💡 This article is written by humans, with all solutions and steps verified.
I recently deleted some party photos on my MacBook by mistake. Is there a way to recover them?
Is it possible to recover photos deleted by emptying the Trash? I deleted them while organizing my photo library.
Photos, unlike other file types, are irreplaceable because they capture important memories. However, as in the above situation, statistics show that over 78.5% of users have lost their photos, and 30% have permanently lost them due to the lack of productive recovery methods. The article focuses on how to recover deleted photos on a Mac in different scenarios by combining the characteristics of macOS's features and data recovery principles. In addition, some tips to prevent photos from being lost again are shared as well.
This is a common question online, and the answer is yes. Although there are many ways to delete photos on a Mac, they ultimately fall into two categories: normal deletion and permanent deletion. While macOS handles these deleted photos differently, they still exist on your storage device, just in a different location or form. Read on to learn where photos go after deletion.
Photos deleted from Finder or the Photos app are placed in the Trash or Recently Deleted folder. They will be kept there for 30 days. During the period, if you want to undo the deletion, you can easily recover recently deleted photos on your Mac.
Many people believe that emptying the Trash, deleting photos from the Recently Deleted folder, using Command + Option + Delete, formatting the internal hard drive, or deleting photos from external devices will make photos unrecoverable. However, this is not the case. Although these photos disappear from their original locations, they are still present, just hidden. macOS only removes their index, making them invisible. This is similar to a computer being offline—while websites can't be accessed, they still exist. Without a backup, using data recovery software is the only manual approach to recovery. Before proceeding, review these tips.
Recovering permanently deleted photos on a Mac largely depends on what you do after the deletion. Most importantly, stop using the storage device that held the lost photos. Why? As mentioned above, when you delete photos, their image data isn't instantly deleted. macOS marks the sectors that held them as blank and available for storing new data. Writing to any file can overwrite the sectors containing the deleted photos. Once overwritten, recovering them is virtually impossible, even with professional data recovery services.
After reading the previous section, you should understand that regardless of how you deleted your photos, there's a chance to recover them. To get the right solution quickly, check out the table below:
| Where and How Photos were Delete | Simple and Quick Solution |
|---|---|
| Photos app (Deleted within 30 days) | From its "Recently Deleted" album |
| Any location on the Mac built-in hard disk (Deleted with Command + Delete keys or dragging to the Trash) | Check the Trash |
| iCloud/iCloud+ | Restore from the "Recently Deleted" option in iCloud. |
| The pictures were deleted from the trash, or you emptied the Trash after deleting them. | Use a Time Machine backup or an APFS snapshot (if available). Otherwise, you can only try data recovery tools (3 free options: iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac, Exif Untrasher, and PhotoRec) or services. |
| Deleted from Other external storage devices such as SD cards, USB drives, etc. | Check the hidden ".Trash" folder in this removable drive, or use photo recovery software for Mac. |
| Deleted with "Command + Option + Delete" keys, or the RM Command | Without a backup, you'll have to rely on professional macOS data recovery software or services. |
| Reinstalled/Updated macOS, formatted a storage drive, and more. | Use the APFS snapshots, Time Machine backup, image recovery software for Mac, or disk recovery providers. |
| Photo editing software crashed or errors | Try reopening the program and check its auto-recovery options; if that doesn't work, please use file recovery tool for Mac. |
Photos preserve important moments and memories. As discussed, various situations can result in photo loss, but solutions are available. Next, we will introduce them one by one.
To relive wonderful moments, Mac users often import their pictures into the Photos app and organize them into different albums. If you accidentally delete some photos while organizing them, check the "Recently Deleted" album in the app first. By default, they will remain there for 30 days before being permanently removed.
All recently deleted photos on the local disk are placed in the Trash for 30 days before being permanently removed. Before that, if you realize you've made a mistake, the following steps can return them to their original location.
Tip: If photos were deleted moments ago, use "Command + Z" to undo the deletion.
Have you ever wondered, "Why don't the photos I delete from an external storage device, like an SD card, appear in my Mac's Trash?" Actually, each device has its own trash folder, but for external devices, the folder is hidden. To access it, open your external device and press "Command + Shift + ." to reveal the ".Trashes" folder, which will appear semi-transparent. The deleted photos may be recoverable from there.
Nowadays, iCloud is built into every Apple device and offers 5GB of free storage to sync our photos and other files for access at any time, from any location. If some images are accidentally deleted, they are placed in the "Recently Deleted" option in iCloud for 30 days, where they can be restored if needed.
Furthermore, if you use other cloud storage services to sync your photos, they also offer options similar to iCloud's "Recently Deleted" that let you recover deleted photos.
As noted above, permanently deleted photos will not appear in the locations listed above, unlike normally deleted photos. In this case, the first step is to look for backups, such as a Time Machine snapshot of your entire macOS system or previously created photo backups. If available, here are two methods to quickly find deleted pictures on your Mac for free.
Tip: Most photos originate from phones or cameras. Check these devices for copies before proceeding with recovery steps.
Note: macOS will delete these snapshots when your hard drive is low on storage space. Therefore, please recover the deleted photos on Mac as soon as possible after accidentally deleting important pictures.
After ruling out the possibility of any copies of the permanently deleted photos, using data recovery software is an effective DIY method. These applications perform sector-level analysis of your hard drive to rebuild the index of deleted photos using the original information remaining in the data area, thus recovering them.
Here, we strongly recommend you use iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac, Exif Untrasher, and PhotoRec. Each has distinct features; they will be introduced individually to assist in determining which best meets specific recovery needs.
As its name suggests, it is developed by iBeesoft and has been around for over a decade. It has successfully helped tens of millions of users recover lost data with numerous updates and iterations. If you are looking for easy-to-use, powerful photo recovery software for Mac, iBeesoft Data Recovery is undoubtedly your ideal choice.
For users who have accidentally deleted JPEG images from external disks such as SD cards, CF cards, and flash drives, Exif Untrasher is also worth trying. Compared to the other two tools on the list, although it is small and has limited functions, its deleted picture recovery capabilities have still earned a reputation from many users.
It is an open-source command-line file recovery program that works even if the file system of your storage medium is severely damaged. While it has nothing to do with the photo loss scenario described in this article, the feature is still commendable.
In most cases, the methods above can help you recover deleted photos on Mac, even permanently deleted ones, but there's always a possibility that none of them works. Though data recovery services are expensive and time-consuming, they are your last resort when you have no other options.
While feeling lucky that this guide successfully helped you recover lost photos, only to find that they are corrupted, such as distorted, color errors, missing parts of the image, etc? Though it is disappointing, they are repairable. Here are some helpful solutions.
Although we've provided you with almost all the solutions for recovering deleted photos on Mac, it's undeniable that we can’t guarantee you would always succeed. You might be lucky enough to get your photos back this time. How about the next time? Therefore, it's essential to follow these suggestions to ensure the safety of your photos.
It will be permanently deleted. In this case, you can still recover them using data recovery software or professional services. The success rate of picture recovery decreases over time and may eventually become impossible. Therefore, if you accidentally delete some important photos, please use the methods described in this article to recover them as soon as possible.
Yes. For regular deletions, you can find them in the Trash, or in the "Recently Deleted" section of the Photos app/iCloud (if synced). For permanently deleted photos, you can use Time Machine to restore them, provided you have backed them up. Alternatively, you can use photo recovery software, such as iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Yes, only if you removed the photos to the Trash or deleted them using the "Command + Delete" keys. To do this, you should open Terminal and type in "cd .Trash" > "ls -al ~/.Trash" > "mv filename ... /" to restore them to their original location. If they were permanently deleted and there is no backup, you will have to rely on tools like iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac or ask for help from a data recovery service.
First, check if you have uploaded them to cloud storage or backed them up in Time Machine. If not, try iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac, Disk Drill, or PhotoRec.
Yes. But don't worry, as long as you haven't saved new data to the card, you can easily recover them using iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Honestly, everyone has a different definition of "best." If you've accidentally deleted some important photos, the following free programs are worth trying:
Photos play an important role in our lives. They allow us to share stories with friends and relive precious moments. Therefore, losing them can be heartbreaking. Fortunately, with this guide, even if you've permanently deleted them, you still have a chance to recover deleted photos on your Mac. Finally, since accidental photo deletion happens frequently, please share this article with your friends for future reference. Also, if you discover other solutions, please feel free to share them with us so we can help more people.
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