Can You Recover Data From an M1, M2, M3, or M4 Mac?

Yes. $300 Data Recovery attempts every Mac in our own lab first, at $500 for the soldered SSD. Only if our in-house attempt doesn’t succeed do we offer to send it to a specialist, at $800 plus $75 shipping, and you decide whether to go ahead.

Modern Macs do not go straight to a specialist. That’s worth stating clearly because it’s a common assumption.

Why are modern Macs harder to recover?

Since the M1, Apple’s SSD storage is soldered directly to the logic board rather than being a removable module. There is no drive to take out and connect to another machine.

On top of that, the storage controller lives inside the Apple silicon chip itself, and every Mac encrypts its storage using a key tied to the Secure Enclave on that specific board. So even reading the NAND chips directly yields encrypted data that can’t be decrypted without the original board functioning.

The practical consequence: recovery depends on whether the board can be revived, not on whether the memory survived. This is genuinely different from pulling a drive out of an older MacBook.

What determines whether it’s recoverable?

Broadly, what failed:

  • Liquid damage or a power fault on the board, where the Apple silicon and NAND are intact. Often recoverable. Board-level repair to bring the machine to a state where it can be read.
  • The Mac won’t boot but shows signs of life. Frequently recoverable, sometimes via target disk mode or DFU once the underlying fault is addressed.
  • A failed Secure Enclave or destroyed Apple silicon. This is the hard limit. If the key material is gone, the encrypted NAND cannot be decrypted by anyone.
  • Physical destruction of the NAND packages. Not recoverable.

We’d rather tell you which of those you’re in than take a job we can’t finish.

What does it cost?

Stage Price
In-house recovery, soldered SSD up to 6TB $500
Specialist, only if our attempt fails and you approve $800 + $75 shipping

In plain terms: $300 Data Recovery charges $500 to recover a modern Mac’s soldered SSD in-house. If we can’t do it and you choose to escalate, the specialist is $800 plus $75 of shipping across three legs. Half the specialist fee is due before they begin and the rest only on success. If the specialist fails, your deposit is refunded and you owe the $75 shipping.

We never charge our in-house rate on top of a specialist fee. The specialist fee replaces it.

What about older Macs and iMacs?

Different cases, and generally easier.

  • Older MacBooks with removable SSDs follow the standard $500 SSD price up to 6TB.
  • iMacs and All-in-Ones need the chassis opened to reach the drive, which adds a $100 removal fee, charged once per ticket. The recovery itself is then priced normally per drive.
  • Fusion Drives are two physical drives Apple presents as one volume: a small SSD paired with a larger hard drive. Both must be recovered to reconstruct the data, so each is priced separately and summed.

A worked Fusion example: a 128GB SSD plus a 2TB hard drive is $100 removal, plus $500 for the SSD half at the SSD floor, plus $500 for the 2TB hard drive half, for $1,100 total. The SSD half is $500 even though it’s small, because the SSD price doesn’t scale with capacity.

If you have a Fusion Drive iMac, send both drives. We can’t fully reconstruct the data from only one half.

Does FileVault affect this?

If FileVault is on and you have the password or recovery key, no. We don’t charge extra for encrypted devices of any kind.

If you don’t have the key, the data cannot be decrypted by us or anyone else. In that situation, if we successfully image the device but can’t deliver readable data, a $100 labor fee applies for the imaging work.

What should I do next?

  1. Stop trying to boot it, especially after liquid exposure. Powering a liquid-damaged board causes progressive corrosion damage.
  2. Submit the Chances Form with the exact model and year, what happened, and whether you have your FileVault password.
  3. Or use the mail-in form or drop-off form.

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