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BlkYenOfVeng's avatar
BlkYenOfVeng
4 years ago
Solved

Help! I deleted my Sims 4 household!

I went to load my game but instead of clicking play, I clicked delete. My household is nowhere to be found. I searched in my file folder under documents and couldn't find the save. Just played the ga...
gameplay issue
  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    4 years ago

    @BlkYenOfVeng 

    Since you deleted it you will need to start a new game or load one of the old ones.

    I can understand that you by mistake clicked Delete as they are very close together. However the prompt that asked if you were sure that you wanted to delete it should have given you pause to reflect on if you really wanted to do that.

SheriGR's avatar
SheriGR
Hero
4 years ago

@BlkYenOfVeng Have you ever made a local backup of your game folder (more recently than the last one you have left in the in-game saves), found for most players at: Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4. For instance, I do an overkill backup of saving the whole 'The Sims 4' folder locally (on a backup drive I have) most days after I play, then also delete old backups as needed to keep just a few in my backup folder.

I have some additional information about backing up your game here, and Crinrict has a wonderfully helpful post on game saves here, plus a great post explaining what each of the files contains here.

I hope there may be something useful in this information (now or in the future), and am so sorry about the accidental deletion! Unfortunately, I have done things like that before myself, thus my 'overkill' obsession with local backups also.

Edit: Lol! Both @BlkYenOfVeng and @JonaO703 ...you also replied while I was typing! 🙂

BlkYenOfVeng's avatar
BlkYenOfVeng
4 years ago

I think I have in the past. Haven't done one recently.

  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    4 years ago

    @BlkYenOfVeng Yes, if you have not made a backup locally that's more recent than the saves included in the undeleted game saves I assume from what you say that the recent game saves are gone. Please check, as @JonaO703 mentioned, in your library, though, as you may have a copy of the household saved into your library from when you created them (and even a played version of the household can be pulled up if you ever happened to have also saved the household to the library after playing them). This is certainly not the same as being able to have the household at the state you have played them to, but it may be better than nothing. 

    For future reference, I would highly recommend beginning to keep local backup copies or your game as mentioned above. So sorry, again, for the loss of the game save. ☹️

    • xochiquetzl_xkvn's avatar
      xochiquetzl_xkvn
      Seasoned Ace
      4 years ago

      What @SheriGR said.  I had a tragic hard drive loss over a decade ago and I'm still paranoid. (I'm still traumatized and will be for life!)

      The pro backup rule is if the data is important, you want three copies in two different physical locations.  (You get to decide what's important to you, data-wise.)  Three copies--one of my ex-boyfriends, back in Ye Olden Daze, had a single copy of media to back up his hard drive and his hard drive died mid-backup, so the media had an incomplete backup, aka no backup. *sad trombone*  Your backup location can also fail.  And if they're both in the same building, the building can burn down with your data and the backup in it.  A cloud service counts as a different physical location.

      I have a copy of my Sims 4 folder on my NAS, and keep a second copy of just the saves on a thumb drive. You could also use OneDrive/Google Drive/Dropbox/the cloud service of your choice. 

      I also do a full image backup of my hard drive nightly.  Since I've started doing that, I've had a hard drive death and I just popped in a new drive and did a restore and it was like nothing ever happened.  I use Acronis; it does your full Windows install and everything and has saved me more than once.

      I mean, each person should decide how hard-core they want to be and what level of bitrot they're comfortable with, but just dumping your Sims 4 folder into Dropbox every night might be good enough.

      • SheriGR's avatar
        SheriGR
        Hero
        4 years ago

        @xochiquetzl_xkvn Absolutely! Thanks for sharing! I have a cautionary tale as well that taught me to backup and backup your backup... I had a backup drive with all my stuff. A big one. One day it fell off the desk. I was in a hurry and put off checking on if it worked until the next day. Guess what happens next day before I check on it? My computer dies. Absolutely, hopelessly dead. Nothing could be retrieved. Now I'm crazed... and I get out my husband's laptop and try to plug the backup drive into it. Nope. Nothing. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

        Same thing goes for websites (I design them as my job). I completely deleted my first business website (with the 'help' of a hosting company agent) right after I finished school! And I've had clients who didn't have a backup service on their hosting who lost their entire website to a hacker, virus, or other glitch. If they're very, very lucky the Wayback Machine has a copy. It's such a tragedy and avoidable with minor effort and expense.

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