Getting files back
Overwriting is worse than deleting, because the Trash never enters the picture. Three systems keep old versions anyway.
Apps using the document model — TextEdit, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Preview and many others — keep a version every time you save, and hourly while you work.
Open the file → File → Revert To → Browse All Versions. A Time Machine-style interface appears with every version on a timeline. Restore whole versions, or copy content out of an old one and paste it into the current.
This works with no backup configured at all — versions live on the local disk.
If the app does not support Versions (Word saves in place, for example), Time Machine has whatever existed at the last backup. Open the containing folder, enter Time Machine, go back to before the overwrite.
Local snapshots extend this to the last ~24 hours even without the backup drive attached.
Files in synced folders have server-side history:
Dropbox's is the best of these and reason enough to keep active projects in a synced folder.
There is no undo for a completed save, and recovery software cannot help — the old blocks were overwritten or TRIMmed. If none of the three systems above has the version, it is gone.
Before a risky edit: ⌘D duplicates the file in Finder. Cheap, immediate, and needs no infrastructure. APFS clones mean the duplicate costs almost no disk space until the files diverge.
For apps using the Versions system, yes — on save and hourly. Browse them via File → Revert To → Browse All Versions.
Only through app Versions or a cloud service's version history. A plain overwrite outside those systems is unrecoverable.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac — including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
Download for Mac