Many of us may encounter the situation of accidentally deleting important files. Usually, you can easily get them back in Trash on Mac. However, if you have the habit of emptying your Trash right away, it will become difficult for you to get trash back from Mac.

Fortunately, it's not completely hopeless. Your data will not be cleared permanently from your computer right away when you perform the empty operation. As long as you take the right measures, you can still recover them in Trash on Mac. Therefore, this post is here to show you how to recover trash data on Mac in 6 ways.

Part 1: [First Try] Undo Your Operation of Deleting Files on Mac

The earlier you realize that you have mistakenly deleted a file on Mac, the greater the chance of a complete recovery. For Mac, there is a built-in Undo feature that can help you recover deleted files in Trash immediately with one click.

You can press Command + Z together right after you perform the deletion.

You can also go to the top bar and click Edit, and then choose the first Undo option in the drop-down list to undo empty trash on Mac.

Part 2: [Not Emptied] Get Trash Back from Mac Using the Put Back Feature

If your deleted files are still kept in the Trash feature, the whole recovery process will become easier than ever. You can directly use the Put Back feature to restore the deleted files to their original place with one click, no additional tools required.

Step 1. Open the Trash on your Mac.

Step 2. Find your target file and right-click it.

Step 3. Select the Put Back option.

Part 3: Use Professional Software to Recover Emptied Trash on Mac

If you have already emptied your Trash on Mac, the method above will not work. However, it doesn’t mean your data is lost forever. As soon as there is no new content overwritten, you can still get it back using professional third-party data recovery software. Such tools can scan the disk more deeply and locate the data marked as recyclable. Here, we recommend Apeaksoft Data Recovery.

Step 1. Press the button above to download this Mac data recovery tool for free.

Step 2. Choose your target data type and click Trash at the bottom. Press the Scan button then.

Step 3. You will see all the deleted files on the following interface. You can input the file name in the top box and press the Filter button to locate your desired file quickly.

Step 4. If there is no desired file, you can press the Deep Scan button in the top right corner to have a deep scan.

Step 5. Preview the file. Then, check them and press the Recover button in the bottom right corner to restore Trash on Mac.

Part 4: [Without Software] Recover Trash on Mac from iCloud Backup

How to recover emptied trash on Mac without software? If you have enabled iCloud backup on your Mac, you can get backed emptied Trash on Mac using iCloud.

Step 1. Sign in to your iCloud account in the browser on your Mac.

Step 2. Click your profile in the top-right corner and select iCloud Settings.

Step 3. Choose Restore Files.

Step 4. Find your deleted files and click Restore Files to restore them on your Mac.

Part 5: How to Recover the Trash Bin on a Mac Using Time Machine

If you’ve enabled the Time Machine on your Mac, then restoring deleted files becomes much simpler. You can retrieve items from trash on Mac by backtracking the Time Machine backup, even if the trash has been emptied.

Step 1. Click System Preferences at the dock and launch Time Machine.

You can also directly open it at the top-right corner of your Mac’s main interface.

Step 2. Go through your backup by adjusting the timeline on the right side.

Step 3. Preview your files and then press the Restore button.

Part 6: How to Restore from Trash Bin on Mac in Terminal

For users who are familiar with the command line, Terminal can also help you recover files from the Trash on a Mac.

Step 1. Go to Finder - Applications - Utilities - Terminal.

Step 2. Enter cd .Trash and ls -al ~/.Trash, then you will see the content in the Trash.

Step 3. Type mv ~/.Trash/[filename] ~/Desktop/ and press the Return key. The deleted files will be restored to their original place on Mac.

Related Articles