Recover Mac Deleted Files from the Emptied Trash Bin

It is horrible when we delete a file that we didn’t mean to, or when we realize that the file we trashed last time is the one we need for an important piece of work. What's worse, there’s no undelete feature. Is it possible to undelete Mac files? How to recover them?

When You Unintentionally Delete Files

The good news is that deleted files (even not in the Trash anymore) are completely recoverable, as long as the deleted folders have not been overwritten by new data on your Mac. The most typical situations of deleting files/folders on a computer are showcased in the list.

• Directly dragging files to the Trash and restarting the computer.
• Regularly emptying the Trash to remove deleted files for good.
• Permanently deleting files by using "Option + Command + Delete".
• Deleting files by clicking on the "Finder" menu and selecting "Empty Trash...".
• Bypassing Trash to delete files by clicking "Delete Immediately" from the File menu. (On new macOS)

This infographic below depicts how people lose data on Mac or other devices. This emphasizes the need for data recovery software to protect yourself in the case of unforeseen data loss.  

Why You Can Recover Deleted Files

Whenever you delete a file, you only remove the entry and not the file itself. First, the space of this deleted file will be marked as "available" for writing new data. The data for the file remains on the hard drive until its space is used for another file. This is the key point that you can apply Mac data recovery software to scan your files that exist on the hard drive, but not in the file directory. 

Recover your deleted data as soon as possible because it becomes increasingly likely that the file will be overwritten as you continue to save new files on your drive.

The Best Way to Recover Deleted Files

EaseUS's Mac data recovery software is such a useful tool that can recover deleted files from an emptied trash bin, a formatted hard disk, a crashed operating system and even a virus-infected Apple computer. With the help of it, you can easily recover almost all file types from your lost Mac folder, including photos, audio files, videos, document files, archive files and more.

STAGE 1. Install EaseUS Data Recovery Software for Mac

This is a quick download button for the trial version:

• File size: around 30 MB
• Estimated time: 2 minutes

The trial version is for you to download for free. It works till the last step when it found all deleted files. The "Recover" button appears grey if it's not activated to a full version using a license key.

Alternatively, if you only need to recover a few files, it would be better to try the free version. This version allows you to recover files so long as the total amount of data is under 2GB. 

STAGE 2. Scan -> Recover

Step 1. Select the location where your important data & files were deleted and click the "Scan" button.

Step 2. The software will run both quick scan and deep scan and work hard to find as many deleted files as possible on the selected volume.

Step 3. The scan results will be displayed in the left pane. Just select the file(s) and click the "Recover Now" button to get them back.

STAGE 3. Set up Guaranteed Recovery to Prevent Future Data Loss

When you successfully recover the emptied trash on Mac, you will want to prevent it from happening again. The best choice is to use EaseUS's Data Protection feature. Data Protection keeps a detailed record of protected files when they are deleted for later recovery. If you want to get the files back, simply check the protected files section in the interface, choose from the list, and recover. Through this way, you always have a copy even after you emptied the trash. You will never have to worry about recovering deleted files from your Trash again.

STAGE 4. Sharing Is Caring. Help More People in Need of Getting Deleted Files Back

That's just how easy it can be to undelete files and folders from an emptied Trash. As a matter of fact, this all-in-one solution for Mac deleted recovery comes in handy any time you lose important data on an internal hard drive, a USB flash drive, a memory card, a pen drive... Why not share your happy moment in regaining the deleted files with others experiencing similar situations?