Hey guys (@Sid1701d9 and @crinrict) thanks for adding your ten cents to the thread. Honestly, I had given up on HQ helping me out so, through my pure stubbornness, I figured out how to solve this awful grayed out problem. It's a little janky, but so far it's been a reliable fix so we'll take it right?
The Cause of Problem (I think):
Before I dive into solution though, I want to share how I was able to replicate this break (because I inevitably did it again). It did occur during an active career (and @crinrict funny enough, it was with Dr. Andrew Sommer's new wife who is also a doctor) but it happened specifically when I used the "stay longer" feature at work. Basically, I hit "stay longer" to finish up active career tasks and then when I was ready for the sim to leave, he wasn't unable to. Have you guys ever experienced this glitch before? I've had it happen plenty of times before, it's annoying, but usually, as you guys touched on, I have to save from their career and then go back to their household and right click "bring sim here" to get them back. Sometimes it would as you describe effect them going to work. For example, it would start the hour countdown until they needed to go to work then (say they worked at 9 am) once it became 9 am it would suddenly reset and show that they were off for two days. Always two days for some reason. But, for whatever reason, after two magical sim days, usually the issue would be resolved, or if I played with another household, the problem would correct itself. Honestly, I have vowed to avoid the "stay longer" functionality at active careers. I think they should get rid of it or do what they're doing with the acting career and have them "Stay on lot."
Another thing I noticed is that sims who are grayed out are appearing to get stuck in lots when you're not actively playing with them. For example, if I'm playing with Dr. Andrew Sommer and I take him to the Willow Creek park where he sees other sims who I've also created there, those sims would then get stuck and gray. Does that make sense? I think if YOU make them go to a lot, you can move them freely but it seems like when they are getting stuck it's when they are exploring the world solo. At least that's been my observation. So that makes me wonder if the "spawning tourist" functionality that @Sid1701d9 mentioned is the culprit.
But, I do think that "stay longer" is somehow tied to the issue as well, so I'm curious if either of you noticed that during active careers?
Solution (Grayed out, unplayables):
Families that have Grayed Sims and Non-Grayed Sims- This fix is pretty straightforward. Just use a/the playable sim (meaning the sim that isn't grayed out as if they aren't home) take out their phone and have them invite over any and all grayed out sims to "Current lot." You can also do this from the relationship page, basically, anyway that you can "invite to current lot" will fix them. Just make sure it's not a time when they can be "sleeping." This will bring the sim back to the lot and make them playable as usual.
Families that Are All Gray
This one is a little more complicated and a bit of a pain in the butt because it's more involved and going to be hard to describe, but I'm going to do my best as it DOES fix the issue and based on testing permanently as long as I stay away from the "stay late" at work feature.
Okay, so let's say you're dying to play with your fav sim Jennifer Jones, but she's having the grayed out issue that prevents her from being playable. She has two other household members, but unlike the first example, both of them are grayed out and unplayable as well. However, Jennifer has a sister, Grace Fields, in another lot who is playable and not grayed out. What you're going to want to do is play with Grace in her household and just like above, have her invite over Jennifer. Once Jennifer arrives, save the household and head back to the neighborhood. Return to the Jones household and select Jennifer specifically to play with. It should say she's at the Field's Residence when you click to play her and then take you to the Field's residence where you should finally be able to play with Jennifer as normal but you'll notice that her other two family members (we'll call them Jim and Jimmy) are still grayed out.
Have Jennifer return home. So far (and I've done this with several sims now) this hasn't been an issue so long as the travel of the sim was something that I caused. Once Jennifer is home, have her invite over Jim and Jimmy, and they two will become playable. So far, this works for all ages from elder to toddler and both cats and dogs. I have yet to see this impact babies (and it's somewhat rare in toddlers; I think because they rarely solo travel), but maybe it's possible for them to get stuck at daycare?
Testing
So far, I've been issue free for about a month. I've moved sims from other lots, played in active careers (again, avoiding "stay longer at work") and haven't had the issue. Moreover, once I started implementing the fixes described above, it seemed to help fix other households too, but I've also been diligent in my patch updates, so it's hard to analyze cause and effect accurately.
