Monterey 12.5.1 update with External Drive for HOME folder looks like data is gone
Not a question so much as an answer. I have the M1 Mac Mini with only a 256GB drive. Big Mistake. I have my home folder on a 6TB external drive. This has worked flawlessly until tonight when I upgraded to 12.5.1. I knew I was in trouble when I started to get asked questions as if it was a new computer. I had nothing on my desktop or documents folder and all of my settings for my user were gone. The folders were correct on the external drive but under get info for the DESKTOP or DOCUMENTS folders the "Where" field had Macintosh HD > Volumes > [external drive name] > users > [my user].
I could not find out where it was getting Macintosh HD from. Under Directory Utility the directory was correct. /Volumes/[external drive name]/users/[my user].
The only way I was able to get my home folder back was to log in as a backup admin user (I created so I could change the admin's home folder location originally. Home folder for the backup admin is on the Mac HDD not the external.). I opened disk utility and changed the name of the external drive volume name [external drive name] to [external drive name]6. Then I went to my user while still logged in as the backup admin and pointed the home directory to the new volume. Rebooted and it WORKED! I just wanted to share if anyone else has this issue.
Mac mini 2018 or later
