Looking for free data recovery for Mac (M2 chip) — any suggestions?

Content that is deleted on an SSD (internal drive in Apple Silicon Macs) is gone for good with no recovery possible owing to the behavior of SSDs. The UNIX operating system has marked the deleted storage for reallocation and will not be indecisive in drawing from that pool as new storage requests arrive.

Your only fallback is whether despite not having Time Machine enabled (why?), the deleted content may be on an earlier TM backup.

I personally recommend DMDE, it is free to use and many users have recovered the files successfully with this tool.

In fact, there are quite few reliable free data recovery programs, most of them end up with a price to use the deep scanning. Because data recovery application development requires advanced technical expertise, ongoing maintenance, and compatibility with evolving storage technologies—all of which are costly. Unlike paid software, free programs often lack sustainable revenue models, leading to limited features, restricted recovery capacities, or bundled ads/malware. Additionally, improper recovery attempts can permanently destroy lost data, discouraging developers from offering powerful free solutions without liability risks.

But if you just want to have a try and know that file recovery is a matter of luck, here are the free options:

• DMDE
• TEST DISK
• PHOTOREC

If they fail, try the big names in file recovery: Disk Drill, R-Studio, Cisdem.

If you deleted these files from the internal SSD and emptied the Trash, then those files are gone due to how SSDs work unless you have other copies of those files stored elsewhere.

If these files were deleted from a Hard Drive, then data recovery software may be able to recover them as long as they have not been overwritten. However, once the Trash has been emptied, those deleted items are likely to lose the path & file name information for the files....meaning you may have to sift through thousands of files to try to figure out exactly which file the data belongs.

Most data recovery software will allow you to scan the drive to see what items it can locate. Some may even allow you to recover several files to prove the software can bring them back, but to recover more of those files requires purchasing the software. As for PhotoRec and TestDisk, the last time I checked several years ago, they still did not support recovering data from APFS volumes. As another user mentioned....these two apps are not easy to use although they do work on supported file systems.

Actually, you may want to check to see whether you have any APFS backup snapshots on your data volume. Here is an Apple article for checking if any APFS snapshots exist....only snapshots on the "Data" volume will contain files from your home user folder. If there are APFS snapshots for the Data volume, then you can have Disk Utility mount that APFS snapshot so you can navigate that snapshot using the Finder. The mounted snapshot will be located in the "/Volumes" folder....Disk Utility can tell you the name of the mounted snapshot, or it may appear on the Finder's Sidebar.

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Could that data be stored in the cloud somewhere or on some other external media?

If your data is important, then you need to start a backup regimen of some sort. The easiest is to use the Time Machine backup app provided by macOS, or you can choose a third party option. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all the hardware, software, and security changes......so have frequent & regular backups if your data is important to you. The more important the data, the more backup copies you should have.

What is the best free data recovery for mac M2 tool?TestDisk is an open-source data recovery software, and PhotoRec (which comes bundled with TestDisk) specializes in recovering various file formats from different types of storage devices.

Features:

• Powerful recovery capabilities.
• Can recover a wide range of file types.
• Command-line interface, which can be tricky for some users but very effective.

Usage: Use the command line or a terminal window to run PhotoRac. It may not have the prettiest interface, but it’s reliable for recovery.

Tips for Success

The sooner you stop using your now-inaccessible drive, the better your chances of recovery. Writing new data can overwrite the deleted files, making recovery difficult or impossible. Sometimes, a drive may fail, and trying to recover data can exacerbate issues. If your drive is making unusual noises, consider seeking professional data recovery for mac M2 tool.

I have encountered this situation before. I imported thousands of photos from iPhone to Windows 11, but they were all in .heic format. The system could not open them by default. After installing the HEIF extension from Microsoft Store, it was still stuck and crashed frequently. Later, I simply used a command line tool, and the effect was surprisingly good!

I recommend you try the combination of ImageMagick + FastStone Viewer:

1. First install ImageMagick (supports Windows and Mac). It can batch read and convert HEIC image formats through the command line, which is very fast.

2. Then use FastStone Image Viewer. Although it does not natively support HEIC, you can use ImageMagick to convert to temporary JPG before browsing, or preview directly after installing the decoding library.

Here is a simple example of command line usage (for batch conversion of temporary preview images):

bash
magick mogrify -format jpg *.heic

This is much more convenient than converting manually one by one, and the interface is clean and not stuck. Although it is not a traditional heic viewer for PC Windows 11, I think this combination is more stable and practical than many so-called heic viewer for PC Windows 11. And ImageMagick can also be used on Mac, which is very flexible. If you don't want to install a bunch of bloated programs, this method is really worth a try!

In short, using the command line with FastStone is much better than always looking for heic viewer for PC Windows 11~

Data recovery software is not always the first choices when some of the files got deleted by accident. For Mac users, please connect the Time Machine backup drive and check if the deleted files are available from Time Machine backup.

The next step is to check the space from iCloud or other cloud storage services. These are two most straightforward methods to recover deleted files without any data recovery software on Mac. If the files are in backup, then it is fully recoverable. The free data recovery software for Mac is not 100% trustworthy.

P.S. Don't copy or move files to Mac before the files were successfully recovered.

Free data recovery software for Mac (M1/M2/M3):

PhotoRec is a powerful, open-source data recovery tool that focuses on recovering lost files, including documents, photos, and videos. It doesn’t have a user-friendly interface but is highly effective.

TestDisk is another open-source tool that focuses on recovering lost partitions and repairing boot sectors. It’s a great option if your data loss is due to partition issues.

Onyx is a macOS maintenance tool that includes some data recovery features. It’s more focused on system maintenance but can help in certain recovery scenarios.

Important Notes:

​Free Version Limitations: Most free tools only allow you to scan for lost files, and you’ll need to purchase a license to recover them.

​

Backup First: Always back up your data regularly to avoid permanent loss.

​

File System Compatibility: Ensure the tool supports APFS (Apple File System), which is used on Macs with M1 and M2 chips.

If your data is critical, consider using a paid tool for better success rates and more advanced recovery options.

To be honest, if the deleted folder is really important, I’d strongly recommend you stop using your Mac immediately and consult a professional data recovery service.

Here’s why:

When you delete files on an SSD, macOS often sends a TRIM command. TRIM tells the SSD which data blocks are no longer in use, so it can wipe them in advance to speed up future writes. Unlike traditional HDDs — where deleted files are just marked as free space but not physically erased — SSDs may immediately erase those blocks. That makes recovery much harder, and sometimes even impossible, depending on how the drive handled the TRIM.

If the data isn’t mission-critical, you could try DIY software tools like 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery, Disk Drill, DMDE, Stellar and Data Rescue. Success rates can vary between tools. Some tools are better at recovering specific file types like RAW, JPEG, or MOV, while others are more effective with documents or archive files.

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