How to recover deleted files from an external SSD on Mac
Short answer
Whether you can recover deleted files from an external SSD on Mac comes down to one thing: TRIM. Most modern portable SSDs (Samsung T7/T9, SanDisk Extreme, Crucial X-series) are NVMe drives, and when formatted for Mac, macOS tells them to erase deleted blocks within minutes — so files you deleted may already be gone. But a drive that was formatted and not written to since, an older SATA SSD, or one where TRIM isn’t active can often still be recovered. Act fast and unplug it now.
Be honest with yourself first
We’d rather tell you the truth than sell false hope. If you deleted photos or videos from a modern NVMe portable SSD a while ago and kept using it, there’s a real chance the data is already unrecoverable — not because your software isn’t good enough, but because the drive itself wiped those blocks. This guide will help you figure out which situation you’re in, try the cases that can be recovered, and avoid wasting money on the ones that can’t.
External SSDsStep 1: stop using the card or drive
Unplug the SSD right now. On an SSD, time is working against you in a way it isn’t on a hard drive: TRIM runs in the background and erases deleted blocks even when you’re not actively saving anything. The sooner you disconnect the drive, the better the odds that whatever is still there survives long enough to recover.
How to check if your SSD uses TRIM
This is the deciding factor, and you can check it for free before installing anything.
- Connect the SSD, then open the Apple menu → About This Mac → More Info.
- Scroll down and click System Report to open System Information.
- In the sidebar, look under NVMExpress (for NVMe drives) or USB (for others) and select your SSD.
- Find the TRIM Support line. Yes means deleted data is likely already cleared. No means the drive behaves more like a regular disk and a scan is worth trying.
Here’s the underlying picture, drawn from independent testing by
The Eclectic Light Company:
macOS sends TRIM to external NVMe SSDs — over USB, USB4 and Thunderbolt — when
they’re formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended. Most modern portable SSDs (the Samsung
T7 and T9, SanDisk Extreme, Crucial X9 and X10) are NVMe inside, so they usually get
TRIM. It generally does not send TRIM to SATA-based external SSDs unless a special
setting (trimforce) was enabled. So a SATA SSD, and every spinning hard drive, behaves
like a disk where deleted data lingers until overwritten.
Short version: NVMe portable SSD formatted for Mac → deleted files may vanish within minutes. SATA SSD, or any SSD you formatted but didn’t write to → recovery is often still possible.
What’s still recoverable
Not every situation is lost. These cases genuinely tend to work:
- A formatted-then-untouched SSD. A quick format (Disk Utility’s Erase, or a camera’s format) rebuilds the file table but doesn’t overwrite your data. If you haven’t written anything to the drive since, a scan can usually rebuild the photos and videos — even on an NVMe drive, because the individual files weren’t deleted one by one for TRIM to chase.
- SATA SSDs and older external drives. With no active TRIM, these keep deleted data until it’s overwritten, exactly like a hard drive.
- exFAT-formatted SSDs. macOS TRIM behaviour is tied to APFS and Mac OS Extended, so an exFAT drive may escape it. This one’s genuinely uncertain — worth a scan, but don’t bank on it.
And the case that usually can’t be recovered: individual photos or videos you deleted some time ago from a Mac-formatted NVMe SSD that you kept using. If TRIM has done its job, there’s nothing left on the disk to find. No tool — ours or anyone’s — can scan back data the drive has already erased.
Why SSDs erase deleted data at all
It’s worth understanding why an SSD works against you here, because it explains why the usual “just run recovery software” advice falls flat. Unlike a hard drive, an SSD can’t simply overwrite a block of data in place — it has to erase a block before it can write to it again, and erasing is slow. To stay fast, the drive erases deleted blocks ahead of time, in the background, so they’re ready when new data arrives. TRIM is the command your Mac uses to tell the SSD which blocks the file system no longer needs. Once the drive acts on that, the old contents are physically cleared. That’s great for keeping your SSD quick, and terrible for recovery — the very mechanism that keeps the drive healthy is the one that removes your deleted photos. It’s not a limitation of the software; it’s how the hardware is designed to behave.
This is also why the formatted-but-untouched case is different. When you format a drive, the individual files aren’t deleted one by one with TRIM chasing each block — the file system is simply rebuilt on top, and the old data underneath is often still intact until something overwrites it. That’s the gap a scan can work in.
Recover deleted files from your external SSD with Shotback
If your situation is one of the recoverable ones, scanning is the next step. Shotback reads the SSD block by block and rebuilds photos and videos from the raw data still on it. Note that Shotback recovers photos and videos only — not documents or other files. It’s read-only, so it never writes to the drive it’s scanning, and scanning and preview are free; you only pay to save what you want.
- Connect the external SSD and open Shotback.
- Select the SSD as the source — it’s opened read-only, so nothing is written back.
- Run the scan and preview what it finds. If it comes up empty on a TRIM-enabled NVMe drive, that’s the TRIM effect, not a fault in the scan.
- Save anything you want to a different drive, never back onto the SSD you’re recovering.
Recovered files lose their original names and folder structure, because the index that held them is gone. Shotback renames what it recovers by date taken and camera model so the results are easy to sort.
Prefer a free, open-source tool?
PhotoRec is a free, open-source, command-line recovery tool that runs on macOS. It’s capable and carves many file types from the raw disk, but it has no preview — you recover everything and sort afterward — and the interface is spartan. On a TRIM-enabled SSD it faces the same hard limit as any tool: it can only find data the drive hasn’t already erased. It’s a fair, honest option if you’d rather not pay.
Related situations
If your drive is a spinning external hard drive rather than an SSD, deleted data lasts much longer — see recover files from an external hard drive on Mac. If the SSD or a memory card isn’t showing up on your Mac at all, start with SD card not showing up on Mac, which covers ports, readers and mounting. And for camera cards specifically, recover deleted photos from an SD card on Mac walks through the same process on media where recovery odds are usually much better.
Frequently asked questions
Can you recover deleted files from an external SSD on Mac?
Sometimes, but be realistic. Many modern portable SSDs are NVMe drives, and when formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended, macOS sends them a TRIM command that clears deleted data within minutes. If TRIM has run, the files are usually gone. If it hasn't — an older SATA SSD, or a drive that was formatted but not written to — a scan can still work.
How do I check if my external SSD uses TRIM?
Open the Apple menu → About This Mac → More Info → System Report (System Information). Under NVMExpress or USB, find your SSD and look for a "TRIM Support" line. "Yes" means deleted data is likely already cleared; "No" means it behaves more like a regular disk.
Why did recovery work on my SD card but not my SSD?
SD cards and hard drives keep deleted data until it's overwritten, so a scan finds it. Most modern NVMe SSDs support TRIM, which actively erases deleted blocks within minutes so the drive stays fast. That erased data is gone for good — nothing can scan it back.
I formatted my external SSD but haven't used it since. Can I recover it?
Often, yes. A quick format rebuilds the file table but doesn't overwrite the data, and if you haven't written anything new to the drive, a scan can usually rebuild your photos and videos. Stop using it now and scan before that changes.
Does Shotback recover documents from an SSD?
No — Shotback recovers photos and videos only. For documents, check Time Machine or another backup, since deleted documents on a TRIM-enabled SSD are typically unrecoverable by any tool.
My SSD is formatted exFAT. Does TRIM still apply?
It's less clear-cut. macOS TRIM behaviour is tied to APFS and Mac OS Extended volumes; exFAT SSDs may not get the same treatment, so a scan is more likely to find something. It's worth trying, but don't count on it.