5 Best JPEG Recovery Software for Mac or Windows (Online and Free Included)

It is much likely that you got large loads of JPEG photos on your computer or external storage drive, but somehow, you realized that some of the important JPEG files are lost or deleted, they mean so much to you and you want to get them back.

To successfully perform a JPEG recovery, we need professional or free JPEG recovery tools. Here in this post, we will list 5 best JPEG recovery software used on a Mac or Windows PC.

#1 Cisdem Data Recovery (Mac)

Price: $49.99/lifetime

Compatibility: macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier

Pros:

• Recover lost, deleted, formatted files
• Recover files from both internal and external drive on Mac (USB, SD, SDHC, Pen Drive, etc.)
• Recover files in 200+ types: video, audio, photo, document, archive, etc.
• Support various image recovery: JPEG, PNG, GIF, PSD, TIF, 40+ formats
• Preview JPEG and other files before recovery
• 5 recovery modes for different JPEG loss situation
• Recovered JPEG and files can be opened/viewed without error

​Cons:

• Only for macOS
• Cannot repair corrupted photos

Cisdem Data Recovery is a macOS program to recover various files, including JPEG and other 200+ types of files. It can fast detect the lost or deleted files, display them in a list of folders, you can preview, check the file info and select one or multiple files to recover within seconds. Not only designed to recover files from Mac internal drive, Cisdem Data Recovery can also restore files from external storage devices connecting to your Mac: USB, PenDrive, SD, SDHC, Media Player…

How to Do JPEG Recovery with Cisdem?

1. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery on Mac.
   Free Download
2. Select a data recovery mode.
   There are 5 recovery modes: Basic, Trash, External Drive, Formatted Drive, Advanced. You can start with Basic or Trash Recovery mode, also choose External Drive Recovery if your JPEG are lost on removable storage devices. 
3. Then choose the hard drive where you lost the JPEG files on Mac, click Scan to start the scanning process. 
4. Then preview the files, select all the JPEG images and click Recover button to finish JPEG recovery on Mac. 

#2 JPEG Recovery Pro (Windows)

Price: $49.95/lifetime

Compatibility: Windows 10 and earlier

Pros:

• Recover deleted and restore corrupted images
• Support recovery on 10+ image formats: JPEG, CRW, NEF, RAF, etc.
• Auto repair JPEG image
• Extract thumbnails from the input file
• Preview images before recovery
• Fast scanning with advanced options, basing on file type, thumbnail suffix, max file size, etc.

Cons:

• No-refund policy
• In most case, it cannot recover a corrupted JPEG image

JPEG Recovery Pro from World Technology Limited is a Windows program to recover images. It can restore 10+ formats of images, including JPEG and some raw files. You can use its advanced options to accelerate the scanning process, to scan JPEG file only, to scan file less than a certain file size…It can auto repair corrupted JPEG files and retain all data in the picture. Image preview is also supported before the recovery process starts.

How to Do JPEG Recovery with JPEG Recovery Pro on Windows?

1. Download and install JPEG Recovery Pro onto your Windows PC.
2. Choose the folder where you lost the JPEG files.
3. Use the Options to scan JPEG only, so you can have a fast scanning.
4. Click Scan to list out the JPEG images.
5. Preview the JPEG files, select them and click Recover to restore the images.

#3 Recuva (Free)

Price: Free/$19.95 for Pro version

Compatibility: Windows 10 and earlier

Pros:

• Free
• Recover graphics, MS documents, Open Office documents, audio, video, archives, etc.
• Restore images, including JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIFF
• Restore files from both internal and external hard drive
• Use Recuva Wizard to fast scan certain type of files
• Quick and deep scan modes

Cons:

• The program is not under active upgrade
• The scanning process is slow
• Cannot recover corrupted JPEG and other images
• File names are messed up

Recuva offers both free and paid versions to recover different types of file on Windows PC. The program has come to service for more than 15 years, but since the year of 2016, it doesn’t upgrade on regular basis. However, due to its free price and ability to recover at least 70% of the lost or deleted files, it is still a piece of free and hot software to do JPEG recovery. It can restore 5 categories of files and offers 2 scanning modes, the scanning and recovering process is relatively slow, you need to wait patiently.

How to Do JPEG Recovery with Recuva for Free

1. Download and install Recuva on Windows PC
2. Run the program by following Recuva Wizard, choose File Location and click Next to continue 
3. Choose file type and click Next 
4. Choose Quick or Deep Scan and click Start
5. Preview the JPEG images and click Recover to restore files on Windows. 

#4 PhotoRec (Free)

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows 10 and earlier, macOS 10.14 and earlier

Pros:

• Free
• Restore Office documents, PDF, HTML, ZIP and images
• Work with hard drive, CD-ROMs, memory cards, etc.

Cons:

• Text (command-line) based, interface is not user friendly
• Take time to perform a JPEG recovery
• Low recovery rate, a part of lost or deleted files cannot be recovered
• Cannot recover corrupted JPEG and other images

PhotoRec is a command-line based free program to recover photos and other documents. It works with Mac Terminal app to restore files from different partitions and drives, therefore, you have to use the arrows and keys on your keyboard to run the recovery process. There may be errors during the recovery process, so it’s better to have some knowledge about Terminal.

How to Do JPEG Recovery Free with PhotoRec?

1. Download and install PhotoRec, run the program with Terminal and enter Mac password
2. Select the location and partition where you want to recover JPEG files, press Enter to continue 
3. Choose file system type, press Enter, then select destination and press C to start the JPEG recovery for free 
4. When the JPEG recovery finishes, check the recovered JPEG files in destination folder. 

#5 JPEG Recovery Online

Price: Free/Subscription $59~$399

Compatibility: All Windows, macOS versions

Pros:

• Free
• Recover corrupted/damaged JPEG files

Cons:

• Very low recovery rate: no recoverable data was detected
• Recover one JPEG per time
• Require subscription to recover JPEG files successfully

Online.officerecovery/JPEG Recovery is an online free service to repair corrupted or damaged JPEG files. But in fact, only 1 of my uploaded JPEG files was successfully repaired with this online free tool, it is just a matter of luck, you will still need to find a professional JPEG recovery tool. 

How to Do JPEG Recovery Online Free?

1. Go to online.officerecovery.com
2. Click on Choose File to import the JPEG image you want to recover, then click Secure Upload and Repair
3. Then download the recovered JPEG file online.

Conclusion

The most reliable way to recover JPEG files on Mac or Windows, basing on my test results, is using a professional JPEG recovery program. Those free or web based JPEG recovery tools work in some occasions, but have limitations and may not bring satisfactory recovery result in the end. So, why not have a try on Cisdem or Recuva Pro.