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How to Recover Deleted Files from Trash on Mac

It might seem impossible to recover files from Trash on Mac. But it's not! We will show you several methods for recovering data from the Trash including the use of data recovery software. With the Disk Drill data recovery app getting your lost data back is a matter of a few clicks and just several minutes. Moreover, it's free to completely scan and find your trashed data, even if your Trash was emptied. macOS Big Sur ready!
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Check out our article Variables That Impact File Recovery Chances to better understand your chances of successfully being able to recover deleted trash on Mac OS X. If you only emptied your trash a short while ago and you did NOT use the “secure empty trash” function, then your chances are good.

Read on for a quick overview of the steps needed to recover Recycle Bin on Mac. For detailed tutorials, see How to Install Disk Drill and How to Recover Lost Files from Your Mac Internal Hard Drive in our Knowledgebase.

1. Download and Install Disk Drill for Mac

If you haven’t already, download and install the completely free Disk Drill Basic. Since you want to recover trash from your Mac’s internal hard drive, it’s better to install it on an external drive (and use Portable Mode). This way you’ll avoid the possibility of overwriting your lost files when you install the software.
  • how to recover trash on mac
    1 Download Disk Drill
  • recover trash mac
    2 Drag to Applications Folder
  • recover emptied trash mac
    3 Launch Disk Drill

2. Scan for Files Deleted from Trash

Launch Disk Drill and if a popup window appears, uncheck all options – you don’t want to install anything extra at this point. When the main window appears, select your hard drive and click “Recover.” This will scan your hard drive and attempt to recover files deleted from trash on Mac OS X.
mac trash recovery

3. Review Found Files

After the scan is complete, Disk Drill will show you the list of files it has found. Sometimes the recovered files do not have their original names preserved, so you can filter your results by date, size and type. Click the “eye” icon to preview the files right in Disk Drill.

Be sure to preview the entire file to make sure it is complete and uncorrupted. There is a good chance you will be able to recover emptied trash on Mac.
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4. Recover the Deleted Trash on Mac OS X

When you find the files you need, check the box next to them and click Recover. Disk Drill will walk you through the file recovery steps.
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5. Set Up Guaranteed Recovery

When you successfully recover the emptied trash on Mac, you will want to prevent it from happening again. The best way to do this is to use Disk Drill’s Guaranteed Recovery feature. Guaranteed Recovery monitors your Mac’s trash folder, and makes an invisible copy of any file you send to the trash.

This way you always have a copy – even after you emptied the trash. Simply install Disk Drill on your Mac’s hard drive and then follow the instructions in How to Use Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery to activate it. After that you will never have to worry about recovering deleted files from your Mac trash again.
how to recover deleted trash on mac

The Reason it is Possible to Recover Emptied Trash on a Mac

Once you have emptied your Mac’s Trash Can your recovery options are limited. The only reliable ways to recover from an emptied Trash Can on a Mac are:
  • With a backup copy of your data

    With a backup copy of your data

    If the data had been backed up before it was removed from the Trash Bin, you could easily recover it from the backup storage media. This is a fairly straightforward method of recovering your lost information. There is no mystery to the fact that you need to have backed up a particular file if you want to recover it from a backup.

  • Using data recovery software

    Using data recovery software

    Using data recovery software or a recovery service are the other methods to recover emptied Trash from your Mac. Both of these recovery methods take advantage of the way that the macOS deletes data. When the operating system deletes a file, it does not physically remove the data from the storage media. It simply eliminates the logical links that make the files and folders accessible by the system and marks the space they occupied as available for future use.

  • Engaging a data recovery service

    Engaging a data recovery service

    Until the space has been overwritten by new data, the original files can be recovered. If the storage device can be accessed by your operating system, data recovery software may be able to perform a Mac Trash recovery. If the device has experienced physical damage, a professional data recovery service may be required to get your data back.

Methods to Recover Trash on a Mac without Software

There are multiple ways to recover deleted items on a Mac without software:

Method 1

How to Recover Files from the Trash on Mac

We will look at the details of using specific methods to recover data from your Mac’s Trash.

How to recover the Trash on Mac:
  1. Open the Trash Can on Mac by clicking on its icon.
  2. Locate the items you wish to recover.
  3. Drag the files out of the Trash to the desktop or another folder.
  4. Alternately, select an item, right-click, and choose Put Back.
how to recover trash on mac
Method 2

Use the Undo command

If you accidentally delete a file or folder, using the undo command immediately can get it back. On your Mac, the Command-z keystroke combination undoes your last command and will undelete your files. This command will NOT undo the emptying of the Trash Can. Once you empty the Trash, you cannot undo the procedure.
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Method 3

Recover with a Time Machine backup

  1. Connect the storage media that contains the Time Machine backup to your Mac.
  2. Open a window displaying the folder which last contained the deleted file.
  3. Open Time Machine by clicking on the clock icon on Mac’s menu bar and select Enter Time Machine.
  4. Locate the items and version you want to restore from within Time Machine.
  5. Select an item to recover and press the Spacebar to preview it.
  6. Click Restore to recover the selected file or folder.
recover emptied trash mac
Method 4

Restore from another type of backup

You may have decided on another backup solution rather than using Mac’s Time Machine feature. If this is the case, you can recover files deleted from the Trash using your backup media by following the steps for your particular backup solution. A good solution is to use Disk Drill to create a byte-level backup of your system which includes deleted files that can be recovered. Here’s how to recover from a Disk Drill backup.
  1. Connect the storage media that holds the backup to your Mac.
  2. Launch Disk Drill.
  3. Select the DMG file created during the backup process from the disk list.
  4. Click the Recover button to start recovering data from the backup media.
mac trash recovery
Method 5

Use a data recovery service

A data recovery service may be able to recover files after the Trash has been emptied. Here’s what to expect if you need to engage a recovery service to get your data back.

  1. Use Google to locate a reputable recovery service. You may find one that is located near you, but you want reliability over convenience in this case. We highly recommend using the CleverFiles Data Recovery Center.
  2. Contact the recovery service to obtain an estimate on the restore and to get instructions on how to ship the device.
  3. Ship the storage device to the recovery center.
  4. Technicians will use a clean room and sophisticated hardware and software tools to recover your data.
  5. The recovered data will be returned after you pay for the center’s services. Reputable recovery centers will not charge you if the procedure is unsuccessful.
recover empty trash mac

What to Do Before Emptying the Trash on Mac

Taking a few simple precautions before emptying your Mac’s Trash can save you a lot of time later. Consider following these practices to minimize the possibility that you empty the Trash along with important files that can no longer be recovered.
  • recover empty trash mac
    Verify the items in the Trash before you empty it
    This is a simple activity that shouldn’t take too much time. Glancing at the sites in the Trash may draw your attention to some items that you did not want to delete. You can easily get them out of the Trash and then go ahead and empty it if that’s your plan.
  • how to recover files deleted from recycle bin mac
    Backup your computer using Time Machine
    It never hurts to take a backup before any activity that can potentially delete data. It might seem like overkill, but why not take a backup before emptying the Trash rather than afterward? You will be able to recover files that were in the Trash at the time of the backup without using recovery software.
  • how to recover deleted trash on mac
    Create a byte-level backup with Disk Drill
    Downloading Disk Drill for free gives you the capability to take a byte-level backup that includes files from an emptied Trash that have not been overwritten. You can use this backup with data recovery software to repair the logical links and make the items accessible to your OS again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated on by Disk Drill Team
The Trash is the Mac equivalent of the Windows Recycle Bin. Follow these steps to recover the Trash on your Mac:
  1. Open the Trash by clicking its icon.
  2. Locate the items you want to recover.
  3. Right-click on the items and choose Put Back to recover your selection.

To recover deleted files from an emptied Mac Trash Bin:

  1. Download, install and launch Disk Drill for Mac. Don’t use the disk or partition that contains the Trash Bin.
  2. Select the disk on your Mac where the Trash Bin is located.
  3. Click the Recover button to start scanning the drive for recoverable data.
  4. Choose the files to retrieve from an empited Trash Bin and click the Recover button.

Here’s how to recover deleted files from the Trash without software:

  1. Connect the storage media with your Time Machine backups to your Mac.
  2. Open a window that contained the deleted data.
  3. Choose Enter Time Machine from the menu bar icon.
  4. Locate the item to be recovered.
  5. Press the Space Bar to preview the file.
  6. Click Restore to recover the item.
Yes and no. When you empty the Trash, the files are permanently logically deleted from your system. The physical data still exists until it is overwritten and can be recovered with data recovery software or a data recovery service.
Follow these steps to get back a file that you have sent to the Trash.
  1. Open the Trash by clicking its icon.
  2. Locate the items you want to recover.
  3. Right-click on the items and select Put Back to recover the file or folder.
The Trash icon is located on the far right of your Mac’s dock.
Deleted files remain in their original location after you empty the Trash. The space they occupied is marked as available for use by the operating system and will eventually be overwritten by new data.
You have several options available to recover photos after emptying the Trash.
  • Use a backup from Time Machine or another solution.
  • Restore your data with data recovery software like Disk Drill.
  • Engage a professional data recovery service to get your data back.

If your Trash Can has disappeared from your Mac’s Dock, you can try this method of recovering it.

  1. Navigate to HD > Users > Your Account > Library > Preferences.
  2. In this folder, locate, and move the com.apple.dock.plist file to the Desktop.
  3. Restart your computer.

If you have not already emptied the Trash Bin you can use the Terminal application to recover deleted files. Use this procedure:

  1. Open the utilities application.
  2. Enter the cd .Trash command.
  3. Type ls to display the files that are in the Trash Bin.
  4. Use the mv "filename" ../ command to move the designated file from the Trash to the current folder.

Follow these steps to restore files from the Trash to their original locations:

  1. Click on the Trash Bin icon to review its contents.
  2. Locate the file or files that you would like to restore.
  3. Right-click on the items to be restored.
  4. Select Put Back from the menu to return the file to its original storage location.

Yes, there is a Trash Bin on your external drive. There is a hidden folder in the root directory of every drive named .Trash. Your system’s Finder settings can be modified to allow you to view the hidden folder. The Trash Bin located on an external drive can be used to restore recently deleted files through the command-line interface.

Disk Drill is an excellent tool for recovery from trash on Mac OS X

Use Deep Scan to be efficient even in the situations when almost no file structure is left. Even if the files were moved to Trash quite some time ago Disk Drill will apply its best knowledge of file signatures to locate the correct ones and bring them back to life. Files like XLS, DOC, AVI, MP4, JPG, and others are pretty easy to recover from emptied Trash on Mac when the needed signatures are found.
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