My pictures are all still gone and I thought that they were working to bring them back. I do have a lot of saves backed up outside of the game but I'm not really sure why I do that as I am not going to go through like you are doing to painstakingly recover items. If that is even possible. Frankly I am afraid to load those saves as whatever current problems going on might mess that save up too. It all seems so pointless to me. Whatever bug that recently decided to invade my game since April 2nd, has made it unplayable for me. In the sense that what is going on with my sims is unacceptable, should not be happening and I just don't have the stomach for it. I could understand something like this happening because of an update, or me using mods and not updating them or something. But no. Nothing like this. It had been a while since the last update, nothing else has changed and suddenly my sims have lost their minds due to a setting no longer functioning properly. That is the best I can determine it anyway. And unless other people experience the same problem and report it, my game is done for. It is really heartbreaking to me. I do not feel that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few when a game setting not functioning is involved. I have proof that it is not working, at least not in my game. So we shall see what happens.
I know they try to fix the game and the bugs but I just don't think things are properly tested for any length of time. I am oh so very tired of having to report bugs right and left, and you're right, feels like more than I get to play sometimes.