Wondershare Recoverit 14.0.20 — macOS

Recoverit supports over 1,000 file formats — documents, photos, video, audio, archives and more — making it a practical option when something vanishes from your Mac.

Recover files from any storage device

Select a drive, external disk, memory card or USB stick and run a scan. The app looks for deleted or lost data on the device.

Preview files before you restore

Once the scan finishes, browse recoverable items and preview them to confirm they are intact before saving them back to your Mac.

A full workflow: recovering files after emptying the trash

Emptying the Trash by accident is one of the most common ways people lose files on a Mac. Here is how you would use Recoverit to get them back, step by step.

1. Launch Recoverit and look at the main screen, which lists all connected storage devices. Select your internal Mac drive — usually labeled "Macintosh HD" or something similar.
2. Click the start button to begin scanning. The app will search for any files that were recently deleted, including those emptied from the Trash. This first scan is fast; it looks at file system records for traces of deleted data.
3. When the scan finishes, you will see a list of recoverable files. Use the file type filters on the left side to narrow results — if you lost a folder of JPEG photos, click the image category to see only pictures. You can also type a filename in the search box if you remember it.
4. Before recovering anything, preview a few files. Click any file to see if it opens correctly in the preview pane. For images and documents this is usually enough to confirm the file is intact. Videos and audio files also preview, though larger ones may take a moment.
5. Check the boxes next to the files you want and click the recover button. Choose a destination folder — ideally a different drive or an external disk, not the same drive you are recovering from. The app then copies the selected files to that location.

That is the basic workflow. For most accidental deletion cases, this process takes under ten minutes and recovers nearly everything that was in the Trash before you emptied it.

Get familiar with Recoverit's interface before a crisis

If you installed Recoverit but are not in the middle of a crisis, spend a few minutes getting familiar with the interface so you are ready when you need it.

• Open the app and let it scan a small USB drive or a test folder you do not care about. This shows you how the scan progress bar works and how long a typical scan takes on your Mac.
• Try the preview feature on a few test files you deleted intentionally. Practice selecting a single file versus selecting multiple files at once using Command-click or Shift-click.
• Check the language setting in the app preferences. Recoverit supports English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Japanese. If you prefer something other than the system default, change it early.
• Make sure you know where your external drives and memory cards mount. The app lists them by their volume name, so having a clear naming convention for your disks helps avoid confusion during a real recovery.

Predictable problems and how to fix them

Even with a straightforward app like Recoverit, people run into a few predictable problems. Here are the ones I hear about most often.

The app does not launch

Recoverit requires macOS 10.14 or later and is built as an x86 64-bit app. If you are on an older Mac that still runs High Sierra or earlier, it will not open. On a supported Mac, if you get a Gatekeeper warning, mount the disk image and run the Open Gatekeeper friendly step, then press Enter in Terminal to bypass the block. Drag the app to your Applications folder and launch it from there.

The scan finishes but shows no files

This usually means the data was overwritten. If you deleted files and then copied new data to the same drive, the old file space may be gone for good. The same can happen if you formatted a drive and then saved new files onto it. The best way to avoid this is to stop using the drive the moment you realize data is missing.

Recovered files will not open

Previewing before recovery is the best safeguard. If a file shows a valid preview in Recoverit but does not open after you save it, try opening it in a different application. For example, a damaged JPEG might open in a photo editor when Preview.app refuses it. If no application can read it, the file data was partially overwritten and is not recoverable.

The external drive does not appear in Recoverit

Check that the drive mounts in Finder first. If it does not show up there, Recoverit will not see it either. Try a different cable, a different USB port, or connect the drive to another Mac to rule out hardware failure.

Don't save recovered files to the same drive

A few habits can turn a recoverable situation into a lost cause. Knowing them upfront saves time and frustration.

• Saving recovered files to the same drive. This is the most common mistake. When you recover files and save them back to the drive you are recovering from, you risk overwriting the very data you are trying to rescue. Always save to a different drive or a partition.
• Running a deep scan on the wrong device. Recoverit lets you pick any connected storage device. If you accidentally scan your backup drive instead of the internal drive where files were deleted, you waste time and may miss the real target. Double-check the device name before clicking start.
• Ignoring the preview step. Beginners sometimes select all files and hit recover without previewing. This is fine if you only need a handful of documents, but if you are restoring a large batch of photos, you may end up with corrupted files mixed in. Preview the ones that matter most first.
• Waiting too long to start recovery. Every hour you use your Mac after deleting files increases the chance that new data overwrites the old. If you realize something is missing, stop what you are doing, open Recoverit, and scan the relevant drive. Do not wait until the end of the day.

A cleaner interface in the current version

The current version of Recoverit for Mac is 14.0.20.6. If you have used earlier versions, you will notice a few differences in how the app works day to day.

The interface is cleaner than older releases. Earlier versions sometimes buried the device selection behind multiple clicks; version 14 shows all available drives on the main screen as soon as you launch the app. That saves a step when you are in a hurry.

The scanning engine has been updated to handle newer file systems used on modern external drives. If you previously had trouble recovering files from SSDs or USB flash drives formatted with APFS, the current version handles those devices more reliably.

File format support has expanded. While Recoverit has always covered the common document and media types, the current version adds broader support for RAW camera files and newer video containers. That matters if you shoot in RAW format or work with footage from recent cameras.

For anyone coming from a version two or three years old, the biggest practical change is the preview speed. The app now generates thumbnails for images and documents faster during the scan, so you do not have to wait for the full scan to finish before checking if your files are there.

Pick a device, scan, preview, recover. No complicated setup — just the steps you need to get files back.

• macOS 10.14 or later
• Intel-based Mac
• Interface languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Japanese