How to retrieve Documents lost while updating to macOS Ventura

Hi Barney

Unfortunately, I deleted the old login. I do have iCloud Drive enabled. Some more info:

1) The faulty update only screwed up my main login; other logins were unaffected.

2) I was able to mount my old external 3Tb Time Machine drive; Disk Utility fixed it after more than 15 hours.

3) I have not yet tried to restore anything. I'm a bit worried about making things worse.

4) I am about to try re-establishing the old login with the same password. Maybe I can recouple the old login.

Thank you for any help or suggestions

TomJF

Yes I am running Desktop&Documents in iCloud Drive. Documents on iCloud contains all visible documents (7.99 Gb) on my iMac. I am paying Apple for 50 Gb of iCloud storage that shows 22.64 Gb free. My attempt at re-coupling my old login failed and I deleted the new login.

How do I "migrate that user from backup"?

Thanks Tomjf

Hi Barney,

I followed your suggestion and migrated my old user from a date about 2 weeks before the faulty update. I only migrated the old user and not the system or other files. To my consternation, the original problem reappeared! All finder operations were impossibly slow. Simple operations like selecting and opening a file would produce a spinning beach ball and require 10 to 15 minutes to complete. While the ball was spinning I could access the icons on the right of the top menu bar but not those on the left such as the apple, Safari, File, Edit, etc.

The new login I established for myself is working well and I am able to perform current tasks. However, I have lost copies of many important papers that I wrote before 2010. My Time Machine backups go back to as far as 2014. I believe these items were lost during the faulty update on February 3.

I appreciate your attempts to help but I wonder if you have a new idea.

Thanks TomJF

Hi Barney,

I was able to recover my lost documents. Thank you for your help

TomJF