I ran across this post in Lifehacker about a program for the Mac that recovers deleted photos from digital cameras, even if the memory card has been reformatted. There are lots of other programs like it are out there.

But how many average, non-techie users know that deleting files on a camera, computer, flash drive, etc, really doesn’t delete them? Not a problem unless your camera is stolen or seized by overzealous cops for taking pictures of public areas. Who knows what innocent photos will be used against you or sexy photos of you uploaded to the Interwebitubes. So, beware.

You know that sinking feeling you get when you accidentally delete your photos or reformat your camera’s memory card without first removing the pictures on it? Reach for Exif Untrasher instead antacids and rescue those pics from annihilation.

Use Exif Untrasher to mount the memory card on your Mac, just as if it were a regular volume. Choose a destination folder for the rescued images, and let the app do its thing. It’s not a 100% foolproof way to recover pictures you’ve accidentally deleted or overwritten, but since it doesn’t tamper with your card in any way, you’ve got nothing to lose.

To take this app for a test drive, I batch deleted a bunch of photos (that I had already backed up) from my camera’s memory card, then reformatted it. I then plugged the card into my card reader, mounted the volume, and Exif Untrasher recovered everything but the MOV file, all in under a minute.




  1. deowll says:

    After thinking about it, it became obvious that this should be a simple thing to do unless you overwrote the data.

  2. vonriesling says:

    This story should be filed under “Hot News 5 Years Ago” category.

  3. McCullough says:

    Your computer sees those memory ports as another drive, thus even the simplest data recovery software can recover “deleted” data from it.

    End users should know this…

    good post.

  4. Zybch says:

    This story should be filed under “Advertisements presented as stories” category.

  5. sargasso says:

    Try that with my 20 year old Nikon M1, Digitards!

  6. Doggy Woof Muncher says:

    So finally, you can do on your mac what you’ve been able to do on a PC for well over a decade?
    Well I guess thats pretty much in line with the average state of tech advancement from apple compared to the rest of the industry.

  7. Special Ed says:

    #7 – Doggy Turd Muncher, PC fan boy much?

  8. Take a class and call me when there's some action says:

    I smell class action regarding the computer industry’s use of the word “delete”.

  9. smartalix says:

    That’s why I use a pair of pliers on SD cards that I no longer need.

  10. Luc says:

    DU posts have been all about extreme computer use and maintenance prowess lately.

  11. Mr. Fusion says:

    About four years ago my kid accidentally formatted my camera. I managed to resurrect not only the latest photos on the 1/2 G card, but also quite a few I had deleted earlier. All told, that 1/2 G card had almost 2 G of photos still on it. About 10-15% of the deleted ones were too damaged to use but I was really surprised at the rest.

    So, the moral of the story is to either destroy the card or use professional wiping software to overwrite what is on the card.

  12. Buzz says:

    You have to insert the card into your computer, then re-zero every memory location to be truly secure.

    Known, available, common technology since 2002.

  13. Mojo Yugen says:

    Sandisk has been shipping a utility to do with many of their CF cards for years. Might only be for PCs.

  14. russelmew says:

    I come across a recovery program Stellar Phoenix Mac Recovery software that provide complete
    Mac recovery from Mac Hard Drives, iPods, Flash Cards and Memory Sticks.I think i will help you out give a shot…


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