Losing files during transferring folders from one location to another is a worrisome issue encountered by thousands of Windows and Mac users all over the world. It mainly happens when there is a glitch or the transfer is interrupted by a sudden system shutdown or abrupt removal of the storage device.
You might have copied files using the Ctrl + C option or Ctrl + X, or you might have just selected files, right-clicked, and selected the Cut option. And when you started the files pasting process, your system crashed or shut down due to an unexpected power cut. Thereby resulting in permanent data loss from the original source location and the destination folder.
How To Recover Lost Files While Moving Folders?
You can easily recover lost files and folders after incomplete data transfer. But you must ensure the lost files aren’t overwritten by new data. We recommend you stop using your system and your drive immediately.
Irrespective of the reason behind the incomplete transfer of data or if you cannot find files after moving them to different locations. You can always use backup copies of lost files or reliable data recovery software like Remo File Recovery for Windows and Remo File Recovery for Mac if you have permanently lost those files.
Table of Contents:
- How To Recover Files Lost While Moving From Windows?
- Undo the Move or Transfer
- Search for the Lost Files within your Window System
- Recover Files Lost During Transfer or Move Using a Specialized Data Recovery Tool
- How To Recover Files Lost While Moving From Mac?
How To Recover Files Lost While Moving from Windows?
The lost files from your Windows system can be easily recovered using solutions like the Undo option, thoroughly finding the files since they might have been moved to another location, or if you think your files are lost forever, then specialized data recovery tools might be extremely useful.
Solution 1: Moved Files Disappeared in Windows? Undo the Action to Recover Moved Data
Unlike life, your Windows system comes with an undo option where you can undo any action taken, such as accidental file move or transfer or delete from any location or folder.
Navigate to the original location of the lost data and simultaneously hit the Ctrl + Z keys.
Or
Navigate to the folder or the location where the files were lost after incomplete transfer or move and right-click from the drop-down menu and click on the Undo option.
Not every one of you might find this solution helpful. In such a case, you can try the next solution that talks about trying to find lost files.
Solution 2: Search for the Lost Files within your Window System
At times, the moved files from one folder or location might be residing in some other folder or location within your system.
In such cases, the best thing one can do is to try finding the disappeared files in other locations within your system. Such as a file might have been saved on C Drive, and that file might have been moved to another partition or volume within your system.
Search the name of the file(s) in File Explorer, and if you have found those files. You can move them to any other location of your choice.
If the files have completely disappeared from your system and are nowhere to be found. In such cases, any backups of the lost, missing, or disappeared files can be restored and used as a proxy for the original files
If you don’t have any backups taken prior to loss of data. Then, utilizing a specialized data recovery tool can be the only option left the users who want to recover moved files disappeared in Windows 10 and other versions.
Solution 3: Recover Lost Files After Transfer or Move Using Remo File Recovery Software for Windows
Tools like Remo File Recovery Software are specially built to work in all basic and extremely complex data loss scenarios, right from accidental file deletion to losing files due to incomplete transfer or moving process to severe scenarios like virus or malware attacks.
Start recovering lost files while transferring now by downloading the tool.
Steps To Recover Files Lost During Transfer On Windows Using Remo
Step 1: Download and install Remo on Windows system to recover lost files during transferring to another device or disk.
Step 2: Launch the tool, select the drive from which you have lost files and click the Scan button.
Step 3: During the scanning process, click on the Dynamic Recovery View option to preview the files while the recovery is in progress.
Step 4: Select the files that you want to recover and double-click on it to Preview the recovered file which was lost while moving.
Step 5: While the scanning is in progress the software displays all the recovered files from the computer in the Lost and Found folder or Lost Partition folder as and when they are recovered.
Step 6: Select files that you want to recover and click on the Recover button to save them at any destination of your choice.
The tool will restore files lost due to the data transfer interruption process at the selected location. Once completed, you can view and use the files.
If you are a Mac user, follow this section to discover how to recover files lost during an incomplete transfer from Macbook or iMac.
How To Recover Lost Files While Transferring On Mac?
Similar to Windows, Mac users can also try the undo option and try finding the missing or disappeared files locally since there’s a high chance that they might have been moved to some other location. If your files are nowhere to be found, then you can restore backup copies of those files.
Solution 1: Recover Files Lost While Moving/Transferring on Mac Using the Undo or Redo Option
Mac offers users a redo option to help them redo the last action they might have performed on their Mac.
Navigate to the folder where the lost files were saved earlier before they were moved to another location and hit the Ctrl + Shift + Z keys simultaneously.
Suppose you did not find this solution helpful in recovering moved files from one location to another location within your Mac. Then you can try the next solution.
Solution 2: Search for Lost Files While Moving/Transferring on Mac
Searching for the lost files within your Mac machine can also be an easy way to recover photos lost while transferring or retrieving any other data.
I recommend you try to find the important files and folders that disappeared while moving from Mac using the Spotlight option or find and view them using the Finder option.
Steps to Find Moved Files in Mac
Spotlight: Launch the Spotlight option and type the file’s name in the search bar. If the file gets displayed on your screen, double-click on it in the search results.
Finder: Click on the Finder icon located in the Dock. Click on the Recents in the sidebar of the Finder. Navigate to Choose View > Group By or Use Groups > Date Last Opened.
If you were able to find those missing, disappeared, or lost files and folders, I suggest you move them to a new location by simply dragging them.
But if your files and data are not found, or you think those files are gone forever. Then, in such situations, one can try restoring the backup copies of the lost files, folders, and data from the backup drive. If you do not have a backup, you are left with no other choice but to use any professional data recovery software like Remo.
Solution 3: Restore Moved Files That Were Disappeared or Lost Using Remo Mac File Recovery Tool
You need to try the Remo File Recovery tool for Mac, a best-in-class tool that will assist you in recovering any type of files lost due to incomplete moving or transfer process from any internal location as well as any external drive.
Steps To Recover Moved Files Disappeared From Mac Using Remo For Mac
Step 1: Launch the application, and from the main screen, Select the Drive from where you want to recover the missing files that were lost after incomplete move or transfer and click on the Scan button.
Step 2: Remo now starts searching for the lost files from the selected drive.
Step 3: Preview the recovered files which were lost due to incomplete data-moving process, by double clicking on any file
Step 4: You are now required to select the files or the folders that you want to recover and select a location to save those recovered files.
Important Tips To Avoid Data Loss While Moving Files:
- Stop using the storage drive after you lose data from it while moving files.
- Use Ctrl + C rather than Ctrl + X.
- Maintain power back up to avoid an abrupt computer shutdown.
- Never save any new data in the location where deleted or lost files were previously saved.
- If you ever lose files, rely on reputed data recovery tools like Remo.
Conclusion:
We conclude our long discussion on recovering lost, missing, and disappeared files and folders after incomplete file moving or data transferring on Windows and Mac. In this article, I have explained how to use Remo Recover on Windows and Mac to get back files lost during moving. I am sure, by now, you have safely recovered the missing files. If you encountered any issues while using the tool or during the data recovery process.