The short answer is yes, deleted files on a Mac can often be recovered from the Trash, even after it has been emptied. There are several methods for trying to get deleted files back on a Mac depending on the situation.
Can files be recovered after emptying the Trash on a Mac?
When you delete a file on a Mac, it gets moved to the Trash. The files in the Trash remain there until you choose to empty it. As long as the Trash has not been emptied, it is easy to recover deleted files on a Mac simply by opening the Trash and restoring the files to their original location.
However, many Mac users empty their Trash routinely to free up disk space. When the Trash is emptied, the files inside are deleted and removed from the disk. At first glance, it would seem like those files are gone for good once the Trash is emptied.
But even after emptying the Trash, it is often still possible to recover deleted files on a Mac, at least for a limited time. When a file is deleted, the data itself is not wiped instantly from the hard drive. Instead, the space it occupied is simply marked as available to be overwritten by new data. As long as that space has not been overwritten, the deleted data may still be present and recoverable.
File recovery time window after emptying Trash
Theoretically, with the right recovery tools, deleted files could potentially be recovered from a hard drive even years later if the space has not been reallocated for other files. But in practice, the likelihood of recovery decreases steadily over time. Here are some general guidelines on typical recovery time frames:
- 1-3 days: Files deleted from an SSD can often be recovered during this initial period if no new data has been written.
- 1-2 weeks: Recovery from a traditional hard disk is usually possible for up to 2 weeks, but likelihood decreases over time.
- 1+ months: After more than a month, unpowered drives are less likely to have recoverable data still intact.
The exact timeframe can vary based on how much activity has occurred on the drive since files were deleted. But within the first day or two, deleted files stand a good chance of being recoverable.
How to recover deleted files from the Mac Trash
If you need to restore a deleted file after emptying the Trash on your Mac, there are several potential options:
1. Restore from a Time Machine backup
If you have Time Machine backups enabled, you may be able to restore deleted files from a backup made before the files were deleted. This is the easiest way to “undelete” files if you have backups available.
To restore a file from Time Machine:
- Open Finder and click on the Time Machine icon in the Dock or sidebar.
- Browsing back through previous backups until you find the deleted file(s).
- Select a file and click the Restore button to recover it.
2. Use data recovery software
If you don’t have a backup, the next best option is to use a data recovery app. There are many options available, both free and paid. Some examples of Mac data recovery software include:
| Disk Drill | Paid & free options, easy to use, recovers 200+ file types |
| Data Rescue | Long-time recovery app, recovers from Time Machine also |
| Stellar Data Recovery | Recovers lost partitions, compatible with M1 Macs |
| PhotoRec | Free and open source, basic interface |
The basic process involves selecting the drive to scan, waiting for the scan to complete, then selecting files to recover. An advanced app like Disk Drill can significantly increase the chances of recovering files versus basic apps.
3. Send drive to a data recovery service
For difficult cases beyond the ability of consumer-grade data recovery apps, you can mail your hard drive to a professional recovery lab. Services like DriveSavers, Gillware or Secure Data Recovery can disassemble drives in a dust-free cleanroom and attempt specialized techniques like chip-off data recovery.
This costs hundreds to thousands of dollars but has the highest likelihood of recovering lost data in challenging situations. This should be viewed as a last resort option.
Tips to prevent needing to restore Trash on Mac
While it’s reassuring to know files can often be recovered after emptying the Trash, prevention is always better than trying to recover lost data. Here are some tips to avoid needing to restore from the Trash in the first place:
- Enable Time Machine backups – Having a backup is the best way to protect against data loss from accidental deletion, drive failure, and other scenarios.
- Double-check before emptying Trash – Be extra careful about verifying files are not needed before emptying the Trash.
- Regularly copy important files to another drive – Keep an extra copy of irreplaceable files on a separate drive as another backup.
- Use Trash apps sparingly – Apps that enhance the Trash functionality can result in more permanent deletion of files.
Following best practices for performing backups, verifying deletions, and generally being careful about Trash management can go a long way toward avoiding data recovery emergencies.
What kind of files can be recovered from the Mac Trash?
The Trash on a Mac can contain all kinds of deleted files, including documents, media, apps, system files, and more. Any type of file that exists on a drive could potentially be recovered after being deleted, if the data still exists.
Some specific types of files that may be recoverable from the Trash include:
- Office documents – Word, Excel, PowerPoint files.
- PDFs, images, videos, music files.
- Emails, contacts, calendar items.
- Website files, source code.
- Applications and program files.
Pretty much any deleted file could be a candidate for Trash recovery as long as the storage space has not been overwritten. The likelihood of recovery depends on the file size and how much activity has occurred since it was deleted.
System files
Critical system files and folders like /Library, /System or /Users are protected on modern Mac versions and cannot be deleted to the Trash under normal operation. But it is theoretically possible for some system files to be recovered if they were deleted using advanced manual methods.
Encrypted files
Files that have been encrypted using FileVault or another encryption utility become unrecoverable if the encryption keys are lost. The contents would show up as inaccessible encrypted data. However, encryption keys may allow otherwise inaccessible encrypted data to be recovered.
External devices
The Trash can contain files deleted from any mounted drive, including connected external hard drives, USB sticks, SD cards, and other storage media. As long as the device has not been reformatted, files deleted from external drives have the same likelihood of recovery as files on the main system drive.
Challenges when recovering files from Trash
While many deleted files are recoverable from the Trash with the right tools and techniques, there are some situations that can make successful recovery difficult or impossible:
- Completely overwritten files – If deleted file data has been completely overwritten by new files, recovery is impossible.
- Corrupted files – Portions of recovered data may be corrupted or incomplete if partially overwritten.
- Unmounted drives – External drives that are not mounted cannot have their Trash accessed.
- Encrypted volumes – Password protected or encrypted volumes block access to Trash data.
- Trash size limits – The Trash may auto-delete older files once reaching maximum size.
Advanced data recovery techniques may occasionally be able to overcome some of these challenges. But the best solution is preventing permanent data loss by having reliable backups of important files.
Does emptying the Trash free up space on a Mac?
Yes, emptying the Trash on a Mac does free up disk space – but that space does not necessarily become available for new files right away. Here is an explanation of what happens when the Trash is emptied:
When files are deleted on a Mac, they get moved to the Trash folder (located at ~/.Trash on the system drive). While in the Trash, the files still take up the same amount of disk space.
Emptying the Trash essentially tells the operating system it can overwrite the regions of disk where those deleted files reside. But no actual overwriting happens immediately just because the Trash is emptied.
Over time, as new files are saved to the drive, they will get allocated to the free space that was once occupied by the now-deleted files. Eventually that space is reused and the Trash files are permanently overwritten. But this happens gradually in the background.
So immediately after emptying the Trash, no extra free space is actually available – but the operating system is aware it can begin overwriting the regions marked for deletion when it needs space for new data. The benefits of freeing up disk space occur over a period of time, not instantly.
Finding available disk space after emptying Trash on Mac
To check how much free space is actually available after emptying the Trash, you can use these steps:
- Go to > About This Mac > Storage
- Look at the available space shown for your system disk
Or to see it in Finder:
- Open a new Finder window
- Click on your system disk (usually named Macintosh HD)
- Look for available space in the status bar at the bottom
This free space number may not increase right away after emptying Trash – but over time as deleted files are overwritten, more space will become available.
Is there a limit to how many files the Mac Trash can hold?
There is a storage limit to the Trash on a Mac. Once the Trash reaches its maximum capacity, older files will start being deleted automatically to make room for new ones.
The Trash limit was designed to prevent the Trash from consuming all available disk space if someone sends a huge volume of files to the Trash. The exact size limit depends on the version of macOS and size of the boot drive.
Here are the general Trash size limits on different Mac operating system versions:
| macOS Version | Max Trash Size |
| Monterey (macOS 12) | 20% of boot volume |
| Big Sur (macOS 11) | 20% of boot volume |
| Catalina (macOS 10.15) | 10% of boot volume |
| Mojave & earlier | 20GB fixed limit |
So on a Mac with a 500GB boot drive running Monterey, the Trash would top out around 100GB before older files start being removed. This gives the Trash plenty of room to hold deleted data temporarily without consuming all free space.
If you need to store or recover files larger than the Trash limit, it’s best to move them to an external drive rather than relying on the Trash to hold them.
Can the Mac Trash be emptied automatically?
There are a couple ways to set up automatic emptying of the Trash on a schedule:
Use a maintenance utility
Third party Mac utilities like Disk Clean Pro and CleanMyMac X include an option to purge the Trash automatically at set intervals. This will completely empty the Trash to free up space.
Automator service
You can create an Automator service to empty the Trash on demand or based on a schedule:
- Open Automator and select “Service”
- Search for and add “Empty Trash” action
- Set service to receive “no input”
- Save and name the service
Then you can map a keyboard shortcut to this service and run it on a schedule with a tool like LaunchControl to empty the Trash automatically.
Conclusion
While the Trash provides a convenient way to easily delete and recover recently removed files, it does have storage limits, and emptied items can only be recovered for a limited time. The best way to reliably protect valuable data on a Mac is to maintain complete backups through Time Machine and other redundant external storage. With the help of backups and recovery software, accidentally deleted items can often be recovered – but prevention via regular backups is always the safest bet for important files.
