Lost desktop documents

AppleSupport_100 wrote:

When I update MacOS Big Sur 11.6, ALL my Excel, PDF, Word files were deleted. How can I retrieve them? They are not in MY Finder.

See if by default iCloud Drive got turned on— look for your files there.

iCloud drive missing desktop and documents

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple ...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206985

Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204025

How to Restore Your Desktop and Documents After Disabling ...

https://www.howtogeek.com/273629/how-to-restore-your-desktop-and-documents-after-disabling-icloud-sync-in-macos-sierra/

How to find your Documents and Desktop folder contents after disabling ...

https://www.macworld.com/article/3396119/how-to-find-your-documents-and-desktop-folder-contents-after-disabling-icloud-sync.html

Finder>Go>Go to Folder>copy & paste:

~/iCloud Drive (Archive)

iCLoud Drive (Archive) - here you should find all your files

Have you checked in Sidebar under Documents ??

Has Documents and Desktop be accidentally Enable in iCloud ??

Worst case - use the Time Machine Backup performed Before the latest update to Big Sur to restore the missing documents.