windows 10 (October 2018 update) (version 1809) deleted all my files

I too had windows delete all documents and pictures in my account folder.  They are nowhere to be found not in windows.old or anywhere else or recoverable.  Luckily I had a backup from 1 month ago so didn't lose much but seriously why would an update EVER delete personal files?  I had disabled onedrive and uninstalled it from my computer so I assume that was the cause.

Given the number of home users, given the people that have stated to me that they didn't have this setting, this isn't the only trigger.  Home users have no ability to access group policy.

I have rooted my User folders in OneDrive for years without any losses, although the Recycle Bin online has been a safety net several times.

 What I've come to Value equally is Google Drive backup which let's you designate folders to sync to their cloud for up to 15 gigabytes free. 

 I still believe these are essential secondary backup methods because of the very nature of them being fire and theft-proof. I have also pulled out external drives to do a backup several times and found They were dead.

 There is not a day that has passed during the past 10 years in forums that I have not reminded people to backup and still find more than half don't do so, down from about 75% a few years ago.

Exactly and that is why a limit is crossed for me. I am very angry, despite not even having installed 1809 yet. I am still on 1709 for non-production machines (for production we switched to Apple). However, we start to feel the pressure again, since our 365 days deferral ends beginning of January next year. To avoid forced upgrades during holidays, we will start upgrading those left over Windows machines to 1803. No reason at all to do so, but Microsoft forces us. It’s extremely irritating and shows a huge disrespect to customers.

And now that they made a big time blunder, they are o so silent. No sorry, no nothing. They will soon just go on pushing updates and upgrades again as if nothing happened. Maybe they should simply stop doing that for a year and repair the chaos that Microsoft became. That would be a sign of respect to their users. Maybe once they should finally listen and admit that this is a dead end road. If not, Microsoft has a problem.