I have a question: do you look for a free tool or are you considering paid options too? There aren’t many good free tools for macOS, tbh…

I tried PhotoRec a couple of times and for a free tool it’s great. I recovered a bunch of my photos after I formatted my SD Card in camera. However, what was a deal breaker for me (and probably for a lot of people too) is that there is no graphical interface for Mac. I was soo afraid to press the wrong button lol

@chris_89 Doesn't really matter. If the tool can recover what I need and the price is reasonable, I’m willing to pay. Well, I would not say no to a free tool either, especially in this economy…

@gr3n_tea Hello, welcome to our forum! Redditors already suggested a number of great tools.

Disk Drill is often suggested because it’s pretty universal and user-friendly. The interface is clean, it works well with USB drives, and it supports video formats properly. You can scan and preview files for free, which is important because preview usually tells you if recovery will actually work before you pay.

PhotoRec is a good free option, as already mentioned, but it uses file carving. That means no original filenames and no folder structure, and for videos that can get messy fast. It’s also not very beginner-friendly on macOS.

R-Studio is powerful, no doubt, but the interface is more technical. For simple accidental deletion on a USB stick, it can feel like a bit too much.

If you still have doubts, here are our reviews for each tool:
Disk Drill: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/disk-drill-review/
PhotoRec: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/photorec-review/
R-Studio: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/r-studio-review/

Given your specific case (accidental deletion, USB, video files on macOS), Disk Drill is the most straightforward starting point because it preserves file structure when possible and handles video recovery more reliably than file carving tools. Before scanning, create a disk image of the USB first, Disk Drill has this built in, and it lets you work on a copy instead of the original drive.

Don’t hesitate to tag me if you have any questions or need help with USB recovery on Mac.

I can be a little biased, but still… I bought the Pro version of Disk Drill a couple of years ago and I’m still using it. For video recovery specifically I haven’t found anything that worked better. 

Video recovery is a bit of a special case. It’s not only about “can the tool find the file,” but also whether it can reconstruct it properly. A lot of video formats (especially from cameras, drones, even some phones) don’t store data in a simple continuous way. Files can be fragmented, or rely on metadata that gets lost during deletion.

That’s why it’s sometimes really hard to find a data recovery tool that works well for a specific video type. One tool might recover .mp4 clips perfectly, but struggle with .mov or camera-specific formats. I’ve personally had cases where one app found the files but they wouldn’t play, then another tool recovered fewer files but they were actually usable.

With Disk Drill, what worked better for me is that it seems to handle video structures more reliably than most “general-purpose” tools. Not perfect, but more consistent. Especially noticeable with longer clips.

@gr3n_tea Welcome to the forum! You posted in the right section 👍 The main priority now is exactly what others already mentioned: avoid any write activity on the USB and run the scan as soon as possible. You’ve already received good advice, so I’ll just add a bit of structure to help you choose. When you evaluate a data recovery tool for macOS, pay attention to a few key things:

• File system support – Your USB is exFAT, which is widely supported, but not all tools handle it equally well.
• Preview capability – This is one of the most reliable indicators. If the tool can preview your videos, recovery is much more likely to succeed.
• Scan type – Some tools rely heavily on file signatures (like PhotoRec), while others also use file system metadata. The second approach usually gives better results for recently deleted files.
• File structure recovery – Keeping original names and folders can matter a lot, especially with large video projects.
• Stability with large files – Videos are not small files, so the tool needs to handle big data without freezing or corrupting output.

If you want a broader comparison, we maintain a regularly updated list of tested data recovery software for Mac with pros, cons, and real-world notes:
👉 https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/best-recovery-apps-mac/

It includes tools like Disk Drill, R-Studio, and others, so you can compare them side by side instead of relying only on scattered opinions.

Given your scenario (recent deletion, exFAT USB, mostly video files), you’re in one of the more recoverable situations. Feel free to update the thread with your results, it helps others with similar cases.

@ohiotom I didn’t realize recovery depends that much on how the video is structured. Most of my files are .mp4 from a camera, plus a few .mov clips. From your experience, did Disk Drill handle both formats well, or did you notice differences between them? Also, did you ever have cases where preview worked but the recovered file still had issues?

@gr3n_tea If the video is fine on the preview this usually means it will recover well. Here is a guide, just in case, this video walks through the Disk Drill scan process on Mac step by step: https://youtu.be/6AXshz05hXQ?si=jGTxMBlyKP8vX9Vx

I’ll throw another USB recovery program into the mix: iBoysoft Data Recovery. I tried it on a Mac recently and it’s definitely one of the easier tools to get into, everything is very simple and the whole scan, preview, and recovery process feels clean. It also worked fine with external drives like USB sticks, and the free 1 GB recovery is nice if you just want to test it properly.

That said, I wouldn’t call it perfect. In my case it was a bit less consistent with larger video files compared to something like Disk Drill. It found the files, but not all of them were usable after recovery, so it felt more reliable for smaller or simpler file types than for longer video clips.

Quote from dori_kim on May 1, 2026, 12:45 pm

I’ll throw another USB recovery program into the mix: iBoysoft Data Recovery. I tried it on a Mac recently and it’s definitely one of the easier tools to get into, everything is very simple and the whole scan, preview, and recovery process feels clean. It also worked fine with external drives like USB sticks, and the free 1 GB recovery is nice if you just want to test it properly.

That said, I wouldn’t call it perfect. In my case it was a bit less consistent with larger video files compared to something like Disk Drill. It found the files, but not all of them were usable after recovery, so it felt more reliable for smaller or simpler file types than for longer video clips.

Great it worked for you, but I’ve seen a lot of negative opinions about the tool on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/tq3xdc/iboysoft_data_recovery_pro/

I would recommend proceeding with caution. It’s a legit tool, don’t get me wrong, but there are more reputable options.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate all the input here, this turned out way more helpful than I expected I think I have a much clearer picture now of what to look for, especially the part about preview and how video recovery depends on the file itself. I’ll take some time to go through the reviews and test things properly instead of rushing into it.

I’ll start with Disk Drill and see how the previews look before doing anything else.

Thanks again for all the explanations and advice, I’ll update once I try it 

Quick update, I went ahead and tried Disk Drill.

So far it looks promising. The scan found a lot of my deleted videos, and I can preview quite a few of them. Some clips load instantly, others take a bit longer or don’t preview fully, so I’m not sure yet how that will translate after recovery.

@datarecoverexpert I wanted to ask, in your experience, if a video only partially previews or takes a long time to load in preview, does that usually mean it’s damaged, or is there still a chance it recovers fine?

Quote from Gr3n_tea on May 1, 2026, 3:02 pm

Quick update, I went ahead and tried Disk Drill.

So far it looks promising. The scan found a lot of my deleted videos, and I can preview quite a few of them. Some clips load instantly, others take a bit longer or don’t preview fully, so I’m not sure yet how that will translate after recovery.

@datarecoverexpert I wanted to ask, in your experience, if a video only partially previews or takes a long time to load in preview, does that usually mean it’s damaged, or is there still a chance it recovers fine?

If a video plays fully in preview, that’s usually a very strong sign it will recover without issues. If it only partially loads or struggles, it often points to missing fragments or some level of corruption. That said, previews aren't always perfect. I’ve seen cases where a clip stutters in preview but recovers fine, especially with larger files where the app loads data in chunks. So partial preview doesn’t automatically mean the file is unusable, but it’s a sign to be cautious.

I went ahead and recovered the files using Disk Drill. Most of the videos actually recovered fine and play without issues, which I’m really happy about. A few clips didn’t make it or came out corrupted, but overall I got back the majority of what I needed.

Out of curiosity, I also tried R-Studio and iBoysoft Data Recovery afterward to compare results. Both are legit tools, but in my case they didn’t find as many videos as Disk Drill did, especially when it came to longer clips.

So yeah, not everything was recoverable, but the outcome is still much better than I expected.

Thanks again everyone for the help, this thread really saved me. 

@gr3n_tea

 thanks for coming back with an update, that’s really useful for others.

What you’re describing with the remaining clips is quite common. Some of those videos may be fragmented or have missing metadata, which is why they don’t play properly even after recovery. In certain cases, they can still be repaired.

There are dedicated video repair tools and also online services like Clever Online Video Repair that can rebuild damaged files, especially for formats like MP4 and MOV. Success depends on how much data is intact, but it’s definitely worth trying if those clips are important to you.

If you still have the recovered files, I’d suggest looking into video repair options before giving up on them completely.