How Can I Recover Files on a Mac after Trash is Emptied

I accidentally deleted some files and emptied the Trash on my MacBook Pro (macOS High Sierra 10.13.6). I learned that only data recovery software can enable me to recover the files. Is there a way to recover the files without purchasing software? If I must purchase software, is there a recommended tool? Thanks a lot!

Have you ever backed up the Mac before the deletion such as using Time Machine, iCloud, or other methods? If you have, luckily, you can easily restore the items emptied from the Mac Trash with your backup.
In case there is no backup, you should consider the third-party data recovery software for Mac, as long as the data hasn’t been overwritten, you can recover them back.

You can recover files without purchasing software if you have available backups. Third-party data recovery software is the last resort you can try to recover deleted files on Mac by yourself. You may need to bring it to a local repair shop if it fails.
Suppose you want to try third-party data recovery software. In that case, you can free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, you can try to scan the Mac hard drive with it and preview the scanned results to see whether the deleted files are found, then, recover the desired items.

It is possible to restore files from empty Mac trash if you regret emptying it. Even though you cannot undo Mac’s trash empty, you can easily recover deleted trash files using backups.
If you didn’t make a backup before the deletion, you can still retrieve the deleted files using third-party software as long as they haven’t been overwritten. So you should stop writing new data on your Mac and just perform a data recovery ASAP! I have encountered the same problem before, and successfully recovered them back with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac!

If you need to recover emptied Trash files with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, you can follow the steps below. It works on both Intel and Apple silicon Macs, and supports the latest macOS Sequoia.

Step 1: Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your device. During the process,enable Full Disk Access when it requires for the first time to install iBoysoft Data Recovery on Mac.

Step 2: Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac from Finder > Applications. Then Select Storage Devices on the left sidebar to show up all the detected storage media.

Step 3: Select the Mac hard drive labeled as Macintosh HD - Data/macOS - data on the right list, and tap the Search for Lost Data button located in the bottom to start scanning the selected volume/drive.

Step 4: Wait for the scanning process to complete. You can also check the Quick result during the process which contains files that have been scanned, if you can find wanted files there, you can pause or stop the scanning.

Step 5: When it finishes to scan the Mac hard drive, you can filter the scanned result from the path and type tab to quickly find the files you want to recover, then click the Preview button to preview the results.

Step 6: Check the box of the desired item, and click the Recover button, save the recovered files to an external hard drive to avoid data overwritten on the internal startup disk.