All files are lost since update to El Capitan

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michele1991 Author

Level 1

0 points

All files are lost since update to El Capitan

Hi!

I recently updated to El Capitan, without restarting my macbook pro. But today I did, and ever since all my files are gone. That is, everything since 2014. Apparently it made an iCloud back-up back then, so I have some files that were saved in that back-up, but since then no other back-up has been made, and everything is gone. Even searching for all files ending in a .docx extension via the terminal doesn't work. Does anyone know how I can retrieve my files?

(Time Machine doesn't have any updates either, I know I should've checked this before updating, but that's too late now)

Thanks in advance!

Michelle

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Mar 16, 2016 7:37 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 16, 2016 7:46 AM in response to michele1991

Presuming you have correctly diagnosed the situation the only thing I can think of is try one of the $100 software packages that recover deleted files. In the meantime do not use your computer or even start it. You will likely also need a second drive as big as or bigger than your drive from which you are trying to recover and realize the recovered files may not be pretty. You might just end up with a ton of nameless files.

Time Machine does not have "updates", it does backups.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

136,349 points

Mar 16, 2016 7:50 AM in response to michele1991

FWIW, there is no reason updating to El Capitan would make your files disappear from your Mac and from a Time Machine backup. You could try EasyFind or FindMyFiles to locate the missing documents.

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Answer 3

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

Mar 16, 2016 8:11 AM in response to michele1991

did you format your HD (or partition) that contained your previous OS X? then your files are gone if they were on that harddrive (or partition)

you will need a backup

did you not format your HD (or partition) that contained your previous OS X? Then there is no reason OS X erased any of you files without your consent.

did you create a new account when you installed OS X? If so your files are on the other accounts. Switch to that account by logging off and logging back in, otherwise the previous account will have folder and files locked from your access by default.

did you install to a new partition or drive? check that partition or drive.

If you can not find them and you made a TM backup where were the file and where are you looking for them?

looking on a TM desktop or a desktop shortcut are not the same looking in User/Username/Desktop or User/Username/Documents

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Mar 16, 2016 8:38 AM in response to michele1991

If all your files are missing

You may have logged in as a different user, such as Guest. Please open the Users & Groups pane in System Preferences. Your name should be at the top of the user list, under Current User. See also this support article.

If files are missing from one folder

Please change the Finder view mode; for example, from icon view to list view, or vice versa.

If files are present, but seem outdated

You may have started up from a different volume (disk.) Please open the Startup Disk preference pane and check the selection.

If none of the above applies, see below.

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Answer 5

Mar 16, 2016 8:48 AM in response to michele1991

michele1991 wrote:

Hi!

I recently updated to El Capitan, without restarting my macbook pro. But today I did, and ever since all my files are gone.

This does not make sense. Installing a new version of the OS obviously entails restarting the computer. And restarting does not delete your files, either.

I am guessing that your files are not really gone, but you need to provide specific details about what you are doing.

Try opening a new Finder window and tell us (or show us) what you see.

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Answer 6

michele1991 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 16, 2016 12:38 PM in response to michele1991

Thanks for the replies! I don't understand all the solutions you provided but, I can answer some of your questions.

I did not have any TM back-up.

I remember that I installed El Capitan a couple of weeks ago but I don't remember whether I restarted my computer ever since. But as you suggest, there is no updating OS without restarting, I will elaborate on what happened today.

I was installing a package into R which gave an error that had something to do with Java. My friend told me to de-install java from my Macbook, and so we pasted the following code into terminal:

sudo rm -fr /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

sudo rm -fr /Library/PreferencesPanes/JavaControlPanel.prefpane

After that, we tried to re-install Java, but after the downloads of Java didn't complete (we tried multiple times), that is: the full package was downloaded, but it didn't open because the download was not definite (or something like that, I don't exactly remember what it said). So my friend suggested I restarted the computer, and I did. After restarting all files were lost. Java was back on the computer, but all further recovery that happened was that of some iCloud back-up that dated back to november 2014, but even that back-up doesn't contain all of the files, so even files from pre-2014 are missing.

I know I did some stupid things, and I hope you can follow through the explanation above, and I just hope somebody knows how I can retrieve the files from yesterday. Right now I am just really scared to do anything that can further harm my computer.

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Answer 7

Mar 17, 2016 2:52 AM in response to michele1991

I shudder at the sight of people using such a dangerous commands at the Terminal without really realizing what they are doing.

The problem is that a simple typo may result in tragedy.

Do you know what "sudo rm -rf" means? It means recursively and forcefully (that is the -rf), using your administrator privileges (that is the sudo part), delete everything you indicate afterwards.

Did you copy and paste the two lines EXACTLY as they show in your post? The first line seems correct, but type for instance an extra space at the wrong place and kaboom! The second line, if typed exactly as you wrote, would do nothing but print an error message, since there is no folder called "PreferencesPanes" - it is called "PreferencePanes" without the middle "s".

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