How to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from Mac [5 Methods]
Last Updated on March 17, 2023 by Ian McEwan
Photographs are memories that people hold on to long after an event has passed. Not surprisingly, it could get frustrating if you found out that one or more of the photos stored on your Mac has been accidentally deleted. While it is easy to retrieve a photo if you have lazily moved to the system trash, it could be a lot painful to get it back if you have deleted it permanently. All is not lost, however, and there are still some tricks you could try to get your precious memories back. A few methods outlined below would help you understand how to recover permanently deleted photos from Mac.
1.Time Machine
No, it is not a science fiction machine that helps you time travel. Rather, it is a built-in tool for your Mac that is so named because using it could help you restore your files to the last backed-up date. This process is useful if you have permanently deleted your photos from mac after the last backup was executed. The steps that will allow you to achieve this feat are as below.
- Select ‘Enter Time Machine‘ from the menu bar shortcut.
- Go to the date that you think is the one before you deleted the photos
- Proceed to your Home drive from ‘Finder‘
- Go to ‘Pictures‘ and look for the photo library file
- Copy the library file and exit the ‘Time Machine‘
- Proceed to your main ‘Pictures‘ folder, and paste the library file
- Right-click the library folder to select ‘Show Package Contents‘
- Open the ‘Masters‘ folder and look through the contents to recover the lost photos
2.Photos App
If you have deleted the photos from your Mac’s ‘Photos‘ App, they will still be available under ‘Recently Deleted‘ for 30 days. Follow the steps below to recover those lost photos using this simple method.
- When you open ‘Photos‘, you would be able to select ‘Recently Deleted‘ from the list of albums.
- Look for and select the photos you have lost.
- Hit ‘Recover‘ on the top right, and smile, you got your cherished memories back.
Useful Tip: If you have photos stored in iCloud, and have accidentally deleted them, you could use the same steps as above to recover the photos, as iCloud provides you with a 30-day grace period as well.
3.iPhoto
Although Apple officially discontinued this app on Macintosh computers back in 2015, if you have an older system you might still be using it. If you have deleted photos from iPhoto, luckily there is a simple recovery process, as mentioned in the steps below.
- Open iPhoto Trash from the iPhoto App (this is different from the main OS trash)
- Select your lost photo and hit ‘Put Back‘
- On the sidebar, click ‘Photos‘ to restore the lost photo to the iPhoto library.
4.iMessage
This is an indirect way to retrieve permanently deleted photos and works only if you have shared the said photos with a person on your list. If you remember the person, open iMessage on your Mac to browse through conversations to look for the photos. If located, copy them back to your Photos library.
5.Photo Recovery Software
If all else fails, or you find the in-built mechanisms to retrieve photos too tedious, you could always invest in a third-party Photo recovery software that does the job for you quickly. Most of these third-party tools scan your entire system for photos and help you identify the permanently deleted ones without much effort on your part. However, they come at a price. Also, be sure to always look for reliable software if you choose to go through this process.
List of the most famous Photos recovery software to help recover permanently deleted photos from Mac.
|
Company |
Photo/Videos Recovery for Mac |
|
Aiseesoft |
DataKit
|
|
Wondershare |
Recoverit
|
|
EaseUs |
Data Recovery Wizard
|
|
Stellar |
Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
|
|
Tenorshare |
4DDiG
|
