Top 6 Free Data Recovery Software Mac | macOS Sonoma

This article covers the top six completely free data recovery software for Mac, which varies in features, functions, and performance. However, they all have one thing in common: they are free.

Compare the best free Mac data recovery software carefully, and select the best fit for your needs.

1. 1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
2. 2. Stellar Data Recovery for Mac
3. 3. Disk Drill
4. 4. Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery
5. 5. PhotoRec
6. 6. TestDisk
7. 3-Step Tutorial for Free Mac Data Recovery

How to Test the Free File Recovery Software for Mac

To find out the best free Mac data recovery apps, we tested 20 software and picked out the best five. Here is a glance at the testing statistics.

Criteria	Details
🔢 Number of tested tools	10
⏳ How long have we tested	Four weeks
💻 OS version	macOS 12.0, macOS 13.0, Mac OS X 10.11
📊 Minimum cost	Free
💰 Average cost	$70
💾 The storage device	Seagate SSD (128GB)
📙 Number of files	200+ files

Top 6 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

When you get data loss on your Mac due to accidental deletion, partition/hard drive formatting, system crash, macOS upgrade, or file system or hard drive corruption, stay calm and pick up one of the recommended data recovery software below for help. 

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is a free top and handy Mac data recovery software that enables you to recover deleted files on Mac, Mac notebooks, desktops, hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, digital cameras, etc. It works on internal APFS/HFS+/HFS X drives and FAT/FAT32/exFAT/NTFS file systems used in USB flash drives and external hard drives connected to Mac. 

Highlighted features of EaseUS free file recovery for Mac:

😀1. User-friendly Software with Strong Compatibility

EaseUS Mac data recovery software is fully compatible with the latest macOS versions, including 14.0 (Sonoma), 13.0(Ventura), 12.0(Monterey), 11.0 (Big Sur), 10.15(Catalina), 10.14 (Mojave), and all the former Mac OS X 10.11 ~ 10.9 versions. It enables all Mac users to recover any lost data in only 3 steps: scan > preview > recover.

🚩 2. Powerful Data Recovery Capabilities

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can restore deleted or lost files in various severe scenarios. It supports deleted recovery, lost partition recovery, formatted Mac hard drive recovery, virus attack recovery, and OS crash recovery.  It restores files from all kinds of storage devices like internal or external hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, external hard drives, memory cards, and digital cameras.

🧰3. Encrypted Drive Recovery

Another great update in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is that it can recover data from encrypted hard drives by offering guidance to assist Mac users in decrypting and unlocking their drives with passwords.

🧿4. Comprehensive SD Card Recovery Solutions

Based on the most advanced algorithm technology, the EaseUS Mac file recovery tool has a robust SD card data recovery function, which can scan and recover the largest number of files from different cameras like Sony, Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic.

🔰5. Extra Video Repair

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac also adds an additional video repair feature to help you repair any broken, unplayable, soundless videos. You can fix corrupted videos in MP4, MOV, AVI, 3GP, etc.

Advantages:

• Support to restore 200+ file types on Mac, including recovering unsaved Word documents on Mac, and Excel/PPT files, photos, videos, music files, emails, archived files, and more.
• Quick and deep scan technology greatly enhances recovery probability.
• Real-time Preview lets you preview found files while scanning and before proceeding with data recovery.
• No quality-loss recovery returns your lost photos and videos to their best performance.

Improvements:

• The completely free version is limited to a maximum of 2GB of free data recovery. (The outstanding Windows data recovery free version also provides 2GB free file recovery.)

🏆Editor's review: EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac offers all-in-one and user-friendly solutions for recovering lost or deleted data on macOS and Mac OS X. It is an excellent choice for recovering data from APFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT, and exFAT hard drives. With its wizard-style operation guides, both individuals and businesses can use it to restore lost files without technical expertise.

Did EaseUS Mac data recovery software solve your problem? Help others discover it by sharing it on your social media.

3-Step Tutorial to Recover Files with EaseUS Mac Data Recovery Tool

To help more Mac users bring their lost files as soon as possible, we show you a 3-step tutorial for free Mac data recovery. If you are eager to return your lost files to Mac or external storage devices, apply the brief and innovative EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help.

2. Stellar Data Recovery for Mac

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is a DIY tool that can recover data from all types of Mac-based internal or external storage drives. This Mac data recovery tool helps retrieve photos, videos, documents, and other files from all Mac HDDs, SSDs, Thumb Drives, memory cards, and more.

Highlighted features:

📌1. Recover Lost Data from Unbootable Systems

You can recover data without booting into macOS. Stellar Mac data recovery software helps to get back Mac files without entering your system.

🔷2. SMART Drive Monitor and Clone

This software also examines various complex drive attributes, like performance, drive health, and temperature. Exploring these features reduces the chances of data loss in the future.

Advantages:

• Free to use for 1GB data recovery
• Can recover data from any storage device
• Include a lot of advanced features

Improvements:

• You must pay for the software if your data is over 1GB.

🏆Editor's review: Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is an outstanding file recovery software that saves your data quickly! Its excellent scanning speed, extensive file support, and GUI interface made the data recovery process a breeze. You can selectively choose specific files to preview and recover efficiently.

3. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a popular Mac data recovery application developed to recover lost partitions or files from Mac internal and external hard drives. Also, the Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery options in the free trial version support monitoring the file deletion activity and retaining metadata to undelete files quickly.

Highlighted features:

💗1. Undelete Protected Data (Not Available in Free Version)

Similar to the Data Protection feature in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, Disk Drill also contains an undelete protected data feature that requires Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery features to be enabled in advance.

With these two features enabled, Mac users could quickly undelete files from a Trash Bin reference or shadow copy of each file to a user-specified folder.

🟢2. Allocate Existing Files

When Finder fails to read data, Disk Utility reports the drive as unformatted. Disk Drill can scan the partition and retrieve data from Mac.

Advantages:

• Compatible with all Mac OS X and macOS systems.
• Recover 200+ file types.
• It is packed with free and helpful disk tools for all users.
• An intuitive user interface to recover lost files effortlessly.

Improvements:

• The free version only allows a preview of data recovery.
• Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery are not available in the free version.

🏆Editor's review: Disk Drill is an exceptional Mac data recovery software with a user-friendly interface and outstanding recovery capabilities. It supports many file types, including photos, videos, documents, and archives. Except for data recovery, Disk Drill also provides other free tools, such as Disk Health, Mac Cleanup, Data Protection, and Data Backup. Highly recommended!

Share this reliable Mac file recovery tool on your social media and help others discover it too.

4. Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is comprehensive software developed specifically for users to recover lost or deleted data on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and other Mac devices. It allows users to restore files with a user-friendly interface, making it popular for users of all levels. This software supports the recovery of different file types, including documents, photos, videos, and more.

Highlighted features:

🟩1. Recover Data in Multiple Recovery Modes

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery offers file recovery and drives recovery methods to undelete files from Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks, Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, and Mac OS Server 10.5 Leopard. Its quick and deep scan modes ensure a higher chance of successful data retrieval.

💽2. Restore Files from Various Devices Allocate Existing Files

Except for internal and external hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, and memory cards, this software can still retrieve data and files from your iPod Nano, Shuffle, or Classic by applying "Enable Disk Use" for your iPod in iTunes. 

Advantages:

• Compatible with all Mac OS X versions
• Recover files from formatted, damaged, or lost exFAT partitions
• Recover files from HFS/HFS+, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and other file systems
• Provide free technical support

Improvements:

• Limited deep scan abilities affecting the recovery of severely damaged files
• Lack of advanced features like recovering data from RAID disks 

🏆Editor's review: Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is free data recovery software for Mac to help users recover unlimited data. It's compatible with all the common file systems like HFS/HFS+, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and EXFAT (new). It has strong disk recovery capabilities to restore lost data from formatted, deleted, or damaged partitions. However, it can't be used in the new macOS versions, including macOS Ventura and macOS Monterey.

5. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free, open-source program that works very well in data recovery on older operating systems like OS X, Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, and Windows.

It allows users to restore the most common files, like photos, audio, documents, ZIP archives, and others, from internal or external devices, such as digital cameras, memory cards, USB flash drives, and partitions/hard disks.

Highlighted features:

✅1. Advanced File Carving

PhotoRec first searches for the data block or cluster size. The program will quickly load value from superblocks like ext2/ext3/ext4 or volume boot records like FAT/NTFS if the file system is not corrupted. When the file system is corrupted, PhotoRec will check the device at a sector level, using the first ten found files to calculate the block or cluster size to locate and find more lost files.

👍2. Block or Cluster Level Recovery

This program will read the Mac device block by block, cluster by cluster, checking against different file signatures so as to recuperate available files. 

Advantages:

• Support data recovery cross-platforms, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.
• 100% open-source program, not only the software but also the source code.
• Nice tool to recover personal files.

Improvements:

• Not very user-friendly for ordinary computer users.
• Technical skills required. It uses command lines to operate.

🏆Editor's review: PhotoRec is an incredible data recovery program offering free methods for all users. Despite its name, it doesn't just recover photos; it also supports document, video, and file recovery. Although it has a command-line interface, which may seem daunting, it won't be hard for you if you have some computer knowledge. Its deep scanning capability and cross-platform compatibility make it a versatile choice.

6. TestDisk

TestDisk, like PhotoRec, is an open-source, freeware product that allows for multiple file types recovery.

It mainly focuses on partition recovery. It enables users to find deleted or lost partitions by fixing the partition tables due to software crashes, virus attacks, mistaken formatting, etc.

Highlighted features:

💚1. Partition Recovery 

When a partition is lost or disappears on Mac due to corrupted partition tables, Mac users can apply TestDisk to rebuild and repair the corrupted partition table. 

🔨2. Rebuild Boot Sectors

When the Mac bootable drive fails to boot, it corrects problems in bootable drives failing to boot.

Advantages:

• Completely free and open.
• Run on several operating systems, including macOS and Mac OS X versions.
• Recover lost partitions and rebuild the partition table.

Improvements:

• Use the command line to make data recovery.
• Not user-friendly for regular computer users.

🏆Editor's review: TestDisk is a safe and reliable disk recovery tool for anyone needing data recovery. It can restore files from various storage devices, even if they are corrupted or formatted. Both TestDisk and PhotoRec have command-line interfaces, which may seem complicated, but their step-by-step instructions are clear and easy to follow. In addition, it is an open-source tool that is friendly to users who need completely free software.

If you found this article helpful, share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!

How to Choose the Best Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

What's the best free data recovery tool for Mac users among the many competing products on the market? To find out the best data recovery software, we provide a comparison table of the top 6 free data recovery tools and programs and their features. Choose the best one that meets your needs and start recovering lost data on your MacBook Pro/iMac/Mac as soon as possible.

Feature	EaseUS	Disk Drill	Stellar	Lazesoft	TestDisk	PhotoRec
Free recovery	2GB	500MB	1GB	Free	Free	Free
Supported file systems	APFS, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, HFS X	FAT, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, APFS	FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS	HFS/HFS+, FAT32, NTFS, EXFAT (new)	FAT, NTFS,ext2	FAT, exFAT, NTFS
Supported file types	1000	400	200	100	10	20
Ease of use	Easy	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Hard	Hard
Recovery speed	Fast	Fast	Average	Average	Average	Average
Recovery rate	High	High	Moderate	Average	Average	Average
File Filtering	✔	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘
File repair	✔	✘	✔	✘	✘	✘
RAW recovery	✔	✔	Partial	✘	✘	✘

Conclusion

This page presents you with the top 6 completely free Mac data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, and Stellar data recovery software. When facing unexpected data loss on Mac, the above programs can help you recover lost files effectively. 

What's more, if your lost data is less than 2GB, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is highly recommended as it provides the most user-friendly interface and powerful data recovery function.

Mac Free Data Recovery Software FAQs

Some Mac users may still have doubts about Mac file recovery. Here we have collected the top frequently asked four questions and left brief answers below. Check out and find your answers here.

1. Is Mac data recovery free?

It depends. If you lost deleted files to Trash, you could restore them from Trash for free.

When you lose files on a local Mac hard drive or an external storage device, applying free Mac data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help is free.

Taking your computer to a local data recovery center will cost you a lot of money.

2. What is the best free data recovery software?

• For Windows users, you may refer to the top 10 free SD card data recovery software.

The Recommended software also works perfectly in Windows OS for data recovery, and you can easily find the most suitable for applying and restoring lost files. 

• For Mac users, as we recommended on this page, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, and Exif Untrasher are all good to help.

3. Is there any free data recovery software?

Sure! Many data recovery software producers have released their free data recovery software. Here we have collected some of them for you to pick up and apply to guard your own data.

10 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Windows Users:

• 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free
• 2). Recuva
• 3). Stellar Data Recovery
• 4). Disk Drill
• 5). R-Studio
• 6). Acronis Revive
• 7). Remo Recover
• 8). Recover My Files
• 9). Puran Data Recovery
• 10). TestDisk

6 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Mac Users: (We have uncovered on this page)

• 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
• 2). Disk Drill
• 3). PhotoRec
• 4). TestDisk
• 5). Exif Untrasher

4. How can I recover deleted files without software on Mac for free?

There are two ways for you to recover deleted files on Mac for free without using data recovery software.

• One way is to undelete files from your Mac Trash bin.

When you mistakenly delete files on your Mac computer to the trash and don't empty the trash, you can undelete them from your Trash for free.

• The other way to try is to recover deleted files from your Mac Time Machine backup. 

Congratulations if you habitually back up files on a Mac computer using the Time Machine. Luckily, when you delete some of them, you can bring them back immediately from your Time Machine backup. You can follow Recover Files from Time Machine Backup for a detailed guide.