How to recover deleted GoPro videos on a Mac
Short answer
To recover deleted GoPro videos on a Mac, first stop recording and take the microSD out of the camera so nothing overwrites the footage. Check the free copies first — the GoPro Quik app and GoPro cloud may already hold the clips. If not, connect the card to your Mac with a reader and scan it read-only; deleted GoPro videos are usually recoverable if the card hasn’t been written to since.
Losing footage off a GoPro is gutting — a run you can’t redo, a dive that’s over, a first-try line you nailed. The good news is that when you recover deleted GoPro videos on a Mac the odds are often in your favour, because a deleted clip isn’t wiped straight away. It just sits on the microSD (the small memory card from your camera or action cam) until the camera records over it. This guide walks the free options first, then the read-only scan, and it’s honest about the one case — a clip cut off mid-recording — where footage may come back incomplete.
Step 1: stop using the card
The moment you notice a clip is missing, stop recording. Every new video you shoot can land on top of the deleted footage and overwrite it for good, which is the one thing that turns a recoverable clip into a lost one. Power the GoPro off and leave the microSD alone until you’re ready to work on it on your Mac.
Free checks before any software
Before you scan anything, look in the places a copy might already be sitting — it costs nothing and can save you the whole exercise.
- The GoPro Quik app. If you’ve ever imported or auto-uploaded clips through GoPro’s Quik app on your phone or Mac, the footage may already be on that device or in your library. Open Quik and scroll back through your media.
- GoPro cloud. GoPro subscribers get automatic cloud upload when the camera charges on Wi-Fi. Sign in at gopro.com and check your cloud media — a clip you deleted off the card might still be safe in the cloud.
- The camera’s own playback. Sometimes a clip looks “gone” because you were on the wrong view. Power the GoPro back on just long enough to scrub through playback — but if the footage really is deleted, don’t keep recording on that card.
If you find the footage in Quik or the cloud, you’re done — download it from there and skip the scan entirely. Free copies always beat recovery.
How GoPro names its files (and the hidden fallbacks)
GoPro filenames look cryptic on purpose, and knowing them helps you recognise your footage after a scan. Recent GoPro cameras use names like GX010123.MP4 or GH010123.MP4; older models used GOPR0123.MP4. High-res photos are .JPG.
Two extra file types matter for recovery:
- LRV (Low Resolution Video) — a small proxy copy the camera makes so the app can preview and edit smoothly. It’s much lower quality than the real clip.
- THM — a tiny thumbnail image of each clip.
Here’s why that’s useful: LRV and THM files sometimes survive when the full-quality MP4 doesn’t. If a scan can’t rebuild your original clip, a recovered LRV can at least give you a watchable low-res version of the moment — better than nothing when the alternative is empty-handed. A recovery scan will surface these alongside the MP4s.
Connect the microSD to your Mac
GoPro cards are microSD, so you’ll need a way to read one:
- Power the GoPro off and pop the microSD out of the side door.
- Slot it into a microSD-to-SD adapter, or use a USB microSD reader.
- Plug the reader into your Mac. The card should appear in Finder and Disk Utility.
- Don’t let the Mac (or Photos) copy anything back onto the card — you only want to read from it.
If the card doesn’t mount at all, that’s a different problem — work through SD card not showing up on Mac first, then come back here.
Recover the footage with Shotback
Once free copies are ruled out and the card mounts read-only, Shotback can scan the microSD block by block and rebuild the deleted clips from the raw data still on it. It’s read-only by design, so the scan can’t damage the card, and scanning and previewing are free — you only pay to save.
- Open Shotback and choose the GoPro microSD as the source to scan.
- Let it run a full scan. Video takes longer than photos, so give it time.
- Preview the clips it finds — you’ll see thumbnails before you commit to anything.
- Select the videos you want and save them to a different drive, never back onto the GoPro card you’re recovering from.
Always save recovered clips to another disk — your Mac’s drive or a separate external. Writing them back onto the same microSD can overwrite footage you haven’t rescued yet.
Prefer a free command-line route? PhotoRec is a well-regarded open-source recovery tool that runs on the Mac. It’s free and effective, but it has no preview — it carves everything it can find into a folder for you to sort through afterwards, with no way to see a clip before you recover it. If you’re comfortable in Terminal and don’t mind sifting the output, it’s a genuinely good option and we’d rather you know about it.
The “battery died mid-recording” case
This one deserves plain talk. If your GoPro shut off mid-clip — dead battery, card yanked out, a crash — the camera never got to finish writing and closing that file. The clip may be incomplete: part of the video made it onto the card and part didn’t.
A recovery scan can bring back whatever data is physically on the microSD, and Shotback will recover exactly that. But Shotback does not repair broken or incomplete video — it recovers the footage as it exists on the card and doesn’t rebuild a clip that was never fully written. Sometimes a partial file still plays up to the cut-off point; sometimes it won’t play at all. There’s no way to promise which.
What recovered GoPro footage looks like
Because recovered files lose their original names and folders, don’t expect the tidy GX/GH numbering back. Shotback renames what it finds by date and camera so you can sort clips into some order, but the exact original filenames are gone. That’s normal for any recovery tool — the naming lives in the card’s file table, which is the very thing that gets wiped when you delete.
For related situations, see recovering deleted DJI drone footage, deleted photos from an SD card, or RAW photos from a memory card. And if the footage was only ever on your Mac, not a card, start at the Shotback home page and read our guide on photos deleted from a Mac instead.
Frequently asked questions
Can I recover GoPro videos I deleted from the camera itself?
Usually yes, if you act fast. Deleting a clip on a GoPro just marks that space as free on the microSD — the video data stays until the camera writes something new over it. Stop recording, take the card out, and scan it read-only.
What are the LRV and THM files on my GoPro card?
LRV is a low-resolution proxy version of a clip that the GoPro uses for quick preview, and THM is a small thumbnail image. They sometimes survive when the full-quality MP4 does not, so they are worth recovering as a fallback.
My GoPro battery died mid-recording. Can I get that clip back?
A clip cut off mid-write may be incomplete, because the camera never finished closing the file. A recovery scan can bring back whatever data made it onto the card, but Shotback recovers footage as-is and does not repair broken video.
Do I need to take the microSD out of the GoPro?
It is the safest way. Power the camera off, remove the microSD, and connect it to your Mac with a card reader so nothing new gets written to it while you work.
Will the recovered clips have their original names?
No. Recovered videos lose their original filenames and folders. Shotback renames them by date and camera so you can sort through them, but the GX/GH numbering is not preserved.
Is it free to check whether my GoPro footage is recoverable?
Yes. Shotback scans and previews for free, so you can see which clips are recoverable before deciding anything. You only pay when you save the ones you want.