

It would be wise to image the card before scanning it for recovery, in DMDE this is done with: Tools > Copy Sectors, and save to an image file stored on the computer / other external drive.

Your files shouldn't be deleting themselves from the card for no reason, this is often a sign that the card is failing. If you need to recover a large number of folders more conveniently, it's $20 for a basic personal license, way more affordable than other garbage like Disk Drill. Its free demo can recover up to 4000 files / 1 folder per operation, no limit on filesize or number of recovery operations you can run for free. Since you're apparently on Mac (should have been mentioned in the original post) is the closest thing to a free option you're going to get.
