For gamers, losing their gaming data can be more frustrating than losing a game itself, especially if it was a hard-earned game progress. If you are in a similar situation, the first thing to do is stop using the SD card immediately to avoid overwriting data.
In this technical guide, we'll discuss the simple steps to recover deleted data from your SD card on a Mac device and ensure that you can get back all your games and gaming data from an SD card. Remember! Any changes or modifications you make to the SD card now can reduce the recovery chances, so read this guide before you take any steps.
Ways to Recover Your Lost files from an SD card on a Mac
You probably thought you already had a backup or were in a hurry when you deleted your essential files from the SD card. The reason could be anything. However, the recovery of these files will depend on how you deleted them.
Whether you deleted the SD card files from your gaming device or DSLR camera or cleaned your SD card storage with the help of your Mac system, the below-provided methods will help you find your lost or deleted SD card files.
1- Use Mac Data Recovery Software:
Mac data recovery software can help you recover lost or deleted SD card files with the help of a Mac computer. But when can you use this tool to recover your lost files? If you deleted the file from the SD card using a gaming device, DSLR Camera, or the Mac system itself, data recovery software can extract and recover deleted files from the SD card.
All you need is a good tool to scan the SD card for deleted files. One such option is Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, which can scan both your Mac device and your SD card for lost or deleted files and recover them.
- Go to the Stellar website and download the Stellar Data Recovery for Mac application.
- Install the application on your Mac device and run the software.
- Launch the application by double-clicking its icon and select the files you want to recover from your SD card. This tool supports all file formats.
- Connect your SD card to the Mac Computer and ensure it is properly detected.
- From the menu, click on the Recover From menu, and choose the SD card or volume from which you want to recover data, and then click Next.
- Turn on the Deep Scan feature to thoroughly search for deleted files.
- Click on Scan to start recovering the files. The tool allows you to stop and resume the scan at any time.
- Once the scan is complete, you can preview the recoverable files.
- Select the SD card files you want to recover and click on Recover.
- Choose a location on your Mac to save these recovered files.
This is one of the easiest ways to recover lost SD card files on a Mac system. However, if you are looking for manual methods to recover your files from an SD card, check the methods provided below.
However, if your SD card only contains photos and videos, you can also use a Mac photo recovery software instead of data recovery software to scan for lost and deleted photos from the SD card and then recover them.
2- Recover from Trash
If you deleted files from your SD card when it was connected to your Mac, they might still be in your Trash. However, you may not find it on your Mac trash because macOS creates a separate Trash folder for each external drive, including SD cards.
This means that when you delete files from an external drive, they are not removed from the SD card directly (as in the case when the files are deleted when connected to a gaming device, DSLR camera, or any other device) instead; they are moved to a hidden folder called “Trash” located on that drive.
This Trash folder only shows up when the SD card is connected to the same Mac computer from which the files were deleted.
- Connect your SD card to your Mac.
- Click on the Trash icon on your Mac device.
- Browse the Trash folder properly to look for the files deleted from your SD card; they will now be visible in the Trash folder.
- Click on the file you want to recover and select Put Back to restore it directly to your SD card.
This method will not be helpful if you delete your SD card files when it’s connected to a smartphone, DSLR, or any other device.
3- Recover from Time Machine
If you deleted the SD card files when it was connected to a Mac, you can recover deleted files from Time Machine. However, this will work only if you have been using Time Machine to back up your files regularly. Follow the steps to recover lost files from Time Machine backup.
- Connect the SD Card to your Mac system.
- Now, launch the Time Machine app.
- Go back to a date when the files were still on the SD card.
- Find the deleted files in the folder and click restore to save them back.
So, if your SD card has been backed up when the files were in it, you can try recovering them by following the above steps.
However, remember that external storage devices aren’t backed up by default to Time Machine. You have to manually include your SD card in the backup by first adding it to the exclusion list, and removing it again.
Tips for Successful Recovery of Data From SD Card:
- Start data recovery ASAP - For the best chances of recovery, and a higher recovery rate, you are advised not to delay the process as this can also lead to overwriting data in your SD Card. If any data is overwritten, it will not only reduce the chance of recovery but can also make it impossible.
- Create an image of the SD card - If your SD card is corrupted or shows signs of corruption, you can create an image(copy) of it using software like Stellar Data Recovery for Mac. This will ensure you have a backup of the data or games. Hence, reducing the risks of data loss from further damage to the SD card.
- Don’t recover to the same SD card - After recovery, save the recovered files in a different storage media. Avoid using the same SD card to save your deleted data from which you're recovering as to prevent accidental overwriting of the data. Sometimes, you might need to re-scan your SD card to recover all the files.
Conclusion:
If you are looking to recover deleted or lost files from your SD card on a Mac, then try to act quickly and avoid using the SD card to prevent overwriting any lost data. Each method described above has advantages and use cases so make sure you approach the correct one.
If you buy something from a Amazon affiliate link, Wccftech may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
About the author: Staff writer at Wccftech. Love F1, PC hardware and AI/ML. Covering the hardware and general technology beats with a dribble of software.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
