Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac: Recover Deleted Files, Then Repair the Photos and Videos That Come Back Broken
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac is a $99.99-a-year Mac app that recovers deleted and lost files from Mac drives, emptied Trash, formatted or lost volumes and Macs that won't boot, and then repairs corrupt photos and videos. It runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs with macOS 10.13 High Sierra through macOS 27, and the free download scans and previews your files before you pay.
Recovery software has a dirty secret: some of what it gets back won't open. A video recovered from an SD card plays for three seconds and freezes, or a RAW photo opens as a gray block. Premium is the Stellar edition built for that problem, with photo and video repair in the same app as the recovery.
Quick facts
- Version: 12.8.0.0, released September 2026
- Developer: Stellar (Stellar Information Technology), in data recovery since 1993
- Runs on: macOS Golden Gate 27, Tahoe 26, Sequoia 15, Sonoma 14, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra
- Macs: Intel and Apple silicon, including T2 and M1 to M6 chips
- Needs: 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended), 250 MB for installation
- Price: $99.99 for a one-year license on one Mac (list price $209.99)
- Free trial: scans and previews recoverable files, saving them needs a license
- Support: 24x5 by email, chat and phone
- Languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese
What we checked: Stellar's Mac installer link served a 355 MB file on October 13, 2026, and the one-year license cost $99.99 at checkout on October 13, 2026, with renewal at the same price.
Before you buy
Run the free scan first. If your files show up in the preview, they can be saved. You'll need a second drive to save recovered files to, because recovering onto the same disk you're scanning can overwrite what you're trying to save. The license is a yearly subscription for one Mac at a time. Premium doesn't cover NAS boxes, virtual machines or Linux drives: those need the Technician edition.
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Overview
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac sits in the middle of Stellar's Mac line. It includes everything in the Professional edition (deleted file recovery, lost volume recovery, recovery from a Mac that won't start, disk imaging, RAW recovery and Mac optimization tools) and adds two repair modules, Repair Video and Repair Photo, along with fragmented MOV and MP4 recovery from memory cards and USB drives. It reads APFS, HFS+, FAT, exFAT and NTFS drives, supports more than 300 file types out of the box, and also recovers Apple Mail messages.
Features
Recover deleted files, even after emptying the Trash
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac recovers files you deleted and then removed from the Trash. On a Mac's startup disk you allow the Stellar Data Recovery extension (on macOS Sequoia back to High Sierra), pick the file types, run a scan, and look in the Deleted List for the trashed files. A Deep Scan reads every sector to find files after a formatted APFS or HFS+ drive, and it can recover from unmounted drives too.
The What To Recover screen, where you choose Recover Everything or only documents, emails, videos, audio or photos. The sidebar is from Stellar's Mac user manual and also lists options from higher editions, such as Virtual Machine Recovery and Recover From NAS & Linux.
Repair Video and Repair Photo
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac repairs videos that won't play, or play blurry, frozen, grainy or out of sync, in MP4, MOV, M4V, MPEG, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, FLV, DIVX, WEBM, MJPEG, AVCHD, MTS, 3G2, 3GP and F4V. It also repairs photos that won't open or are pixelated, distorted or split, in JPG and camera RAW formats including NEF, NRW, ARW, CR2, CRW, DNG, ERF, MRW, ORF, PEF, RAF, SR2, SRF, TIFF and RW2. Several files can be repaired in one go. For badly damaged files, you add a working file of the same format as a reference, and for photos too damaged to fix, it can still extract the embedded thumbnail.
Lost partitions, non-booting Macs and Time Machine
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac finds lost or deleted volumes after formatting, resizing or file system corruption, and recovers from initialized disks and lost NTFS partitions on a Mac. If a Mac won't start, the Recover Non Booting Mac option runs Stellar from macOS Recovery, with no bootable USB needed. It can also pull files out of a corrupted Time Machine backup that won't mount.
A scan of Macintosh HD at 6 percent, with found files sorted into folders by type in the File List tab and the elapsed and remaining time at the bottom.
Preview, pause and resume
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac shows found files in a Classic List (by folder), a File List (by type) and a Deleted List, and previews photos, documents and videos before you recover anything. You can pause a long scan and resume it later, or save the scan results and load them again, so you don't have to scan a large drive twice.
Previewing a found PNG photo from the scan results before recovery, with 2,656 files in 61 folders marked for recovery.
Disk images, drive health and cloning
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac can image a failing drive and recover from the image, so the failing disk is read only once. The included Stellar Drive Monitor shows the temperature, performance, health and SMART values of the drive, scans for bad sectors, and clones a disk before it gets worse.
Mac cleanup tools
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac also includes SpeedUp Mac (junk files, caches, logs, RAM and DNS cache), a Duplicate Finder and a Large Files Finder. They're extras rather than the reason to buy it, and reviewers have had problems with them (see What Users Say).
Benefits
One app for the whole rescue. Recovery and repair are usually two purchases. With Premium, the video that comes back from a corrupted SD card can be fixed in the same session.
Try before you pay. The preview shows exactly what can be saved, so you only buy once you know your files are there.
Safer handling of failing drives. Imaging and the drive monitor let you work from a copy instead of stressing a dying disk.
Real-World Uses
- A photographer formats the wrong SD card, recovers the RAW files, and repairs the few CR2 files that came back damaged.
- A video maker gets back MP4 clips from a drone card, where the clips were split into fragments, and repairs the ones that won't play.
- A MacBook won't start after an update, and its owner copies documents off it from macOS Recovery to an external drive.
- A Time Machine disk won't mount, and the last month of backed-up files is pulled straight from it.
Who It's For
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac is for Mac users whose lost files are mostly photos and videos: photographers, video makers and families with years of camera and phone media on a Mac or memory cards. If you only need to undelete documents, a lower edition is cheaper. If you recover data for clients, or from NAS boxes and virtual machines, the Technician edition is the one to look at.
Usage Guide
- Install it. Download the free version and install it. Give it Full Disk Access when macOS asks.
- Choose what to recover. Pick Recover Everything, or only documents, emails, videos, audio or photos.
- Choose where to look. Select the drive or volume. Turn on Deep Scan for formatted drives or files that a quick scan doesn't find, then click Scan.
- Preview and recover. Check the files in the preview, buy and activate a license, then click Recover and save to a different drive.
- Repair if needed. Open Repair Video or Repair Photo, add the damaged files, and run the repair.
Tips
- Stop using the drive as soon as you notice the loss. Every new file can overwrite what you want back.
- On a large drive, save the scan so you can come back without scanning again.
- Review what SpeedUp Mac suggests before deleting anything.
What Users Say
Most independent reviews cover Stellar Data Recovery for Mac as a family, often the Professional edition, since the recovery engine is the same across editions. They agree that it digs deep and is easy to use, and several report bugs worth knowing about.
Macworld
Chris Barylick reviewed Stellar Data Recovery for Mac for Macworld in September 2024. His verdict: "Despite the need for a bug hunt, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is a good program that is able to dig deep to help reconstruct and recover deleted data."
He praised the recovery engine: "Stellar Data Recovery’s chief strength is the breadth of its data recovery engine, and it does this well." His pros were a quick, clean interface, good recovery tools and modules, and an impressive net-based recovery module.
His criticism was specific: "However, Stellar’s Clean Up Junk Files crashed the application repeatedly and had to be force quit under macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, which proved disconcerting." Activating his serial number took several days of calls and emails, and he disliked the Upgrade button that stayed on the main menu after he bought a Professional license: "This element just becomes nagware that continuously tugs at your pant leg asking you to purchase the highest-end account."
The Mac Observer
Nick deCourville reviewed it for The Mac Observer in October 2024, listing "simple, easy-to-use UI" and "Variety of options and features" as the good and "Different pricing tiers, users may find it to be expensive." as the bad. In use: "It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s clean."
His one technical warning: "Some antivirus software may flag one of Stellar’s executable files as a virus. Considering all Stellar Mac applications feature certificates notarized by Apple, this was most definitely a false positive."
MacSources: 80%
Robyn rated Stellar Data Recovery for Mac 80% in December 2024 (design 80%, ease of use 90%, price 70%): "Stellar Data Recovery for Mac combines solid design, excellent ease of use, and fair pricing options, making it a strong choice for anyone needing to recover lost files."
The cons she listed were slow scans on large drives, heavy resource use, occasional glitches, and the need for an external drive to recover to. She also found the cleanup tool too eager: "I was shocked that Stellar Data Recovery found more than 27GB of cleanup files. I reviewed what I found before blindly deleting them. I’m glad I did, too, because some of the files were ones it claimed could be trashed and were not junk."
After that: "After this point, I noticed that the app slowed down and started acting a little glitchy." A restart seemed to fix it.
Trustpilot and Stellar's customers
Stellar's Trustpilot page, which covers all its products, showed 4.8 out of 5 from 5,561 reviews in October 2026. Many five-star reviews thank a named support agent, such as Grincavitch: "Kush did a great job helping me recover 10 years of data while trying to transition between win to Mac." The one-star reviews are mostly about files that were found but wouldn't open, very long scans, and licensing. Jörg Ingenpaß, for example: "All headers were damaged, none of thre files was usable." (Trustpilot excerpts were read through a page summarizer.)
On Stellar's own page, Steve B. writes "10 Years Worth of Data Recovered from a Non Mounting Hard Drive using Stellar!" and Roger Miller, a photography enthusiast from Weyburn, Canada, writes "Recovered every single photo shot from Nikon camera!"
The recurring themes: reviewers like the clean interface, the depth of the scans and the responsive support. The complaints are slow scans on big drives, bugs in the cleanup extras, an upgrade prompt that never goes away, and found files that are too damaged to open. That last one is where Premium's repair modules earn their place, and why the free preview matters.
Comparisons
Premium vs Technician
Stellar Data Recovery Technician for Mac ($199 a year) includes everything in Premium and adds virtual machine recovery (VMDK, VDI, VHD and VHDX), Linux file systems (EXT2, EXT3, EXT4), online and offline NAS recovery for Synology, QNAP and ASUSTOR, NAS RAID 0, 5, 6 and Synology SHR, and a bootable recovery drive. Premium is for one person's Mac and media, while Technician is for IT staff and service providers.
Premium vs Professional
Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac covers the same recovery features, including lost volumes, non-booting Macs, disk imaging and Mac optimization. Premium adds Repair Video, Repair Photo and thumbnail extraction for badly damaged photos. If your lost files are mainly documents, Professional is enough.
Stellar vs macOS Time Machine
Time Machine restores what it backed up. Stellar recovers what was never backed up, or what was lost when the backup disk itself failed, and it can read a damaged Time Machine disk directly.
Editions and Pricing
| Edition | One-year price | For | Adds |
|---|
| Premium | $99.99 (list $209.99) | Individuals, one Mac | Recovery plus video and photo repair |
| Technician | $199 (list $299) | Professionals, IT service providers | NAS, NAS RAID, virtual machines, Linux file systems |
Both editions are also sold with a lifetime license on Stellar's buy page. The one-year license includes 24x5 technical support, and the download link and activation key arrive by email right after purchase. Stellar offers student discounts.
FAQs
Does Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac work on M-series Macs?
Yes. Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac supports Macs with T2 and M1 to M6 chips without disabling System Integrity Protection or adding a kernel extension.
Does Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac support macOS 27?
Yes. Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac 12.8 supports macOS Golden Gate 27 and every release back to macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
Can I use one Stellar Data Recovery Premium license on two Macs?
No. A Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac license activates on one Mac at a time.
Can Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac recover data from a physically damaged drive?
Only if macOS still detects the drive. Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac can image a drive with bad sectors, but a drive with a mechanical or electrical fault needs a hardware repair first.
Can I upgrade Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac to Technician later?
Yes. Stellar lets you upgrade a Premium license to the Technician edition, which adds NAS, virtual machine and Linux recovery.
Is Stellar Data Recovery Premium available for Windows?
Yes. Stellar sells a separate Windows version of Data Recovery Premium. The Mac license doesn't cover Windows PCs.
Do I need technical knowledge to use Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac?
No. Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac is a guided, three-step process: choose what to recover, choose the drive, then preview and recover. Recovery from a Mac that won't start takes a few more steps in macOS Recovery.
System Requirements
- macOS: Golden Gate 27, Tahoe 26, Sequoia 15, Sonoma 14, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina 10.15, Mojave 10.14 or High Sierra 10.13
- Mac: Intel or Apple silicon, including T2 and M1 to M6
- Memory: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Disk space: 250 MB for installation, plus a separate drive to save recovered files to
Conclusion
Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac is the right Stellar edition when your lost files are photos and videos: it digs deep enough to find them on formatted cards and failing drives, and it can repair the ones that come back broken. Reviewers rate the recovery highly and the extras less so, with bugs in the cleanup tools and a persistent upgrade prompt.
Download the free version, scan the drive, and check the preview. If your files are there, $99.99 for a year gets them back.
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