Hey, folks!
I did something dumb — I emptied the Trash on my Mac and then immediately realized I nuked a folder full of work stuff. I haven't saved or downloaded anything since, but I'm kinda panicking now. Has anyone actually managed to recover deleted files after emptying the Trash on macOS? I'm not looking for miracles, just wondering if there’s any chance before I give up.
iPhone 16 Pro
I have recovered some of my images quite while a ago. and i think you still have a shot, but timing’s everything. When you empty the Trash on macOS, the files aren’t instantly erased, their space is just marked as “available.”
And like others have mentioned stop using your for Write purposes basically don’t use your Mac until you try recovery, or the system could overwrite that data.
You can use a tools like Stellar Data Recovery for Mac or Disk Drill, run a deep scan on your drive, and see what shows up. Skip installing the recovery app on the same disk, use an external one. If you act fast, there’s a good chance you’ll get your files back.
I have recovered some of my images quite while a ago. and i think you still have a shot, but timing’s everything. When you empty the Trash on macOS, the files aren’t instantly erased, their space is just marked as “available.”
And like others have mentioned stop using your for Write purposes basically don’t use your Mac until you try recovery, or the system could overwrite that data.
You can use a tools like Stellar Data Recovery for Mac or Disk Drill, run a deep scan on your drive, and see what shows up. Skip installing the recovery app on the same disk, use an external one. If you act fast, there’s a good chance you’ll get your files back.
This is a stressful situation, but stop using the Mac immediately to maximize your chances of recovery. When you delete a file and empty the Trash on mac, the space it occupied on the drive is marked as "available," but the actual data remains until it is overwritten by new data.
IMMEDIATE ACTION - Stop Using the Mac
Any activity—browsing the web, saving new files, even system updates—can write new data to the drive, potentially overwriting the "deleted" files you want to recover.
After that, try to restore deleted files on mac from time machine or icloud backup. You can still recover deleted files after emptying trash on mac if you have an active backup at hand.
Since you haven't saved or downloaded anything since emptying the Trash, you have a very good chance of recovery. Here's what to do immediately, in order of priority:
Stop Using Your Mac Now
If the data is critical, professional services can recover data from the physical drive. This is expensive ($300-$2000+). There are some steps of recovering deleted files after emptying the trash Mac:
@Servant of Cats is correct.
Also, to prevent accidental data loss like this in the future, you should immediately start backing up your computer. Apple makes it very easy by including Time Machine with macOS, but you can also use third party backup software as well depending on your needs.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support
FYI, there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes. 99% of the time there will be no way to recover those files without a backup made prior to the files being inaccessible.
Note that if the files were on a SSD, the chances of recovering them are probably going to be lower than if they were on a mechanical hard drive.
This is due to the way that SSDs handle free space management (for wear leveling and performance reasons).
Can you recover deleted files after emptying the trash Mac?
