It’s a nightmare state of affairs: your Mac has been enjoying up for weeks and also you’ve been ignoring it, or simply haven’t been ready to determine find out how to repair it. Then it refuses to start out up. Why didn’t you make that backup? Is there any method you will get again the misplaced information out of your Mac? Fortunately there are apps that may get well your misplaced photographs and broken recordsdata out of your failed Mac’s onerous drive.
Knowledge restoration apps, like those we’ve got reviewed under, can get well recordsdata with relative ease, so long as the listing indicating the place recordsdata had been initially saved is salvageable. If that isn’t the case, the software program can scan the information for acquainted patterns that may denote a file kind. As soon as it finds a file kind, there’s a superb probability that there shall be information in that file.
Whether or not you’re an informal consumer scrambling to get well your misplaced recordsdata in your Mac, or a full-time tech store doing every part it will possibly to retrieve a shopper’s most crucial paperwork from a dying onerous drive, these are the information restoration apps that get our suggestion.
PROMOTION
Knowledge restoration software program for Mac – EaseUS
Get better misplaced information in 3 easy steps: automated scan, preview, and one-click restoration. Cowl any file format and cope with information loss points. Undelete recordsdata from the Mac-based onerous drive, fusion drive, SSD, USB drive, reminiscence card, digital digital camera, and extra. Macworld really helpful, and a terrific selection for each Mac and Home windows customers.
Now 25% OFF Unique Code: MACWORLD25
Trying to get well information from a iPhone? Learn: Finest information restoration apps for iPhone.
Finest information restoration software program for Mac 2025
Right here’s our choose of the perfect restoration software program for Mac we’ve got reviewed.
Recoverit, Wondershare: Finest Mac information restoration software program

Professionals
- Clear, inviting consumer interface
- Good set of instruments
- Good efficiency
Cons
- Downside with USB boot drive creation module
Recoverit by Wondershare is centered across the ordinary modules that you just may see in this type of suite: Onerous Drives and Places and SD Card for file restoration, Enhanced Restoration and Corrupted Video Restore for video and picture restoration and System Crashed Laptop and NAS and Linux for extra restoration options.
There’s a pleasant residence display and consumer interface and the modules work as anticipated. Knowledge restoration for onerous drives, places, and SD playing cards is easy and dependable, with Recoverit executing each a fast scan and diving right into a deep scan.
The video and picture restore modules work nicely with broken recordsdata. The SD Card module was in a position to sift by a broken 8GB SD card, pull some video information thought misplaced, and ship the information again cleanly to a restoration folder with out subject.
Distant-based utilities enable for network-based drives to be positioned or accessed manually to have information recovered from them. This system may also save recovered information to a NAS drive or Google Drive, which is a pleasant characteristic.
We had some issues with the USB boot drive creation module, however this could be resulting from Apple’s problems.
Wondershare Recoverit presents a wonderful information restoration bundle at a not-unreasonable, worth. The corporate additionally affords reductions for college students and educators, and small and medium companies. Whereas no trial model exists, the free model permits for all of Recoverit’s options for use, with information restoration capped at 100 megabytes.
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Wondershare Recoverit overview
Stellar Knowledge Restoration for Mac: Finest for classy recoveries

Professionals
- Fast, clear interface
- Good information restoration instruments and modules
- Spectacular net-based restoration module
Cons
- Repeated crashes for Clear Up Junk Recordsdata module
- Activation bugs
Stellar Knowledge Restoration for Mac focuses on recovering information by way of commonplace scans, deep scans, drive picture creation, and different restoration instruments. It’s out there as a free trial, with commonplace, skilled, and premium editions out there on yearly or lifetime contracts. The software program helps each HFS+ and APFS quantity codecs and may be put in simply.
Stellar Knowledge Restoration’s foremost energy is its intensive information restoration engine, which helps tons of of file codecs and permits customers to look and get well by file kind, headers, and attributes. It additionally incorporates a good scan administration engine that permits customers to avoid wasting and work from earlier scans, and a picture creation characteristic that permits customers to create a byte-for-byte picture of a quantity that may be restored later.
One fascinating characteristic is the Get better Non Booting Mac module, which permits customers to log into their Mac’s restoration partition, load Terminal, and enter a command to open a distant model of Stellar Knowledge Restoration (extra particulars in our full overview). Different modules similar to Search Massive Recordsdata and Search Duplicate Recordsdata carry out nicely and supply a complete take a look at your drive.
The whole array of modules labored nicely with take a look at drives, recovering information as wanted, and snagging as a lot as doable.
Sadly, we did expertise some issues. Stellar’s Clear Up Junk Recordsdata crashed the appliance repeatedly and needed to be power give up.
Different points included activating the serial quantity, which took a number of days and a number of calls and emails to kind out. Moreover, Stellar Knowledge Restoration refused to look within the macOS Current Objects menu, stopping it from being rapidly launched. Even after activating a Skilled tier account, the software program nonetheless presents an “Improve” button on its foremost menu, which appears to be asking for extra money to be thrown within the firm’s basic course.
Regardless of these failings, Stellar Knowledge Restoration for Mac is an efficient program in a position to dig deep to assist reconstruct and get well deleted information. There’s additionally Stellar Knowledge Restoration for iPhone.
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Stellar Knowledge Restoration for Mac overview

Professionals
- Wonderful toolset and restoration system
- Useful Scan Administration
Cons
- Excessive subscription worth
- Final replace (v6) in 2023
- Insufficient tech assist
- Unable to create Sonoma restoration drive
Knowledge Rescue affords some glorious drive administration and information restoration options, albeit at a steep worth for infrequent customers.
The software program helps older variations of macOS and requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later. Customers can obtain the software program and assign full drive entry, with a trial providing as much as 1GB of information restoration free of charge. The corporate affords a 30-day commonplace license in addition to a pricy skilled license.
The software program has a compelling toolset, together with Fast Scan or Deep Scan, view hex tables, safe erase, set drive parameters, handle digital RAID setup, and work with numbered sectors on drives and allocation blocks. It permits customers to work with as much as 15 scans, pausing and resuming as wanted – helpful in case you’re a number of hours right into a Deep Scan. The software program runs nicely within the background.
Knowledge Rescue 6 can create clone and restoration drives, dealing with completely different information methods similar to Straight, Reverse, Bisect, and Phase. Nevertheless, it doesn’t supply an choice to create a macOS Sonoma restoration drive as of July 2024.
There are different limitations. If the drive is mechanically failing, it’ll be more durable for information to be pulled and reconstructed.
Technical instruments in Knowledge Rescue 6 supply a lot to work with, however can get you in bother in case you aren’t conversant in them. For instance, setting the flawed drive parameters or boot level can require troubleshooting.
General, Knowledge Rescue 6 affords glorious instruments, however Prosoft ought to deal with points like lack of buyer responsiveness, the prolonged time between updates, the excessive, subscription-based price ticket, and an absence of a tutorial system.
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Knowledge Rescue overview
Disk Drill Professional, CleverFiles: Dependable and pleasant information restoration

Professionals
- Pleasant interface
- Useful YouTube movies
- Good information restoration efficiency
- Knowledge Shredder utility
Cons
- Occasional crashes
- Didn’t create viable boot drive
Disk Drill Professional from Cleverfiles is designed to get well information and rebuild deleted recordsdata on Macs and varied different platforms and units. It really works with commonplace macOS file codecs like HFS+, Mac OS Prolonged, and APFS.
The fundamental model is accessible free of charge and may get well as much as 500 megabytes of information. There’s a Professional model that helps one consumer and as much as three simultaneous activations, paid for as soon as with a further expense for lifetime upgrades. The Enterprise version has the same additional expense for lifetime upgrades and helps 10 customers and infinite activations with precedence technical assist and DFXML forensic information assist.
Disk Drill Professional requires macOS 10.15 Catalina or later and affords a number of new options, together with a RAID utility, NAS & Linux by way of SSH utility, instruments for recovering information from iPhones, iPads, and Time Machine volumes, a scan session supervisor, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, a macOS boot drive creator, a backup utility, a Clear Up utility to map drive storage, a reproduction file remover, an information shredder, and a free area erasure instrument. YouTube-based tutorial movies can be found.
Units may be scanned over a Wi-Fi community, and the S.M.A.R.T. perform offers information about drive temperatures, drive situation, and life proportion left. Disk Drill Professional runs the scan within the background and may bypass file permission errors on the information being erased. Throughout our information restoration scans, greater than 90% of deleted recordsdata had been readily recovered.
Disk Drill Professional has some points, such because the macOS Installer utility failing to provide a bootable quantity after a number of checks, the Current Classes scan supervisor solely sporadically working, and Disk Drill Professional crashing into the spinning rainbow wheel if a course of is interrupted. Nevertheless, it affords dependable information restoration from all kinds of units.
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Disk Drill Professional overview
EaseUS Knowledge Restoration Wizard for Mac: Respectable free model

Professionals
- Free model (as much as 2GB)
- Nice information restoration instruments, file group, categorization
- Video Restore instrument
Cons
- Excessive worth
- Unbootable Mac module didn’t find drives
- Unable to log into cloud-based providers
EaseUS Knowledge Restoration Wizard for Mac is a Mac port of the Home windows restoration software program.
There’s a free model with an honest 2GB recovered information cap in addition to a paid model, which affords extra options similar to 1-on-1 distant help, is accessible as a free trial, and requires Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later to run. The paid model affords one license for one Mac paid month-to-month, yearly or as a lifetime improve plan that covers one Mac. The month-to-month and annual license funds auto-renew.
The software program helps over 1,000 file sorts and affords particular modules for SD playing cards, cloud-based restoration, and storage. It helps APFS, HFS+, HFS, XFAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS, making it helpful for working with drives from Home windows and Linux machines.
The core functionalities of information restoration, reconstruction, and group are its strongest factors. A pleasant interface guides customers in selecting the amount to get well from and designating the goal restoration drive or folder. This system organizes recovered and restored information logically into classes similar to All Sorts, Photos, Paperwork, Audio, Movies, Emails, Archives, and Others.
The SD Card perform is helpful, and the iCloud module makes it simple to log into iCloud (requiring Two Issue Authentication). The Video Restore module is pleasant for exporting cleaner copies of outdated movies. Nevertheless, some points want consideration, together with the Unbootable Mac module, which has the consumer shut down their Mac, boot into Restoration Mode, then boot off an exterior server run by EaseUS. Whereas this can be a good concept in principle, the instrument went right into a steady loop of being unable to mount my M2 Mac inner and exterior drives. I allowed this course of to run in a single day, and after I wakened within the morning, the drives had nonetheless not mounted and the instrument couldn’t be labored with.
The cloud instrument was unable to efficiently log into Dropbox for restoration, and the appliance required an administrator password each time the consumer launched it. Moreover, the software program introduced a buyer suggestions survey each time the consumer exited this system, which was infuriating.
Knowledge Restoration Wizard for Mac excels at its core capabilities and presents a beautiful technique of recovering information from Mac, Home windows, and Linux volumes with a pleasant array of platform and file format assist. Nevertheless, the excessive worth level, Unbootable Mac module failures, fixed want for an administrator password, and repeating buyer suggestions survey window let it down.
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EaseUS Knowledge Restoration Wizard for Mac overview
Knowledge Restoration for Mac, iBeesoft: Knowledge restoration and backup mixed

Professionals
- Pleasant consumer interface
- Good information restoration
- Backup and video restore modules
- Good worth
Cons
- Crashed Mac module didn’t work
- Imprecise 60-day money-back assure phrases
Finest Costs At this time:
iBeesoft’s Knowledge Restoration for Mac capabilities as an information restoration and backup software and likewise features a video restore utility for the AV nerds on the market.
The app relies round a number of modules: Storage Units, Crashed Mac Restoration, Video Restore, File Backup, and Search Information. There’s a user-friendly interface and useful file categorizations, similar to All Sorts, Photos, Paperwork, Audio, Video, Emails, Archives, Others, and Unsaved Paperwork.
The software program can scan by your checklist of mounted drives, searching for deleted recordsdata, reconstructing and recovering every part it will possibly. It’s simple to pick particular recordsdata or all recordsdata for a given restoration to an exterior quantity as soon as a scan is full.
The Video Restore module means that you can drag and drop outdated video clips and improve their high quality earlier than exporting them. The Backup module means that you can specify recordsdata, folders, or a whole quantity and again up a duplicate as a .dmg file, which may be simply restored later.
That is thus far so good, however there are some parts to kind out. The Crashed Mac module is designed to supply an simply downloadable .dmg file to create a boot drive to make use of as an emergency disk to assist get well information to an exterior onerous drive, however the net server that hosted the file not working so the characteristic couldn’t be examined.
There’s a Private License and a Lifetime License, in addition to a free model (with a 500MB restrict).
Knowledge Restoration for Mac hones in on its core options nicely and is price a glance.
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iBeesoft Knowledge Restoration for Mac overview
Alsoft DiskWarrior

Professionals
- Good consumer interface and efficiency
- Locates and kinds out file and listing errors
- Customization and configuration choices
Cons
- Lack of APFS assist
- Excessive worth
- Time Machine quantity restore requires booting from included flash drive
Alsoft has been producing high-quality utility software program for over 20 years. DiskWarrior, a well-liked software for recovering broken onerous drives, has been in use since 1998. Nevertheless, the newest model of DiskWarrior 5.3.1, launched in 2024, appears to be falling behind in software program and file system assist.
The software program nonetheless helps the HFS+ format, FireVault 1 and a pair of, Core Storage for Fusion dries, RAID configurations, and disk photographs and sparse bundles, but it surely has not been upgraded to assist the APFS format, which is more and more prevalent on new Macs and Apple’s push in the direction of this file system commonplace.
DiskWarrior is accessible as a bootable USB flash drive that may boot Macs operating HFS+ format volumes. Its ease of use stays unchanged, making it simple to mount and unmount drives and volumes, carry out fast checks, entry technical specs, arrange automated diagnostics, and obtain notifications by alerts, emails, AppleScript applications, or textual content messages.
Nevertheless, there’s unhealthy information: DiskWarrior 5.3.1 nonetheless lacks assist for the APFS commonplace. As extra drives are transferring in the direction of this file system, the corporate’s silence on this matter is regarding. A consultant inside the firm confirmed that Alsoft is engaged on model 6.0, which can supply full APFS assist. Nevertheless, adjustments from Apple’s facet, similar to not permitting third-party kernel extensions and different technical adjustments, have made the event course of harder and created extra roadblocks than earlier variations of DiskWarrior.
The shortage of a free trial model of DiskWarrior 5.3.1 raises issues in regards to the steep new consumer worth and improve worth, particularly when the software program lacks APFS assist and may solely work with sure volumes.
Typically a terrific utility will get caught in improvement. There’s nonetheless a terrific software available right here, however Alsoft must put itself able the place it will possibly readily announce that an up to date model shall be out at a given date and that it’ll supply APFS assist.
Learn our full
Alsoft DiskWarrior overview
What’s the greatest Mac information restoration app?
Our best choice proper now could be Recoverit from Wondershare as a result of it does a superb job recovering information, and at an affordable worth.
How we select the perfect Knowledge Restoration app for Mac
We strategy this not solely from an ease-of-use perspective for the consumer, but additionally by way of which software program can genuinely pull one thing helpful from a catastrophe. It’s not all the time the perfect marketed or most costly restoration software that succeeds, however one thing that may work with a quantity, proceed to check it, and never hand over on it by way of {hardware} situation and slowdowns. The software program that you may go away to run in a single day to get well information and have the perfect probability of waking up and discovering one thing helpful recovered, that marks the perfect software program the place Macworld is worried.
One other issue we think about is that the best choice will depend upon a selected set of wants. For instance, one possibility could be the perfect when you’ve got a decent price range, whereas an alternative choice shall be higher for somebody who will solely use this software program as soon as, whereas the best choice for somebody who expects to wish to make use of the software program many times will in all probability be fairly completely different.
For that motive we specify who we suggest the app for. We additionally are likely to solely embody the apps that we suggest in our group checks. If the app isn’t included right here it could be as a result of we don’t price it in addition to those on this spherical up.
What you need to think about when selecting the perfect Knowledge Restoration app
Outdoors of the value level (some purposes may be significantly costly, particularly given the providers they’re tied into), ease of use and general strategy are essential elements to contemplate. Some purposes will give you all of the choices on the earth, however by a nigh-terrifying consumer interface that asks you to establish particular onerous drive sectors you’d wish to establish and work with, which is past what a panicked consumer who may need misplaced their life’s information needs to cope with.
What you’re searching for is one thing highly effective, able to coping with your broken onerous drive/quantity, and able to holding it mounted in your Mac because it’s working by broken sectors on a tough drive mechanism that will itself be failing.
As soon as that is full, it’s a matter of whether or not the appliance can work steadily for the hours, days, or weeks which may be concerned in slowly pulling the information to an exterior onerous drive. From there, it’s a query of how the recovered information may be reconstructed and the way rapidly and simply the recovered information may be labored with (i.e., will you need to rename and reorganize 1000’s of recordsdata, will a selected file have the ability to be opened by the appliance that created it, and many others.?)
In brief, it’s a query of “Properly, I’ve recovered tons of of gigabytes of information, can I truly work with it or do I’ve to babysit it and rebuild the information and the way a lot time have I saved in the long term?” This, mixed with the anticipated worth you’ll pay (both from an outright one-time buy or annual or multi-year subscription), and greatest practices similar to settings up native Time Machine and on-line backups assist kind what you need to think about for a best-of-breed information restoration software, or a set of them. It’s not a query of if a tough drive will fail however when, and we’ll do every part we are able to right here at Macworld to maintain you knowledgeable and prepared for when it will definitely occurs.
How we take a look at Knowledge Restoration software program for Mac
Once we take a look at information restoration software program we simulate the expertise of those that lose information in actual world eventualities. This consists of every part from recovering unintentionally deleted recordsdata, to making an attempt to get well information from a formatted disk.
We take a look at with each rotational and solid-state media, utilizing each newer and used drives. In the course of the checks, we work to get well each giant and small recordsdata in addition to information that’s been deleted from a number of drive format capabilities. We examine ease of use, the software program’s strategy, what’s recovered, and the way this meets the consumer’s expectations.
We additionally consider reconstruction strategies, and the place this leaves the consumer (i.e., can a recovered picture be simply opened, or will it require a number of extra steps to rename and open the file?) to find out what to make of the software program and the way greatest to price it.
Why you’ll be able to belief Macworld’s suggestions
Macworld’s Knowledge Restoration app reviewer, Chris Barylick is an Apple-Licensed Macintosh Technician with greater than twenty years expertise fixing Macs, coping with individuals, and writing about it. On this time, he’s seen nearly each state of affairs that may be conceived of, heard the wailing of individuals whose Macs had been working nice simply the opposite day and whose onerous drives are making unusual clicking sounds and never booting, and every part in between. All through this time, his purpose was all the time the identical: Get the onerous drive out of the pc, get it mounted, and work out one of the simplest ways to get well their information and their work, it doesn’t matter what.
FAQ
Why does Knowledge Restoration take so lengthy?
Count on the information restoration course of to be time-consuming because the app items the bits of recordsdata again collectively. With endurance, most recordsdata that haven’t been overwritten ought to, in principle, be saveable.
Some drives can take days to totally scan, and the upper capability they’re, the longer the method. But when it’s irreplaceable photographs or essential paperwork which are misplaced, you’ll be able to afford to attend.
Is there a free method to get well my misplaced Mac information?
Sadly, this kind of software program is just about all the time going to have a excessive worth related to it earlier than you’ll be able to get well what you want–however in case you’ve misplaced tons of of treasured photographs or the primary 1,000 pages of your novel, then no worth is just too excessive, in all probability. Typically you’ll be able to pay for the software program for a month, do what that you must do after which cancel. Typically you need to subscribe for a yr. Different choices help you purchase it outright, however pay additional for future updates. Your personal circumstances will affect which possibility is greatest for you. Moreover, many of those instruments supply a trial so you’ll be able to a minimum of see what you need to have the ability to get well earlier than you spend your cash.
There are a couple of strategies you’ll be able to strive earlier than you spend cash on an app although, as you’ll see in our Easy methods to get well information from a broken Mac article.
Easy methods to keep away from information loss
Are information restoration apps/providers secure, are you able to belief them?
Sure, they’re secure, however you’re going to need to perform a little research and/or learn some evaluations to seek out one thing that works greatest for you. It does the software program firms no good to have their information restoration software program be one thing that damages your Mac’s information, and information restoration purposes use extraordinarily low-level {hardware} code to entry information from failing units, so there’s that to contemplate.
Nonetheless, there are a number of information restoration purposes that provide free or trial durations to check the software program, and you’ll all the time strive these out for your self. Learn and take heed to trusted sources, strive varied purposes out for your self (you’ll be able to all the time strive recovering information you’ve deleted from thumb drives with the trial variations of those purposes), bear in mind to arrange Time Machine and on-line backups and your information must be secure. There’s a world of choices on the market and we’ll do what we are able to that can assist you discover the perfect one for you.
How does information restoration software program work?
Most information restoration software program works to mount the potentially-failing quantity that your information is on, then it has to work to maintain it mounted and operating because it scans the drive’s sectors, affords you choices as to what you’d love to do with it, carries out the checks and information restoration choices, and works to avoid wasting the information to a purposeful drive previous to reconstructing it.
There’s lots for it to hold out, and every information restoration software and the corporate behind it approaches it otherwise. Some may present a really basic, consumer pleasant interface in the direction of information restoration whereas others may supply extraordinarily particular, technical capabilities to work with exact sectors of your onerous drive. Some may present an choice to boot kind an exterior USB thumb drive or Net-based working system to attempt to get well your information, and every strategy can yield completely different outcomes
Why is information restoration software program costly?
Knowledge restoration software program has all the time been infamously costly, however there are logical causes for this. First, there’s a particularly vital quantity of analysis and improvement concerned in creating and updating this software program, because it delves into low-lying system and firmware capabilities as to how the pc communicates with its onerous drives and reads and writes information to and from them.
Moreover, information restoration software program sometimes isn’t the sort of factor that’s initially bought with a brand new laptop (similar to a duplicate of Microsoft Workplace, Adobe Artistic Cloud, and many others.), and tends to solely be bought within the occasion of a catastrophe whereby your information is prone to loss.
As such, the information restoration software program market tends to promote fewer copies and typically prices a better worth for the copies it does promote.
Lastly, there are occasions the place the software program firms present higher-end providers and tech assist, together with delivery a broken drive off for disassembly and information restoration. This may be thought of a brand new service altogether and that rather more costly to reclaim broken information.
For extra recommendation about software program to your Mac, iPad or iPhone see all our Finest Picks and our newest macOS and iOS software program evaluations.