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How to Unformat SD Card on Mac?

Coco Lin
Written byCoco LinUpdated on Nov 06, 2025
Gerhard Chou
Approved byGerhard Chou

Table of Contents

Before we start: If data loss happened due to formatting a wrong SD card, all files on the card will be removed. Donemax Data Recovery can help you unformat the SD card and recover the missing files effectively on Mac.

 

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PAGE CONTENT:

My god, I accidentally formatted my Camera SD card. I cannot see my favorite photos and movies. Everything is gone. I fee so sad. Is there any way to recover data from SD card after format? How can I unformat my SD card? Any one who knows, please tell me how to unformat an SD card on Mac. Thanks very much.

- Jesse

For the above case, it is very common. SD card is widely used to save various types of data like photos, videos, audio. But, we may be losing data because of intentional or unintentional format the SD card. At this time, please don't worry. In this article, you will get the answer.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

Here are some methods you can adopt to recover formatted SD card on Mac and get back the lost files. This page will show you some reliable ways to unformat SD card on Mac with or without data recovery software.

Why People Format SD Card?

As known to most users, the data on an SD card will be all removed after formatting. However, some users still lost data due to formatting the SD card. Why people format SD card and cause data loss? Here are the common reasons for people formatting an SD card:

  • Unintentionally press Format button. You cannot access the data on SD card no matter the format is completed or not.
  • Format message exists like "SD card is damaged. Trying reformatting it". There are various errors to prompt you to format it.
  • Intentionally format SD cards to save more storage space.
  • SD card is attacked by virus.

Once you format your SD card, you will lose all your important data. When you do Format operation, please be care. We suggest you to back up all your data when do any operation.

Now, let's see how to unformat SD card on Mac, in other words, how to recover lost data from SD card.

How to Unformat SD Card and Recover Lost Data on Mac?

After data loss on SD card, there are still chances to get back the lost data in different ways. Here we will introduce some solutions to help you recover the lost data.

Method 1. Check the cloud storage

If the SD card was used on a camera, you can check if you ever set to sync the data to cloud automatically (if supported). You can go to the cloud website to check and download the photos/videos to local computer.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

Method 2. Locate the backup data on other places

If you find data loss on SD card due to formatting it, you can check if you have the data backed up somewhere else.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

For example, if you regularly back up data to computer or external drive after using the SD card, you can go to these places to check if the missing files could be found from backups.

Method 3. Recover formatted SD card on Mac with software

If there is no synced or manually created backup data available, don't be panic. There is still another way to recover the formatted data from the SD card directly - using data recovery software.

💡 Note: To ensure there is a great chance to recover the data from the formatted SD card on Mac, stop using the SD card immediately. If you add new data to the card or reuse the card, the lost data might be overwritten and cannot be recovered successfully in any way.

Most people think when SD card is formatted, all the data will be deleted. Actually, your data is not permanently deleted and can be recovered. Although it sounds different, you have a chance to unformat SD card. You will recover you lost data from formatted SD on Mac with help of Donemax Data Recovery.

Safe and Effective Unformat SD Card Software - Donemax Data Recovery for Mac

  • Support more than 1000 file types: photos, videos, audios, documents, etc.
  • Support almost all SD/CF/XD/MMC/SM/MS card, Smart Card and others.
  • Fully compatible operating system: macOS, OS X and Windows OS.

Also, the software is very easy-to-use. With a few clicks, you can effectively get back the lost files from a formatted SD card on Mac. Please follow the steps.

Step 1. Connect your SD card to your Mac via a card reader. Please make sure that your SD card can be shown up on your Mac.

Step 2. Install and launch Donemax Data Recovery for Mac.

Donemax Data Recovery for Mac

  • Unformat SD card on Mac within simple steps.
  • Quickly recover deleted and formatted data from HDD, SSD, memory card, digital camera, USB flash drive, etc.
  • 100% safe for all Mac data recovery situations.
  • Fix corrupted SD card and get back data.
 

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Mac Data Recovery

Rate: 4.8

     

Step 3. Specify the scan location. Please select the SD card where you want to get the lost data back.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

Step 4. Click the Scan button and the software will start to scan the formatted SD card to find the lost files. Just wait patiently until the scanning process is finished.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

Step 5. When scan completed, you will find lots of results. At this time, you can use Filter feature. It will help you filter a specific file type and gives you fast access to what you need.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

Step 6. To ensure an actual recovery, you can preview files like photos, videos, music or Word, to make sure that the data are intact and recoverable. Preview the found files and select the files you want to recover, then click Recover button. Finally, you will get the lost data back.

💡 Tips: Ensure to select another card or drive to save the recovered files. Otherwise, the recovered files might be corrupted.

recover formatted SD card on Mac

SD card is widely used for saving data for digital camera, mobile phone, etc. If you intentionally format your SD card, please don't worry. Any data recovery problems, Donemax Data Recovery for Mac will fix them. Donemax Data Recovery can also support recovering lost data on Windows 11, 10, 8, etc. So you can also unformat SD card and recover data on your PC.

Donemax Data Recovery for Mac is a powerful and easy-to-use data recovery tool, which is not only for deleted and formatted recovery, but also useful for more data loss issues like virus attack, power failure, system crash, OS re-installation/upgrade, hard drive crash, software crash, or other unknown reasons. No matter it is an HDD, SSD, SD Card, Memory Card, Flash Drive and USB Drive, Donemax Data Recovery for Mac can find what you want and won't let you down.

How to Avoid The Risk of Data Loss on SD Card?

In many cases, you have no choice to format your SD card to solve some problems. But there are some things you can do before or after formatting your SD card to avoid data loss.

Before formatting, we should keep good habit of making precaution.

  • Back up the important data to multiple devices or cloud devices.
  • Check if any virus exists before connecting SD card to device.

After formatting, please remember the following tips which will greatly improve the success rate of formatted SD card recovery and reduce the risk of data loss.

  • Don't do anything after formatting in order to overwrite the data.
  • Don't format your SD card if Windows ask to do.
  • Find a reliable and professional SD card Data Recovery Software.

If you have done the above things, your data won't lose. Though your data lost, it will be retrieved with 99% success rate. You just need a professional data recovery software, then everything will be back.

Conclusion:

It's important to back up data regularly. For SD card, it's a good habit to transfer the data to computer, cloud or external hard drive after photographing. If SD card is formatted unintentionally or data loss due to any issue, you can still get back the data easily from backups.

If there is no backups available after formatting SD card by mistake, it's not hopeless. You can still recover the formatted SD card data on Mac with reliable recovery software like Donemax Data Recovery for Mac. It's important to stop using the SD card to prevent any further writing operations. If formatted data was overwritten by new data, it will be hard to recover the data successfully.

Follow this page to unformat SD card on Mac and pay attention to the tips. Mostly, you can get back the missing files with high success rate on Mac.

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Donemax Data Recovery for Mac

Donemax Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best Mac data recovery software. It is easy-to-use and can help in recovering deleted, formatted, inaccessible or lost data from Mac HDD/SSD, external disk, USB drive, SD card, camera or other storage devices.

 

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Mac Data Recovery

Rate: 4.8

     

Coco Lin
Contributing Writer

Coco Lin

Coco has been a writer and a chief programmer at Donemax software since 2018. Over 10 years of experience of writing troubleshooting articles in the software industry, she is passionate about programming and loves to providing solutions to Windows and Mac users. Also she enjoys music and palying tennis in her free time.

Gerhard Chou
Editor in chief

Gerhard Chou

In order to effectively solve the problems for our customers, every article and troubleshooting solution published on our website has been strictly tested and practiced. Our editors love researching and using computers and testing software, and are willing to help computer users with their problems