Just downgrade to previous version,
It is not the first time that content disappears after an update.
e.g.
if you have a new parameter that will default to a different behavior than previous behavior,
we try not to have this happen, anyway considering the complexity and size of the component, problems
are relatively a few and usually are about new features, and all bugs have been short-lived
In general we have trade-offs, if new features or bug-fixes are not worth it,
then you can choose not upgrade, even highly paid software comes with incompatibility or bugs.
If i had refused looking at bugs (i speak of bugs not "needed" features), i could understand you complaining, but you get this component for free, and free bug support (even incompatibilities that are not fault of FLEXIcontent)
If your site cannot have any downtime, then it worth spending some time to
(a) make site backups
(b) and/or create a copy of the site to test upgrades
(c) employ a part time developer for it, that he/she would handle backups and upgrades of software, custom development of code etc
-- then you not have any worries !!
also try to imagine my frustration every time people take for granted everything this free software offers
-- about images gone, i don't believe that your images are deleted, URLs must be wrong for some reason,
you could help us by giving some easy information:
did you check the URL of images to see what is wrong?
(just do a view page source on the page)
-- do you have some custom template that is outputting your images, maybe it has relevant changes.
without any information or even an online URL to see this, we cannot know what is wrong
Sincere Regards