Hello
I just made the bad decision to upgrade to Monterey 12.5.1 on my iMac 24", M1, 2021.
All desktop files missing, tried disk doctor and various online suggestions many of which do not apply to my menu system. Any suggestions/help greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hopefully you will have a Time Machine backup and are able to restore from there.
In addition, if you have iCloud enabled your Desktop will be stored there.
If you have neither of these or another backup and a simple search for target files is unsuccessful then it looks as if your files are gone. This would be puzzling.
If you have any antivirus or cleanup apps installed they can cause such issues.
Hopefully you will have a Time Machine backup and are able to restore from there.
In addition, if you have iCloud enabled your Desktop will be stored there.
If you have neither of these or another backup and a simple search for target files is unsuccessful then it looks as if your files are gone. This would be puzzling.
If you have any antivirus or cleanup apps installed they can cause such issues.
As suggested by Mal-S, look under iCloud Drive.
I bet all your stuff is there.
Click iCloud Drive in a Finder window Sidebar, if there is a Desktop folder there, that's it.
You almost certainly activated "Documents and Desktop in iCloud" without realizing it.
Desktop folders disappeared on upgrade to Monterey 12.5.1
