[Fixed] How To Recover Files From SD Card On Mac?

When you accidentally lose files, such as videos and photos that mean a lot to you or important documents, it can be painful. Luckily, you can undertake SD card file recovery on Mac if you have the right techniques and tools.

4 Top Ways to Recover Files from SD card on Mac

The catch is to act swiftly after deletion or formatting in order not to overwrite the files that are meant for recovering. Even after being overwritten, there is still hope for file recovery albeit at a higher level of difficulty.

As long as the hardware underlying your SD card remains fully operational, native Mac utilities or dedicated SD card recovery software will allow you to recover files from SD card Mac.

Part 1: Can You Recover Files from SD card on Mac?

Yes, it is achievable to recover files from SD card on Mac if the old data has not been written over. Deleting a file from your SD card does not immediately erase it; only its reference on disk is removed. The actual data itself will stay intact until new data writes over it.

This gives a chance to utilize specialized utilities for recovering information which scans the flash storage device and restores “deleted” items. Nevertheless, when you delete something by mistake do not use this device anymore otherwise there may be old data overwritten which must be recovered. The sooner an attempt at data retrieval is made, the better chances of success exist in general.

Part 2: What to Do Before Recovering Files from SD card on Mac?

There are some important steps to take before attempting to recover deleted files SD card on Mac for free:

Stop using the SD card immediately – Any new data written to the card could overwrite your deleted files and make them unrecoverable. Safely eject and remove the card from your Mac.
Don’t format the SD card – Formatting will clear all data on the card, including your deleted files.
Make a disk image – Create a complete sector-by-sector image file of the SD card before attempting recovery. This protects the card from failure during scanning.
Scan the image, not the card – Run the scan on the disk image, not the SD card itself, to avoid any risks.

Part 3: The Easiest Way to Recover Files from SD card on Mac

Tenorshare 4DDiG is a powerful SD card recovery software for Mac, which can help your quickly retrieve lost or deleted files from SD cards, USB drives, HDDs, SSDs etc. on Macintosh computers. It recovers from accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, system crashes and other data loss scenarios. Furthermore, 4DDiG supports recovering 1000+ file formats from macOS and works with the latest Apple silicon chips.

The main features are formatted drive recovery, lost partition recovery, advanced scanning algorithms to find old deleted files as well as user friendly interface. With 4DDiG Mac users can easily recover their lost photos, videos documents emails among other important files stored on SD cards plus internal/external drives.

Here is how to perform Mac SD card recovery with this tool:

After installing 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery, launch the program and connect your SD card to your Mac. 4DDiG should instantly detect the SD card so you can select it and click “Scan” to proceed.

Scanning your selected SD card drive can take some time as 4DDiG searches thoroughly for deleted photos. You can stop or pause the scan at any time once you’ve found the files you want to recover. After scanning, you can preview photos before recovery.

Now you can select the target photos and click “Recover” to restore them to a safe location on your Mac or an external drive. It’s best not to recover files back to the same drive where they were lost, as this risks permanent data loss.

Part 4: How to Recover Deleted Files from SD Card on Mac for Free?

We understand that you don’t want to waste money before the data is successfully recovered. Here are some free options for Mac SD card data recovery:

Method 1: Check the Trash

The Trash folder provides a simple way to recover deleted files from an SD card on Mac for free. When you delete files on a Mac, they are not immediately erased – instead, they are moved to the Trash folder. As long as you don’t empty the Trash, those deleted files remain accessible.

To recover deleted files from an SD card using the Trash:

Eject and remove the SD card from your Mac.
Open the Trash folder by clicking the Trash icon in the Dock.
Browse the contents of the Trash folder and look for your deleted files.
Select the files you want to recover and right-click to choose ‘Put Back’ to restore them to their original location.

This method only works if the Trash has not been emptied after the files were deleted.

Method 2: Use a Time Machine backup

If you have Time Machine backups enabled on your Mac, you may be able to recover files from an SD card on Mac for free using this built-in backup utility. Time Machine doesn’t directly back up external drives like SD cards. But if an SD card was connected when a backup was made, those files can be restored.

To recover deleted files from an SD card with Time Machine:

Connect the SD card to your Mac.
Open Time Machine and navigate to a backup made when the SD card was connected.

Browse the backup and locate the deleted files.
Click the Restore button to retrieve the files from the backup to your SD card.

Keep in mind that it only works if backups were made regularly with the SD card connected.

Method 3: Look for iCloud backup

Stilling search for “Mac SD card recovery” on Google? If you use iCloud Drive on your Mac, deleted files from an SD card may have been backed up to iCloud storage.

To recover from an iCloud backup:

Go to iCloud.com and login.
Check the Recently Deleted folder for your missing files.

Select the files and click Recover to download them to your Mac.

This allows you to restore files without any third-party software. But it only works if iCloud backup was enabled for the SD card. Check Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Drive Options.

Part 5: How to Avoid Data Loss on SD Card in the Future?

There are several best practices to follow that can help avoid losing data stored on SD cards:

Eject properly – Always use the “Eject” option before removing an SD card from a computer or device. Improper ejection can lead to corruption.
Handle with care – Be gentle with SD cards, don’t bend them, and keep them in a protective case. Physical damage can destroy data.
Make regular backups – Back up your SD card data to another device like an external hard drive or cloud storage. This provides a copy if the card fails.
Check for errors – Periodically scan your SD card for errors using built-in utilities. This can identify issues before major failure occurs.

Now, you should say goodbye to any worries about how to recover files from SD card on Mac for free.

Conclusion

There are many ways to recover files from an SD card on a Mac before the data is overwritten. The in-built trash can for Macs is helpful in restoring recently deleted files very fast and easily. Time Machine and iCloud backups also enables you to get back your data free of charge, if they were enabled.

For better and advanced SD card data recovery, it is advisable to use specialized SD card recovery software for Mac like 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery. 4DDiG can save photos, documents as well as other file formats even after the SD card has been formatted or corrupted.