Wondershare Recoverit Review: Pros, Cons & Our Verdict

Wondershare Recoverit makes some strong claims, including a 99.5% recovery success rate and support for more than 1,000 file formats such as photos, videos, and documents. It also promises to recover data from thousands of devices, including SD cards, external drives, hard disks, and crashed computers.

Claims like these sound impressive, but they need real testing. Our team evaluated the tool in several recovery scenarios to see how it actually performs. If you want to know if this recovery software is what you need, our Wondershare Recoverit review will help you figure it out.

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What Are the Features of Wondershare Recoverit?

Wondershare Recoverit focuses on common data loss situations and aims to keep the recovery process simple for everyday users. The software combines a clean interface with several built-in tools designed for recovering files from typical devices such as hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, and memory cards.

AI-Assisted Data Recovery

Recoverit integrates AI-assisted analysis that attempts to recognize storage devices and determine the most likely recovery scenario. According to the developer, the software can identify over a million devices, including digital cameras, drones, GoPro cameras, and various external storage devices. The goal of this feature is to automatically adjust scanning parameters and suggest recovery options based on the detected device and file loss situation.

Support for Many File Types

Recoverit claims support for more than 1,000 file formats. In practice, the coverage focuses on common categories such as:

• Photos: JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, and camera RAW formats
• Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, and formats used by action cameras and drones
• Documents: DOC, DOCX, XLS, PPT, PDF, and similar office files
• Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, and other common audio formats
• Archives and system files: ZIP, 7Z, and various system data formats

This wide format support helps the software detect files even after quick formats or file system damage.

Photo and Video Recovery Tools

Recoverit places strong emphasis on media recovery. The program includes specialized scanning modes for photos and videos and also offers tools that attempt to repair corrupted video files. These features try to rebuild damaged footage or restore incomplete video recordings, which can happen with drones, action cameras, or interrupted recordings.

Bootable Recovery for Crashed Systems

The Windows version includes a bootable recovery tool that allows users to create a bootable USB drive. This tool can access files from a computer that no longer boots due to system crashes or operating system failure. After booting from the USB drive, Recoverit can scan the internal storage and attempt to recover files.

Disk Image Recovery

Recoverit also supports recovery from disk images. A disk image is a sector-by-sector copy of a storage device. If a user previously created such an image, the software can scan it and attempt to recover files from that copy rather than from the original storage device.

RAID and Encrypted Drive Recovery

The software includes limited support for RAID arrays and encrypted drives. Recoverit can scan certain RAID configurations and also attempt recovery from BitLocker-encrypted drives once the correct credentials are provided. However, the feature set remains basic compared with specialized forensic or professional recovery tools.

Overall, Wondershare Recoverit focuses on broad compatibility and ease of use. It supports many storage devices, file types, and common data loss situations, while adding a few extra tools for media recovery and system crash scenarios. While it lacks many advanced diagnostics and recovery features found in professional software, its feature set is designed to handle the majority of everyday recovery tasks.

Our Testing Process for Wondershare Recoverit Review

We tested Wondershare Recoverit on a Dell XPS 16 (Windows 11) system to see how it handles different file recovery scenarios. Here’s how it performed across various storage devices, file systems, and file types.

We tested with these storage devices:

• 8GB USB Drive (old drive, FAT32).
• 500GB External HDD (NTFS).
• 1TB External HDD (EXT4).
• 1TB HDD (exFAT, used for accidental deletion tests).
• 32GB SD Card (FAT32, missing file system).
• 16GB SD Card (exFAT, missing file system).

To thoroughly test Wondershare Recoverit, we populated our storage devices with a wide range of files, including both common and uncommon types. This allowed us to evaluate the software’s recovery performance across a variety of scenarios.

We included commonly used formats like:

• JPG, PNG, BMP.
• MP4, AVI, MOV.
• DOC, DOCX, PDF.
• MP3, WAV.

We also had less common file types to test Recoverit’s versatility:

• TIFF, RAW formats like CR2 (Canon), ARW (Sony), and 3FR (Hasselblad).
• ODT (OpenDocument), DJVU.
• HEIC (High Efficiency Image), JP2 (JPEG 2000), EXR (HDR).

We deleted files from a variety of storage devices, such as USB drives, SD cards, and hard drives. And also used drives that had missing or corrupted file systems to simulate real-world issues.

Is Wondershare Recoverit Safe?

This is an important question. Most people asking about safety want to know if it’s safe to download or if it carries malware or adware. But there’s so much more to safety than just that. Let’s break it down.

• Is it safe to download? We ran Wondershare Recoverit’s installer through VirusTotal.com to check for potential issues, and the results were mixed. While many antivirus engines marked it as safe, a few flagged concerns “Potentially Unwanted,” and “Deceptor.WndrshrRcvr.EKW.” These types of warnings are not uncommon for recovery tools, as they often interact deeply with storage systems and mimic system-level processes. After the installation of the software, we ran a full system scan and didn’t find any malicious activity or unexpected issues on our system. However, these VirusTotal results might raise concerns for users who are particularly cautious about their software.
• How does it handle your data? Recoverit works in read-only mode for most recovery tasks, which means it doesn’t alter or overwrite the original data on your storage device. However, we have some reservations because the software doesn’t consistently use non-intrusive read-only algorithms. This could pose a risk of further data corruption with damaged or failing drives.
• What about privacy? The software operates locally, so your files stay on your computer unless you choose to upload them. Wondershare’s privacy policy is transparent about how user data is handled, and it doesn’t collect or share files without your consent.
• Encrypted drives and security. Recoverit can scan BitLocker-encrypted drives, but it requires you to unlock them in your OS first, so only authorized users can access sensitive or encrypted data.

Overall, in terms of safety, Wondershare Recoverit is not great, but not terrible. It passed most malware checks and handles most recovery scenarios well. However, the lack of consistently non-intrusive algorithms means it’s best used for healthy or moderately affected drives.

How Easy Is Wondershare Recoverit to Use?

Ease of use can make or break a data recovery tool, especially for people who aren’t tech-savvy. Wondershare Recoverit offers a clean interface and a straightforward recovery process. Here’s how a typical recovery session looks, broken down into a few steps:

Step #1: Download and Install Wondershare Recoverit

To get started with Wondershare Recoverit, go to its official site. (Always download recovery tools from trusted sources to avoid tampered files.) Click the download button for your OS to get the installer.

Once the download is complete, open the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. The setup is easy and quick, in our case it took just a minute. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, as the installer may download additional files during the process.

After the installation is finished, the program will launch automatically, and you’ll be ready to move on to the recovery process.

Step #2: Select the Recovery Source

Once Wondershare Recoverit is installed and launched, the first screen you’ll see displays all the available drives and partitions connected to your system. This is where you select the location of the lost or deleted files you want to recover. Click Scan.

• The interface provides options like your system drives, external storage devices, and specific locations such as the Desktop or Recycle Bin. If you know exactly where the files were before they were lost, select that folder or partition for a more targeted scan.
• If a partition has been lost or formatted, Recoverit lists it among the available recovery sources. However, the tool doesn’t always clearly indicate which disk a lost partition belongs to, which can make it harder to choose the correct one.

Step #3: Run the Scan

As soon as you click on a specific location, drive, or partition, Wondershare Recoverit starts the scan immediately. You’ll see the progress bar at the bottom left of the screen, which shows:

• The type of scan (Quick or Deep).
• The percentage completed.
• The estimated remaining time.
• The number of files found so far.

Files are grouped into categories like Document, Photo, Video, Archive, and so on, which appear on the left sidebar. For supported file types, you can preview images and documents directly from the results. If a file isn’t previewable, you’ll need to recover it first to check if it’s usable.

The search bar at the top lets you find specific files by name, while filters allow you to sort results by type, size, or date modified. While Recoverit provides useful filters, it doesn’t show recovery chances for the files it finds, which some competitors offer.

Step #4: Recover Your Files

Once the scan is complete and you’ve identified the files you want to recover, the final step is to save them to a secure location. Click the Recover button at the bottom of the screen after you select the files you want to save. You’ll then be prompted to choose a location for the recovered data.

As you can see, there’s nothing too complicated about Wondershare Recoverit. The interface is clean and modern, and the steps are easy to follow. It feels like the software is designed to guide users through the process, which is great for those who aren’t particularly tech-savvy. That said, there are a few things we didn’t love about the overall experience.

First off, while the layout looks polished, the way storage is presented isn’t ideal. You can’t scan an entire hard drive at once. Instead, you have to select specific partitions like C: or D:. This might not seem like a big deal for smaller tasks, but if you’re unsure where your data was lost or need to recover files across multiple partitions, it adds unnecessary steps.

Another thing that stood out was the limited preview feature in the free version (it shows only partial preview with a big Unlock Now button). It’s odd, since you can’t recover files without upgrading anyway, why not let users preview them fully? Giving people the ability to check if a file is truly recoverable could make the upgrade decision feel more worthwhile. As it stands, the preview restrictions feel a bit counterproductive.

There’s also the lack of scan session saving. If your scan gets interrupted, you’re forced to start from scratch, which can be a major inconvenience with large drives. And while the pop-up reminders to upgrade are expected in a freemium model, they do feel a bit too frequent, especially if you’re just trying to test the software before committing to it.

Overall, the user experience is okay—it’s simple enough to use, and the interface is pleasant, but a few quirks hold it back.

Our Data Recovery Results

We deleted files from a variety of storage devices, such as USB drives, SD cards, and hard drives. We also used drives that had missing or corrupted file systems to simulate real-world issues.

After all the tests we found that Recoverit excelled with standard file types like JPG, MP4, and DOCX, however, its performance varied with uncommon formats. It recovered RAW photo formats like CR2 and ARW well, but struggled with HEIC and JP2 files, files were often left partially corrupted or incomplete.

Overall, Wondershare Recoverit showed good performance for most common file types and typical data loss scenarios.

As for its performance with different file systems, it was best with NTFS:

Wondershare Recoverit Pricing

On the data recovery software market, prices usually range from $30 to $500, depending on the licensing model and number of devices supported. Wondershare Recoverit follows the typical structure used by many recovery tools and offers three main plans for individual users. All plans allow unlimited file recovery on 2 Windows PCs and include the same core features such as file preview, AI-assisted recovery, SD card recovery, and media repair tools.

Overall, Wondershare Recoverit sits in the mid-range of the data recovery software market in terms of pricing. The plans are fairly typical for this category. Recoverit’s price looks more attractive during discounts, especially since every plan allows unlimited file recovery on two computers and includes the same core features.

The perpetual license at $82.99 offers the best long-term value. It provides lifetime access with a one-time payment, so users do not need to renew a subscription. In our opinion, this option makes the most sense for people who expect to run data recovery more than once.

That said, we think the pricing still has a few weak points. While the free version allows you to recover up to 500 MB of data, the paid plans can become relatively expensive, especially for users who only need the software for a one-time recovery. The monthly plan in particular costs almost as much as the annual subscription, which makes it a less attractive option for short-term use.

Wondershare Recoverit Reviews: What Are People Saying?

Public feedback about Wondershare Recoverit is generally favorable, but user experiences vary depending on the situation and expectations. On Trustpilot, the software currently holds a 4.6 / 5 rating based on more than 5,400 reviews, which indicates strong overall satisfaction among many users.

These types of reviews commonly highlight the same strengths: simple workflow, successful recovery of photos or documents, and the ability to restore data after issues like corrupted drives or formatted SD cards. However, negative reviews also appear and tend to focus on pricing transparency, refund policies, or recovery results that did not meet expectations.

On G2, Wondershare Recoverit holds a 4.3 / 5 rating based on verified business reviews. Many reviewers praise its ease of use and ability to recover multiple file types, but some point out drawbacks such as higher pricing compared to competitors and occasional recovery inconsistencies. Overall, public feedback suggests that Recoverit works well for many common recovery cases, though experiences can vary depending on the specific data loss scenario.

Our Verdict

Wondershare Recoverit is a capable data recovery tool that works well for common file loss scenarios. In our tests, it recovered many typical file types such as JPG photos, MP4 videos, and DOCX documents, especially from NTFS and FAT32 drives. It also includes additional tools such as video repair and bootable recovery for crashed systems. However, Recoverit has several limitations that hold it back compared to stronger competitors.

The free version allows you to recover up to 500 MB of data, which is enough to test the software on a small number of files. However, Recoverit lacks some advanced recovery and disk management features. Because of this, we recommend Disk Drill as a better alternative for most users. It delivered better recovery results in our tests and offers more additional features, including disk imaging, lost partition search, and drive health monitoring.

Our rating: 3.9 / 5

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