Re: Sims disappearing after coming home from university

This is many months later, but is there any updates on this? I have gone through all the steps on the second comment and I also tried to download the traveler, overwatch, and errortrap mods and i was still having the same issue. Is there anything else I could possibly try?

@kaykaykaykaykay  This is a relatively common issue that should also be solvable in one way or another.  One other thing you could try is removing your custom content, if you have any.  I'm reasonably sure bad cc caused this problem for at least one person and that removing it was the reason they were able to fix it.  Let me know if you need help removing cc.

If that's not the issue, I could test your save, if you're comfortable sharing it.  Let me know which expansion and stuff packs you have installed, as well as any store worlds you own and what world your sims live in when they're not at University.  For the save itself, open Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves, right-click on the folder for your current save, select Compress, then upload the .zip file to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it for me.  You can post it here or send it via private message if you prefer.

I have no cc, so that can't be the problem. My packs are pets, university, generations, late night, ambitions, outdoor living stuff, and town life stuff. 

Here's the save file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bPIQuaTqgoYqDHTnhznPH6NL9qKJaG9i/view?usp=sharing

He's originally living in Sunset Valley. For some reason he is stuck in the university town after they force them to leave, but the same thing still happens when I try to send him home via dropping out. 

Thanks for your help.

@kaykaykaykaykay  I apologize for the late reply.  I needed to do some uninstalling and reinstalling as well as a bit of messing with some internal game files and only just found a way to get your sim home.  But he is home, fully intact as far as I can tell and no worse for wear:

Let me know when you've downloaded the save, and I'll remove the link.

Edit:  Link removed.

I've downloaded it, thank you so much! I appreciate your help a lot. I think that I am just going to avoid sending my sims to university for now since it seems to be a lot to fix, but I am curious if this is a problem with the game that EA might fix soon or if there is something wrong specifically with my downloads or so that are causing this problem?

@kaykaykaykaykay  The travel transition has been fragile, on all platforms, pretty much since World Adventures was released in 2009.  I can't say for sure, but I think it's just breaking for you the way it breaks for a lot of people.  It's possible that this particular transition, or this instance of University, had some problem that is unlikely to recur, but it's also possible that this is more about what the transition demands of your computer.  I don't know the specs of your Mac, but if you have a model with a weaker processor, you might not get ideal results.

This is all speculation, but there are some things you can do to see whether this is a game or system problem rather than an unusual outcome.  One is to only travel after restarting your computer and loading the game right away, with nothing else running, not even a browser.  Another is to play with NRaas ErrorTrap, Overwatch, and Traveler at all times—they can be helpful no matter when you add them, but they're most effective when they have an opportunity to prevent errors rather than repairing them after the fact.  I used these mods with your save and got a couple of scripterrors, although they were just cleanup and didn't point to any obvious problem.  Still, they won't do any harm.

You can also try traveling your sim to University and immediately back again.  If the travel transition isn't going to work at all on your system, you'll see the results right away.

I doubt EA is going to do anything about this issue because it's not a universal problem, and also because EA never bothered before now.  So the question is whether you can manage the issue well enough or whether you need to avoid traveling entirely.  If you do try to travel again, be sure to keep a backup save from beforehand, in case you need it later.  Just use "save as" to rename the save, and the original will remain intact under its original name while you play forward under the new name.

i'm having these issues as well is there any way you can help?

@cherryberry2208  Please try the suggestions in post 2:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Sims-disappearing-after-coming-home-from-university/m-p/9764437#M14432

If those don't help, and you're willing to use mods, try adding NRaas ErrorTrap, Overwatch, and Traveler.

If that doesn't help either, you can send me your save, and I'll try to make it work.  In addition, please list the packs you currently have installed as well as any store worlds.  If your sims live in a custom world, please list it as well.

I tried the suggestions already and have the NRass mods installed but nothing is helping i'm just going to send you my save. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5lMEMwLtJ6Qvqpitnd3vJSQVCv4XgOU/view?usp=sharing

I have ambitions, late night, generations, showtime, supernatural, seasons, and university.

@cherryberry2208  I apologize for the late reply; I didn't see your post right away, and then I had other obligations and didn't have time to test for a couple days.

I did manage to get through the travel transition, but when your sim arrived in Twinbrook, I got 87 errors from ErrorTrap.  A few were harmless cleanup logs; most were errors relating to role sims.  The more concerning issue was that those errors repeated when I saved, quit, and reloaded, as in, the mods I initially used weren't able to resolve the issue.  I could see how this might prevent the homeworld and/or from loading properly at all.

I believe I have now gotten rid of the errors for good, as in, I reloaded the save once your sim was in Twinbrook and played it forward for a few minutes without any problems showing up.  This is a save with your sim having just arrived home:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uw0RgsENAPgMX4JIRxXI_C9TNzUSn2bq/view?usp=sharing

The only issue I can see is that she's missing her usual skin, but you should be able to take her into CAS and reapply it.

I would strongly recommend playing forward with ErrorTrap, Overwatch, AND NRaas Register as well: that mod governs role sims' assignments, and the scripterrors didn't stop until after I added Register.  The errors relating to role sims may be fixed permanently, but it's also possible that they could return or new similar ones might surface, in which case Register would be very helpful.

Hi! first of all I wanna say, THANK YOU in behalf of all the people here you help that has not thanked you yet!! And a big thank you from me! Your doing such a good jobb and I love how much I could read myself into, with the help of all your information. You’re the best! 

Second of all I wanna tell you that I’m having this problem now as well. I tried everything, but the weird part is that it gotten worse after I started with mods(even tho Iv done everything right). Have you maybe heard of anything like this before? 

Thank you! 🙏

@NaomiBlack  Which mods are you using?  One potential issue even with adding ones like ErrorTrap and Overwatch is that initially, they have some extra cleanup to do.  It's very helpful in the long term, but that initial cleanup run can take extra resources, especially if you've been playing a particular world without mods for a while.  Having said that, there are also mods you probably don't want to add until your game is stable, so a list would help.

If you're stuck though, feel free to upload your save somewhere and send me a link, either here or via private message.  I just need to know which packs and store worlds you currently have installed.

And thanks for the kind words.

@puzzlezaddict thank you for replying so fast! 🙏

Omg, I would love for you to help me!! I've been sitting with these two sisters for 2days straight, trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I think I'm gonna go crazy soon 🤯

So I downloaded mods for the first time after this save. To see if it would fix the problem, but it didn't. So it's not saved with modes, but I have the modes running now. Don't know if that is necessary information for you tho.

Anyhow the modes I have are those you recommended to download in an earlier post. Nraas errortrap, mastercontroller, overwatch. And then I got the nointro and nobuildsparkles(that I didn't even know I had, saw them just now)

The save is like 3h before they automatically are sent home. When I come back home to their world. It’s like everything about them is erased.

They live in Bridgeport btw(from Late night ).

The EP/SP I have is:

Ambition

World adventure

Late night

Pets

Season

University life

Island paradise(installed this after the save tho, because.. Yeah as I said, I tried everything)

The SP I have:

Town stuff

Save is in the post below. 

Thank you so much for looking into this 🙏

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hB56gpOF6kJqHtMG6OT-Id6O1kaVfPN/view?usp=sharing

@NaomiBlack  Try adding NRaas Traveler too, and Register for good measure; I've seen it help in other cases.  Please also delete the five cache files in the Sims 3 user folder again:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

If that doesn't help, let me know, and I'll mess with your save tonight.

@puzzlezaddict I have deleted those five cache files before, and nothing got better. Now I tried with the Nraas Traveler mode as well and deleted the cache files again, but everything is so much slower now and the game keeps crashing all the time 😫. Feels like I tried everything now. If you have the time to try my save, I would be so thanksfull! 

@NaomiBlack  I had no trouble getting your sims home from University, that is with a small pile of mods installed.  Here's a save with them back in Bridgeport:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gN7HMwPgdlB08qM2RjVE1U257ApLvyGd/view?usp=sharing

I'm wondering though why so many people's saves are affected on their computers and not mine.  It would help if you could post the specs of your Mac: everything under About This Mac except for the serial number.  I'd like to start comparing specs among players with this issue.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you thank you thank you so so much, you made my day! 🙏

Regarding the spec of my computer, hehe I wish you didn't ask. I mean I know it's old as h*ll, and that might be one of the things that are causing the problem. But now when I play I have no problem in the game as long as I don't travel somewhere. As soon as I'm going back to college and then home again, the same issue repeating itself. I even tried moving to another town and going to uni from there, but going home just seems to be too much for my computer. 😔🤷‍♀️

@NaomiBlack  Thanks for the info.  I do wonder if there's something specific that causes the travel transition to bounce, for example maybe the fact that your processor only has two cores.  (That's just speculation, which is why I want more info from other affected people.)  Old or not, your computer should be able to run Sims 3, but the 64-bit version does have plenty of odd or unexplained issues.

Out of curiosity, does the travel transition also fail when your sims return from one of the World Adventures vacation worlds?  I'm wondering whether the problem is reloading the homeworld in general as the sims go home or the issue is specific to returning from University.

If you want your sims to get degrees, you might look into setting up a homeworld university.  You'd need mods, or rather one mod is required and the usual set is recommended for overall game stability.  It's not the same as traveling to University, but it's something.

https://www.nraas.net/community/Careers-FAQ#How-do-I-set-up-a-Homeworld-University

Anyway, I'm glad I could help.  Enjoy your game.

Hi please help me! I just recently started to play sims 3 again and having the same problem at the moment. I have deleted the cache files as well as downloaded Nraas overwatch, traveler , register and error trap like you suggested but nothing seems to work!

My sims were living in Isla Paradiso and were coming home from University. I have no CC.

I have all the packs except 70s-90s stuffs, movie stuffs and outdoor living stuffs.

My game is running on Imac 2020, 8-core.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vfa-2xVZXBou41TrLkidzD_k0j-91Z4z/view?usp=sharing

@puzzlezaddict hi! Completely understand if not - as you've had a lot of peoples saves to deal with. But on the off chance. I'm having this same/similar issues.

I have tried all the fixes, installed all of the mentioned mods.

I have University, Ambitions, Generations, World Adventures, Pets, Late Night, Island Paradise, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons. 

Basically, my sim is having a few issues. First, he could not get home from university, it stays stuck on the loading screen home. Then on another attempt, he got home but was invisible and I could not see his UI etc. Then, on another attempt, he didn't travel home at all and was stuck in the university world.

Please let me know if you could take a look anytime soon 🙂 Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Js18prl_mFW6WCgU8mvesNDS_h-1nZuQ/view?usp=sharing

Hi, having same issue! Can i possibly send you my save? 

@cherrymels  Sure, but please also list the expansion and stuff packs you have installed, any Store worlds you've installed, and what world your sims live in when they're not at University.