Best Way to Restore Mac and Get All of Your Files Back

How to restore Mac files after you have restored MacOS? Follow our method and you will have your MacOS restored without losing data.

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How to Restore Mac Files and data after Restoring MacOS?

We have smelled a lot of confusion and curiosity regarding the same topic. Some of you have been asking us, how to restore Mac without losing data? Some want to find out, how to restore Mac files after you have restored MacOS? And some of you want to know a way to recover lost files from Mac after you have restored MacOS. Well, it’s obvious that you really need to restore your MacOS, but the problem is that it will erase all of your data during the process, and that might be serious trouble for you, especially if you store some important files in your Mac.

Thus, we have researched various ways that can help you to restore MacOS without losing your data or files. Now, the way to do so might be with the help of a backup or by recovering the data later, but in the end, you will have your MacOS restored without losing data.

Part 1. Try to Restore Mac with The Help of Time Machine Backup

Now, as you have already Restored MacOS to its default and are left with nothing but empty drives and lost files, all you can do is to restore Mac with your old backup files. There are several ways to restore Mac, but let’s suppose that you played safe and already took a backup of your Mac with the help of Time Machine. Now, you can restore Mac with the old data by restoring a single backup file from the Time Machine. Let’s see, how?

Follow the Steps to Restore Mac from Time Machine Backup:

Step 1 To restore Mac with Time Machine, you first need to restart your Mac, you can do so by going to “Apple Menu” on top of your home screen and choosing the “Restart” button. Now, wait until your Mac restarts.

Step 2 Once the Mac restarts and is in the early process of rendering the OS, you need to press and hold the “Command” and “R” keys together, hold them for a while until the Apple logo appears, followed by “MacOS Utilities Menu”. If the MacOS Utilities Menu doesn’t appear, you need to try again, try to press the command keys in the early stage of Reboot.

Step 3 Once you have the MacOS Utilities Menu in front of you, you’ll see that the very first option is the “Restore from Time Machine Backup” option, you need to click on that very first option among the various options to restore Mac with the help of Time Machine Backup, and then click “Continue” if asked.

Step 4 You will be transferred to “Restore Your System Page”, you need to click on “Continue” once again. Now, you will be required to select the Time Machine backup you recently created before restoring your Mac, or you can select any other Time Machine Backup to which you want to restore your Mac, once selected, click on “Continue” to proceed.

Step 5 Once you click the “Continue”, your Mac will start to Restore with the help of your Time Machine Backup that you just chose. Once the process is done, you will be required to Restart your Mac again.

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You can restore Mac from Time Machine easily, but only if you took the backup of all those files and data on Time Machine before restoring your Mac. Thus, it is advisable to take a backup of your Mac on Time Machine before restoring your Mac, because Time Machine is the only integrated tool that you can fully rely on, and it’s the only to provide you with a full restoring feature once you restore MacOS.

Part 2. Try to Restore Mac with the Help of iCloud Backup

If not from the Time Machine, you can restore Mac with the help of iCloud Backup as well. The only thing is that iCloud doesn’t provide you with the full restore feature as the Time Machine. You will be required to go to the iClouds drive and sync the data to your Mac to get it back. The only condition is that you took the backup of your Mac or synced your data to iClouds before restoring MacOS, if yes, then this should be easy.

Follow the Steps to Restore Mac from iCloud Backup:

Step 1 Once you have restored your Mac successfully, connect it to a Wi-Fi or internet connection. Now, you have to go to your browser and browse iCloud.com. Once you are into iClouds.com, simply login with the same account credentials that you used while taking a backup of your Mac.

Step 2 Once you are into your iClouds account, you will see a “Gear” icon that represents iCloud Settings. Click on that “Gear Icon”, it will take you to a new settings windows, in that new window, keep scrolling down until you see “Advanced” section. Under that Advanced section, you will see various restore options i.e. Restore Files, Restore Contacts, Restore Bookmarks etc. Click on “Restore Files”.

Step 3 You will be directed to a new window; you will see all of your recently deleted files listed in that window. Now, as you know which files you want to recover, you have to select the checkbox in front of all those files, or you can select all with the help of “Select All” button. Once selected, simply click “Done”.

Step 4 Now, if you want to restore other data to MacOS as well, you need to use Restore Contacts, Restore Bookmarks, and other data restoring options under the “Advanced” section. Just click on the particular Restore option, it will take you to a new window, inside the window you need to check if the required restoring options are enabled or not, if not, enable them.

If you don’t want to restore all the data from iClouds, you can go with specific restore options, or you can finish it at Step-3 only if you only want to restore deleted files on Mac. As you are only required to Sync the backup of data from iCloud to your Mac to restore Mac, it should be easy, but the only difference between Time Machine and iCloud is that the restoring process of Mac with iCloud take very long.

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Part 3. Best Way to Restore Mac OS Without Losing Your Data

It’s great that you have decided to restore MacOS, there are many beneficial aspects to it, but there is a big let down as well, the loss of data. Restoring the MacOS process is configured in a way that it erases all of your data, to provide you with the fresh OS. All of your data from drives and your important files will be lost.

Now, many of you have been asking us, how to restore MacOS without losing data? To be honest, there is no way through which you can restore MacOS and still keep your data intact, your data will be erased at all cost. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose your files, your data will be erased from Mac, but you can take a backup of your data to avoid losing it.

Yes! The only way to restore MacOS without losing data is to take the backup of your data with the help of a backup tool and then restore Mac and data later from that backup. The best way you can back up your Mac before restoring your MacOS to avoid data loss is with the help of Time Machine.

Backup Your Data Using Time Machine:

Step 1 To take a backup, you first need to connect your Mac with an external storage drive, the bigger the better, connect it by using an authentic USB cable or adapter.

Step 2 Once the drive is connected, navigate to Apple Menu > System Preference > Time Machine. You will find Time Machine app once you are under the System Preference, find it and click on it.

Step 3 In the new Time Machine window, you will see two sections i.e. Right and Left. In the left section, you will see a “Select Backup Disk” option, select that option, you’ll see your connected drive listed on a popup window appearing next, simply choose the drive, and click on “Use Disk” to confirm the selection.

Step 4 Now in the right section, you will find an option “Backup Automatically” under Time Machine logo, you need to enable this option. Once you enable the option, Time Machine will start taking a backup of your Mac.

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Now, once you have taken the backup of your Mac, you can directly jump to restoring MacOS without any worries of losing your data.

Restore MacOS to Its Default Configuration:

Step 1 To start with the restoring of MacOS, Reboot your Mac with the help of the Restart button in the Apple Menu. While your Mac is Rebooting and is about to start, you should press and hold the “Command + R” key, and hold them until the Apple logo appears. Right after the Apple Logo, you will see a “MacOS Utilities Menu” appearing.

Step 2 In the MacOS Utilities Menu, among all the listed options, choose the option “Reinstall MacOS”, and make sure that your Mac has an active internet connection. As soon as you choose the option, it will start to begin the downloading and installation of all the necessary programs required on your Mac.

Step 3 Once the downloading process is done, it will then automatically start the MacOS restoring process. Once done, you will be required to Restart your Mac again. You will see your MacOS in the form of a new and fresh OS after the successful Mac restoring process.

how-to-restore-macbook-air-5

Now, once you have restored MacOS and have brought it to its default configuration, you can simply restore Mac and your files with the help of Time Machine back up. It’s an easy process, you can follow the process we have explained in the “Part 1” of this article to restore Mac from Time Machine backup.

Part 4. How to Recover Lost Files after Restoring macOS

If you are reading this article after already restoring MacOS, the possibilities are very much that you have lost all of your data in the process. The case would have been different if you have read the article before, or have taken a backup first. But as you have already lost your data from Mac, the only option remains is the recovery of lost files from your Mac. Yes! Even after losing all of your files in restoring MacOS, you can still recover them with the help of a good Data Recovery software for Mac.

You can try Recoverit (IS) for Mac, it’s one of the highest rated and best recovery tools for Mac out there. It can easily restore your Mac by recovering all of your lost files, that too in the quickest way possible. We recommend Recoverit (IS) tool because it’s powerful, it’s flexible, it’s compatible with almost all the devices, it’s very easy to use, and it also packs a greater number of useful features than any of the recovery tools out there.

Recoverit (IS) for Mac

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  • iSkysoft being the most flexible recovery tool allows you to recover deleted files from almost all kinds of devices, such as PC, Mobile, Camera, Hard Drives, SD cards, Pen Drives, Laptop, USB Drives, iPod, etc.
  • It is powerful, it can recover all types of the data file from your Mac and Windows, i.e. Video Files, Audio Files, Images, Documents, Contacts, Zip Files, etc.
  • To meet your Recovery needs, the Recoverit (IS) tool comes with multiple Recovery modes such as Lost Partition Recovery, Deleted Files Recovery, Recycle Bin Recovery, All Around Recovery, etc.
  • iSkysoft allows you to recover more than 1000 files types under different data categories. It supports almost all the files formats under Images, Videos, Documents, etc.
  • iSkysoft allows you to preview and chose the recoverable files before you recover them on your Device.
  • iSkysoft provides you with one of the most interactive UI and simplest recovery method. It only takes three steps to restore deleted files on Mac, Windows, Mobile, etc.
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How to Recover Lost Files on Mac? Follow the Steps:

Step 1 Browse to the iSkysoft official website from your Mac, and look for Mac compatible version of Recoverit (IS). Simply download the program and install it on your Mac.

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Step 2 Then, select the storage disk on which you want to perform recovery. You will see multiple disks or partitions listed. Choose the disk from which you want to recover files, and click “Start”.

mac-device-recovery-select

Step 3 After you chose the drive and click the Start button, the program will initiate scanning of the drive and will bring you a preview of all the recoverable deleted files from the selected drive after scanning. You can sort all the files according to the date or navigate through them to find the files that you want to recover, you can also see through their previews to be sure. Once you have selected all the files that you wish to recover, you will be required to click on the “Recover” button, and then chose the location where you want to store it and click “OK”.

mac-all-around-recovery-scan

Conclusion:

To conclude, these above-mentioned ways are the best ways through which you can Restore MacOS without losing your data. The First and the Second ways, that include Time Machine Backup and iCloud Backup respectively, will help you to restore Mac files and data from the backup taken before restoring the MacOS. The last way that includes Recoverit (IS) will help you to recover all of your Mac lost data and files, if you forgot to take back up previously and lost all of your data during restoring MacOS. All this way can help you to keep your data safe, the best way for you can differ according to the situation you are in. So, try to keep your data safe while restoring Mac.

Elva

staff Editor

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