Game saves, screenshots, and progress data are important for players, but they are always at risk of being lost, whether due to accidental deletion, system crashes, storage formatting, or errors during platform syncing. As a result, having a fast and reliable way to recover these deleted game files has become a top priority for many game lovers. In this article, we delve into the 10 best deleted game recovery software for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS to let you restore lost games and achieve the best possible recovery results as soon as possible.
Is it Possible to Recover Deleted Games?
Yes, it is! If the game files were simply deleted normally, you might just need to check the Recycle Bin, locate the corresponding game folder or installation package, right-click it, and select "Restore" to return it to its original location.
However, if the Recycle Bin has been emptied or if you used Shift + Delete to permanently delete the files, the recovery process becomes more complicated. In such cases, you can try using data recovery software specifically designed for Windows 10, Windows 11, and other platforms to retrieve the game. The success of recovery depends on several factors, including:
Backup availability: If you previously enabled system backups, cloud synchronization, or used game-related cloud save features, you may be able to directly restore both game files and progress.
Type of storage device: If the game was installed on a solid-state drive (SSD), the TRIM function will quickly mark the space occupied by the deleted game files as available, making recovery more difficult.
Time since deletion: The shorter the time since deletion, the higher the success rate of recovery. This is because new data written to the drive may overwrite the deleted game files.
For games lost due to accidental uninstallation or failed platform sync, many game launchers and professional recovery tools also offer game recovery features. While these solutions are not completely reliable, they provide the best chance of recovery success.
10 Best Deleted Game Recovery Software [Desktop, iOS & Android]
1AiRecover Data Recovery
Available on: Windows 7/8/10/11
AiRecover Data Recovery is one of the best data recovery software for Windows PC. Its clean interface and intuitive operation make it easy to efficiently and freely recover various game files lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, or system failures.
Wide File Support: Accurately recover deleted game installers, save files, screenshots, and gameplay videos.
Deep Scan Technology: Thoroughly scans the hard drive to locate recoverable game data traces.
Preview Before Recovery: Preview found files before restoring them to ensure accuracy.
High Recovery Rate: Offers an exceptionally high success rate for recently deleted files.
Easy to Use: Recover games in three steps - select partition, scan, and recover.
Multiple Recovery Scenarios: Supports data recovery from various situations, including emptied Recycle Bin, disk formatting, and partition loss.
2MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Available on: Windows 7/8/10/11
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a reliable data recovery software, free from ads, bundled installations, or any suspicious pop-ups, ensuring a safe and secure user experience. It supports recovering over 1,000 file types, including photos, videos, documents, and emails, from approximately 19 different storage devices such as hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, and CDs. With its deep scan feature, you can find more recoverable files and preview them for free before recovery. Unfortunately, the free version has limitations and cannot recover files larger than 1GB.
3Wise Data Recovery
Available on: Windows/Mac
Wise Data Recovery is a lightweight game recovery tool. It allows users to scan for files on a variety of storage devices, including local hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, and external drives. The software can recover multiple types of files, such as photos, documents, archives, audio, and video, supporting formats like JPG, PDF, DOCX, ZIP, MP3, MP4, and more. As a free data recovery solution, it is easy to use, quickly scans devices, and displays recoverable results. However, its features are relatively basic, lacking advanced options like deep scanning, and the free version imposes limits on the total amount of data that can be recovered.
4Disk Drill for Mac
Available on: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Disk Drill is a popular data recovery tool among Mac users, specifically designed to help recover accidentally deleted game files from Mac computers, external hard drives, or SD cards. It is a powerful tool that supports macOS file systems such as APFS and HFS+, enabling you to scan for and recover lost game installers, save files, screenshots, and video clips due to emptied Trash, accidental formatting, or leftover files from game platform uninstalls.
5R-Studio for Mac
Available on: macOS 12 Monterey or higher
R-Studio for Mac is compatible with a wide range of file systems, including HFS+/HFS, APFS, FAT32/ExFAT, and NTFS. It is ideal for recovering lost or deleted game files from Mac computers, external drives, and other storage devices. What you need to do is launch the program, select the drive or partition you want to scan, and then it will perform a deep scan to locate and recover the files.
6DMDE Data Recovery
Available on: macOS
DMDE Data Recovery provides a cross-platform data recovery solution. It supports deep scanning via file signatures (RAW recovery), enabling the retrieval of various unrecognized files lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, or partition loss, including game saves, installation packages, and more. Besides, it allows for direct editing and repair of damaged partition tables.
7FoneLab iPhone Data Recovery
Available on: Windows/Mac
FoneLab iPhone Data Recovery is one of the most popular free tools for recovering data on iOS devices. With advanced data reconstruction technology, it can recover photos, WhatsApp messages, audio, reminders, contacts, notes, videos, Instagram photos, and more from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod directly to your computer.
8Syncios iOS Data Recovery
Available on: Windows/macOS
Syncios iOS Data Recovery can also be used to recover lost game data on your iOS devices. Just like the previously mentioned sample, this deleted game recovery software offers ease of use operation, supporting direct scanning from iPhone/iPad or extracting multiple file formats from iTunes/iCloud backups to meet your various needs when recovering game saves and other data. You can use it to recover lost game files as well.
9FonePaw Android Data Recovery
Available on: macOS 10.7 or later/Windows
For those who have accidentally deleted game data on Android phones, FonePaw Android Data Recovery allows you to perform a deep scan to locate game-related files like saves and progress, preview recoverable files by category, selectively restore specific data, and extract important game files from crashed or physically damaged phones.
10Apeaksoft Android Data Recovery
Available on: Windows/Mac
With Apeaksoft Android Data Recovery, you can deeply scan your phone’s internal storage and SD card to recover lost game saves, progress files, and other game-related data. Its advanced deep scan feature digs through your device to accurately locate and restore deleted game files.
How to Recover Deleted Games on Your Windows PC?
Finding a reliable game recovery software is not difficult, but the key to getting your data back is to use the right method. No matter which software you choose, following a clear recovery process can greatly increase your chances of success. Now, follow these instructions to recover deleted games on your PC:
Step 1. Launch AiRecover Data Recovery on your Windows PC. Select “Deep Recovery” and then click on the “Recover” button.
Step 2. Select the partition where you lost or deleted games. Click “Scan” and let AiRecover Data Recovery software scan for all lost data and files on the selected drive.
Step 3. During the scan process, you can already preview and locate your lost game data. As soon as you find the files you need, click “Recover” to save them to another location. You don’t need to wait for the scan to complete.
What Makes A Good Game Recovery Software?
An excellent game recovery software should make sure you can control the whole recovery process. Before initiating a drive scan, you should be able to select specific file types and target locations to improve efficiency.
You can deep scan your entire hard drive or partition at once to search for deleted game data, as checking folder by folder would be far too time-consuming. If the software also includes a feature to create a disk image, operating in a read-only mode on the source drive to prevent further damage, it is considered even more professional.
With the best game recovery software, you can recover the deleted data with no quality loss. However, some free software with limited functionality often compromises recovery success rates due to insufficient scan depth or the lack of a file preview feature.
Which Deleted Game Recovery Should You Choose?
For typical data loss caused by accidental deletion or emptying the Recycle Bin, basic recovery software with standard scanning features can help you get the data back. These tools are easy to use and complete the recovery process quickly.
However, in more complex cases, such as game files stored on an SSD, files that were permanently deleted a long time ago, or situations involving lost or formatted partitions, you’ll need a powerful solution like AiRecovery Data Recovery. It can thoroughly search your storage device and offers a much higher chance of successfully restoring your lost files, documents, and games.
Conclusion
You can scan and recover accidentally deleted game files with advanced software. And for that, you need a fast, safe, and powerful game recovery software, which can be frustrating to find. However, hope you found a good one after reading this article. If you also want to retrieve other lost files on a Windows PC, we recommend using AiRecover Data Recovery, which you can download for free.
All
