Free Photo Recovery Apps?

[iMatt.]

We got our 4 year old a cheap camera off Amazon this summer and she’s taken photos of everything she’s been up to, but unfortunately she managed to somehow format the SD card and is distraught.

I’ve managed to see that everything is recoverable via 2 apps - DiskDrill & Recoverit, however restore anything they want £80+

 

[Ruggy]

I think PhotoRec is the one for you
There are extensive help files there

Digital Picture and File Recovery

PhotoRec is a free and open source file carver data recovery software tool.

www.cgsecurity.org

 

[iMatt.]

I think PhotoRec is the one for you
There are extensive help files there

Digital Picture and File Recovery

PhotoRec is a free and open source file carver data recovery software tool.

www.cgsecurity.org

Can't run it - blocked by XProtect

 

[Fishrrman]

"Can't run it - blocked by XProtect"

Is System Integrity Protection on?
Open terminal and type
csrutil status
then hit return

It will tell you.

If SIP is on, here's how to turn it off:
Boot to the recovery partition or to internet recovery
When you get there, open terminal and enter:
csrutil disable

Then, reboot.

Try opening the app now.

If it STILL won't open, you can disable Gatekeeper by doing this:
Open terminal and type
sudo spctl --master-disable
Hit return
You'll now be asked for your password.
Enter it (IMPORTANT: you WILL NOT SEE your password as you enter it)
Hit return.

Now try opening the app.
Any better?

NOTE:
In the above terminal commands, you can "copy and paste" them into terminal.
Be aware of the single space characters between the phrases.

NOTE2:
If you're not comfortable using terminal, there is an OLD utility called "Mountain Tweaks" that still runs and can disable Gatekeeper for you.
Get it here:

Download Mountain Tweaks for Mac

Mountain Tweaks is a tweaking tool to deal with the annoying changes in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Mountain Tweaks focuses on a user friendly user-interface, even more tweaks and the ability to do simpl...

mac.majorgeeks.com

 

[iMatt.]

Thanks for this - I found a free software in the end - https://dmde.com/. Did the trick.

 

[arinamichel911]

Have you tried Recuva and any other freemium software? They allow some limited amount of data back.

 

[Ellinor_William]

Some other tools are Recuva, PhotoRec & R-Photo for free recovery. It's nice that you have recovered all your lost photos. I suppose those paid software also have limited free recovery options.