After I updated my Mac to macOS Ventura 13.3.1, I found that all my documents were lost. I didn’t sync them to iCloud. How can I recover the data?
That sounds really stressful. macOS updates shouldn’t normally wipe user data, so I think that something unusual may have happened (like a hiccup during the update or the system creating a temporary/empty user folder).
You can check if you’re logged into a different user account. Go to System Settings > Users & Groups and make sure you’re in the right account.
Also, use Spotlight search for files like .docx, .pdf, etc. Sometimes files move to a different path after an update.
If you still can’t find your documents, I suggest you use a data recovery tool. I’ve used iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. This tool can scan all types of lost files on Mac and external hard disks.
You can use this tool to scan your Mac to quickly check for and find the missing documents and restore them with only one click.
Simply download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac and select your Macintosh HD - Data volume (user data volume) to quickly recover your lost documents.
Are you sure you haven’t synced your documents folder to iCloud? This issue often happens when users turn on iCloud and enable it to sync the desktop and documents folders.