I was cleaning my Mac and accidentally deleted some files that I now realize were quite important. I also emptied the trash, thinking they were just clutter.
I deeply regret not being more careful when deleting files. Can I recover them?
Whether the deleted files are overwritten decides if data recovery is possible.
If your MacBook Air has an SSD, data recovery is unlikely, unless you have a Time Machine backup or they are backed up to the cloud.
Modern SSDs have a key feature called TRIM. When you delete a file or clear data on an SSD, TRIM informs the SSD that the space occupied by the deleted file can be erased and marked as available for new data.
After receiving the TRIM command, the SSD will erase the data blocks during idle periods or when the drive has free time to do so. Depending on how busy the SSD is, the deleted files are erased after a few seconds, minutes, or even longer.
After TRIM is triggered, recovery becomes impossible. If you can start recovery before TRIM is executed, you can still recover the deleted files, though the window is small.
On traditional hard drives (HDDs), the files emptied from the trash remain on the disk until they’re overwritten. There’s a big chance to recover the permanently deleted files with a tool like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Unless you have a backup or an old Mac with an HDD, the files are gone.