Capture One Deletes Each Previous Tethered RAW: Turn Off Composition Mode Before Recovery
TL;DR:
Disable Composition Mode in the Capture One Camera menu to stop tethered RAW captures from intentionally overwriting the previous shot.
● Verify if independent copies of the shoot exist on the camera memory card, Time Machine, File History, cloud sync, or alternative studio backup locations before attempting software recovery.
● Files lost to Composition Mode are actively overwritten rather than ordinarily deleted, meaning no recovery tool can reconstruct those specific missing bytes.
● Recoverit Photo Recovery can only retrieve CR2, CR3, or other RAW files if they were distinctly saved and later deleted, requiring users on Windows Vista-11 or macOS X 10.10+ to save any successful results to a separate drive.
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In this Capture One tethering case, every new Canon CR2 capture appeared for about a second and then the previous shot disappeared from both the session and disk. The issue was resolved when the user discovered that Composition Mode was enabled.
Turn Off Composition Mode Before Taking Another Shot
Capture One's official documentation says Composition Mode is designed for test shots and that each new capture overwrites the previous one. Deselect it from the Camera menu before continuing a client session if you need to keep every tethered file.
Overwrite Is Not Ordinary Deletion:
If a later tethered capture overwrote the same storage allocation, deleted-file recovery may not reconstruct the earlier RAW. No recovery tool can recreate bytes that no longer exist.
Check Independent Copies Before Scanning the Computer
Confirm whether the camera also saved the captures to its own memory card, whether another tethered backup location was active, or whether Time Machine, File History, cloud sync, or a studio backup contains the shoot. Do not assume the Capture One session was the only copy until those locations are checked.
Recoverit Applies Only if a RAW File Was Actually Deleted
If a prior CR2/CR3/other RAW file was written as a distinct local file and later deleted—rather than overwritten by Composition Mode—and the drive remains readable, Recoverit Photo Recovery can scan the storage for recoverable RAW images. Save results to a different drive. In a true Composition Mode overwrite case, recovery software should be treated as a last attempt, not a promise.