How to Recover Deleted/Lost Files from SD Card on Mac [Detailed Steps]

Because of their large storage capacity, quick read-write speed, small size, light weight, mobility, and other advantages, SD cards, also known as non-volatile flash memory cards, are widely used in digital cameras, camcorders, GoPro, DSLR, mobile phones, car navigation systems, and other devices. On SD cards, you can store documents, pictures, and videos.

You can attach the SD card to Mac via the SD card port or an SD card reader if you wish to transfer files between Mac and the SD card. Some people unintentionally discovered that their videos or photographs were missing from the SD card.

If you discover that some of the files on the SD card are missing, you must cease using the SD card right away to prevent additional data loss. Then, use the instructions below to recover your files from your SD card on a Mac.

Possible reasons for the loss of data on an SD card

Your SD card could lose data for a variety of causes, but the most frequent one is a manual error. You can accidentally remove images from the SD card or format the SD card in a way that erases everything on it.

In addition, your SD card may lose data due to other external factors like malware and virus infestation, file system malfunction, and physical damage. Additionally, physical damage-related data loss on storage media is typically difficult to restore.

Several Ways You Can Try to Recover Files from SD Card on Mac

Depending on your situation, you can try the solutions below to recover the deleted/lost files, photographs, or movies on the SD card on your Mac with or without data recovery software.

1) Recover deleted SD card files on a Mac

Regardless of whether you deleted these copies on Mac or not, they were moved to the Trash if you had previously copied these objects from the SD card to your computer. Only if you haven't yet emptied the Trash can you go back and undo the deletions to get them back.

1. Click the Trash can next to the Dock's far right.

2. Locate the deleted files on the SD card that you want to recover.

3. Select the desired objects, then control-click “Put Back” from the menu.

4. Move the Mac's recovered files to your SD card.

2) Recover deleted SD card data using a backup

By frequently backing up your key files to storage media like SD cards, HDDs, SSDs, USB flash drives, and other devices, you can recover files if you experience accidental data loss. The linked SD card is immediately backed up if Time Machine is enabled, allowing you to locate lost files using the available Time Machine backup. This is how:

1. Connect the Time Machine backup drive, such as a USB flash drive or Thunderbolt drive, to your Mac (enter your password when required.)

2. Open a window of the folder where your SD card file was stored previously (this step is optional).

3. Click the Time Machine icon at the menu bar -> select Enter Time Machine -> scroll over (or use the Up/Down arrows) to find the file you wish to recover.

4. Select the target item and press Space Bar to preview it, if that is the file you need, hit the Restore button.

You can recover lost SD card files if you have made a full backup of the SD card using another method, such as iCloud Drive, other cloud services, or third-party backup tools.

3) Use SD card recovery software to retrieve files

Employing SD card recovery software is your final resort if you can't locate deleted or lost SD card files in the Mac Trash and there isn't a backup of the SD card. Before the data is wiped, it may be possible to do an SD card recovery on a Mac.

These SD card recovery tools can look through all missing and deleted files on the storage media and return them to you. These SD card recovery programs can search through as many lost and deleted files as they can find on the storage medium for you to retrieve. With a high recovery rate, quick recovery time, and risk-free environment, iBoysoft Data Recovery stands out among competing competitors.

Steps for using iBoysoft Data Recovery on a Mac to recover files from an SD card:

1. On your Mac computer, download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery.

2. Use your Mac's SD card slot, an SD card adapter, or the external drive reader to connect your SD card to the computer; you can also directly connect a device with an SD card incorporated, such as a digital camera.

3. Run the Mac version of iBoysoft Data Recovery. All other partitions and the attached SD card are immediately detected and listed in the main interface.

4. Click the Scan option to look for lost data on the SD card after selecting the SD card where you destroy or lose essential files.

5. You can sort the list of files by type and path, pick the ones you wish to recover, then click the “Preview” button to see what they look like.

6. To save the recoverable files to a new location, select them and click “Recover”. Verify that all of the files you desired to recover have been recovered, then close iBoysoft Data Recovery and eject the SD card from your Mac.

The expert SD card recovery program iBoysoft Data Recovery can retrieve nearly any type of content from an SD card, including images, documents, videos, movies, archives, and other types of files. You can utilize iBoysoft Data Recovery to recover your files if your SD card becomes formatted, unreadable, corrupted, or otherwise inaccessible and you have lost files on it.

Additionally, this potent tool supports over 1000 file formats, works with other disk-based storage devices like HDD, SSD, and USB flash drives, and is seamlessly compatible with Mac OS X 10.9 and higher versions.

No data recovery program would be able to recover files from an SD card if the SD card was physically damaged and contained the contents you wanted to retrieve. If you find yourself in such dire straits, you ought to bring it to a nearby repair shop for more assistance. Data recovery professionals will try to image the SD card's problematic sectors and extract recoverable data for you.