Home > Questions

Delete wrong folders and all my documents were deleted and emptied from Trash!

I deleted all my downloads and then emptied the trash. Or so I thought. But the next day, I went to retrieve a document and discovered that all my documents were deleted. Apple support indicates they believe I deleted from the "recent" files, not the "download" files. Although, I felt I was very careful. Anyway, the iCloud did not back up these files and I didn't have an external drive.

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Amanda Wong

Amanda Wong

Answered on Wednesday, May 31, 2023

If you have backed up your documents before the mistaken deletion with Time Machine, iCloud, etc., you can easily restore those deleted documents. If there is no backup, try data recovery software to recover files from emptied Mac as much as possible and as quickly as possible.

Generally, it should not affect your documents when you delete files from the Downloads folder, so it is highly likely that you accidentally deleted the wrong folder on your Mac. Although you have already emptied the Trash, there is still possible to recover them.

Method 1: Restore deleted documents with Time Machine backup. Connect the backup disk to your Mac, click the icon of Time Machine in the menu bar to enter it, click the up and down arrow to find your desired data, and click Restore to put it back to its original location.

Method 2: Download the documents files from cloud storage. If you have uploaded the documents to your could storage service such as iCloud, One Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., you can log into your account and download those document files back to your Mac.

Method 3. Recover deleted documents with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. In case you haven't backed up those documents with Time Machine, or any cloud storage, you can try data recovery software. You can recover deleted files from HDD if they are not overwritten. However, for an SSD, it could be hard to recover deleted files due to the enable Trim feature, you can still give it a shot.

Read more: [Guide] How To Recover Data From MacBook SSD

People Also Ask

Read More Questions

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

recuperar documentos de Word no guardados, eliminados y perdidos en Mac

Cómo recuperar un documento de Word no guardado en Mac

Soluciones sobre cómo recuperar un documento de Word que no se guardó en Mac y formas de recuperar documentos de Word perdidos y eliminados en Microsoft Office 2021/2020...

recuperacion de datos mac

how to boot Mac to macOS Recovery Mode

How to Use Recovery Mode on Mac Or M1/M2 Mac (2022 Guide)

A guide about how to enter into macOS recovery mode on Intel or M1/M2 Mac. How to use Mac Recovery Mode to solve problems and fix unbootable Mac.

Mac Data Recovery Tips

how to recover files from external hard drive on Mac

How to recover files from external hard drive on Mac?

Step-by-step tutorial to recover files from external hard drive that is not readable, mounting, showing up or detected on Mac.

How to Tips