Written by
Amanda Wong
Permanently Delete Files on Mac! Can&How to Restore?
Summary: Permanently delete files on Mac and want to recover them? This post answers whether you can recover permanently deleted files on Mac and provides different ways to restore permanently deleted files on Mac for different scenarios. Try iBoysoft Data Recovery to retrieve lost data!
Accumulated files occupy gigabytes of storage space on Mac, thus you delete files on Mac to free up disk space. Or, you remove some unwanted files away from your Mac. Mistakenly deleting some files is a real possibility during the process.
If you can find deleted files on Mac Trash, you are lucky, you can put them back to their original locations with ease. But, you may find deleted files not in Mac Trash, which indicates that the files are permanently deleted!
Then, there comes the question: Can I recover permanently deleted files on Mac and How? You can get the answers after reading this post!
Table of Contents:
- 1. Answered! Can you recover permanently deleted files on Mac
- 2. How to recover permanently deleted files on Mac step by step
- 3. FAQs about recovering permanently deleted files on Mac
Multiple ways to recover permanently deleted files on Mac:
| Solutions for recovering permanently deleted files on Mac | Difficulty level | Cost | Applicable scenarios |
| Recover permanently deleted files with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac | Easy | Free Trial | Haven't created a backup for deleted files, the deleted data haven't been overwritten. |
| Recover permanently deleted files with available backups | Easy | Free | Have backed up the files before permanent deletion. |
| Recover permanently deleted files with a data recovery service | Hard | Expensive | No backup and the drive is physically damaged, or data recovery software fails to recover deleted files. |
Answered! Can you recover permanently deleted files on Mac
You may accidentally delete files on Mac permanently in either of the following ways:
- Delete files on Mac with the keyboard shortcut Option + Command +Delete.
- Delete files on Mac via the Delete Immediately feature through the Finder's menu.
- Delete files on Mac by clicking the Empty Trash button.
- The feature "Remove items from the Trash after 30 days" is enabled.
Once the files are permanently deleted from your Mac, you can not find them anywhere on your Mac. But it doesn't mean permanently deleted files are permanently lost given that they are still kept on the hard drive after deletion and the occupied space is marked as available, they are only erased forever when newly added data take up the marked space, this is so-called data overwriting. Therefore, if the permanently deleted files are not overwritten, you can recover them with third-party software. Hence, you should stop writing data to the drive as soon as you find data loss.
Besides, if you have backed up the files before deletion such as Time Machine, iCloud, or other local storage media, you can restore permanently deleted files with ease.
That is to say, you can recover permanently deleted files on Mac as long as the data haven't been overwritten or there are backups for the deleted files.
How to recover permanently deleted files on Mac step by step
Based on your specific situation, you can choose the corresponding method to recover permanently deleted Excel files on your Mac or get back other types of files. Let's dive into the detail.
Method 1. Recover permanently deleted files with iBoysoft Data Recovery
As long as the internal/external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, etc., is intact and the deleted files haven't been overwritten, you can try professional data recovery software such as iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to restore permanently deleted files. Such data recovery software can scan the storage media for deleted/lost files, then you can recover desired files.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is the most recommended one for its high recovery rate, risk-free environment, Finder-like user interface, etc., it is fully compatible with T2 and Apple silicon and supports the latest macOS Ventura. It also works to recover data from unbootable Mac and Mac startup disks in macOS Recovery mode. Download it and try it for free now!
Steps to recover permanently deleted files on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery:
- Click the green button above to download the installer, click the downloaded file, double-click the dmg file in Finder's Downloads folder, and follow the onscreen guide to install it. Then, run iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac from the Launchpad.
- Connect the storage media where you lose data(if it is a removable one), locate the target drive from Data Recovery > Storage Device, select the drive, and you will see it highlighted.
- Click the Search for Lost Data button at the right-bottom corner, and it starts to scan the selected drive for deleted and lost data.
- Once the scanning process completes, you can sort the results by different categories and quickly locate the desired files, then preview recoverable files.
- Tick the files you want to recover and click the Recover bottom, then save them to a different location.
Method 2. Recover permanently deleted files on Mac using backups
Backups make things simple when you accidentally lose files on your Mac. That's why it is always recommended to back up your Mac regularly especially before you take major operations on your Mac such as reinstalling macOS. When you find you permanently delete important files on Mac and want to restore them, you can make it with the backups.
Time Machine is Apple's solution to back up Mac, it stores hourly backups for the previous day, daily backups for the previous month, and weekly backups for information older than a month. You can connect the Time Machine backup drive to your Mac, browse the history, find the wanted file, and click Restore to put it in its original location.
In addition to Time Machine, you can also restore permanently deleted files from cloud storage such as iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and so forth. Just log into your account and download the file from the cloud to your Mac.
Perhaps, you have backed up important files to an external HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, or so, then you can insert the storage media to your Mac, and copy the target file from the connected disk to your Mac.
Method 3. Recover permanently deleted files via the data recovery service
Unluckily, there are no available backups for the deleted files and data recovery software fails to scan the drive due to physical damages or some other reasons, the last resort is a local data recovery service. The data should haven't been overwritten and the sectors storing the deleted files should be intact to be scanned. But the cost could be expensive.
FAQ about recovering permanently deleted files on Mac
A
If you quickly delete files on Mac, Mac stores deleted files in Mac Trash. However, if you permanently deleted files bypassing the Mac Trash, Mac doesn't store them in anywhere on your Mac, and you can not find permanently deleted files to recover. Only backups and data recovery software/service can help to recover permanently deleted files on Mac.
A
Once you permanently deleted files, they won't go to the Mac Trash, but they are still kept on the drive but invisible to you, they are finally erased when new data are saved and overwrites the deleted files.
A
You can still recover permanently deleted files on Mac if the deleted data haven't been overwritten or you have available backup for the deleted items.
