Deleted photos and videos on an SD card are usually recoverable, as long as you stop using the card the moment you notice. A corrupted video file that won't play is a different problem with a lower recovery rate, and the fix depends on exactly what's broken. This covers both: getting deleted files back, and what can and can't be done with a video file that's corrupted but still on the card.
TL;DR: Deleting a file marks its space as free, it doesn't erase the data, so recovery software can usually get it back if you stop writing to the card immediately. A corrupted video file (won't play, 0 bytes, 'file damaged' errors) is often missing its index rather than its footage; a remux is worth trying first, but a true fix usually needs a specialized repair tool, not just any video app.
Can You Recover Deleted Photos and Videos From an SD Card on Mac?
Usually, yes. Deleting a file on an SD card doesn't erase the actual data, it just marks that space as available to be overwritten by something new. Until that happens, the photo or video is still physically on the card, which is what recovery software reads to bring it back.
The one thing that ruins this: using the card again. Every new photo, video, or format wipes a little more of the space that held your deleted files, and there's no way to know in advance which sectors get overwritten first. The moment you realize something's missing, stop shooting on that card and stop opening it in anything that might write to it, including some phone photo apps that cache thumbnails back to the card.
How to Recover Deleted Files From an SD Card on Mac
- Stop using the card. Don't format it, don't shoot on it, don't let any app "repair" it automatically.
- Connect it to your Mac with a card reader rather than through a camera, if possible; a direct reader connection is more reliable for recovery software than going through camera firmware.
- Run recovery software. PhotoRec is free, open source, and works by scanning the raw card for file signatures rather than relying on the (possibly damaged) file table, which is exactly what you want when files are missing rather than just hidden. Paid tools (Disk Drill, Stellar Photo Recovery) cover the same ground with a friendlier interface, if the terminal-based PhotoRec workflow isn't for you.
- Recover to your Mac or a different drive, never back onto the card itself. Writing recovered files to the same card you're recovering from can overwrite the very data you're trying to save.
- Check filenames before you trust the count. Recovered files from signature-based scanning often come back renamed (f0000123.jpg instead of the original filename) since the file table that held the original name is exactly what's often damaged. Sort by date or thumbnail preview to sanity-check what you got back.
Recovery software works less reliably the more the card has been used since deletion, and doesn't work at all on a card that's been reformatted and shot on again. If a shoot matters enough, this is worth doing the same day you notice, not after one more card cycle "just to be sure."
How to Fix a Corrupted Video File on Mac
A video file that won't play, shows as 0 bytes, or gives a "file is damaged" error is a different problem from a deleted file. Usually the footage itself is intact on the card; what's missing or broken is the file's index (the "moov atom" in MP4 and MOV files), which tells a video player where each frame lives inside the file. That index gets written last, after recording stops. If a battery dies, a card gets pulled, or the camera crashes mid-recording, the raw footage exists but the index that makes it playable never got written.
Try a remux first. This is a quick, free check with ffmpeg, a free command-line tool:
ffmpeg -i broken_clip.mp4 -c copy fixed_clip.mp4
-c copy re-wraps the file without re-encoding, which is fast and lossless. This fixes container-level issues (wrong extension, a minor structural problem) but it does not rebuild a genuinely missing index, since ffmpeg needs that same index to read the file correctly in the first place. If the command errors out or the output still won't play, the moov atom is actually missing, not just misread.
For a true missing-index repair, you need a tool built specifically for this: Untrunc (free, requires a working reference file from the same camera and settings to rebuild the index against) or a paid repair tool (Stellar Repair for Video, Wondershare Repairit) that automates the same process with a friendlier interface. Recovery odds are good when the footage itself is intact and you have a healthy reference clip; they drop significantly if the card also has physical damage or the recording was corrupted partway through rather than just missing its final index.
Be honest with yourself about what these tools can't do: if the raw data is genuinely gone (overwritten, or the card failed mid-write), no repair tool rebuilds footage that isn't there anymore. Recovery and repair both work on data that still physically exists; neither one is capable of un-overwriting something.
When the Card Won't Mount At All
Recovery assumes your Mac can see the card, even if the files on it are missing or broken. If the card doesn't show up in Finder or Disk Utility at all, that's a different, earlier problem: reader compatibility, the physical lock switch, or a corrupted filesystem rather than corrupted individual files. The SD card not showing up on Mac guide covers that case specifically, including when it's safe to attempt filesystem repair versus when to go straight to raw recovery.
Preventing the Next One
Recovery and repair are what you do after something's already gone wrong, and both work best when the card hasn't been reused and you catch the problem fast. The upstream fix is verifying every file made it off the card before you trust the card again, ideally with a checksum rather than just a visual file count. The SD card offload guide covers what a verified offload actually looks like, and the OffShoot vs ShotPut Pro vs Silverstack comparison covers the dedicated ingest tools built around that verification step.
FAQ
PhotoRec is free, open source, and effective for recovering deleted photos and videos by scanning the raw card for file signatures. Paid options like Disk Drill or Stellar Photo Recovery cover similar ground with a graphical interface and preview features, which is worth it if the terminal-based PhotoRec workflow feels unfamiliar. Neither costs anything to try; most recovery tools let you scan and preview for free before you pay to actually export the recovered files.
Stop using the card immediately, connect it with a card reader, and run recovery software like PhotoRec. It scans the raw card for file signatures rather than relying on the file table, which is what makes it work even when files are missing from the normal directory listing. Always recover to your Mac or a separate drive, never back onto the card you're recovering from.
The most common cause is a missing or incomplete index (the moov atom in MP4/MOV files), which happens when recording is interrupted before the camera finishes writing the file, usually from a dead battery or a card pulled mid-recording. The actual footage is often intact on the card; what's broken is the part that tells a video player how to read it, which is why specialized repair tools can often fix it while a normal media player just shows an error.
It depends on what's actually wrong. If the card's filesystem is damaged but the storage itself is healthy, Disk Utility's First Aid can sometimes repair it without data loss, though repeated repair attempts on a card with recoverable files risk overwriting them. If the card is failing electrically or physically, no repair fixes that, and the priority shifts to recovery software pulling data off before the card gets worse, not fixing the card itself.
Sometimes. Running ffmpeg -i broken.mp4 -c copy fixed.mp4 remuxes the file without re-encoding, which fixes minor container issues quickly and for free. It cannot rebuild a genuinely missing index, since ffmpeg needs that same index to process the file correctly. If the remux fails or the output still won't play, the file needs a dedicated repair tool like Untrunc, which reconstructs the missing index using a reference file from the same camera.