Wondershare Recoverit 14.0.20.6 Mac

Like a system search that reaches beyond the Trash, Wondershare Recoverit scans drives for files the Mac no longer sees. According to Wondershare Technology, the utility handles deleted items, formatted volumes and data lost to partition errors. The current version 14.0.20.6 requires macOS 10.14 or later and runs on Intel-based Macs. Files can be previewed before recovery, which the official guide describes as a way to confirm what the scan has found before committing to a restore.

Same recovery engine, now in seven interface languages

The latest build does not introduce new features over its immediate predecessor. The core job remains unchanged: scanning internal and external storage for recoverable documents, photos and other file types. The interface supports English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and Japanese.

Mac compatibility in the current release

Recoverit 14 is available for both macOS and Windows, though the Mac edition covered here is built for Intel processors only. The developer lists macOS 10.14 as the minimum, with no mention of native Apple Silicon support as of version 14.0.20.6.

When an external drive refuses to show up for scanning

Even a straightforward scan can hit a wall. One frequent headache is a drive that never appears in the device list. External disks formatted with APFS occasionally fail to mount properly after a power loss or improper eject. If Recoverit shows no sign of the drive, the first move is to check whether Disk Utility sees it at all. A drive that appears in Disk Utility but not in Recoverit may need to be re-plugged after the app is already running. Thunderbolt enclosures sometimes need a cold restart of the dock, not just the drive itself.

Another sticking point is the preview window refusing to render a file. This usually happens with large video files or RAW photo formats the preview engine cannot decode on the fly. The file is still recoverable; the preview simply lacks the codec. In those cases, restoring the file to a different disk and opening it in its native application is the practical workaround. For video files over 4 GB, users have reported that scanning from a volume with less free space than the file itself slows the process noticeably. Keeping at least double the file size available on the destination drive avoids a stalled recovery.

Macs running system integrity protection at full strength sometimes block deep-scan access to certain system paths. Recoverit cannot override SIP, and it will skip those locations without a clear warning. The scan log simply shows fewer results than expected. Users who have recently emptied the Trash and immediately run a scan get the best hit rate before the space is overwritten by system caching or new downloads. Waiting even an hour can mean the difference between a complete photo set and a folder full of grey thumbnails.

Recovering a formatted SD card: a walkthrough

A photographer returns from a shoot, inserts a card into a MacBook Pro, and accidentally confirms the format prompt that pops up for an unrecognised file system. The card was exFAT and held roughly 800 RAW files from a single day. Here is the recovery path from start to finish.

First, the card is removed from the Mac immediately. Every write operation risks overwriting the very data that needs to be salvaged. The card is locked with its physical write-protect switch and reinserted via a USB card reader. Recoverit is launched, and the card appears in the drive list as an unnamed volume. Selecting it triggers a quick scan, which returns a partial list of about 200 files within four minutes. Because the card was formatted, the quick scan only catches fragments that the new file system has not yet touched.

A deep scan is started next. For a 128 GB card, this runs roughly 35 minutes on an Intel i7 MacBook Pro. The progress bar advances in three passes: locating lost partitions, assembling file signatures, and reconstructing directory paths. Once complete, the file-type filter narrows the result to .CR2 and .ARW files. The preview pane confirms the images are intact, showing exposure data and colour profiles. The files are selected and restored to a folder on the desktop, not back to the SD card. The entire shoot is recovered, minus two files that had been partially overwritten by the new format table.

Pairing Recoverit with Disk Utility after a drive failure

Recoverit does not plug into the Finder or the Trash as an extension, but it fits into a Mac workflow at predictable points. It reads drives that Disk Utility recognises, so it pairs naturally with the built-in disk tools. When Disk Utility shows a greyed-out volume that refuses to mount, Recoverit can often still scan its raw blocks. The reverse is also useful: after Recoverit restores files, Disk Utility can be used to reformat the problem drive before data is copied back onto it.

For media-heavy workflows, the app's file-type filter aligns with how Final Cut Pro and Lightroom organise their libraries. A videographer who discovers a missing clip in a Final Cut event can scan the source drive, filter by .MOV and .MP4, and restore the clip directly into the original event folder. Final Cut will recognise the file the next time the library is opened, provided the file name and timecode track match. Photographers using Lightroom Classic can do the same with .DNG and .XMP sidecar files, though the catalog may need a synchronisation pass to re-link the restored images.

Time Machine users will notice Recoverit operates outside the backup chain entirely. It does not read Time Machine snapshots, nor does it restore files from them. Its role is complementary: when a file was never backed up, or when a drive failed between backup windows, Recoverit steps in. Some users run a scan on an external drive before erasing it for Time Machine use, catching old projects that were never copied elsewhere.

The app also respects macOS file permissions where it can. Files restored to a user's home folder keep their original ownership tags if the scan source was the same Mac's internal drive. Files coming from an external NTFS drive, however, arrive without macOS permission metadata and need a batch permissions fix via Finder's Get Info or a terminal chmod command. This is a quirk of the file system bridge, not the recovery engine, but it trips up users who wonder why they cannot open a restored document until they adjust the read-write flags.

How Recoverit stacks up against similar tools

Disk Drill by CleverFiles takes a different approach to the same problem. Where Recoverit presents a straightforward scan-and-recover interface, Disk Drill bundles extra utilities such as a duplicate finder and a byte-level backup tool. In recovery performance on a quick-formatted HFS+ volume, both apps return comparable results for documents and photos. Disk Drill's preview handles more video codecs out of the box, but its deep scan on large APFS drives runs longer than Recoverit's equivalent pass. The difference narrows on FAT32 and exFAT volumes, where both apps finish within minutes of each other.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac competes on interface clarity. Its file-tree view while a scan is still running lets users browse partial results before the scan completes, which Recoverit does not offer. Recoverit holds its results until the pass finishes. On the other hand, Recoverit's RAW photo preview support covers more camera profiles, particularly older Canon and Nikon bodies. For a user recovering a mixed bag of office documents and event photos, the choice often comes down to whether they value mid-scan browsing or broader format support after the scan.

PhotoRec, the open-source companion to TestDisk, is the command-line counterpoint. It is free, runs on virtually any Unix-based system, and recovers files by signature with no graphical interface. PhotoRec excels at raw block-level carving on severely damaged media, sometimes pulling files that commercial tools miss. What it lacks is preview, filtering by file name, and any developer-backed Mac interface. Recoverit trades PhotoRec's forensic flexibility for a guided workflow and a preview pane that saves the user from restoring a thousand unnamed text files just to find one spreadsheet.

• macOS 10.14 or later
• Intel-based Mac