lost files after Big Sur upgrade

I had this same issue. It appears that iCloud Drive had the Desktop/Documents folders setting toggled off during the update.

I resolved the problem by going to System Preferences -> Apple ID -> iCloud and selecting the options button next to iCloud Drive. Then turn on Desktop & Documents Folders.

In my case the files were immediately displayed after changing this setting.

I also lost files, but not all my files. I'm not sure which ones as it was on my work computer. I just know I needed my spreadsheets from Numbers at the beginning of the month and now I am lost. Every .number file on my computer was erased. There also seems to be missing some other word and excel files. I also would appreciate any help one can give.

Thank you

After updating Big Sur my desktop has disappeared. I tried the remedy by going to System Preferences->Apple ID->iCloud and selecting the box beside Turn on Desktop & Documents Folders but it didn't work. Hopefully Apple will see our problem and help us fix the issue because a great deal of information is on many of our desk tops.

I upgraded Big Sur today but fortunately I backed everything up last night to 3TB MyPassport hard drive. Unfortunately, I do not know how to the hard drive to get things put back on the desktop.

After upgrading to Big Sur, all my data seemed to have disappeared. In my case, this was because my login folder was on an external disc.

None of the app.s could find their data, except Finder that could see them, so I knew that they were still there. It took me a long time to work out what was wrong.

it seems that during the update the external disc, when the external disc wasn’t mounted, the system noticed that it could not find the home directory and create an empty template home directory. Then when the system tried to mount the disc, it could not mounted in the usual place, and mounted it with a different name. All the applications were looking in the empty template which is why they could not find my data.

if you think this might have happened to you, you can check as follows:-

1. Open the Terminal app.
2. Type in “ls /Volumes/“

You should get something like:-

Mac-mini:~ user$ ls /Volumes
Macintosh HD      external
external 1
Mac-mini:~ user$

If you get two entries for your external drive, one of simply its name and one with “ 1” on the end, when you have this problem.

The one without “ 1” is the folder created by the Big Sur upgrade; this is where the disc should be mounted. The one with the “ 1” is where the system has mounted the disc. You cannot simply delete the directory created by the upgrade, because the system won’t let you. I only had one home directory on the disc. I noted all the user details, and deleted it. I was then able to delete are upgrade-created directory. Then I unmounted and immediately re-mounted the disc (using Disk Utility) and then had its original mount point. I then recreated the user, and it worked fine.

(It might be necessary delete the user; it might be sufficient to change its home directory to somewhere else and change it back.)

"Options" button doesn't even pop-up when I go to System Preferences->Apple ID->iCloud to even select "Turn on Desktop & Documents Folders".

I have lost important documents!!! And had to re-install drivers for printers.

Not happy with Apply right now!! And I just spend $1500 on an Apple Air for my daughter. I should have just gotten her a Microsoft product for Christmas.

@arpita164 yes, that is where you can find it if you had iCloud Drive set up to back up everything. I lost files in areas or folders not selected for backup to iCloud. Never had this problem before and didn’t think twice about backing up files before updating. Hopefully, most people will back up their computers before updating.

This did not work for us. When I click on iCloud storage it shows close to 10 GB of data, but when I go into any of the folders.....nothing. Thanks Apple! Looks like we will be backing up to Drive from now on. Has anyone tried using Time Machine to restore data? I am uncertain if I can back out of the fiasco of an update and revert back to Catalina?

Being new with Mac, I freaked out when I couldn't locate my folder in "Macintosh HD" after upgrade to Big Sur. All I had to do was to search the name of my folder in the "Macintosh HD" where I had it saved before upgrade and was able to locate it that way. Luckily for me I had everthing under one folder and was easy to locate it and all my files seemed to be there. Once I located it, then I had to copy it to my desktop. Hopefully Apple comes up with a fix asap.

@_Lost_with_Big_Sur Yes. Luckily I had backed up the data in those folders. Previous updates never had this problem, but it was irresponsible to leave it as a loophole. Hope that other people are aware of this for future updates as well.

I had exactly the same issue after the update Big Sur. All the files that were on the Desktop disappeared. Once I managed to tick the iCloud settings, the files that were on iCloud came back to the desktop, but the sub-folder and bigger files did not, since they were not linked to iCloud. My downloads folder/files were intact, so it didn't make any sense that only the desktop would have been erased due to the update. I contacted Apple Support and they were hopeless, to be honest. All I got was an apology, since my files were not backed-up and not in iCloud, they were gone. ALL MY WORK FILES GONE.

So here is what I founded out by myself and might be helpful: find a file's name that you know you had on your desktop and it's "gone" > Search it in Finder > if you are lucky as me and find it double-click it and "Show in Enclosing Folder" > this should lead you to your old "Desktop" folder > move the files from there to your new "Desktop - Local" folder.

There you go, this worked for me! I have no idea where the old desktop folder was actually located and why it wasn't showing up. Also why there are two Desktop folders anyway. I hope this help someone as well! I almost had a heart attack over Christmas.

All of my folders/files on my internal hard drive went missing after upgrade to Big Sur. However, when I check the backups in Time Machine I see another volume called Hard Drive - Data which contains all my items previously held in my internal hard drive. Problem is I can't seem to move all those HD - Data folders over to my internal HD volume. Only 4 folders related to the Big Sur upgrade are in my current internal HD. HELP!

This worked for me also however I couldn't select the options button to show the folder like before. Once I ticked the iCloud Drive box however it showed all the documents that were uploaded on to the cloud so if I need anything I just need to go there to get it now.

I had this same issue and the only way I resolved it was going to icloud.com, choosing account settings, going to Advanced>Restore Files, then I selected everything I was missing and the folders/documents slowly started appearing on my desktop. Hope this helps!

My desktop & Documents Folders is already checked (on), my files are still missing. Thanks Apple. Why do you insist every few months on either deleting all my music, my photos or my files??!

SO IT ALSO TURNS OUT PEOPLE THAT IF YOU BACK UP TO ICLOUD AND TO A TIME MACHINE EXTERNAL DRIVE, THE EXTERNAL DRIVE BACKS UP WAHT IS IN ON YOUR ICLOUD DRIVE NOT ON YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. SO NEITHER TIME MACHINE NOR ICLOUD BACK UP WORKS!!! GREAT GREAT WORK APPLE

I selected the Rsetore Files options also in my online icloud account. Apple sent me a whirling wheel for hours and hours and claims to have only found 1 recoverable file, despite years of data having been deleted by Apple (and backed up to icloud and to a time machine external drive. They are still missing!!