We have all done it: the tap in the wrong place, the thoughtless swipe or the maybe a reboot at the wrong time and, poof, the files on your Android phone are gone. All those photos, videos and work documents up in smoke.
While the best way to avoid losing data on mobile devices is continual backups, they’re not always an option. Physical drives you keep at home are another purchase you need to make, and cloud backups are a continuous luxury in South Africa with the price of data not going down any time soon.
If you’re a macOS user, you may be in luck because many programmes (most of them free to use) can be downloaded to help you retrieve some of those lost files.
CleverFiles outlines the 5 best Android recovery tools for Mac with Disk Drill for Mac being the first one to look at.
This programme for Apple computers should work with any Android device which has the ability to be rooted and can be connected to your computer via USB.
After downloading the software there’s a simple four step process to this programme, starting with pausing all activity on the Android device, and then turning off WiFi and all other network services on the phone or tablet.
After connecting to the Mac device over USB, root access needs to be allowed so that Disk Drill can try look into the deleted files.
After rooting the device, Disk Drill can look for files to recover on both the internal memory, as well as any external memory like an SD card. If you’ve never rooted an Android device before, the programme will provide you a link on how to do so.
Finally Disk Drill can perform one of many types of scans or partition searches, which you can choose depending on your needs. Alternatively the Recover option can be selected to allow the software to try to go through all the recovery methods possible.
While rooting your device may seem like a drastic step, it’s an option that you can do now to recover data that may be gone without recourse tomorrow. Disk Drill also makes this process so simple that someone with little technical skill can do it.
Disk Drill for Mac is available to download for free, with optional Pro upgrades available should you wish to access some more features such as recovery of all media types and files. Those who run a company or the IT department for one may also want to invest in the Enterprise upgrade which works for an unlimited amount of users and up to 10 Mac devices, and has a forensic data export (DFXML).
The portable and increasingly disposable nature of Android devices betrays the fact that they may be holding valuable data either in sentimental terms or in financial ones. It’s nice to know that there’s software out there to get some of that data back should things go awry.
