How to recover RAW photos from a memory card on a Mac

SD & memory cards

Losing a card full of RAW files hits differently — those are the frames you shoot precisely because you want the full editing latitude later. The reassuring part is that when you set out to recover RAW photos from a memory card on a Mac, the RAW data is usually still there after a deletion, waiting on the card until something overwrites it. This guide covers the free checks first, the RAW formats Shotback handles, the JPEG-versus-RAW trap to watch for, and the read-only scan itself.

Step 1: stop using the card

As soon as you notice RAW files are missing, stop shooting on that card. Every new frame you capture can overwrite the deleted RAW data, and that’s the single thing most likely to make a recoverable file unrecoverable. Take the card out of the camera and leave it untouched until you’re working on it on your Mac.

Free checks before any software

Recovery software is a last resort, not a first move. Rule these out first — they cost nothing:

• A second card slot. If you shoot a dual-slot camera, your RAW files may already be safe on the other card (more on this below).
• Your imports. Check Photos, Lightroom, Capture One, or the folder you usually import to. A “lost” card is sometimes just footage you already copied off and forgot.
• Time Machine or a backup. If you imported the RAW files to your Mac and then lost them from there, a backup may hold them — see our guide on photos deleted from a Mac for where to look.

The RAW formats Shotback recovers

RAW isn’t one format — each camera maker has its own. Shotback recovers the common ones:

• CR2 and CR3 — Canon
• NEF — Nikon
• ARW — Sony
• RAF — Fujifilm
• ORF — OM System / Olympus
• RW2 — Panasonic
• DNG — Adobe’s open RAW format, used by many cameras, drones and phone apps

It recovers JPEG photos and MP4/MOV video from the same card too, so a mixed card comes back in one scan rather than several. That matters for RAW shooters especially, because a single card often holds RAW frames, in-camera JPEGs and the odd video clip side by side — you don’t have to guess which format you’re chasing or run the card through more than once.

The JPEG-versus-RAW trap

Here’s a detail worth knowing before you trust any recovery result. Every RAW file has a smaller JPEG preview baked inside it — that’s what your camera shows on its screen. The catch: some recovery tools may return only that embedded JPEG rather than rebuilding the full RAW file. It looks like your shot at a glance, but it’s a compressed JPEG with none of the RAW editing headroom you were shooting for.

So confirm you’re actually getting the RAW file back, not just its preview. With Shotback you’ll see full-quality previews of what it finds before you save, which is exactly the moment to check you’re recovering real CR3 or NEF or ARW files and not stand-in JPEGs.

Get the right reader for your card

Different cameras use different cards, and the reader has to match:

• SD / microSD — the most common; a standard SD slot or a cheap USB reader works.
• CFexpress — fast cards in many recent mirrorless bodies; needs a CFexpress reader.
• CompactFlash (CF) — older pro bodies; needs a CF reader.

CFexpress and CF cards won’t fit an SD slot, so you’ll need a reader made for that card type. Once the card is connected and mounts read-only, the scan works the same regardless of card type. If the card won’t mount at all, work through SD card not showing up on Mac first.

Recover the RAW files with Shotback

With the free checks done and the card connected read-only, Shotback scans it block by block and rebuilds the deleted RAW files from the data still on the card. It’s read-only by design, so the scan can’t alter the card, and scanning and previewing are free — you only pay to save.

Screenshot: Shotback previewing recovered Canon CR3 and Nikon NEF RAW files from a memory card

If you prefer a free, open-source route, PhotoRec runs on the Mac and recognises many RAW formats. It’s genuinely capable, but it’s command-line only with no preview — it carves everything it finds into a folder for you to sort through afterwards, and it can’t show you a file before recovering it. If you’re comfortable in Terminal, it’s a fair option and worth knowing about.

What recovered RAW photos look like

Recovered files lose their original names and folders, so the frame numbers your camera assigned won’t come back. Shotback renames what it finds by date and camera so you can sort the RAW files into some order, which is standard behaviour for any recovery tool — the naming lives in the card’s file table, and that’s the part that gets wiped when files are deleted or the card is formatted.

A quick word on formatting, since it’s a common way RAW cards get wiped: a quick or in-camera Format rebuilds the file table but usually leaves the RAW data in place, so it’s often recoverable if you haven’t shot anything new. A full or low-level format overwrites the card, which makes recovery very unlikely. There’s more on this in our guide to recovering photos from a formatted SD card.

For related situations, see recovering deleted photos from an SD card and recovering deleted GoPro videos, or start from the Shotback home page to find the guide that matches your device.