Dumb Beginner Mistake

[DThompson55]

I accidentally moved all My Files to Trash. OK, OK, you can stop laughing now...

Is there some way to get them all back? There are some 3000 files involved in this mistake, so one at a time isn't an option.

Originally what happened was I accidentally unzipped a folder. On the PC I just swapped out I had a way of opening an archive without it actually extracting everything. I suspect I have the same option on the Mac, and I just missed something. Anyway, I extracted all this stuff, and then I tried deleting all this stuff, and it was only as I was about to delete the files permanently that I realized I was deleting everything.

you can start laughing again now.

 

[nickyr]

Assuming you haven't emptied the trash, just highlight all the items in trash, right click, and click "put back"

 

[pigoo3]

Yes...we need to know two things:

1. Did you actually empty the trash?
2. Do you have a backup?

- Nick

 

[MacInWin]

And next time, I think you can just click once on the file to select it, then press the space bar and the contents will be shown. That's called "Quick View." You can use it to see graphic files, look at documents (text, spreadsheets, presentations) and others quickly without actually opening them.

 

[Rod]

If you have emptied the trash (have a look and see) then unfortunately they are gone. There are some very expensive professional services that may be able to retrieve your files and software that also may be able to (no guarantees) recover your data see; http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/backup-recovery/best-mac-data-recovery-software/ I believe Disk Drill is quite good but I have not tried it myself.
IMPORTANT: Do not use your computer at all until data recovery is attempted or you may overwrite what you are attempting to recover, then it's really gone.
If on the other hand you have a backup eg Time Machine then it's very likely you can restore your entire folder from the TM interface.
In macOS Sierra Time machine is on by default but requires another drive to backup to. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250