How To Recover Deleted Photos on Mac? 5 Easy Solutions!

In this article, you will learn about different methods to recover permanently deleted photos on Mac. It also presents the best Mac data recovery tool.

Photos are the primary medium for capturing the best moments of our lives in one frame. You will always want to take pictures when traveling around or visiting your favorite place. Photos are prone to corruption and deletion regardless of the device they are stored on. Though Mac operating systems are known for their robust functionalities, accidental deletion or loss of pictures on these devices is also common.

Have you lost photos of a memorable trip from your Mac? Worried about losing them permanently? Searching for a dependable way to recover deleted photos on Mac? This article presents a leading free data recovery software – Wondershare Recoverit. It also lists four quick alternative methods to get your lost photos back.

Recover Deleted Photos Using Wondershare Recoverit on Mac – Easier and Faster

Wondershare Recoverit provides you with the most trustworthy photo recovery solution. It offers support for a range of Mac devices, including macOS10.13 to macOS15 and M1/2/3/4 chips. This tool features secure processing, keeping your data confidential. Therefore, you don’t need to be concerned about personal files or folders.

No matter how small or big amount of data you want to recover with Recoverit, it will allow you to preview before restoring your stuff. Quick and deep scans ensure that every picture appears on the interface. Then, you can recover the desired photos. Recoverit has become a go-to data recovery Mac choice for millions of users just because of its unmatched features, as listed below.

Potential Features

All functionalities are easy to navigate from the main interface.
It can help you restore photos lost due to 500+ scenarios, such as partition loss, unmounted drive, virus attack, hard drive damage, formatting, accidental deletion, human error, and more.
Recoverit allows you to recover photos from all internal and external hard drives.
It supports different image formats, including but not limited to PNG, RAW, PEG, and more.
This tool offers a 99.5% successful recovery rate.
It allows you to preview photos before restoring them.
Your data or information remains confidential and protected.
Customer support team is available 24/7.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Recovering Deleted Photos Using Recoverit

You can easily restore your permanently deleted photos from your Mac with Recoverit in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Download and install Recoverit on your Mac device. Then, launch, sign in to your account, and select the drive where photos were lost.

Step 2: The tool will start searching for the lost or deleted photos from the selected location. The scanned photos will be displayed on the screen.

Step 3: It is time to preview photos before you recover them. If you have found what you need, click the Recover button.

4 Free Methods To Recover Deleted Photos on Mac

Now that you are familiar with the best photo recovery method for Mac. Let’s look at some alternatives to see how they help you restore deleted photos on Mac.

Method 1: Using Time Machine Backup

You can easily recover permanently deleted photos on Mac only if you have enabled Time Machine for regular backups. This built-in tool shows you backup files with date and time, making recovery super quick and easy. Using Time Machine is free, but it requires a prior setup. Here’s how you can restore deleted photos using Time Machine.

Step 1: Connect a backup drive with your Mac and open Time Machine.

Step 2: Now, you will see different backup files with dates. Select the date when the photos were available on the system. Choose the backup that contains your lost or deleted pictures.

Step 3: Select photos and click Restore.

Method 2: Command Line Recovery (Using Terminal)

Describe how advanced users can try retrieving recently deleted files using Terminal commands.

If your photos are deleted recently, you can easily recover them from Trash using Terminal. This photo recovery solution is relatively tricky; therefore, newbies may find it challenging. It can help you recover one file at a time. If you know the exact name of the deleted photo, use this method to get it back. The steps are as follows.

Step 1: Open Terminal on your Mac by navigating Applications>Utilities>Terminal.

Step 2: Use specific recovery commands (as shown in the image below) to attempt retrieving deleted photos.

Note: This method is comparatively technical and may not guarantee photo recovery.

Method 3: Check iCloud Photos (if synced)

If you use iCloud to sync your photos, you can recover the deleted pictures within 30 days (after deletion) from the Recently Deleted album. Follow the steps below to retrieve your deleted photos from iCloud.

Step 1: Go to icloud.com and use your Apple credentials to sign in to your iCloud account.

Step 2: Tap on the Photos icon and click Albums.

Step 3: Now, choose Recently Deleted from the left panel.

Step 4: Choose the photos you want to get back and click on the Recover button in the upper-right corner, as shown below.

If you don’t want to experience accidental photo deletion on Mac, remember to create regular backups of your photos using iCloud or Time Machine.

Method 4: Third-Party Free Tools

You can also try other Mac-compatible recovery tools, as listed below. Try them to see how they assist you.

TestDisk: It is an open-source and a free tool designed explicitly to recover Mac data and lost partitions. This tool ensures up to 97% accuracy. The command-line interface can be difficult to use, especially for newbies.
PhotoRec: It is also a free, open-source program to perform safe and instant Mac photo recovery. PhotoRec is lightweight, making it very easy to install. Its interface shares lots of similarities with Terminal. You can only use it from the keyboard.
DMDE: It works perfectly with SSDs, HDDs, and other storage devices. It lacks modern functionalities and the user interface is a bit difficult to use.

Comparing these Mac-compatible free photo recovery tools with Recoverit shows that they have very limited features and lack lots of functionalities that must be available in dedicated recovery tools. Remember, not all third-party data recovery tools are safe and secure. Therefore, rely only on utilities with good reputations and years of service in the market (like Recoverit Mac Data Recovery).

Summing Up

Mac computers come with robust features, but you can still experience photo loss issues. To avoid losing your memorable photos, you must have a reliable photo recovery tool for Mac. If you need a user-friendly, highly efficient, and trusted Mac photo recovery tool you can trust, try Wondershare Recoverit.

The discussion above has also listed free alternative methods (such as iCloud backup, Time Machine, Terminal, and other freeware tools) to recover permanently deleted photos from Mac. These methods have certain limitations and may not perform a successful recovery. Therefore, you can either choose to go with Recoverit or other alternatives.

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Adam Regan

Deputy Editor

Features and account management. 3 years media experience. Previously covered features for online and print editions.

Email Adam@MarkMeets.com