HELP! All my Sims have disappeared

I was trying to play Sims in a new save file, I haven't played since the latest update.  are gone! ALL  MY SIMS FROM BOTH OF MY SAVES, TOWNIES AND EVERYTHING JUST GONE! The buildings are still there but ALL my sims are just missing. When I open 'my households/played households', there's just nothing there, I've tried removing and reinstalling mods, but there's no difference. I am really worried that 256 hours of gameplay are now just in the bin