Best Mac Photo Recovery tool

Photos may disappear from Mac due to faulty updates, accidental deletion, or data overwriting. You may also lose them when you forget to enable iCloud on Mac. Fortunately, there are various ways to recover lost or deleted photos from Mac: using a backup folder or professional Mac photo recovery software. However, if you don't have a backup folder, you must use reliable photo recovery software to retrieve your lost media files.

Choosing the right Mac photo recovery software from a vast list of available options is not easy. To help you decide, we have compiled a list of Mac's best photo recovery software available today.

10 Best Photo Recovery Software for Mac

Let's look at a list of the ten best Mac photo recovery software available and compare the features.

2. R-Studio for Mac

R-Studio is one of Mac's best photo recovery software to restore lost photos from various Mac devices. It even recovers files from the APFS/HFS+/HFS file system.

Pros:

• Supports recovery from a wide range of storage devices and file systems.
• Runs even on old Macs like Mac OS X Tiger, released in 2005.

Cons:

• Slow recovery process.
• No preview function.
• The tool doesn’t have a pause button.

3. Exif Untrasher

Exif Untrasher is the perfect tool for retrieving lost or deleted photos from Mac. This is one of the best free photo recovery software for Mac that supports recovery from digital cameras, memory cards, SD cards, disk images, and memory sticks.

Pros:

• Used mainly for JPEG recovery.
• Compatible with macOS Catalina and older versions.
• Supports recovery from a formatted memory card.
• No limit on the amount of data recovery.

Cons:

• Doesn't support macOS Big Sur, Monterey, or later versions.
• Doesn’t allow recovery for non-JPEG format images.

4. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is another free photo recovery software for Mac that recovers lost photos from macOS. It is a command-line tool for restoring videos, documents, and other files from corrupted or formatted digital cameras, hard drives, and other storage devices.

Pros:

• Unlimited media file recovery.
• It’s a free app.

Cons:

• Need knowledge of command lines to use Terminal for file recovery.
• There’s no graphical user interface.

5. TestDisk for Mac

TestDisk for Mac is an open-source and command-line-based photo recovery software that can restore lost or deleted photos from Mac devices.

Pros:

• It is a free photo recovery software.
• Supports recovery from the HFS+ file system.
• Compatible with macOS 10.15 –macOS x 10.6.

Cons:

• Doesn’t support M1-powered Macs.

• UI is not user-friendly.
• Requires knowledge of command lines for recovering files.
• Doesn’t support the latest macOS Catalina and newer versions.

6. Wondershare Recoverit

Wondershare Recoverit is a handy Mac photo recovery software that efficiently recovers lost/deleted photos, videos, and other files from macOS Ventura till Yosemite. You can even recover photos from memory cards, hard drives, digital cameras, and other storage devices.

Pros:

• Allows previewing files before recovering them.
• Supports recovery in various data loss situations.

Cons:

• Doesn’t show corrupted media files.
• Limited functionality in the free trial version.
• Doesn’t have the option of save scan and resume recovery later

7. Disk Drill for Mac

Disk Drill for Mac can easily restore lost or deleted photos from Mac devices, be they MacBook Air/Pro, Mac Mini/Pro, etc. It can recover all popular image file types, such as JPEG/JPG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, etc.

Pros:

• Compatible with T2/M1 equipped Macs.
• Supports more than 200 file types.
• Allows you to search for files by name.

Cons:

• Limited RAW files support.
• Recovers only 500 MB of data with a free license.

8. Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery helps recover lost or deleted photos and other media files from HFS/HFS+ formatted hard disks and partitions. You can also use it to rescue documents, apps, and other files from your iPod Classic, USB drives, SD cards, etc.

Pros:

• Unlimited recovery of media files.
• Supports macOS Mavericks to Leopard.

Cons:

• It doesn't support APFS and encrypted APFS file systems.
• Doesn't run on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, and other newer versions.

9. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is a perfect tool to retrieve lost or deleted photos from Mac devices. It also supports recovery from lost/deleted/corrupted partitions or formatted hard drives.

Pros:

• Compatible with macOS Sonoma and later versions.
• Allows previewing files before restoration.
• Allows you to filter the scan results.

Cons:

• Limited features are available with the free version.
• A little expensive.

10. iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac recovers photos and other media files from emptied Trash or directly deleted by pressing the Option + Command + Delete keys. It recovers deleted files in all data loss situations like formatting, accidental deletion, corruption of devices, etc.

Pros:

• Lets you preview the scan result before recovery.
• Supports recovery of images of diverse formats.
• Supports recovery from APFS and HFS+ formatted storage devices.

Cons:

• No way to view files during scanning.
• Previews recovered files of limited file types.
• Takes too long to scan.

Verdict

In this guide, we have listed the best Mac photo recovery software to recover lost images from internal and external Mac storage devices. While numerous Mac Photo Recovery software are available in the market, we recommend Stellar Photo Recovery for Mac. The software has a user-friendly interface, and it effectively recovers lost or deleted photos of JPEG, RAW, HEIC, PNG, and other popular formats.