After updating my OS to Big Sur, most of my files were deleted. Although I had them recovered from a Dropbox cloud backup, it keeps happening. Every time i turn on the Macbook, files are gone. Randomly, a couple of folders are left behind. How to stop files from being deleted?
Files were not moved, just erased. The "relocated files" folder is there, but empty. Every time I restore these files, they just get deleted in seconds. It is supposed to have something to do with the new apple security features level and the trustiness in the files being stored. In my case, apparently, all of my pdfs, pictures, music, spreadsheets, office files, dwgs, etc, are not 'trustworthy' Quite ridiculous actually... I couldn't figure out yet what I get in exchange for all that. Designwise, no improvements... After 17 years of apple, I am actually thinking of going to pc for the first time
Where were your files being stored pre-upgrade? An upgrade (to a completely new OS) will sometimes move files. Have you searched with Spotlight? You can search on a file name, partial file name, an extension and etc,
Do you have a "relocated files", or similarly named folder, on your desktop. Files moved are noted there.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/420149/relocated-items-after-macos-update-to-11-3-1
Files disappearing
