crashed hard drives. g2.com

Are you looking for solutions to recover videos from DJI drones or recover photos from DJI camcorder? You can read this article to get solutions.

5. Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac

Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac is another professional Mac data recovery software and you can use its free edition to recover up to 1GB data. This software can work in different situations like file deletion, partition deletion, formatting, and more.

Comprehensive Evaluation

Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac: ★★★☆

Pros:

  • It can recover data from various types of devices like internal and external hard drives, SSDs, RAIDS, USB, optical media, and memory cards.
  • It supports APFS, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT, exFAT volumes.
  • It can repair damaged and corrupt photo and video files

Cons:

  • It can’t recover data from a computer that is unbootable.
  • Its paid edition is more expensive than some competitors.
  • It has no built-in file previewer.
Ontrack EasyRecovery is the most powerful, thorough data recovery software we've tested, and it's blazing fast, too. Its only real drawback is a sometimes-daunting interface. pcmag.com

How to Select the Best Mac Data Recovery Software?

Basic Requirements

First, you should know the common features an excellent and professional Mac data recovery software should own:

  • Has an easy-to-use interface.
  • Recovers various types of data, including photos, videos, audios, music files, documents, and more.
  • Recovers files from different types of storage devices like hard disk drives, solid-state drives, SD cards, memory cards, and more.
  • Supports the latest Mac version.
  • Recovers data from unbootable computers.
  • Supplies 24*7 technical support.

Expect Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac, which can recover data from an unbootable computer, all the rest four programs are designed with this function.

Prices

Those are the prices for all editions of each Mac data recovery software. You can select one according to your actual situation. You can also go to the official site of each Mac data recovery software to get more price information.

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac

EditionProfessionalPremiumTechnician
Price$79.99$99.99$149

Disk Drill for Mac

EditionProfessionalEnterprise
Price$89$499

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac

Mac
Edition1-Month1-YearLifetime Upgrades
Price$89.95$119.95$169.95

Wondershare Recoverit for Mac

EditionEssentialStandardAdvancedFor Team
Price$79.95$99.95$119.95$399.95

Data Recovery For Mac

Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac

EditionHomeProfessionalPremiumTechnician
Price$110.14$177.46$99.00$558.44

Performance

Free Data Recovery For Mac Book Pro

The most important element of a Mac data recovery software is its performance.

Scanning Time

Normally, the first two software has a better performance and the whole scanning process can end within 30 minutes. If the disk you want to scan is too large, the whole process will last longer. But it will still end within 2 or 3 hours.

Recovering Data from Unbootable Mac Device

Mac Data Recovery Software Free

If your macOS is damaged or corrupt due to some reasons and you want to recover data from your device, Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac is not available because it doesn’t support creating a bootable device for Mac data recovery.

Extra Features

Besides, some of these free Mac data recovery tools have their extra features like data backup and duplicate files finder in Disk Drill for Mac. You can dig more features when using them.

Bottom Line

In this post, we show you 5 reliable and safe professional free Mac data recovery software. You can just select one based on your actual requirements. Should you have any related issues, you can let us know in the comment or contact us via [email protected].

Mac Data Recovery Software FAQ

As long as the deleted files are not overwritten by new data, you can use a free Mac data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, to get them back.
  1. Go to Trash.
  2. Find the file or folder you want to restore. Then, right-click it.
  3. Select Put Back from the pop-out menu.

After these three steps, the selected file or folder will be restored to its original location.

As long as you select a professional and reliable data recovery software and download it using the official source, the data recovery software will be safe.
With the trial edition of Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, you can scan the drive you want to recover data from and preview files from the scan results. However, if you want to recover data with it, you need to pay for it.