Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery Review – This App Belongs in a Museum

2.72

Out of 5 Total Score

No. 9 Among all macOS solutions

Price range - free • Lazesoft • macOS

Last update on

Data recovery software applications that promise to recover lost files for free are in high demand and short supply, and Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is one of them. But can it deliver the same results as paid alternatives? This review has the answer to this question. 

Karma 29% - Karma

29%

Karma
Bang for the buck 94% - Bang for the buck

94%

Bang for the buck
Recovery performance 22% - Recovery performance

22%

Recovery performance
Usability 35% - Usability

35%

Usability
Extras 0% - Extras

0%

Extras

Top Pros

  • Free. Lazesoft Data Recovery is completely free.

  • Scans non-mounted disks. Can scan disks that refuse to be mounted by the operating system.

  • Selective scanning. It’s possible to scan only a certain range of disk sectors.

  • Recovery during scanning. You don’t have to wait for scanning to finish to recover your data.

  • Recovery chances. Lazesoft Data Recovery estimates how likely can found files be recovered without corruption.

  • Save sectors to a file. The application lets you save a specific range of sectors to a file for backup purposes.

Top Cons

  • Outdated. The latest version of macOS Lazesoft Data Recovery is compatible with is macOS Mojave 10.14.

  • Three default signatures. In the default scan settings, only three search signatures are selected. The program does not mention this anywhere.

  • Limited to 50 MB per file by default. By default, the signature scanning feature of Lazesoft Data Recovery looks only for files that are smaller than 50 MB. This behavior can be changed in the settings.

  • Limited maximum file size. The software’s signature scanning feature can’t find files that are larger than 9,000 MB.

  • Settings are not saved. Lazesoft Data Recovery resets to default settings every time you close it.

  • Mandatory scan type selection. The program does not automatically select the appropriate scan type.

  • Outdated user interface. The user interface of Lazesoft Data Recovery is extremely outdated, and it looks completely out of place in even relatively old version of macOS.

  • Doesn’t scan internal storage devices. It’s impossible to use Lazesoft Data Recovery to scan internal storage devices.

  • Limited file system support. The software can recognize only a handful of file systems (FAT, HFS, NTFS).

  • Limited file previews. The program can only preview images, and newer image file formats are not supported.

  • Signature scan activation. In order to activate the search for all the signatures, you must manually select the "partition recovery" scan type.

  • Bad signature scanner. The signature scanner doesn’t support newer file formats.

  • Recovery performance. Lazesoft Data Recovery delivers poor data recovery results when scanning all file systems except for NTFS. In most cases, the original folder structure and file names are lost.

  • Abandoned. The program has not been updated since about 2015.

  • Source selection. Choosing which device you want to scan is unnecessarily difficult.

  • Slow browsing. Folders with more than 10,000 files take a long time to open.

  • No session management. Lazesoft Data Recovery lacks scan session management features.

  • Processing of bad sectors. The program doesn’t see bad sectors, so it can’t avoid them when scanning.

  • S.M.A.R.T. Doesn’t come with a disk health monitoring feature.

  • Additional features. Lazesoft Data Recovery doesn’t include any additional features that would increase its value.

  • No automatic scan resume. The program can’t automatically resume a scan of a storage device that has been disconnected.

Top Competitors

popular

Score 4.79 76%

Best choice for Mac users


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Score 3.31 22%

Excellent value in a not-so-appealing package


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Score 3.30 21%

Not as stellar as its name suggests


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Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery – Overview

 #

A cursory look at a screenshot of Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery should be enough to tell you that the data recovery application comes from a bygone era. Indeed, the last version was released in 2015, and Lazesoft hasn’t released a single update since then. As a result, the software no longer runs on the latest version of macOS, with macOS Mojave 10.14 being the last compatible version. 

Pricing

Distributed as Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations
Trial version available
License model Lifetime
No credit card to try

The main reason why Lazesoft Data Recovery still gets plenty of attention despite being so outdated is its free price. Unlike many other data recovery software applications that claim to be free even though they are limited in all kinds of ways, Lazesoft Data Recovery can truly recover an unlimited amount of data free of charge. 

Developer — Lazesoft

Lazesoft has been developing software since 2009, and the company is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Besides its data recovery application for Mac, Lazesofs offers the same application for Windows, and it also has several other software products, most of which belong in the data recovery category. 

1% 10.6% than avg

Online market share

Reflects the share of online traffic within the niche occupied by data recovery software, based on data taken from ahrefs.com (from Google US search engine).

260 39.2% than avg

Brand name popularity

Based on the number of brand-related search queries on Google US according to ahrefs.com.

Despite being featured in a number of reputable publications, such as Cnet and ghacks, Lazesoft has a very small online market share, and its products require some digging to discover. 

Developer website macdatarecoveryfreeware.com/index.html
Support email support@macdatarecoveryfreeware.com
Founded

2009 • 14 years on market

HQ location

9625 West 76th Street, Eden Prairie, MN 55344

Phone

1-952-646-5331

Social media

We respect that Lazesoft provides customer support both via email and phone. There are several much larger companies in the data recovery industry that don’t do that, and they definitely should. Lazesoft does have social media accounts, but it uses them mainly to announce updates.  

Data Recovery with Lazesoft for macOS

Tested on: macOS 10.14.6 (18G9323)

A completely free data recovery software application like Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery can still be next to useless if it’s unable to deliver good results, and that’s exactly what our in-depth testing process is here to discover. 

How We Test

Here at Pandora Data Recovery Review, we don't just "play" with the software we test for a while before we write down our impressions. Instead, we apply our comprehensive testing process to gather heaps of data that objectively reveal all strengths and weaknesses of the tested software.  

#StepDescription
1InstallationThe best data recovery software can be installed quickly and easily. If the software requires special permissions, detailed instructions are provided to the user.
2Source selectionThe selection of the storage device you want to scan should be intuitive, and the same goes for the selection of the scanning method.
3Scanning processSince it can take a long time for scanning to finish, the software should keep the user informed from start to finish.
4Managing found dataA capable data recovery software application can typically find many lost files, so it should provide scan results filters and other features that make it easier to go through them. For example, it's always useful when data recovery software can preview files before their recovery.
5Recovery and post-processingThe software should make it easy to select a suitable recovery destination and stop the user from accidentally recovering data to the original storage device.

As we perform these steps, we collect data and take notes, which we then present and summarize in our in-depth reviews, such as this one. 

Step 1

Installation

The installation of Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is straightforward. First, we downloaded the application installer from the official website. Then we launched the installer and dragged the Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery app icon into the Applications folder. Done! 

Unfortunately, we couldn't use the latest version of macOS because Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery doesn't run on anything newer than macOS Mojave 10.14. In fact, Mojave isn't even the last officially supported version of macOS—that would be Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks (released in 2013). 

Step 2

Source selection

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery has an outdated user interface that leaves a lot to be desired in terms of usability, and the source selection process is a great example of how the software can complicate something that should be simple. 

Instead of simply selecting the storage device you want to scan and clicking a single button to start the scan process, you have to go through an entire scan wizard and make several important choices—none of which are explained as well as they should be. The worst issue by far is the fact that the application doesn't scan all supported file signatures by default, and you have to enable them manually before each scan. 

Step 3

Scanning process

During scanning, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery displays a progress bar with information about the number of found files. You can even browse found files in real-time, so you don't have to wait for scanning to finish before you can start looking for your missing files. 

You can stop scanning at any time, but you can't pause the scanning process to temporarily free up system resources. Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery also doesn't display the amount of time remaining for scanning to finish. 

Step 4

Managing found files

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery organizes found files according to their path and type. You can then apply filters to further narrow down the results and sort them according to name, size, path, modified date, created date, and file state. That's right, the software is able to evaluate the state of recoverable files to determine the likelihood of their successful recovery. 

The most popular image file formats, such as JPG, PNG, and GIF, can be previewed directly inside Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery, but other file formats can be viewed only in their hexadecimal form. Folders that contain a huge number of files take a while to load, but this issue is unlikely to affect many users. 

Step 5

Recovery and post-processing

To conclude our real-world recovery test, we clicked the Save Files button, selected a recovery destination, and waited a short while for Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery to recover selected files. A pop-up window appeared to confirm that all data were successfully recovered. 

Again, the outdated user interface left a lot to be desired in terms of usability and convenience, but that's a price many users are willing to pay to recover their data without spending a single dollar.

Tutorials

Lazesoft for macOS – Tutorials and Other Videos

Would you like to see Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery in action and see how it compares against other data recovery software? Then watch the videos below! 

Top 10 Free macOS Data Recovery Software

Top 10 Free macOS Data Recovery Software

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery - Recover data on Mac

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery lets you search for and recover all kinds of files, whether they were accidentally deleted or lost in another way.

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery – Full Review

In this section of our Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery review, we share our data and explain what they mean to help you determine if this data recovery software application has what it takes to meet your needs.  

Karma 29% by 13 rating criteria

29%

Karma

13 rating criteria

Our karma rating is based on multiple criteria that collectively reflect how well a software developer is taking care of its data recovery application and the people who use it. Unfortunately, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery has received a very low rating because the application is abandoned and doesn’t run on the newest Macs.

It’s almost surprising then that Lazesoft still provides customer support via phone. Hopefully, the company will update Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery in the future and make it possible for the users of newer Macs to recover lost data for free, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up. 

#FeatureResult
1Update frequency
More than 6 months
2Updated recently
No
3Changelog available
Not available
4Latest macOS supported
No, needs more developer's attention
5Runs natively on M1 Macs
Does not support
6Genuine or clone?
Genuine
7Brand name popularity
Unpopular
8Online market share
Poor
9Maturity
Mature
10Extensive knowledge base
Not available
11Helpdesk support
Available
12Live chat
Not available
13Phone support
Yes
Bang for the buck 94% by 8 rating criteria

94%

Bang for the buck

8 rating criteria

As a free data recovery software application capable of recovering an unlimited amount of data, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery delivers excellent value for money. 

#FeatureResult
1Competitive pricing
Yes
2Price-quality ratio
Excellent
3Free trial
Can be used without limitations
4Is it free?
Yes
5Pricing policy
Freeware
6Unlimited recovery in full version
The free version is completely unlimited
7Free upgrades
Yes
8Commercial rights in the cheapest license
No
Usability 35% by 18 rating criteria

35%

Usability

18 rating criteria

It’s clear that Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery has been designed with ease of use in mind. The only problem is that our usability expectations have increased massively since the last version of this data recovery application was released in 2015. 

The user interface of Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery looks outdated, and it frequently contradicts our modern expectations of how a data recovery software application should behave. The resulting user experience is underwhelming to say the least. 

#FeatureResult
1Modern user-friendly interface
No
2Dark mode
No
3Easy-to-locate features
Yes
4Automatic implementation of multiple appropriate scanning methods without user interaction
No
5Auto-resuming scans of failing drives
No
6Auto-resuming backups of failing drives
No
7Convenient source selection on start
So-so
8Convenient file-by-file preview of recoverable items
So-so
9Convenient thumbnail preview of recoverable items
No
10Mount recoverable items as disk
No
11Built-in updater
No
12Multiple view modes in scan results
No
13Hex view for recoverable items
Limited
14Filter recoverable items by type
Limited
15Search recoverable items by file names
Yes
16Sort results
Yes
17Multilingual UI
No
18Simple deployment
Yes
Recovery performance 22% by 126 rating criteria

22%

Recovery performance

126 rating criteria

The recovery performance of Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is underwhelming, to say the least. 

Unsurprisingly, this has a lot to do with the fact that the application hasn’t been updated in a long time, so it doesn’t support many modern file formats. 

As if to make the situation even worse, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery doesn’t look for all supported signatures by default—you need to enable them manually each time you perform a scan. 

#FeatureResultDescription
1Deep scan
Bad
In addition to being unnecessarily complicated to use, Clever in-depth scan mode fails to produce decent results.
2Quick scan
Bad
Quick scan mode fails to deliver praiseworthy data recovery results.
3Other types of scan
Bad
No other scan types are supported by Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery except for partition recovery.
4Device support
Fine
The software can recover data only from external storage devices.
5Real-life recovery challenge
Bad
Our real-life recovery challenges turned out to be too challenging for Lazesoft.
6Other notable recovery features
Bad
Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery doesn't come with any other notable recovery features.

Clever scan

25%
#FeatureScore
1HFS+ partitions
2APFS partitions
3FAT32 partitions
4exFAT partitions
5NTFS partitions
6EXT4 partitions

Unless you’re recovering lost data from an NTFS-formatted storage device, don’t expect the application to recover the original folder structure and file names. And if you need to recover data from an APFS, exFAT, or EXT4 partition, then you might as well use a different data recovery software tool.

Quick scan

25%
#FeatureScore
1HFS+ partitions
2APFS partitions
3FAT32 partitions
4exFAT partitions
5NTFS partitions
6EXT4 partitions

Again, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery can deliver decent results only when scanning NTFS partitions. 

Other scan types

17%
#FeatureScore
1The number of formats supported by deep scan
2Native deep scan of system drives on M1-powered Macs
3Native deep scan of system drives on T2-encrypted Macs
4Native data recovery from local Time Machine snapshots
5Scan for lost partitions
6HFS+ directory rebuild
7Recovered files' labeling
8Partial file recovery
9Disk images: scan and recovery

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery can scan for lost partitions, but it often struggles to recover data from them. 

Device Support

35%
#FeatureScore
1Internal and external HDD
2Internal and external SSD
3USB thumb drives / Classic iPods (non-iOS) / FireWire devices
4Memory cards
5iOS devices
6iOS backups
7iCloud
8Android devices
9Recovery from RAID1, 0, JBOD
10Encrypted device support
11Unmountable partitions

It seems that the developers of Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery focus exclusively on removable external storage devices, such as USB thumb drives and memory cards. Internal hard drives, mobile devices, and RAID arrays are not supported. Interestingly, the application can scan unmountable partitions. 

Real-life recovery challenges

21%
#FeatureScore
1Raw photo recovery
2Video formats recovery
3Document formats recovery
Raw photo recovery
25%
#FeatureScore
13fr (Hasselblad 3F raw image)
2arw (Sony alpha raw)
3bmp (bitmap image file)
4cr2 (Canon raw version 2)
5cr3 (Canon raw version 3)
6crw (Canon raw CIFF image file)
7dcr (Kodak digital camera raw)
8dng (digital negative lossless raw image)
9CinemaDNG (Blackmagic, Penelope, Pocket)
10erf (Epson raw file)
11exr (high dynamic-range file format)
12fff (Hasselblad raw image)
13gpr (GoPro raw format)
14heic (high efficiency image file format)
15iiq (intelligent image quality raw Leaf, Phase One)
16insp (panoramic image Insta360)
17jp2 (bitmap image format JPEG 2000)
18jpg (joint photographic experts group compressed image)
19kdc (Kodak digital camera raw image)
20mef (Mamiya raw image file)
21mos (Leaf and Mamiya raw image file)
22mpo (multi picture stereoscopic object file)
23mrw (Konica Minolta raw image format)
24nef (Nikon raw image file)
25nrw (Nikon raw image file)
26orf (Olympus raw format)
27pef (Pentax raw image file)
28raf (Fujifilm raw image file)
29raw (native digital camera file)
30rw2 (Panasonic LUMIX raw image file)
31rwl (Leica raw image format)
32sr2 (Sony raw 2 image file)
33srf (Sony raw file)
34srw (Samsung raw image file)
35tiff (tag image file format)
36x3f (Sigma camera raw picture file)
37x3i (Sigma super fine detail picture file)

Many raw file formats have become popular only in recent years, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery struggles greatly with them.

Video formats recovery
15%
#FeatureScore
1360 (GoPRO 360 degree videos)
2ari (ARRI professional digital video camera)
3arx (ARRI professional digital video camera)
4avi (GoPRO CineForm intermediate codec)
5avi (MJPG, H.264, MSMPEG4 v2 codecs)
6braw (Blackmagic raw video file)
7insv (Insta360 panoramic AVC H.264 video file)
8insv (Insta360 panoramic HEVC HVC1 video file)
9mov (Apple ProRes 422 Proxy/LT/HQ)
10mov (Apple ProRes 4444 Raw/HQ)
11mov (advanced video coding H.264)
12mov (CineForm HD codec)
13mov (HEVC, HVC1 codecs)
14mp4 (advanced video coding H.264)
15mp4 (HEVC, HVC1, Apple ProRes codecs)
16mxf (advanced video coding H.264)
17mxf (DVCPRO HD codec)
18mxf (ARRI raw, Apple ProRes codecs)
19mxf (XDCAM HD422, HD35 MPEG2 codecs)
20r3d (Red digital camera company raw video file)
21wmv (pro raw 9 codec)

Back when Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery was new, AVI was the dominant video file format, but it’s being slowly replaced by other formats, most notably MP4. These newer video file formats are not well supported by the software.

Document formats recovery
23%
#FeatureScore
1accdb (Microsoft Access 2007+ database file)
2djvu (compressed image format)
3doc (Microsoft Word 97 – 2003 document file)
4docx (Microsoft Word 2007+ document file)
5fb2 (FictionBook 2.0 File)
6key (Apple Keynote)
7mdb (Microsoft Access 97 - 2003 database file)
8numbers (Apple Numbers)
9odp (OpenOffice presentation file format)
10ods (OpenDocument spreadsheet file format)
11odt (OpenDocument text document file format)
12pages (Apple Pages)
13pdf (portable document format)
14ppt (Microsoft Powerpoint 97 - 2003 presentation file)
15pptx (Microsoft Powerpoint 2007+ presentation file)
16rtf (rich text format)
17xls (Microsoft Excel 97 - 2003 spreadsheet file)
18xlsx (Microsoft Excel 2007+ spreadsheet file)

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery doesn’t perform well when tasked with the recovery of document file formats. Even popular file formats like DOC, DOCX, and PDF give the software a lot of trouble. 

Other notable recovery features

28%
#FeatureScore
1Overall non-intrusive read-only algorithms
2Network recovery
3Effectively filters out corrupted scan results
4Byte-to-byte device backups
5Bootable recovery drive creation
6Runs in macOS native recovery mode
7Convenient scan session management
8Bad sector management
9Recovery chance prediction
10RAID reconstructor
11Disk vitals monitoring and tracking during scan
12Data protection
13Links to in-lab recovery service for physically damaged devices
14Scan speed
15Scan free space only
16Start file recovery without interrupting the scan
17Preview recoverable items without interrupting the scan
18Forensic features

Not many additional recovery features are supported by Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery, and they don’t always work great. The best extra features are the ability to start file recovery without interrupting the scan and the option to preview recoverable files. 

Extras 0% by 12 rating criteria

0%

Extras

12 rating criteria

As the table below shows, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery doesn’t come with any extra features. 

#FeatureResultDescription
1Disk space mapping
No
Not supported
2Disk clean up
No
Not supported
3Corrupted video repair tool
No
Not supported
4Corrupted photo repair tool
No
Not supported
5Time Machine backups parser
No
Not supported
6S.M.A.R.T.
No
Not supported
7Bootable macOS installer
No
Not supported
8Duplicate finder
No
Not supported
9Built-in disk space secure eraser
No
Not supported
10Disk cloning
No
Not supported
11Disk surface test
No
Not supported
12Secure data shredding
No
Not supported

While it’s perfectly understandable that a free data recovery software application isn’t as feature-packed as its paid alternatives, it would be nice to see at least some additional features beyond those directly related to data recovery. 

What Users Say about Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery

While the Wizard and Help features make it possible for inexperienced users to take advantage of the app's features, the interface itself can be a little intimidating. It's easy enough to use once you get used to it, but its sterility might put off some users at first.

yahoo.com

it says works in mac 10.5 or above and really works in 10.13 in 2020.
recovered files from a damaged pendrive and keep the original names.

MauRicio238

“Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery” needs to be updated - is the response I got when I installed and attempted to run ''Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery 2.2'' on ''macOS Catalina 11.15.7''. Even though the software is expected to run on macOS 10.5 or later version.

aualiyu

In my testing, I had to restart the app in order to identify the USB stick that I inserted after launching Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery. Hence, the program doesn't list devices that were connected to your Mac after the app was opened.

The application also lacks an option to scan individual folders.

Ashley Griggs

Bottom line

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery could have been an excellent free data recovery software application for Mac if it were not abandoned by its developers. Because it was, its data recovery performance leaves a lot to be desired, and the application doesn’t even run on the latest Macs anymore. 

For these and other reasons, we can recommend Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery only to people who still cling to old Macs and don’t want to spend any money at all to recover lost data. Everyone else should consider the application to be a living museum exhibit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to several frequently asked questions about Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery.
 

Lazesoft Data Recovery is a free data recovery software application that promises to recover lost data from the HFS/HFS+, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and EXFAT file systems.

Yes, Lazesoft Data Recovery works on Mac computers, but it doesn’t support the latest version of Apple’s operating system. macOS Mojave 10.14 is the newest supported version.

To use Lazesoft Data Recovery on your Mac, you need to:

  1. Download it from its official website.
  2. Open the downloaded installer and move the application into the Applications folder.
  3. Launch Lazesoft Data Recovery and scan the storage device you want to recover.
  4. Select files for recovery.
  5. Recover the selected files to a safe destination.

Yes, Lazesoft Data Recovery is completely free, so you can use it to recover an unlimited amount of data without paying.

Yes, Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is developed by a reputable company and doesn’t contain any malware.

👌 Satisfactory

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery Review – This App Belongs in a Museum
2.72

Out of 5 Total score

No. 9 Among all macOS solutions

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is a good example of what happens when a software developer stops working on an application with a lot of promise.

Visit developer website
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David Morelo
Author

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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Yevgeniy Tolkunov
Yevgeniy Tolkunov
Approver

Yevgeniy Tolkunov is Hardware Engineer at ACE Data Recovery. Yevgeniy has a Master's Degree in Physics, Information Technology; 15+ years of experience.

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