All the lots in my Pleasantview save disappeared

I have been playing in Pleasantview of the Legacy Collection on my PC rotationally with no issues until tonight I saved after everyone in my household died (not the first time I've done this) and returned to the neighborhood to find it completely empty. Not just the sims but the lots are gone too; except for the empty one I had just been playing.

Honestly I wanted to post about it because I'm upset about all the lost play time but I do need help understanding how to reset the save so all the pre-existing sims are back. Maybe I won't kill Don this time.

bug

technical issues

LadyGray01
6 months ago
I'm sorry, that's a bummer. I have no clue what would cause that, but I do know how to restore the neighborhoods. Delete the neighborhood files that are in your Documents-EA-Sims 2 Legacy folder. Go into Program Files, find the EA-Sims 2 file in there, open that, and copy those neighborhood files into your Documents Sims 2 folder.
In the future, I recommend every few play sessions to delete the cache files, thumbnails, and the neighborhood manager. Then drag a copy of the neighborhoods folder onto your desktop. I also recommend making an additional copy of all of the game files on a thumb drive. Then if anything goes wrong and you don't want to start completely fresh, you can restore from one of your backups.

8 Replies

9a7249b12e6e1d80
New Novice
6 months ago
I have a bit similiar situation, I started the game today and have been playing in Belladonna Cove. now everything is just gone. No lots, no sims, all is "reset". Last time I played was about a week ago. I had no problems that time and everything wroked just as all things should work.

I start the game via Steam. I also would like to know, if there is any way of getting my saves back, allthough I already assume not, knowing the sims.
LadyGray01
Seasoned Ace
6 months ago
I'm sorry, that's a bummer. I have no clue what would cause that, but I do know how to restore the neighborhoods. Delete the neighborhood files that are in your Documents-EA-Sims 2 Legacy folder. Go into Program Files, find the EA-Sims 2 file in there, open that, and copy those neighborhood files into your Documents Sims 2 folder.
In the future, I recommend every few play sessions to delete the cache files, thumbnails, and the neighborhood manager. Then drag a copy of the neighborhoods folder onto your desktop. I also recommend making an additional copy of all of the game files on a thumb drive. Then if anything goes wrong and you don't want to start completely fresh, you can restore from one of your backups.
9a7249b12e6e1d80
New Novice
6 months ago
Thanks for good advice, I did manage to get my saves back!

I did not find that EA-Sims file with the neighborhood from program files, instead I found that my previous saves somehow ended on other file on my documents. I have there one file below my own user name and the other one as a default with the name public user. Suddenly, all Sims 2 activity has made a new folder under thtat public user file and i found my saved neighbourhood from there.
LadyGray01
Seasoned Ace
6 months ago
My game also has two copies of the game files like that, but I didn't think to tell you to check, sorry. I think it's a One Drive issue. I disabled One Drive before installing Legacy, but it did it anyway. I'm glad you were able to restore your saves. I have one from 2015 that I moved over from Ultimate Collection, I'd be really upset if I lost it.
9a7249b12e6e1d80
New Novice
5 months ago
Yes, I think One Drive does something, I havbe also enabled it, since it caused some problems at the beginning.
Thank you for your help! I'm pleasantly surprised how well this forum is alive and solving problems =)
LadyGray01
Seasoned Ace
5 months ago
A lot of us have been around since 2004 when it was the Sims 2 forum, some were even around for the Sims 1 site. I think we'd all like to keep the community going until we die. Lol
stefnv
Rising Novice
5 months ago
just delete your game and it will come back as new
LadyGray01
Seasoned Ace
5 months ago
True. And I do recommend that when the problem may not be neighborhood specific. But if it's neighborhood specific, then it's a matter of what would you rather do? Delete the Sims 2 folder, then re-set any settings you had ingame or drag settings files and downloads over from the old folder. Possibly drag over any neighborhoods you'd wanted to keep as they were. Or leave everything else as is and just replace the neighborhood(s) you need to replace.