All desktop files hidden after Monterey update

Check to see if you have iCloud Drive enabled and Desktop & Documents also. That would be in the System/Apple ID preference pane and then in the iCloud Drive Options pane.

Sometimes it gets enabled during a system upgrade or update.

You might want to try logging out and back in to your AppleID or simply unchecking and rechecking the Desktop & Documents folders iCloud setting.

It happened to me.

I installed UnDistracted and asked to HIDE and then SHOW the Table icons.

https://d.pr/i/0qX7Vd

It's solved it!

Found the item below using an online search. It may be worth a try.

In Monterey OS 12, I was able to solve this sync issue under: Apple> About this MAC> Storage tab> Manage> Recommendations> Store in iCloud... it synced up on my computer to my iCloud. I struggled and thought I would share this information because I had the iCloud set correctly in iCloud preferences and it did not sync. This is under System Information when you click the apple icon. It seemed to be what pushed the computer to show my files!

If you can see the documents in the iCloud then you must have iCloud Drive enabled. Check the Finder view preferences and check the iCloud Drove checkbox if it's available. Then you should be able to access the documents via a Finder window:

If you don't want the drive activated Boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and uncheck iCloud Drive again. Reboot normally.

I'm experiencing this problem as well (after updating my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) from an external SSD) to Monterey 12.2.1. I haven't yet solved the issue, but I did want to point out to all you folks that are experiencing this problem that you should be able to access all the docs, etc. synched by iCloud via a web browser. Just go to icloud.com, log in to your iCloud account, and tap/click on iCloud Drive—et voila!—your Documents and Desktop folders appear. YMMV, but this should work. Good luck, everyone!

Go to Finder/icloud driver/desktop. Drag what you want onto your new desktop.

You may want to have a look at Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive.

Since iCloud drive is just a syncing feature any file on the drive will be mirrored on your Mac. It will be located in the Home/Library/Mobile Documents folder.

If you click on the iCloud Drive icon in the sidebar does't you see what's in the drive, i.e. the Desktop folder. Or you can double click on the Mobile Documents folder in the Library and see what's in there.

I had the same problem of everything on my desktop disappearing after installing Monterey in November. The desktop was backed up to iCloud, but the files weren't there. I went through a whole thing with AppleCare, hours and hours of it, looking for the problem. I even restored everything from a pre-Monterey backup. The desktop repopulated but then I, and the support person, watched in real time as those files deleted themselves one by one! They weren't findable anywhere, not trash, not hidden. I was bumped up the food chain to higher level tech support. Still no explanation. I had other things to do so I let the problem sit for a month while new updates of Monterey came into being. When I finally went back to talk to AppleCare, they determined the problem was with Dropbox symlinks, but it wasn't, I found out Dropbox stopped using symlinks over a year ago. So I was back to calling AppleCare again.

Long story short: I decided not to bother talking to Apple again, since Monterey in its new update is no longer (apparently) deleting desktop files. And the last time I spent hours with AppleCare the person seemed to have no idea about the problem (and even claimed that she hadn't heard of any problems with Monterey and data loss, huh?). I put all my desktop files back where they were before, on my desktop, from an external hard drive backup from October, and they seem to be staying put. I just hope there isn't any other data loss that I'm not seeing.

Does anyone know if there's a problem with using the desktop as a filing system? Is it inherently unstable? I'm kind of attention deficit, so having everything out there and visible works for me, but it seems to me it has the potential to cause trouble.

I keep hearing all these different problems with Monterey, time consuming disasters, from many of my friends, is Apple explaining any of it, or taking responsibility?

I have had the same problem happen to me. Did you find a resolution? When attempting to update, I downloaded the installation file to an ssd drive (that contains all of my files I work with regularly) and everything worked until it tried to install. It restarted once, then one more time before booting up like normal... except now, all of my files were hidden like you said and I only found them by searching for a folder name I remembered. The installation failed and the reason given was that there was only a partial installation file found on the drive and I have to wipe the drive clean and start over to resolve. I'm currently trying to move all of my files (1.2 terabytes) onto another location and try the whole wipe, then reattempt.

Thank you for the CMD Shift (.) command to view hidden files. I forgot that one a long time ago. Upgraded to Monterey and couldn't find my local Documents folder, just the iCloud. Now I know it's there but, Apple needs to fix this. If internet is down, I don't need any additional keystrokes just to view and access my docs!

Yes of course. I appreciate this but maybe I'm missing something.

If my internet is down or I'm remote with no available service, I want to easily see my computer's Document folder, associated with my User profile. Why should this basic item have been removed from the OS?

Thank you all,

Bob

If you have iCloud Drive enabled then you always have a copy of all Document and Desktop files on your computer. Just setup iCloud Drive in the Finder preferences as I showed in my previous post.

iCloud Drive is designed to sync files between devices that are logged into the same iCloud ID account and have iCloud Drive enabled. It's also designed that you always have a recent copy of any file on your hard drive even if there's no internet connection available.