Deleted System Files from Mac OS? Heres How to Get Them Back

Deleted System Files from Mac OS? Heres How to Get Them Back

Have you ever wondered what to do if you delete a system file from a Mac? Or maybe youre wondering how you can get those system files back after they were deleted from the computer? While most Mac users should never modify system files in Mac OS and Mac OS X, some do anyway, and in that process of digging around in system contents, its possible to delete a system file or system folder either unintentionally, accidentally, or intentionally but without knowing what exactly the impact would be. Well, spoiler alert; usually the impact of deleting system files from Mac OS is that something that should work on the Mac suddenly no longer works. So what should you do in such a situation? How can you get back a system file that you have deleted from Mac OS? What should you do if you deleted an entire system folder from the Mac? This article attempts to answer that question. If you have accidentally deleted a system file and now something is clearly not working as it should, you have two realistic options: restore the Mac from a backup you made prior to deleting the system file, or reinstalling Mac OS system software. If you have and you do so regularly (and you should), then using a Time Machine restore can be the best approach for some users. Of course Time Machine rolls back to whatever the state was when it was last backed up, so if the backup is a week old then youd lose data between then and now unless you specifically make copies of that data. If you dont want to use Time machine, or if Time Machine is not an option for whatever reason, you can also choose to . Note that reinstalling macOS system software should not impact any data, as it will attempt to only reinstall the operating system itself without mucking about any personal documents, apps, or other data. But should is not a guarantee, and its always possible that reinstalling system software or starting any other recovery, restore, or reinstallation process may result in permanent data loss. Thus you should have a backup of your data made before attempting to reinstall Mac OS system software. Both of these approaches will rely on using Mac Recovery Mode, youll either restoring from a previously made backup, or reinstalling the operating system: Whether you choose to restore from a backup, or to reinstall MacOS, the process will take a while to complete (can be many hours if a large backup file is being restored). But when finished, either the restored version of system software will be back and running as it was before, or the new fresh version of Mac OS system software will be installed and running as intended. If you want full detailed tutorials for these steps, you can see those and , or , or in either case, the process is reinstalling is largely the same despite the naming conventions being different and some verbiage being slightly different. If the above reinstall approach fails for whatever reason, another option is to attempt to but that requires a consistent and reliable high speed internet connection, and the version of system software reinstalled may be different than what is currently on the Mac. If youre wondering how on earth someone could possibly delete a system file in the first place, well it can happen fairly easily. For starters, the are easily accessible through Finder as well as the command line by . While most people will leave that stuff alone if its over their head, some novice users can either be extraordinarily adventurous, or confused, and wind up where they shouldnt be. For the most common example, novice Mac users might mistake the user Library folder for the System Library folder, and vice versa. Perhaps they think theyre trashing individual user files, but theyre actually trashing system level files something that can happen if someone is attempting to . Or perhaps a novice command line user is experimenting with the unforgiving rm and for the first time, and they accidentally delete an entire directory that is critical for Mac OS to function properly. Or maybe someone noticed that and they went about addressing that the wrong way. Whoops! The bottom line is that deleting system files is possible and it can happen either accidentally, unintentionally, or intentionally, by both novice users and advanced users alike. Its worth pointing out that modern Mac OS versions use a feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP) to attempt to prevent modification and deletion of system files, but (and often is by advanced users for various reasons), and older versions of Mac OS X do not have SIP protection at all. Hopefully this guide has been helpful to you in understanding how to restore and recover deleted system files in Mac OS and Mac OS X, a process which hopefully you wont have to undertake (in other words, dont delete system files!). If you know of any other helpful tips, tricks, or methods to achieve the same effect, share them with us in the comments below!