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Top 15 Best Photo Recovery Software for Windows & Mac in 2022
Photos can bring back memories and remind us of the moments spent with those who are closest to us, which is why losing just a single important picture can feel utterly devastating – almost as if you lost the memory itself. The good news is that most lost or accidentally deleted photos can be recovered using photo recovery software, and we know which applications are the best.
Our complete ranking
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Key features analysis
How to Select Photo Recovery Software?
Different photo recovery software applications offer different features and recovery capabilities. If you choose the best photo recovery software available, you have a good chance of restoring your photos on the first try. This is what you should pay attention to when selecting a photo recovery application:
- Operating system compatibility
There’s no point in downloading the best photo recovery software application if it’s not compatible with your operating system. Remember that just because a photo recovery software application claims that it’s compatible with Windows or macOS doesn’t necessarily mean that the version you use is supported. If you use, for example, Windows 10, make sure the application is actually compatible with Windows 10.
- File format and storage device support
Virtually all photo recovery software applications can restore all common photo file formats, including JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF, from internal and external hard drives, memory cards, and USB flash drives. To restore more exotic file formats, select an application with extensive file format support.
- Ease of use and stability
Most regular users understandably shy away from command-line tools and photo recovery applications with an unintuitive user interface. Even if you don’t count yourself among them, there’s still no reason to use a photo recovery application that makes the recovery process more difficult than it has to be.
- Reputation and user reviews
Any photo recovery software application can promise guaranteed results, but you should trust only applications with excellent reputation and raving user reviews.
- Price
The cost of photo recovery software applications varies greatly. Paid applications typically offer a polished user experience with multiple extra features, whereas free solutions tend to be rather barebones. Many paid photo recovery software applications let you preview files before recovery for free so that you can be certain that your money won’t go to waste.
Top 15 Best Photo Recovery Software
#Let’s see which photo recovery software applications have the best rating.
1. Disk Drill
Top pick
4.30 • Best choice for Windows users – The Windows version of Disk Drill empowers regular users to reliably recover all kinds of lost data with a few simple clicks.
macOS Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 500 MB for free
$89...$598
Disk Drill is a popular photo recovery software application for Windows and macOS. It has been downloaded more than 10 million times by home users and professionals alike, who like its powerful undelete capabilities and one-click approach to recovery, among many other things. With Disk Drill you can recover all popular image file formats, as well as image file formats you’ve probably never heard of.
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Two for one
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Visualization of the scanning process
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Mount results as a virtual disk
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File previews
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Raw photo support
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Phone support
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Linux and Apple file systems
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RAID
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Bootable disks
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Recovery over a network
2. PhotoRec
Open-source software
3.37 • Intimidating but rewarding at the same time – PhotoRec for Windows offers unbeatable value, but you need to overcome a steep learning curve to unlock it.
macOS Windows Linux
Free All features are provided free of charge, and the software can be used, studied, and modified without restriction.
None
Free
PhotoRec is the best free deleted photo recovery software distributed under GNU General Public License (GPLV v2+). Being a command-line application, it can easily scare away less computer-savvy users, who prefer the comfort of a graphical user interface. However, the absence of a GUI is also one of PhotoRec’s biggest strengths, allowing its developers to port it for all popular and not-so-popular operating systems.
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Completely free
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Open source
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Optional graphical user interface
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Does not require installation
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Capable signature scanner
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Interface slows down during scanning
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Window size settings
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Rarely updated
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No auto-update
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Scan automation
3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
3.81 • Popular for its trial recovery capabilities – Easy to use and capable of delivering solid results, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is good at what it does.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 2 GB for free
$69.95...$499
Since 2004, EaseUS has been offering a broad range of software tools intended to help users manage their data. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a complete data restoration solution for Windows computers, featuring support for over 1,000 file formats, including those used to store photos.
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Scan results
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Scan speed
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Free recovery
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Support
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Labeled results
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Pop-up ads
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Inaccurate time estimations
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Limited preview capabilities
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Limited preview size
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Recovery speed
4. Recuva
Popular among Windows users
3.04 • Good for basic data recovery jobs – Despite its age and lack of development, Recuva is still worth taking a look at—if only because it recovers an unlimited amount of data for free.
Windows
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
$0...$34.95
Recuva is a free photo recovery software tool from the developers of CCleaner. It features a similar user interface, so all CCleaner users should feel right at home. Recuva can recover pictures from damaged storage devices, and its advanced deep scan mode is intended to recognize even minute traces of deleted files.
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Completely free
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Chances of recovery
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Two operating modes
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Secure file erase
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Multilingual capabilities
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No Enterprise license
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Scanning/creation of images
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Recovering structure and names
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Recovery odds accuracy
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Updating the list of drives
5. Stellar Data Recovery
Decent recovery results
3.31 • Frequently recommended – Stellar Data Recovery is a good example of data recovery software that doesn’t to anything exceptionally wrong nor exceptionally right.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 1 GB for free
$49.99...$599
Previously known as Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, this software to recover deleted photos recovers deleted photos, videos, and audio files from all storage devices. It supports image file formats used by leading camera manufacturers, such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Kodak, GoPro, and Olympus. Enterprise users apricate its ability to recover lost images and other data from BitLocker encrypted storage drives. You simply select the encrypted drive and enter your BitLocker password.
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Support
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Repair of photos and videos
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S.M.A.R.T
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Preview in safe mode
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Backup creation
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Updates in the free version
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Lost license information
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Slow previews
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Preview limits
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Scanning speed
6. Wondershare Recoverit
3.43 • Can it really recover it? – Wondershare Recoverit comes with an intuitive user interface, but subpar recovery capabilities that struggle to deliver.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 100 MB for free
$59.99...$449.96
This easy to use software offers multiple scanning modes to tackle all kinds of photo loss scenarios. You can initiate a Quick scan to locate recently deleted pictures or run a Deep scan to perform a thorough search of your storage device. Regardless of which mode you select, RecoverIt Photo Recovery will always provide thumbnails for image files, allowing you to preview them with a simple click.
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Modern interface
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Create bootable disks
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Video Repair
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Fast scanning speeds
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Preview images
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False positives for bad sectors on Bitlocker devices
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Scanning Bitlocker-encrypted devices
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Confirming Bitlocker status
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No end time was given
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Resizing of the program
7. Remo Recover
3.01 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Preview only
$69.97...$399.97
With Remo Recover, you can get your photos back in just four steps. First, you select the drive on which the photos were stored before you lost them. Then you start a scan and preview recovered photos. Finally, you save the recovered image files to a different drive. The advanced algorithms that allow Remo Recover to do its magic can retrieve images from corrupted or formatted partitions, inaccessible volumes, and an emptied Recycle Bin.
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Recovers 300 plus file formats
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Supports all commonly used Windows file systems
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Can preview recoverable files
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Scans take a while
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Expensive technician license
8. CardRecovery
1.03 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Preview only
$47.94...$47.94
As its name suggests, the purpose of CardRecovery is to recover images from memory cards used in digital cameras and smartphones. It supports all memory card types and formats, including SD, micro SD, CF, xD, Memory Stick Pro, Duo, Pro-HG, MMC, XQD, Sony XQD, and others. Because CardRecovery is designed to be a read-only software applications, it cannot possibly overwrite lost images and make them unrecoverable.
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Recovery takes just four steps
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Supports multiple image file formats
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100% safe and secure recovery
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Outdated user-interface
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Limited features and capabilities
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Only compatible with Windows
9. Picture Rescue
0.8 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
macOS Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Recover up to 3 files
$49...$49
Picture Rescue has been helping Mac users recover digital images for many years now. Even though its development is no longer as active as it used to be, it still survives a direct comparison with most leading picture undelete software applications that are currently available.
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Recover lost digital pictures after deletion, reformatting, or corruption
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Previews pictures before retrieval
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Can securely delete pictures so they can’t be recovered
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Project abandoned
10. Exif Untrasher
0.99 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
macOS
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
Free
Developed by Carsten Blüm, a Germany-based software developer, Exif Untrasher is a straightforward and lightweight free deleted photo recovery software utility for recovering images in the JPEG file format. Because it does just one thing, it’s exceptionally easy to use and reliable. It really takes just two steps to recover your photos with Exif Untrasher: select the source (such as a memory card or USB flash drive) and specify the destination folder.
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Localized in English, German, French and Italian
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Support for all storage devices recognized by macOS
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Straightforward and lightweight utility
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Not updated anymore
11. Recover My Photos
2.48 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Preview only
$39.95...$249.9
As far as image retrieval software goes, Recover My Photos is fairly unknown, but that’s not a good reason to avoid it. In fact, if you have a very old Windows computer that’s still running Windows 98, ME, or NT, Recover My Photos could be your only option because not many image recovery software applications can be installed on a computer with one of these operating systems and just 128 MB of RAM.
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Very low hardware requirements
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Compatibility with Windows 98
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Simple recovery process
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No convenience with previews
12. Easy Digital Photo Recovery
1.14 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
1 file recovery per session
$30...$50
Featuring specialized algorithms capable of quickly recognizing a multitude of image file formats, Easy Digital Photo Recovery is intended to help both professional and amateur photographers recover deleted and lost pictures. It delivers a great speed and ease of use, but it lacks support for file systems used by Linux and macOS.
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Support for many image file formats
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Suitable for beginners and pros alike
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Demo version available
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Rarely updated
13. Odboso Photo Retrieval
1.44 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Preview only
$39.5...$69.5
Odboso Photo Retrieval works differently than most other image restoration solutions. Instead of retrieving all lost or deleted files from a selected storage device, it looks only for a specific file format. As a result, you don’t have to go through thousands and thousands of recovered files just to find one missing image. On the other hand, it can be somewhat difficult to recover lost photos if you don’t know their exact file format.
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File format-based image restrieval
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Doesn’t write any data to the recovered storage device
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Lets you preview the found images
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Windows 10 isn’t supported
14. Undelete 360
2.47 • Prepare to be disappointed – Undelete 360 presents itself as a free and unlimited data recovery application, but the reality is very different.
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Only basic file recovery
$0...$69
Undelete 360 is a free photo recovery app intended for home users. While it does support all commonly used storage devices and file formats, its undelete capabilities are fairly limited compared with other applications described in this article. Its biggest strength is its intuitive user interface with a large preview window and easily accessible search filters.
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Free recovery
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Recovery chances
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Filtering by file type
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Multiple languages
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Good file deletion functionality
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The program is not completely free
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Only Quick Scan
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No signature scanner
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The project can be considered abandoned
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Scan only partitions
15. Disk Doctors Photo Recovery
0.87 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Preview only
$49.97...$69.97
Disk Doctors Photo Recovery can recover images even from formatted or severely corrupted storage devices. Its simple user interface is so intuitive that anyone can instantly figure it out, but it’s clear that it comes from the Windows Vista era.
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Three-step restoration wizard
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Ability to save sessions
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Support for RAW image file formats
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Outdated GUI
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the best photo recovery software application for Windows or macOS, Disk Drill is an easy choice. Its straightforward user interface and one-click approach to image restoration make it easy for amateurs and professionals alike to recover all lost or accidentally deleted photos from hard drives, memory cards, USB flash drives, and other storage devices.
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Did You Know?
JPEG was introduced in 1992 as one of the first image file formats to use the discrete cosine transform (DCT) technique for lossy compression. This technique, which was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972, makes it possible to compress image files down to much smaller file sizes. JPEG arrived right when the internet was just starting to take off, which only accelerated its adoption. To this day, it remains the most popular format for containing lossy and compressed image data.
Comparison table
#The comparison table below provides an overview of all data recovery software applications that have made our list.
| Feature | Disk Drill | PhotoRec | EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | Recuva | Stellar Data Recovery | Wondershare Recoverit | Undelete 360 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Score Free Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque. | 100% | 77% | 89% | 71% | 77% | 80% | 57% |
| Requirements | Windows 7-11 | macOS 10.6-12.0 | Windows 7-11 | Windows XP-10, 11 (unofficial support) | macOS 10.11-12.0 | Windows 7-11 (x64 only) | Windows XP-11 |
| Clever in-depth scan | |||||||
| Quick scan | |||||||
| Distributed as | Freemium | Free | Freemium | Freeware | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Trial version available | |||||||
| Trial version limitations | Recover up to 500 MB for free | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 2 GB for free | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 1 GB for free | Recover up to 100 MB for free | Freeware. No limits |
| Starting price | $89.00 / Perpetual | Free | $69.95 / 1 month | Free | $69.99 / 1 year | $59.99 / 1 month | Free |
| See Plans & Pricing | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details |
| Raw photo recovery | |||||||
| Video formats recovery | |||||||
| Document formats recovery | |||||||
| S.M.A.R.T. | |||||||
| Helpdesk support | |||||||
| Live chat | |||||||
| Phone support |
Frequently Asked Questions
To determine if you need a picture recovery software application to recover your deleted photos, look inside the Trash folder on macOS or the Recycle Bin on Windows.
To recover deleted photos from the Trash folder on macOS:
- Open Trash by clicking on the icon located on the right side or bottom of the Dock.
- Find the photos you want to recover and select them.
- Click on any of the selected photos, hold the click, and drag your mouse to another folder or your desktop.
To recovery deleted photos from the Recycle Bin on Windows:
- Open the Recycle Bin by clicking on its desktop icon.
- Find the photos you want to recover and select them.
- Right-click on any highlighted file and select the Restore option.
After testing 15 different photo recovery software applications, we came to the conclusion that the top 5 best photo recovery software solutions for SD cards are:
- Disk Drill
- PhotoRec
- Recuva
- Stellar Phoenix
- Remo Recover
Disk Drill is our top pick because it supports all members of the SD memory card family and works on both Windows and macOS, delivering fantastic results in just a few clicks.
The best 100% free photo recovery software is PhotoRec. This open-source application lets you recover an unlimited amount of data from any storage device, and it supports all common image file formats, including JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF, just to name a few.
You can recover permanently deleted photos without spending any money using a free photo recovery software application like PhotoRec or Recuva. You can also try freemium applications like Disk Drill or Stellar Phoenix, which let you preview files for free, requiring you to purchase a license to recover them.
Permanently deleted photos don’t actually go anywhere. Instead, the operating system deletes the logical links leading to them and marks the storage space they occupy as empty. It’s only when new data is written there when permanently deleted photos disappear for good.
Absolutely, but you need to be quick enough. That’s because permanently deleted photos can only be recovered until they become overwritten by new data, which can happen almost instantly or after a very long time—it all depends on the size of your storage device and its utilization.
According to our own in-depth testing, Disk Drill is the best photo recovery software for Windows 10 because it combines great usability with stellar data recovery performance. Other good options include:
- Recuva
- Remo Recover
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
David Morelo is a professional content writer with a specialization in data recovery. He spends his days helping users from around the world recover from data loss and address the numerous issues associated with it.
When not writing about data recovery techniques and solutions, he enjoys tinkering with new technology, working on personal projects, exploring the world on his bike, and, above all else, spending time with his family.
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Frisco, Texas, United States
Yevgeniy Tolkunov is Hardware Engineer at ACE Data Recovery. Yevgeniy has a Master's Degree in Physics, Information Technology; 15+ years of experience.