Written by
Sherry Song
Summary: This article tells you how to recover deleted or lost files from Mac's internal APFS hard drives and external drives with an APFS file system without data loss.
APFS, short for Apple File System, is a relatively new proprietary file system introduced by Apple. You can check if your Mac has APFS by launching the Disk Utility. On the right pane, Disk Utility will display your Mac running macOS 10.13 or above, which has APFS.
Like other common file systems such as exFAT, NTFS, and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended), APFS is still a set of logic rules about how to store, organize, and retrieve files and folders. APFS is exclusively optimized for flash drives and solid-state hard drives to protect against corruption and data loss, but it can also run on other traditional storage devices.
APFS data recovery: is it possible?
Does anyone have suggestions for software that can detect and delete corrupt files on an Intel MacBook Pro with an APFS-formatted drive? Disk Utility has flagged some corrupted snapshots, and I'm trying to determine if there are actually corrupt files or if it's a broader system issue. Thanks in advance! -Reddit.com
The short answer is "Yes". However, solid-state hard drives these days, especially with APFS as a file system, are extremely challenging for data recovery, as they have changed the way how data is stored, retrieved, and cleared.
- 1. Compared to old hard disk drives with a mechanical spinning arm and magnetic head, SSDs have no moving parts, making them no obvious warning before SSD failure and data loss.
- 2. The position of data storage is constantly shifting to prevent wear and tear on the flash chip of an SSD, which makes it hard to find the data on a solid-state disk during data recovery.
- 3. TRIM and encryption features with SSDs can even make data recovery impossible.
A summary of ways to recover files from APFS drive
Here is an overall table you can see all the ways to recover files from APFS drive on Mac at a look:
| Methods | Overall Score | Support for | Need backups | Difficult Level |
| Use Time Machine backups | Deleted/Lost | Must | Moderate | |
| Use Terminal | Deleted/Lost | No | High | |
| Use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac | Deleted/Lost/Encrypted/Formatted /Unmounted/Inaccessible | Either | Low |
Among these ways, it seems that iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is the best choice, as it can recover files from an APFS drive in many cases. Nevertheless, let's see the detailed steps one by one. Why not share this helpful table?
How to recover files from APFS hard drive on Mac?
APFS is very reliable and robust compared to traditional file systems and it reduces the chance of data loss due to hard drive failure and system crashes. However, accidents like inadvertent deletion, mistaken formatting, trash can emptied, sudden power issues, fatal hardware failures, and others may happen.
When an accident strikes, it is important to know how to recover files from an APFS drive on a Mac.
# Recover files from APFS hard drive on Mac with data recovery software
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a versatile and powerful APFS data recovery software that enables you to recover deleted data on Mac, including deleted or lost files from the startup disk under macOS 10.13 - 15, and data on an external storage device with an APFS file system. You can rely on this data recovery program to restore documents, videos, audio files, archives, and many more from an APFS hard drive.
Steps to get back deleted files from APFS hard drive:
- Download, install, and open iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- Select the APFS volume/disk to scan on the left, and click Search for Lost Data.
- Filter and preview lost APFS files.
(After it completes the scan for lost data on your Mac, it will list all found data through Type and Path categories.) - Choose the wanted ones and click Recover to save them to another place.
Easy, right? Moreover, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can recover files from the APFS drive on Mac in the following situations:
1. Encrypted APFS drive data recovery.
iBoysoft APFS file recovery software supports encrypted Macintosh HD by FileVault, T2 Security Chip, and Apple Silicon. It lets you scan the disk to recover data from the APFS drive on Mac after you enter the password to decrypt the drive.
2. Formatted APFS drive data recovery.
For good reasons, you need to format your startup disk or system partition to reinstall macOS or downgrade macOS. Accidents occur when you mistakenly format the APFS drive or you unexpectedly erase APFS drive data. iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac tool is able to recover files in these scenarios.
3. Deleted/Lost APFS partition data recovery
It is common to have multiple APFS volumes in one APFS container. If an APFS volume or partition gets deleted, lost or disappeared, iBoysoft APFS data recovery software can scan the disk thoroughly for retrieving missing data.
How to Recover Lost Data From Deleted APFS Partition
4. Unmountable APFS drive data recovery
iBoysoft APFS data recovery software is capable of recovering data from unmountable APFS boot volume on Macintosh HD. It also supports all types of solid-state drives, hard disk drives, USB drives, and memory cards in APFS format when the APFS is not mounting due to issues in the volume header, catalog record, or file directory.
5. Inaccessible APFS drive data recovery
APFS file system becomes corrupted or damaged and all data get inaccessible, especially in the Mac is not turning on the situation. This APFS drive recovery program can recognize and scan the Mac hard drive for deleted or lost data.
# Recover files from APFS hard drive on Mac with Time Machine backup
Time Machine is a backup and system restoration utility natively built into Apple computer machines. It can copy everything on your system in addition to taking local "snapshots" that offer you access to prior timelines of your machine.
If luckily, you have a habit of using an external hard drive to back up your Mac with Time Machine software, it will be very straightforward to restore your lost files with Time Machine backups.
Follow this guide to restore your Mac system or lost data:
A Time Machine Guide to Back Up and Restore Your Mac
# Recover files form APFS hard drive on Mac with Terminal
Mac Terminal is also a useful tool for users who wanna do APFS data recovery on Mac, but this way needs more command-line knowledge and requires much attention during the operating process, you can:
- Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- You can type diskutil list to list available drives and volumes.
- Note the identifier for your APFS drive, such as /dev/disk2s1.
- Run the command diskutil repairVolume /dev/diskXsY (replace X and Y with your drive identifier) to attempt a repair.
Use caution with Terminal commands as incorrect usage can lead to data loss. Be careful!
Share these ways to help people who wanna recover APFS files on Mac.
Conclusion
To sum up, this article offers you detailed tutorials on how to recover data from an APFS drive on Mac.
Apple's File System is optimized for faster read-write speed and more data security, so it has overturned the traditional ways of processing data on a disk. As a result, APFS data recovery is very challenging.
Keep in mind, that if the TRIM feature installed on your SSD has already wiped your data, data recovery from these SSDs with APFS is impossible. It won't hurt to use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to scan your hard drive to see if data can be found. Scanning and previewing are completely free.
Amanda Wong
Anna Yuan
Eudora Liu