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Are you looking for the best and free Mac data recovery software? If yes, you come to the right place. MiniTool Software collects some professional and reliable Mac data recovery software and shows them in this article. You can select a suitable one according to your actual situation.
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If you are a Mac computer user, a free Mac data recovery software is a necessary configuration. When your Mac files are lost or deleted for some reason, you can use such a tool to get them back.
When you search for Mac file recovery software free on the internet, you will see many choices. To guarantee the safety of the current data on your computer, you’d better select a professional and reliable Mac file recovery tool. And it is also the topic we will talk about in this article: best and free Mac data recovery software.
We will list you some Mac data recovery programs that are worth trying. You can select one according to your requirements.
Tip: No matter which data recovery software you are using, it can only recover the lost and deleted files that are not overwritten by new data. Thus, when you find your files get lost or deleted, you’d better stop using the device as soon as possible to prevent the missing files from being overwritten.
This post will show you how long it will take before a deleted file is unrecoverable, how to make files unrecoverable, and how to undelete a file on Windows.
Top 5 Best and Free Mac Data Recovery Software
- Stellar Data Recovery for Mac
- Disk Drill for Mac
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac
- Wondershare Recoverit for Mac
- Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac
1. Stellar Data Recovery for Mac
Stella Mac Data Recovery for Mac is a highly recommended choice. It is specially designed to retrieve different kinds of files from your Mac machine. The supported files include documents, photos, audios, videos, music files, and more.
It works under multiple situations like file deletion, virus invasion, disk failure, partition loss, system crash, etc. Besides, it can recover data from APFS, HFS, HFS+, ex-FAT, and NTFS drives. So, it can fully meet your demands for Mac data recovery.
Are you bothered by the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer when using an external hard drive on a Mac computer. Now, get some solutions here.
This software has a trial edition. You can use it to scan the drive you want to recover data from and then check whether you can find your needed files from the scan results. Now, you can go to the MiniTool download center to get this Mac file recovery tool.
After downloading and installing this software on your Mac device, you can use it to restore your lost and deleted files. Here is a guide:
1. Open Stellar Data Recovery for Mac.
2. On this Select What To Recover interface, you can choose Recover Everything. You can also customize the scanning ranges based on your own requirements.
3. Click Next to continue.
4. On this Select Location interface, you need to select the drive you need to scan. If you want to perform a deep scan, you need to turn on the Deep Scan button that is on the bottom-left side of the interface.
5. Click Next to start the scanning process.
6. When the scanning process ends, there will be a small pop-up window saying Scanning Completed Successfully! You need to click OK to close this window and see the scan results.
7. By default, this software will show you the Classic List that contains both existing and deleted files on the Mac PC. If you only want to recover your deleted data, you can switch to Deleted List to make this software only show you the deleted items. Then, you can open each folder to find the deleted files you want to recover.
This software allows you to preview some types of files like images, videos, and more. If you are not sure whether it is the file you want to restore, you can double-click on that file to preview it.
Since it is the trial edition of this software, you are not allowed to use it to recover your needed files. But you can update this freeware to a full edition and then recover files to a suitable location. Here you need to know that you’d better not save the data to its original location. Otherwise, the deleted files can be overwritten and become unrecoverable.
When every step is done, you can access the specified storage location to directly see and use the recovered files.
Comprehensive Evaluation
Stellar Data Recovery for Mac: ★★★★☆
Pros:
- It can recover all types of files.
- It supports multiple types of storage devices.
- It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
- It supports previewing files.
Cons:
You need to update to a full edition if you want to use it to recover data from the scan results.
Stellar Data Recovery is one of the best data recovery tools we’ve used, with highly customizable searches, a huge file-type library, and deep scan abilities. techradar.com
2. Disk Drill for Mac
Disk Drill is a very famous Mac data recovery software. It supports the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina. It can recover all your lost and deleted files on your Mac computer. No matter you want to recover data from a hard drive, SSD, memory card, SD card, or pen drive on your Mac computer, this software can always work.
It is very easy to use this software to retrieve deleted files from your Mac computer. You just need to download this tool to your device, drag it to the Applications folder, launch it, and then select the drive you want to recover data from to scan. When the scanning process ends, you can preview the scanned files and then select your needed files to recover.
On the other hand, this software also has some other useful features like disk cleanup, duplicate finder, data backup, and more. These are also some necessary features for your Mac computer.
Do you want to delete duplicate files from your Windows computer? This article shows you how to find and delete duplicate files using duplicate file finders.
Comprehensive Evaluation
Disk Drill for Mac: ★★★★☆
Pros:
- It supports many storage devices like internal Macintosh hard drives, external hard drives, cameras, iPhones, iPads, iPods, Android devices, USB flash drives, Kindles, and memory cards.
- It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
- It supports previewing files.
- It has more functional features like disk cleanup, duplicate finder, data backup, and more.
Cons:
If you want to recover all your files without limits, you need to use a Pro or Enterprise edition.
If you have Mac with a traditional hard drive, Disk Drill Pro offers one of the most advanced data recovery utilities available. pcmag.com
3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac
EaseUS is a professional computer supplier and its products include partition manager, data recovery software, data backup tool, etc. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is one representative and it is specially designed to recover your Mac data under different situations.
Like other Mac file recovery tools, this software can recover your lost images, videos, documents, music files, and more from various types of data storage devices like internal hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and more.
After getting this software, you can open it, select the target drive to scan, and then choose your desired files from the scan results to recover. With the free edition of this EaseUS Mac data recovery free edition, you can recover 2GB data without paying any cent.
Comprehensive Evaluation
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac: ★★★★
![Best variable data software for mac pro Best variable data software for mac pro](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126389278/873234405.jpg)
Pros:
- You can use the free edition to recover 2GB files.
- It can recover 1000+ types of files, including documents, images, videos, archives, and more.
- It supports many storage devices like external HDD/SSD, fusion drive, USB drive, SD card, CF card, Digital Camera, Video Player, and more.
- It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
- It supports previewing files.
Cons:
You need to update to the Pro edition if you want to recover your data without limitations.
Overall, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is one of the most powerful file recovery programs we’ve used. It’s backed by highly advanced features, a great user interface, and a fast deep scan tool, among other things. techradar.com
4. Wondershare Recoverit for Mac
Recoverit for Mac is a software from Wondershare. It is also specially designed to get your lost data back under different situations like system crash, virus attack, file deletion, formatting, and more. It supports the latest macOS and APFS, ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32, HFS+, NTFS, Ext2, Ext 3, and Ext4 file systems.
After entering this software, you can select the target drive to scan and then find the files you want to recover from the scan results.
Comprehensive Evaluation
Wondershare Recoverit for Mac: ★★★★
Pros:
- It can recover 1000+ types of files.
- It supports many storage devices like hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SSD, digital camera, Drone camera, SD card, CF card, etc.
- It can recover data from an unbootable Mac computer.
- It supports previewing files that are less than 15 MB.
Cons:
Not all files are recoverable.
Wondershare Data Recovery is the best data recovery tool I have ever used in my life, it allows to recover huge range of file formats on nutshell, though, data recovery solutions are generally used to recover accidentally or system-deleted files, corrupted, deleted or formatted partitions, or data on crashed hard drives. g2.com
Are you looking for solutions to recover videos from DJI drones or recover photos from DJI camcorder? You can read this article to get solutions.
5. Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac
Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac is another professional Mac data recovery software and you can use its free edition to recover up to 1GB data. This software can work in different situations like file deletion, partition deletion, formatting, and more.
Comprehensive Evaluation
Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac: ★★★☆
Pros:
![Best Variable Data Software For Mac Best Variable Data Software For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126389278/865017899.jpg)
- It can recover data from various types of devices like internal and external hard drives, SSDs, RAIDS, USB, optical media, and memory cards.
- It supports APFS, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT, exFAT volumes.
- It can repair damaged and corrupt photo and video files
Cons:
- It can’t recover data from a computer that is unbootable.
- Its paid edition is more expensive than some competitors.
- It has no built-in file previewer.
Ontrack EasyRecovery is the most powerful, thorough data recovery software we've tested, and it's blazing fast, too. Its only real drawback is a sometimes-daunting interface. pcmag.com
How to Select the Best Mac Data Recovery Software?
Basic Requirements
First, you should know the common features an excellent and professional Mac data recovery software should own:
- Has an easy-to-use interface.
- Recovers various types of data, including photos, videos, audios, music files, documents, and more.
- Recovers files from different types of storage devices like hard disk drives, solid-state drives, SD cards, memory cards, and more.
- Supports the latest Mac version.
- Recovers data from unbootable computers.
- Supplies 24*7 technical support.
Expect Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac, which can recover data from an unbootable computer, all the rest four programs are designed with this function.
Prices
Those are the prices for all editions of each Mac data recovery software. You can select one according to your actual situation. You can also go to the official site of each Mac data recovery software to get more price information.
Stellar Data Recovery for Mac
Edition | Professional | Premium | Technician |
Price | $79.99 | $99.99 | $149 |
Disk Drill for Mac
Edition | Professional | Enterprise |
Price | $89 | $499 |
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac
Edition | 1-Month | 1-Year | Lifetime Upgrades |
Price | $89.95 | $119.95 | $169.95 |
Wondershare Recoverit for Mac
Best Variable Data Software For Mac Free
Edition | Essential | Standard | Advanced | For Team |
Price | $79.95 | $99.95 | $119.95 | $399.95 |
Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac
Edition | Home | Professional | Premium | Technician |
Price | $110.14 | $177.46 | $99.00 | $558.44 |
Performance
The most important element of a Mac data recovery software is its performance.
Scanning Time
Normally, the first two software has a better performance and the whole scanning process can end within 30 minutes. If the disk you want to scan is too large, the whole process will last longer. But it will still end within 2 or 3 hours.
Recovering Data from Unbootable Mac Device
If your macOS is damaged or corrupt due to some reasons and you want to recover data from your device, Ontrack EasyRecovery for Mac is not available because it doesn’t support creating a bootable device for Mac data recovery.
Extra Features
Besides, some of these free Mac data recovery tools have their extra features like data backup and duplicate files finder in Disk Drill for Mac. You can dig more features when using them.
Bottom Line
In this post, we show you 5 reliable and safe professional free Mac data recovery software. You can just select one based on your actual requirements. Should you have any related issues, you can let us know in the comment or contact us via [email protected].
Mac Data Recovery Software FAQ
As long as the deleted files are not overwritten by new data, you can use a free Mac data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, to get them back.
- Go to Trash.
- Find the file or folder you want to restore. Then, right-click it.
- Select Put Back from the pop-out menu.
After these three steps, the selected file or folder will be restored to its original location.
As long as you select a professional and reliable data recovery software and download it using the official source, the data recovery software will be safe.
With the trial edition of Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, you can scan the drive you want to recover data from and preview files from the scan results. However, if you want to recover data with it, you need to pay for it.
Why Trust Us?
My name is Adrian Try and I’ve worked in IT for quite a while, and exclusively with Macs for the last ten years. With the jobs I’ve had, you’d imagine I have plenty of experience recovering lost data.
- From 1989-1995 I spent five years teaching software classes, managing training rooms, and supporting office staff.
- From 2004-2005 I spent two years doing similar work on a smaller scale.
- From 2007-2010 I spent four years running my own computer support business, solving the IT problems of businesses and individuals.
- And for two years I was the IT manager of an organization, supporting up to 100 office staff and an internet cafe.
Believe me, I’ve seen a lot of computer problems! But throughout all of those years, I’ve only had to run data recovery software four or five times when crucial data was lost in a disaster caused by computer failure or human error. I was successful about half of the time.
That’s not a lot of experience, so I wanted access to the opinions of those with a significant amount of experience using these apps: those who specialize in data recovery. I hunted for test results of industry experts who ran the best Mac data recovery apps through their paces.
What You Need to Know Up-Front about Data Recovery
How does data recovery work?
If it’s gone, how can you get it back? The fact is, when you delete a file or format a drive, the data remains. It’s just that the computer’s file system no longer keeps track of it. As you continue using your computer, the data will eventually be overwritten.
Data recovery software can use this knowledge to help you get your files back, using strategies like these:
- They quickly scan for remnants of information in your folder structure and may be able to recover files that have been recently deleted, including the filename and location.
- They can also check the leftover data on your drive sector-by-sector, and using pattern-recognition strategies, may be able to identify whether it’s from a Word file, a PDF, a JPG, or another common file type. But the app won’t know what the file was called, or where it was stored.
Data recovery is your last line of defense
Computers can lose information because of human error, hardware failure, apps crashing, viruses and other malware, evil hackers, natural disasters, or just bad luck. Sounds ominous, doesn’t it! So we plan for the worst.
If you’re wise, you’ll regularly back up your data to multiple locations (find out which data backup software is best for you), and run anti-malware software as well as other security-related apps. You may even use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to give yourself enough time to save your work when the power goes out.
So when disaster strikes, chances are you’re covered. Check your backups. Check the trash on your Mac. You’ve planned for this.
It’s those rare times when all of your preparation fails that you turn to Mac data recovery software. It’s your last line of defense. Hopefully, you won’t need it often, but it’s good to know it’s there.
Data recovery may cost you a lot of time and effort
Mac data recovery apps can run quick scans (which may take just minutes or even seconds) to recover data that was lost in a number of ways. These are handy, and worth trying, but can’t recover data from every situation. You may need to run a deep scan.
These can take many hours, or even days or weeks. Your entire drive needs to be examined carefully to locate as many recoverable files as possible. On a large drive, that may be thousands or even hundreds of thousands!
That means finding the right file can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Most apps include a search feature, but that only helps if the filename was recovered. You may need to go file by file and preview each one until you find the file you are looking for.
Data recovery is not guaranteed
Your file may be irretrievably corrupt, or that sector of your hard drive may be damaged and unreadable. However, Mac data recovery apps use a number of strategies to maximize your chance of success. And that begins before disaster strikes. Start running data recovery now, and it will take steps to protect your data, and warn you when drives are about to fail.
It’s possible to unintentionally write over your data while trying to recover it. So don’t save anything to that drive. When trying to recover data from your Mac’s main drive, that means booting from an external drive while attempting recovery. Many of the apps we cover give you this option.
If you fail to recover the data on your own, you can call an expert. That can be costly but is justified if your data is valuable. Just be aware that the steps you take on your own may actually make their job harder, so try to make this decision as early as possible.
Hard drives vs SSDs
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Solid state drives are now very common in Macs. Yet in certain situations, data can’t be recovered from an SSD. PCMagazine explains:
One failing that bothered us in all these apps—including our top picks—is that they didn’t even warn us that we couldn’t recover files from an SSD. It’s easy for an app to tell whether a drive uses spinning-platter or SSD technology, and easy to tell whether TRIM technology is active in a drive. All of the software we reviewed, both on the Mac and PC, misleadingly told us that they were able to recover deleted files from SSDs—and then disappointed us by providing corrupt and unusable files instead of the ones we wanted.
TRIM technology increases SSD efficiency and service life by clearing disk sectors on that aren’t being used, so it’s often turned on by default. But this makes it impossible to recover files from the Trash after it has been emptied. I tested this with every app we cover in this review and failed with each one.
So it’s time to make a decision: TRIM or no TRIM. If data recovering files from an emptied Mac Trash is more important to you than the speed and efficiency of your drive, you can turn TRIM off. How-To Geek gives a detailed tutorial here. Alternatively, become more careful and conservative about emptying the Trash—maybe check what’s in it first.
Recovering Lost Data under macOS 10.13 High Sierra and Later
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As a security feature in recent versions of macOS, users are stopped from accessing the built-in system drive by any app. This is called “System Integrity Protection”. Unfortunately, it stops Mac data recovery apps from being able to do their job.
This can be disabled from System Preferences, and most data recovery apps will explain this when they are first opened. For example, when first running Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, I was shown the following message.
Steps to take before you attempt data recovery
Once you realize you have lost data, you need to act fast. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that your data will be overwritten and lost forever. If necessary, turn off the computer until you can attempt recovery.
The first thing you should do is create a disk image of your drive. This type of backup includes all of the lost data from the original drive and is a safeguard. Many recovery apps include the ability to create disk images. From there, begin to run scans on the drive (or the image), starting with a quick scan, then a deep scan if it’s not successful.
For more information, check out these Do’s and Do Not’s of Data Loss.
Who Should (& Should Not) Get This?
If you like to play it safe and perform regular backups (as you should), you may like to run data recovery software as well. Running it before you encounter data may well make it easier to get your data back. In addition, it will monitor the health of your hard drive, and prompt you to act before your drive dies.
But maybe you haven’t been playing it safe, and you just lost some important or sentimental files from your computer. Then these apps are for you. And in most cases, if you run a trial version of the software, you’ll find out whether your data can be recovered before you spend any money.
How We Tested and Picked
Mac data recovery apps are not all the same. They vary in their usability and features offered, and may employ different recovery strategies, so often differ in the number of recoverable files they can locate. As we compare the competition, we’ll try to help you make the best decision about which one will suit you best. Here’s what we looked at when evaluating:
How easy is it to use the software?
Data recovery is tricky, so some apps focus on ease of use. They minimize what you need to know and the number of choices you need to make to recover files. These suit most people. Other apps are a little more difficult to use but may deliver better results. They’re more suitable for data recovery specialists and power users.
Which recovery features are included?
Most scanning apps let you do quick and deep scans for lost files. Some apps offer a list of more specific scans that may save you time by not scanning for everything. Besides scanning for lost files, here are some key features we looked for:
- Disk imaging: Create a backup of your files and recoverable data.
- Pause and resume scans: Scans can be slow, so it’s handy to be able to save the state of a scan so you can continue from where you left off in the future.
- Preview files: Gives you a quick way to identify any recovered files if the file name has been lost.
- Bootable recovery disk: When trying to restore your Mac’s main drive, it’s best practice to boot from a recovery drive so you don’t overwrite your data.
- SMART reporting: “Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology” gives early warning of drive failure.
Apple’s new APFS file system is relatively new. Even recently, not all recovery apps supported it. Thankfully, most Mac recovery apps now do.
How effective is the software?
Apps use various strategies to discover lost files on your drive. As a result, some apps may be more effective than others at finding files that can be recovered. How do you determine which are most effective? Lots of testing. In this review, I took three categories of tests into account:
- Informal tests performed when we reviewed a number of data recovery software. They’re not absolutely thorough or consistent across each app, but demonstrate the success or failure of our scans.
- A number of recent tests done by industry experts. Unfortunately, no single test covers all of our apps, and they often test the Windows version. They demonstrate that some apps are significantly more effective than others. I’ll include links to each test below.
- To supplement the experts’ tests, I conducted a few of my own. I got a second opinion on the apps’ effectiveness while becoming more familiar with each app and its interface. In general, my test results agree with those of industry experts.
Here is the list of industry tests I refer to:
- Data Recovery Digest‘s Best Pro Data Recovery Software Review tested the Windows versions of R-Studio and Data Rescue 5 among others.
- ThinkMobile‘s Testing 7 Best Free Data Recovery Tools tested the free Windows versions of Disk Drill, EaseUS, MiniTool, and others.
- DigiLab Inc‘s Data Recovery Software Review and Comparative Analysis Report reviews the Windows version of Prosoft Data Rescue PC3, R-Studio 7.7, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Professional 6.0 and more. (Note: this is published on the website of R-Tools Technology, one of our winners.)
- Computer Fixperts‘ Best Data Recovery Software for Windows & Mac summarized their experience using Stellar Data Recovery, EaseUS, and others.
- Data Recovery Software Review‘s Data Recovery Software Comparison tested EaseUS, R-Studio, Stellar Phoenix, and others.
While all apps performed about equally with quick scans, deep scans split up the field. Some apps I’d shortlisted as winners—Prosoft Data Rescue and CleverFiles Disk Drill—found significantly fewer files to recover than our winners. More on that later.
For my own test, I copied a folder of 10 files (PDFs, Word Doc, MP3s) to a 4GB USB stick, then deleted it. Each app—except Prosoft Data Rescue—was successful.
I also noted the total number of recoverable files found by each app on the drive:
Cheapest Data Recovery Software Mac
- MiniTool: 6056 files, 4 minutes
- Stellar: 3225 files, 8 minutes
- EaseUS: 3055 files, 4 minutes
- R-Studio: 2336 files, 4 minutes
- Data Rescue: 1878 files, 5 minutes
- Disk Drill: 1621 files, 4 minutes
- Wondershare: 1541 files, 9 minutes
- Remo: 322 files, 10 minutes
MindTool’s huge 6056 files include 3044 documents and media files (which is what the other apps are listing), and 2995 “other” files. This brings the result down close to the other top runners.
How fast are the scans?
I’d rather have a successful slow scan than an unsuccessful fast scan, but deep scans are time-consuming, so any time saved is a bonus. I didn’t look for a clear winner here, and slower scans don’t guarantee better results, but you’ll find some observations about scanning speeds below.
Value for Money
Here are the costs of each app we mention in this Mac data recovery software review, sorted from cheapest to most expensive:
- MiniTool Mac Data Recovery V3.0 Personal: $79
- Wondershare Recoverit Pro for Mac: $79.95
- R-Studio for Mac 6.1: $79.99
- CleverFiles Disk Drill Pro for Mac: $89
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac 11.8: $98.95
- Stellar Data Recovery 9.0 for Mac Professional: $99 lifetime (or $79.99/year)
- Prosoft Data Rescue 5 for Mac Standard: $99
- Alsoft DiskWarrior for Mac: $119
- Remo Recover Mac – Pro Edition: $179.97
The Winners
Easiest to Use: Stellar Data Recovery for Mac Professional
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Stellar Data Recovery has an attractive interface that’s a breeze to use. In a deep scan, it is able to locate more recoverable files than many of its competitors. It passed all of our tests and did well in the industry tests that we consulted. Competitor OnTrack is so impressed, they license and rebrand it as “EasyRecovery”, and sell it at a higher price.
You can read our full review of Stellar Data Recovery 7.1 here. Version 9.0 has a simpler interface with a more modern design.
$79.99 fromthe developer’s website(one-year license), or $99.00 for a lifetime license
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: Yes
- Pause and resume scans: Yes, but is not always available
- Preview files: Yes but not during scans
- Bootable recovery disk: Yes
- SMART monitoring: Yes
Stellar Data Recovery has a good balance between ease-of-use and successful data recovery, and we’re not the only ones who like it. Because of its easy-to-use interface, PCMagazine recommends it for beginners: “Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery offers an easy on-ramp to Mac data recovery.”
G2 Crowd rate customer satisfaction for the Windows version as a high 4.8 out of 5, but there are some negative reviews about the app on Amazon. One user complained about slow scans, another about the app freezing. Several users complained that the app couldn’t recover the files, and were offered a refund by Stellar. There were some extremely positive reviews as well, so the app sounds very promising, but is not perfect.
Ease of Use: This is one of the easiest-to-use recovery apps out there, and when I compare my experiences using version 9.0 with our review of version 7.1, they’ve taken it even further in the last two versions. Personally, I wonder if they’ve tried to make it too easy!
Let me demonstrate what I mean. This screenshot from version 7.1 offers a number of options, depending on the type of recovery you want to achieve.
Version 9.0 doesn’t. It gives you a choice of drives, with a big “Scan” button, and the option of making it a deep scan.
That’s much simpler, but it makes me feel I’m missing out on some choices. But that’s just me, and in reality, I’m probably not missing out on anything. For beginners, it’s a step forward: what to do next is very clear. Version 7.1’s options of “Deleted Recovery” and “Raw Recovery” may be unclear to some users, and lead to choice paralysis.
Once the scan is complete, I found the app’s search option made it easy to find the file I wanted out of the thousands found. That is, as long as the app was able to recover the original name of the file.
Features: This app includes most of the features you’ll need, including disk imaging, a bootable recovery disk, and file preview. But you won’t be able to preview files until the scan finishes, unlike some other apps.
In his test of version 7.1, JP found that the “Resume Recovery” feature may be buggy, so I thought I’d see if the feature had improved in version 9.0. Any time I attempted to pause a scan, I received the message, “Scan cannot be resumed from the current stage.” So I was unable to test the feature—it was unavailable every time I tried, and I tried a lot. The app did offer to save the scan results for future use at the end of each scan, however.
Effectiveness: Despite being easy to use, Stellar Data Recovery performs very well. In his testing of the app for our review, JP found the app powerful at recovering deleted files and identifying many types of recoverable files from his Mac.
How does it compare with R-Studio, a powerful competitor rated by many to be the most powerful? According to DigiLabs Inc, Stellar has better help and better phone and email support than R-Studio, and performed just as well in many (but not all) tests, though was sometimes much slower. These tests were done on the Windows versions, but are consistent with my test on the Mac versions.
It seems all recovery apps perform well with quick scans on a spinning hard drive, successfully recovering recently deleted files in just seconds. But when performing a quick scan on an SD card, only Stellar and R-Studio managed to recover all of the files, and also had the fastest scan times.
Deep scans split up the field further. When attempting to recover files whose directory information had been overwritten, each app succeeded with 8 out of the 10 files. However, Stellar and R-Studio’s scans were twice as quick, and unlike the other apps, JPG files were given the correct names from information found in the files’ metadata.
There were a number of tests where R-Studio’s results were significantly better. When recovering a large 7.5GB file, only Stellar and R-Tools placed the file in the right folder with the original name. However, Stellar’s file was only 40MB, so the entire file was not recovered. R-Tools recovered the entire file successfully.
And when recovering from a formatted Windows hard drive, R-Tools was the only app able to recover all files. The other apps did recover some files, with Stellar showing the worst results.
My conclusion? Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is one of the easiest apps to use and boasts better recovery results than most of the competition. By clicking a few simple buttons, you’ll have a solid chance of recovering your files. However, if maximum data recovery is your absolute priority, R-Studio may be the better choice for you, but at the cost of ease-of-use.
Most Powerful: R-Studio for Mac
R-Studio for Mac is a powerful data recovery tool developed for experienced data recovery professionals. It offers all the features an expert would expect, along with a proven track record of successful data recovery. Flexible parameter settings give absolute control over the recovery process. If you’re an experienced Mac user willing to open the manual when necessary, and prefer to use the best-in-class tool for the job, this may be the best app for you.
$79.99 from the developer’s website(one-time fee)
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: Yes
- Pause and resume scans: Yes
- Preview files: Yes but not during scans
- Bootable recovery disk: Yes
- SMART monitoring: Yes
R-Studio’s is widely accepted as the most powerful data recovery app available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The Data Recovery Digest put seven leading apps through a barrage of tests last year, and R-Studio came out on top. Their conclusion? “An excellent combination of file recovery features and performance. Shows the best results in almost every category. A must-have for any data recovery professional.”
Ease of Use: The Data Recovery Software Review rate’s R-Studio’s ease of use as “complex”. Given that it’s designed for experts, that’s no surprise. But I didn’t find the app as hard to use as you’d expect. I’d describe the interface as “quirky”—there are some unusual interface choices in there that take some getting used to. You’re offered plenty of options, and the developers have decided to put as much helpful information on the screen as possible, rather than hiding it in case it overwhelms beginners.
DigiLab Inc also concludes that beginners could find the app confusing:
The only significant disadvantage we found was R-Studio’s user interface. R-Studio is clearly designed for data recovery specialists and the interface can be confusing for inexperienced users. We think that the best solution would be to offer a “wizard”-style option for home users while keeping the current interface as an alternative.
Features: This is a feature-filled app, and includes advanced features not offered by the competition. It supports pretty much all file systems, can recover data from local disks, removable disks, heavily corrupted disks, unbeatable disks, and network clients. The developers list a good overview of the features here.
Effectiveness: In industry tests, R-Studio consistently produced the best results. And although it has a reputation for slow scans, it often completed scans faster than the competition.
For example, Data Recovery Digest’s The Best Pro Data Recovery Software – Review 2018 tested the Windows versions of R-Studio, Data Rescue 5 and five other apps. Here are the results of all of their tests:
- R-Studio was the highest rated app for recovering deleted files. It received a score of 5.5, which it shared with the Windows app Do Your Data Recovery.
- R-Studio was the highest rated app for recovering files from an emptied recycle bin ratings. It received a score of 5.5, which it shared with the Windows app Active File Recovery.
- R-Studio was the highest rated app for recovering files after a disk reformat. It received a score of 5.3.
- R-Studio was the highest rated app for recovering a damaged partition. It received a score of 5.8, which it shared with the Windows apps Active File Recovery and DMDE.
- R-Studio was a highly rated app for recovering a deleted partition, with a score of 5.5. But DMDE was the winner here, with a score of 6.0.
- R-Studio was the highest rated app for RAID recovery. It received a score of 5.9.
The results are consistent across tests run by independent industry experts. If you are looking for the app likely to recover the maximum amount of data, choose R-Tools.
The Competition
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac 11.8 ($98.95)
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an easy-to-use app for Mac and Windows that also performs quite well in industry tests. It lacks disk imaging and a recovery disk, useful features that are offered by our winners. We have reviewed the Windows version of EaseUS here, but keep in mind that it has some differences to the Mac version.
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: No
- Pause and resume scans: Yes
- Preview files: Yes but not during scans
- Bootable recovery disk: No
- SMART monitoring: Yes
In his SoftwareHow review, Victor Corda found that the scans tended to be slow, but successful. In the tests he ran, the app was able to recover the data each time, and he concluded that this is one of the best recovery apps he has run.
Others agree, including the Computer Fixperts, who made the app their second choice for data recovery. But there are quite a few negative reviews on Amazon, including users complaining it doesn’t work as expected. Not all of those should be regarded though, including a user who purchased the app to clone a drive, a feature it doesn’t claim to have.
Industry tests suggest that the app performs well. ThinkMobiles tested the free versions of seven data recovery apps, including EaseUS. It recovered all deleted files from a USB flash drive and achieved this in a medium amount of time compared with the other apps. A deep scan located more recoverable files than the others tested, though the test didn’t include our winners. In my own test, it was one of the best performers.
MiniTool Mac Data Recovery V3.0 Personal ($79)
MiniTool Mac Data Recovery is another easy-to-use app that produces good results. Customers report high satisfaction, and the app is available for Mac and Windows. I found the download process problematic: the website kept automatically downloading the Windows version even though I’m on a Mac.
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: Yes
- Pause and resume scans: No, but you can save completed scans
- Preview files: Yes
- Bootable recovery disk: Yes, but is a separate app
- SMART monitoring: No
The app did not perform quite as well as EaseUS in the ThinkMobiles test. It recovered most of the deleted files (49 out of 50), and located 77% of the files that EaseUS found, but took longer than any other app to do so. But these results are significantly better than those achieved by Disk Drill (below).
In my own test, MiniTool scanned the USB flash drive with one of the fastest speeds and outperformed much of the competition in the number of recoverable files it found.
CleverFiles Disk Drill Pro for Mac ($89)
Disk Drill is the data recovery app I enjoyed using most—its interface suits me. It has a good balance between features and ease of use, and it allows you to preview and recover files before the scan is complete.
But when I started to look at comparative tests, I discovered that it doesn’t perform as well as our winners. That surprised me—when I tested the app during my review, I successfully recovered every file that was lost. Read my full Disk Drill review here.
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: Yes
- Pause and resume scans: Yes
- Preview files: Yes
- Bootable recovery disk: Yes
- SMART monitoring: Yes
I mentioned the ThinkMobiles data recovery test when covering the last two apps. They performed quite well. Disk Drill, however, did not.
While it did manage to recover all 50 deleted files, it discovered relatively few recoverable files when deep scanning a hard drive. Scan times were slow—almost as slow as MiniTool’s, the slowest app to be tested. By way of comparison, EaseUS and MiniTool were able to locate 38,638 and 29,805 recoverable files each. Disk Drill only found 6,676.
I wanted another opinion, so I ran my own test on a USB Flash drive. There EaseUS and MiniTool found 3,055 and 3,044 files each, while Disk Drill found just 1,621. All three apps took just four minutes to complete the scan.
As a result of these findings, I can’t recommend Disk Drill as a winner. While it includes all the features you need, and you’re likely to recover all your deleted files in a quick scan, more thorough scans are less promising.
Prosoft Data Rescue 5 for Mac Standard ($99)
Prosoft Data Rescue 5 is an easy-to-use data recovery app that performed well in the tests I performed during my previous Data Rescue review. However, like Disk Drill, when I started to consult industry tests, Data Rescue’s performance doesn’t stand up to many of its competitors. I reached the same conclusion when retesting all the apps for this review. While it is easy to use, includes clear feature descriptions, and all of the features you need, I can’t recommend this app if your goal is to recover the maximum data.
Features at a glance:
- Disk imaging: Yes
- Pause and resume scans: No, but you can save completed scans
- Preview files: Yes
- Bootable recovery disk: Yes
- SMART monitoring: No
Data Rescue is a very popular app. It has good reviews on Amazon, and other “best of” comparisons rate it very highly, including PCMagazine. I had a high opinion of the app myself, and like all of the apps here, it may well recover the files you need.
However, testing done by Data Recovery Digest and DigiLab Inc demonstrates that, compared with our winners, the app doesn’t locate as many recoverable files after a deep scan. In fact, Data Recovery Digest concludes:
Although many internet resources are actively promoting this program, it shows quite poor performance. Moreover, it completely failed in many tests throwing error messages. The only reason to use the program is data recovery from Apple modern SSD disks with the APFS file system.
In their tests, the app had the lowest rating each time. They tested recovering deleted files, recovering files from an emptied recycle bin, recovering a formatted disk, recovering a damaged or deleted partition, and RAID recovery.
DigiLab’s tests were a little more promising. Data Rescue performed well in quite a few, but in others, it could not recover the data, and often its scans were slowest. In my own test, it is the only app that couldn’t recover the files I deleted from the USB flash drive, and it could only find 1878 files compared to EaseUS’s 3055 and Stellar’s 3225.
For an app that’s so widely recommended, these are sobering facts. While it may well recover the files you need, your chances will be increased by using one of our winners instead.
Wondershare Recoverit Pro for Mac ($79.95)
Wondershare Recoverit Pro is a little slow, and compares with Disk Drill and Data Rescue when locating recoverable files: reasonable, but not great. We previously reviewed the Windows version of Wondershare Data Recovery, which you can read here.
In that review, Victor Corda found the app is not ideal. Not all files could be previewed, making it harder to locate files. The Mac version of the app froze while he was using it, and he found the “remaining time” indicator wasn’t accurate.
In my test, the app was able to recover the files I deleted, but only located 1541 files, the second worst result, and second slowest scan. Only Remo Recover (below) did worse.
Remo Recover Mac – Pro Edition ($179.97)
Remo Recover Mac looks to be the least promising of the apps included in this Mac data recovery review. Scans are slow, locating files is difficult, and the app crashed while I was using it. We reviewed the Windows version of Remo Recover, which you can read here.
In my test, the app did recover all of the files I had deleted, but after a long 10-minute scan could only find 322 recoverable files on my USB flash drive. By comparison, Stellar Data Recovery found 3225. I cannot recommend this slow, expensive, unstable app.
Alsoft DiskWarrior for Mac ($119)
Alsoft DiskWarrior looks like a promising app. Unfortunately, it’s a little expensive and doesn’t offer a trial version, so I didn’t test it. It wasn’t included in any of the industry tests we could find, either.
Feedback on Amazon is very positive, and PCMagazine made it their Editors’ Choice for Mac, awarding it 4.5/5 stars, the same score as they gave Stellar Phoenix for Windows. It sounds like a promising app.
Free Alternatives
There are some reasonable free data recovery software available for Mac and Windows, and we introduce them to you in another roundup. Here are some free apps for Mac, but we can’t recommend them if you’re looking for something easy to use.
PhotoRec is a free and open source application by CGSecurity that can recover lost files, including video and documents from hard drives, and photos from digital camera memory. It’s a command-line app, so lacks in the usability area, but works well.
TestDisk for Mac is another free and open source application by CGSecurity. Rather than recovering lost files, this one can recover lost partitions, and make non-booting disks bootable again. It, too, is a command-line app.
Exif Untrasher allows you to recover deleted photos from your camera’s memory card.