Sd Recovery Free Mac

  1. Sd Recovery Free Mac Computers
  2. Sd Card Recovery Mac

Recover SD Card File

A SD card is a flash memory card widely used by digital cameras and mobile phones to store and transfer important files. Though it brings us convenience, it also has risk in losing data under many situations.

To solve SD card data loss issues fast and easily, here we select 7 pieces of best SD card recovery software (including free ones) to help you recover files from SD card, or mini SD card, micro SD card, SDHC, SDXC, etc.

We Always Lost SD Card Data Like This…

We may use SD Card for the same purpose, but the reasons to lose SD card data always vary. Anyone running into the problem of “lost SD card data” intends to seek solutions online, and according to the messages or posts we collected from related platforms, the reasons causing lost SD card data are basically categorized into 4 types:

  • Unintential Deletion: Nearly half of our users lost SD card data by accidentally deleting a document, even a file folder. This often happens when we rush through the filing work, or we thought we have a backup, but in fact we didn’t.
  • Accidental Formatting: It often happens when we choose the wrong drive to format, or we are required to initialize the drive when our computer cannot recognize the drive properly.
  • Virus Infection: This can be easily suffered especially when you need to use some free programs or built-ins on Windows PC.
  • Physical Damage: Direct damages to SD Card can also get your data lost, such as immersion in water, exposure to dust, dropping from the high, electrical surges, etc.

5 SD Card Recovery Software for Mac Cisdem Data Recovery. Cisdem Data Recovery is one of the top best SD card recovery software for Mac that will help you to recover deleted, lost, formatted or inaccessible files from your memory card including SD, XD, CF, MMC, SDHC, SDXD, micro SD, mini SD, and memory stick. First, Get the Best SD Card Recovery Software (Free Trial, Mac) Cisdem Data Recovery is picked and proved to be the best SD card recovery software by a great part of mac users. It is designed to recover deleted, formatted or corrupted data from SD card and other storage devices (hard drive, USB drive, SSD, MP3 player, iPod, etc.). Stellar Data Recovery provides stress-free data recovery that gets your valuable files back. It fully supports recovery from SD and memory cards, as well as hard drives, USB drives, and other disk-based storage media. The tool recovers all major file formats and file systems associated with your Mac.

And as for my own part, I once accidentally deleted my graduation photos saved on my SD Card, though I managed to get some group photos back from my classmates, I still lost a lot of great memories. But today, if I encounter the same problem, this won’t bother me at all.

Now, You are Ready to Recover Your SD Card Data

Yes, of course, we are all recommended to try different tricks and tips to rescue the lost data on SD card, but still, we are much likely to get nothing back. Why? Because a trick only works under a fixed situation. To recover SD Card data, the easiest and best solution is using the best SD card recovery software.

First, Get the Best SD Card Recovery Software (Free Trial, Mac)

Cisdem Data Recovery is picked and proved to be the best SD card recovery software by a great part of mac users. It is designed to recover deleted, formatted or corrupted data from SD card and other storage devices (hard drive, USB drive, SSD, MP3 player, iPod, etc.)

Key Features

  • Recover virtually all data: photos, videos, music, documents, email, archive, etc.
  • Work on different storage device: internal & external drive, memory card, music & video player, etc.
  • 5 scan modes available: Basic Data Recovery, Trash Recovery, External Drive Recovery, Formatted Drive Recovery and Advanced Data Recovery
  • Built-in file filter: specify a file type for targeted scanning
  • Preview files before recovery
  • Recover files in original quality
  • Batch recover
  • Estimated scanning time will be displayed
  • User-friendly interface

Where It Excels

Quicker---Cisdem Data Recovery applies the most advanced technology to accelerate the scanning and recovery process, it takes much shorter time even when dealing with several TBs data. In addition, its “Basic Data Recovery” mode helps users to greatly reduce the time to recover files, it works perfectly when you want to rescue SD card data that lost recently. Under the “Basic Data Recovery”, I successfully recovered dozens of photos from my 32GB SDHC card just within 5 seconds.

Sd Recovery Free Mac

Smarter---You must have known the file type before you decided to recover it, right? Apparently, Cisdem Data Recovery has also noticed this. Different from other SD card data recovery software guiding you to recover all types of data, Cisdem Data Recovery enables users to specify a file type to scan and recover smartly. This smart option can be activated under the “Advanced Data Recovery” mode, there are 4 major file groups: media, document, archive and universal. Under each major group, you can select a or several file types to scan and recover.

Easier---Unlike other SD data recovery software with a bloated interface, the Cisdem’s is quite neat and intuitive. There are no any needless icons or menus clustered on the interface, what you see are what you get, no learning curving is required.

Various SD Card Support---Not limited to SD Card, Cisdem Data Recovery supports to work on nearly all types of SD Card that used for different devices.

  • SD Card: SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • miniSD Card: miniSD, miniSDHC
  • microSD Card: micro SD, microSDHC, microSDXC

Where It Fall Shorts

Though Cisdem Data Recovery works efficiently on Mac, the Windows version is not available currently, we even cannot get any news from its official website about its plan for the Windows version.

Also, for those Mac users stick to MacOS earlier than 10.9, this best data recovery software won’t work any more, users have to update to MacOS 10.9 and later.

Recover Your SD Card Data Now!

Step 1. Choose a scan mode.

After you have downloaded and installed Cisdem Data Recovery, run it on your mac, then choose either “Basic Data Recovery” or “Advanced Data Recovery”. “Basic Data Recovery” is recommended if you want to fast recover some data that lost recently.

Step 2. Select the SD Card you want to scan and recover, then click “Scan” to start the scanning.

Step 3. Recover lost SD Card data.

Once the scanning finishes, all the found files will be listed in the left column. Click the found files and preview them to make sure if you want them back or not. Once ready, click “Recover” to get your lost SD card data back.

Other 6 SD Card Recovery Software for Everyone (Free and Paid)

There are two things that you should keep in mind before you try the recommended SD card recovery software. First, don’t add any new files to the SD card where you lost files. Second, don’t install the SD card data recovery to the device where you want to recover files. Now, get the suitable SD card recovery software to recover files from SD cards.

Recuva (Free and $19.95, Windows, Top pick for SD card deleted file recovery)

Recuva is a piece of free SD card recovery software for Windows, developed by Piriform. It is able to recover files that have been “permanently” deleted from SD card, USB drive, hard drive, MP4 player, digital camera, etc. Recuva has an Advanced Data Recovery mode that scans your SD card to find any files you have deleted. And it also offers military-standard deletion techniques to make sure your files securely erased.

PROS

  • It is free for you to recover deleted files.
  • It is very easy to use.

CONS

  • When installing, it adds other extensions or apps that you may not need.
  • Scans can be slow, especially Advanced Data Recovery.

Disk Drill (Mac, Windows, Free and $89, Good Choice for Android Data Recovery)

Disk Drill is not only about SD card data recovery, it also can recover files from other storage devices like internal hard drive, external hard drive, memory card, USB drive, etc. It's also packed with useful disk tools like Mac cleanup, data backup, disk health monitor. More importantly, it can recover your lost Android data and iOS device data.

PROS

  • Offer clear introductions when you use new features.

CONS

  • It is time-consuming to scan for lost files.
  • This SD card recovery software is not really free and no lifetime upgrade.

Wise Data Recovery (Free SD card recovery software for Windows)

Wise Data Recovery is one of the best free SD card recovery software to get back deleted photos, documents, videos, emails etc., from any rewriteable media you have including SD card, memory cards, external hard drives, USB sticks and more! It not only scans for lost or deleted files but also analyzes the possibility of recovering them. By the way, multiple languages are also supported.

PROS

  • It shows you recoverability of the files before recovering.
  • It is totally free for you to recover deleted and lost files.

CONS

  • Scans files slowly and may take you much time.

Mac Data Recovery Guru (Free Trial and $99, Mac, Good option for photos and documents recovery)

Mac Data Recovery Guru is another SD card recovery application designed for macOS users to recover deleted files from SD cards and other optical medias like hard disk drives, USB flash drives. Three file recovery modes including deleted file recovery, embedded file recovery and deleted and regular file recovery for you to choose. It also offers built-in preview tool for you to get details of files and three steps to perform SD card recovery on your computer.

PROS

  • A good option for recovering photos and documents.

CONS

  • It doesn’t allow you to select all files in one click and you need to recover files one by one.
  • Free version doesn’t allow you to recover files and sometimes quits unexpectedly.
  • It only recovers an average of 32 percent of video and music files.

Card Recovery (Mac and Windows, Free and $39.95, Excel at JPG image recovery for memory card)

CardRecovery is SD card recovery software specifically designed software for recovering deleted, formatted or lost images, audios and videos. And it supports data recovery from almost all memory card types including SD card, Mini SD, Micro SD, SDHC, CF Card, xD Picture Card, Memory Stick, Flash Drive and more. It supports many kinds of file types and is outstanding in recovering almost 100% JPG images.

PROS

  • Support all kinds of memory card.

CONS

  • The recovery speed is slow.

Do Your Data Recovery (Windows and Mac, Free Trial and $69)

Do Your Data Recovery for Windows or Mac is simple SD card recovery software, which recovers deleted, formatted or inaccessible files from SD cards, computers and storage devices. It supports to recover all types of lost files, such as photos, videos, emails, documents, archives, music etc. It also has Advanced Recovery for you to select when Quick Recovery can’t find the files you want.

PROS

  • Offers seven files types for users to choose before scanning.
  • It is an excellent SD card data recovery for recovering media files.

CONS

  • It can’t recover all lost video and audio files.
  • Sometimes it can’t recognize and display computer hard drives.
  • Free trial version doesn't allow you to recover files.

Frequently Asked Questions about SD Card

Q: My SD card is write-protected, how can I unprotect it?

A: SD card has a lock switch on the one side of it. If the switch is in up position, then the write protection is off. So make sure the lock switch is slid up. Otherwise, you need to slide the switch to the unlock position. If this way still can’t help you fix the issue, follow this article to get more solutions: How to Remove Write Protection on SD Card.

Q: Can I recover raw photos from the corrupted SD card?

A: Yes. If you are a Mac user, you can use Cisdem Data Recovery to recover raw photos from your corrupted SD card. Just open this SD card recovery software and let it scan your SD card, then your photos will be recovered. For Windows user, I will recommend you Recuva.

Q: My SD card is not readable. How to fix?

A: You can follow below tips to fix SD card is unreadable.

  • Try another SD card reader to connect it to your computer. Maybe your SD card reader is outdated, update it first or use another one.
  • Check the USB adapter and try another one. Disconnect and reconnect USB cable.
  • Restart your computer and reconnect your SD card.
  • Test your SD card on another computer. If your SD card doesn’t work in the other PC either, then the SD card is probably faulty, and you’ll need to replace it.

Q: How can I transfer data from my SD card to my computer?

A: Just connect your SD to your computer via card reader. Once the SD card is recognized, you can drag and drop data from it to any other drive. If you want to keep the files on the card, just copy the files and paste them on another location.

Q: What are the differences between SD card and memory card?

A: An SD card is a specific type of memory card. Memory card can be used to describe any kind of memory cards such as:

  • SD - SecureDigital
  • MMC - MultiMediaCard
  • xD – xD-Picture Card
  • CF - Compact Flash
  • MS - Memory Stick

Q: I need to format a SD card, which method should I use?

A: It depends on the tool you use to format. For PC users, the easiest way to format SD card is by right clicking on the SD card and select “Format” from context menu. And then choose formatting options to format. Windows user also can format SD card by using Disk Management or Diskpart Command Line, but these two methods are much more complex.

For Mac users, just open Disk Utility and find the SD card on the left side of the window. Then click the “Erase” tab and click on the Format dropdown menu. Click “Erase” and confirm it.

And you can also format SD card on Android phone or digital camera. To read more: How to Format SD Card on Mac, Windows, Android and Camera

Sd Recovery Free Mac Computers

Sometimes, you may receive an error implying that your SD card won’t format. Follow the guide [Solved] How to Fix SD Card Won’t Format Issue to fix it.

Q: What are the differences among SD, SDXC and SDHC?

A: The main differences among them are their name and storage capacity. SD stands for 'Secure Digital', SDHC stands for 'Secure Digital High Capacity', SDXC stands for 'Secure Digital eXtended Capacity'. SD offers up to 2GB and SDHC cards offers between 4GB to 32GB, while SDXC offers more than 32GB up to 2TB.

There is no difference in the quality, security or speed. The speed only depends on the 'CLASS' of the card mentioned on it. All SD, SDHC and SDXC are available in various CLASS ranging from 2 to 10.

Easy Tips to Protect Your SD Card

Now, you know how to perform SD card recovery on computers by using above recommended SD card recovery software. It is also very important to know how to protect your SD card from data loss again. Here are some tips for protecting SD card and preventing it from losing data.

Dos

  • Use a high-quality SD card and card reader.
  • Turn down the power before you take out the SD card from digital camera or mobile phone.
  • Manage SD card with the help of reliable software.
  • Use antivirus software to scan the SD card regularly.
  • Put it in safe places and protect SD card from exterior damage such as fire, water and so on.
  • Format the card with proper software (rather than OS tools).
  • Backup your data timely on different devices.
  • Stop shooting before the card is full.

Don’ts

  • Forcefully unplug memory card from your computer.
  • Buy the wrong memory card type.
  • Keep using SD card when you see errors.
  • Expose the card to extreme temperatures.

Recover SD Card File

Many people are in the habits of using SD card to store photos, videos and other files. But, some bad situations may lead to file loss in SD card, for example, mistakenly erasing data, SD card broken, SD card locked, etc. Once those situations have occurred, what should we do to recover lost files from SD card?

Fortunately, many app developers provide SD card recovery software for users to solve the issue. So, what is the best SD card recovery software on Mac? Today, we will talk about 5 pieces of SD card recovery software for Mac including the best one. And then we will show you how to perform SD card recovery on Mac.

5 SD Card Recovery Software for Mac

Cisdem Data Recovery

Cisdem Data Recovery is one of the top best SD card recovery software for Mac that will help you to recover deleted, lost, formatted or inaccessible files from your memory card including SD, XD, CF, MMC, SDHC, SDXD, micro SD, mini SD, and memory stick.

Surely, the data storage media it supporting is far more than SD card, also including internal/external hard drives, USB drives, optical media, memory cards, digital cameras, iPods etc. With Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac, you can recover your deleted files fast and efficiently from all kinds of SD cards.

The main features of Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac:

  • Recover data from Mac hard drive, memory card, SD card, USB drive, etc.
  • 5 Recovery Modes: Basic, Trash, Formatted Drive, External Drive, Advanced.
  • Various disk formats are supported.
  • Undelete accidentally deleted, lost or formatted File.
  • Recover photos, documents, videos, audios and archives.
  • Clear output & preview scanning results.
  • Effective, safe, and easy to use.

Advantages:

  1. Excel at recovering photos and documents, preview files before recovery
  2. Recover files with original names.
  3. Can navigate to the recovered files directly.

CardRescue

CardRescue is a piece of remarkable SD card recovery software for Mac OS to recover lost pictures due to deletion, format, or damage in your SD card. It helps you recover your lost photos and movies from SD card, CF card, Memory Stick, xD-Picture card in minutes.

The main features of CardRescue:

  • Recover your lost pictures from SD, CF, xD card, Memory Stick and more.
  • Support common image formats (e.g. JPG, TIF) and most raw image formats (e.g. Nikon NEF, Canon CRW and CR2 and many more).
  • Support video and movie clips files retrieval, which includes AVI, MOV, AVCHD and more.
  • Easy and safe to Use.

Disadvantages:

  1. Only allows you recover files in less than 15 formats.
  2. Only support memory card.

PhotoRec

PhotoRec, as the name implies, it is a piece of top free photo recovery software designed to recover lost pictures or photos from digital camera memory. Although its main feature is photo recovery, it also can recover video, documents and archives from SD cards, hard disks, CD-ROMs. Whatever your storage media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted, PhotoRec will still work.

The main features of PhotoRec:

Recovery
  • Recover lost files from FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4 and HFS+ file system.
  • Work with hard disks, CD-ROMs, memory cards (CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/SD, SDHC, SDXC, SmartMedia, Microdrive, MMC, etc.), USB memory drives, DD raw image, EnCase E01 image, etc.
  • Support various portable media players including iPod, Canon EOS 60D, 300D, 10D, Casio Exilim EX-Z 750, HP PhotoSmart 620, 850, 935, Nikon CoolPix 775, 950, 5700, Olympus C350N, C860L, Mju 400 Digital, Stylus 300, Sony Alpha DSLR, DSC-P9, NEX-6, Pentax K20D, Praktica DCZ-3.4.

Advantages:

  1. Totally free.
  2. Support various portable media players.

Disadvantages:

  1. Difficult to use.
  2. Not compatible with macOS High Sierra.
  3. No preview.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can effectively scan your SD card for lost or deleted photos, videos, audio files and documents. This SD card recovery software for Mac offers three different versions including Pro, Platinum and Technician to fulfill different file recovery requirements. Its interface is straightforward and suitable for novices.

The main features of Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery:

  • Recover Documents, Emails, Videos, Audios and Photos
  • Offer Quick Scan and Deep Scan.
  • Display files in Classic List, File List and Deleted List.
  • Preview found files before performing SD card recovery on Mac.
  • Support kinds of SD card and easy to use.

Advantages:

  1. 5 file recovery modes to scan.
  2. Preview files before recovery.

Disk Drill

Mac

Disk Drill is an all-in-one SD card recovery for Mac users to recover deleted, lost and formatted files. It also allows you to backup data, clean up junk files and find useless duplicates from your SD card, hard drives and other external storage devices. More importantly, it can monitor your disk health and protect data with Recovery Vault or Guaranteed Recovery.

The main features of Disk Drill:

  • Provide two scan modes including Quick Scan and Deep Scan.
  • Recover pictures, videos, audios, documents and other files.
  • Support Mac hard drive, SD card, USB drive, iPod, iOS and Android devices, etc.
  • Automatically save sessions for resuming a scan anytime.
  • Protect Mac data and clean up Mac hard drives.

Advantages:

  1. Can also rebuild file path.
  2. Quick Scan can find files with original names.

Disadvantages:

  1. Can't preview details of files.
  2. Find many files that are not deleted.
  3. Some of the recovered files are corrupted.

Which is the Best SD Card Recovery Software for Mac

Below are basic criteria in selecting best SD card recovery software for Mac that you should know before choosing.

  • Ease of use.
  • 100% Safe.
  • Support all files types
  • Support almost all storage devices
  • High Scan and Recovery Speed
  • Preview files before recovery
  • Compatible with latest macOS

The 5 pieces of SD card recovery software for Mac are all 100% safe to use, but not all of them are compliance with above 7 criteria. Here I made a comparison table of these tools after test, please check below.

SD Card Recovery for Mac

Supported File Types

Supported Devices

Easy of Use

Price

Cisdem Data Recovery

Photos, Videos, Auidos, Documents, Archives, etc

Hard Drives, SD card, memory card, USB drive, iPod, MP4/MP3 player, Digital camera, etc

Free trail and $49.99 for lifetime

Card Rescue

Photos, Videos

Memory card

Free trial and $39.95 for lifetime

PhotoRec

Photos and other files

Hard disk, digital camera,CD-ROMs,USB drive, memory card, iPods, etc

Need expert skills

Open Source

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery

Photos, Videos, Auidos, Documents, Emails

Hard Drives, memory card, USB drive, Digital camera, etc

Free trial and Pro ($99) for lifetime

Disk Drill

Photos, Videos, Auidos, Documents, Archives

Hard Drives, memory card, USB drive, iPod, Digital camera, iOS and Android

A little complex

Free trial, Pro ($89), Enterprise ($399), no free lifetime upgrade.

RecoveryFree mac photo recovery sd card

The above 5 SD card Recovery software all have their own strengths and weakness. Except PhotoRec, other tools are compatible with macOS High Sierra. And PhotoRec also needs expert skills to operate. Card Rescue is function limited and recovers files in a few common formats. Although Disk Drill does well in scan speed, it may find many files that we don’t need or can’t be previewed. And Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery is overpriced.

Take all things into consideration, Cisdem Data Recovery is highly recommended as the most cost effective SD card recovery software for Mac. Despite the low Advanced Data Recovery speed, it is outstanding in recovery result and it has many features like file filter and file recovery modes. No matter how complicated your data loss situation is, Cisdem Data Recovery always helps you get data back. You can try it for free now!

Sd Card Recovery Mac

How to Perform SD Card Data Recovery on Mac

As for how to recover deleted files from SD card on Mac, I will use the best SD card recovery software for Mac - Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac as an example to show users the steps of performing SD card recovery on Mac.

Before you start Mac SD card recovery

  • Stop using the SD card as soon as possible after data loss. The more you work with the SD card, the less chance the data will be recovered.
  • Connect your SD card to your Mac. If there is a SD card slot in your Mac computer, insert the card directly. If not, you can plug in the card to Mac with the aid of a card reader.
  • Free download Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac and launch it. Remember not to install this SD card recovery software on your SD card. Then you can start to perform SD card recovery on Mac.

Choose A Recovery Mode

After you open Cisdem Data Recovery, you will see 5 recovery modes, select one of the modes according to your requirements.

Scan your SD Card for your deleted files

Cisdem Data Recovery will display all of hard drives on your Mac and connected external storage media including your SD card.

Preview SD Card Data before Recovery

After scanning, all of your deleted files in your SD card will be displayed in categories and formats. This SD card recovery software for Mac provides there modes including List, Thumbnail and Preview to let you view lost files. You can expand every file type and click each file to preview detail. This allows you to tell if a file is damaged and decide which one you need to recover.

Recover Files from SD Card on Mac

Then you can choose the files you want to recover. Click “Recover” and select a safe location, then confirm it and you will finish the entire SD card recovery process on Mac. At last, tap “Show in Finder” to find the files and backup them.

Key Points about SD Card Recovery on Mac

  • There are many situations that can cause data loss on SD card, including formatting, improper removal or insertion, mistaken deletion, virus attack, physical damage, switching SD card between different devices, etc.
  • When you delete or lose a file on your Mac, it doesn’t get out of the hard drive permanently and only becomes invisible. Its space is marked as free and waits to be overwritten by new data. That’s why data recovery software works before the files are overwritten and gone for good.
  • Make sure your SD card can be detected by your Mac computer. If not, check if the card slot or card reader is in a good working order. If they are OK and the SD card is still not showing up on Mac, then it may be heavily damaged and no data recovery tool can help you recover data from it.
  • Not all files can be recovered no matter which SD card recovery software for Mac you choose. Before the SD card recovery process, some of your files may have already been corrupted, damaged or even overwritten.
  • 99% of SD card data recovery tools for Mac in the market are not free. Many of them claim to be free, but they are feature limited and only allow you to recover data in limited size.
  • The best method to protect data is frequent backup. Backup your important files to external hard drive, cloud, or other safe places.
  • A piece of SD card recovery for Mac like Cisdem Data Recovery can be used as a precaution to deal with emergency data loss situations. Once you find a file missing, you can use the best SD card recovery software immediately to get it back.