HOW did Apple update loose the downloads folder?

It's highly unlikely that the actual Downloads folder in your user home folder was removed.

But someone else reported missing Finder sidebar shortcuts in Favorites for Desktop, Downloads, Recents, etc. Changing the Finder Settings to turn those shortcuts on didn't work. There is a configuration file that holds the settings and it was damaged. The user was able to remove that file then restart Finder and then redo the Settings and it fixed the problem.

The file in question is here:

~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl2

Copy that file to the Desktop to make a backup then remove the copy in the listed location above.

Hold Ctrl+Options+Command and right-click the Finder icon in the Dock and choose to Relaunch the Finder. Then in Finder press Command+Comma to access Finder Settings and the Sidebar icon at the top. Re-check the sidebar items you wish to see. Then in Finder you can drag and drop them sidebar Favorites to the order you desire.

Then reboot and verify the settings are kept. That should solve the problem

See those white paper icons with little arrows for Desktop, Documents, Downloads? That means they are pointing somewhere else, being redirected. I am guessing they were on Dropbox. Since you removed Dropbox the pointers (aliases) are failing to locate the Desktop, Documents, and Downloads in the missing Dropbox.

Put Dropbox back find your data and move the folder back to your home folder. Then get rid of Dropbox if that is what you want to do.

Dropbox works by having a local folder called Dropbox that contains your data which is copies to the Dropbox cloud drive and if you have multiple devices it will sync changes to those files between them. At some point either Dropbox did it or you created aliases to those 3 folders and moved the actual folders to the Dropbox folder leaving the aliases to point to them.

StructuredWater wrote:

This is insanity at its best. Apple releases an OPERATING SYSTEM that is partially missing items? Are you kidding me? Has anyone been able to solve this dilemma as of this dated question? Please help... Apple M1 iMac(2021) with Ventura 13.0.1

What is the question— are you saying you can not find the Downloads folder...(?)

Use the Spotlight Command Spacebar and search if in doubt.

Search with Spotlight on Mac - Apple Support

Mahalo yourself. Reply back when you can. We receive email notifications when you do.

Looks like aliases or symbolic links and the location they are pointing to doesn't exist. Were you sync'ing your Desktop, Documents, Downloads to a cloud drive app? Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.? An external drive or disk volume?

Those three folders have special permissions. It shouldn't cause any problem with the Finder. The most likely explanation is that your home directory permissions were corrupted at some point. Have you installed or run any 3rd party system modifications? That would be the most likely explanation.