I just updated my elvUI via the tukui client and everything was fine for about 5 minutes. then my game crashed and when I logged back in ElvUI didnt load. I logged off and went to actiivate it and noticed it is completely gone!!! the entire folder deleted out of my wow ui folder and it isnt even in my trash can so I lost all my settings!! what the actual fuck??

Addons missing from the addons DOES NOT mean the settings/profiles are lost.

Profiles / settings are NOT stored in the addons folder. If they were, every single update of all addons would wipe their settings.

Addons settings / profiles are stored in a completely different folder - the WTF folder. You should always back up your WTF folder, and export your ElvUI profile and save it.

Things like a game crash, not exiting the game correctly, Alt F4, computer crash can wipe your settings. You have yet to see if your settings have been lost due to the game crash.

Download ElvUI and check to see if your settings are still ok.

Remember to manually save your settings