My Mac suddenly erased itself, and now all my files and logins are gone—even though my applications are still there.
Before this happened, my laptop was getting really hot while I was working in Terminal, and my iMessage started glitching.
I shut it down because it was overheating, but when I turned it back on, everything had disappeared.
I desperately need to recover my files. Please help!
It sounds like your Mac might have booted into a temporary or different user account. You can check if you’re logged into a different user account. Go to Apple menu > System Settings > Users & Groups. See if your admin account is still listed. If so, try logging back into it.
If not, try logging out of your Mac to see if your macOS creates a new blank user. If it is, log back in to your account.
It looks like your Mac may have been force-erased after the automatic restart. Because SSDs use the TRIM feature—which quickly tells the drive to clear data blocks that are no longer needed—any erased data on your internal SSD can be overwritten very quickly.
To avoid losing more data, stop using your Mac immediately and shut it down. Your best chance at recovering the lost files is to use iBoysoft Mac Recovery Mode.
It allows you to run iBoysoft Data Recovery directly from iBoysoft’s server in macOS Recovery Mode without installing the tool on your Mac. This won’t lead to permanent data loss caused by data overwritten. Then, you can use this data recovery tool to recover as many files as possible.