Re: there is a random duplicate of a sim

@crinrict Hello there, I am fairly new to the Sims4. I also noticed I have a duplicate Sim in my game! Same name and same dog... however, the original is placed in Newcrest. The duplicate person and dog, when checking the household manager, is "currently not in this world". I first noticed this happening in Brindleton Bay, when I took my pet to the vet. Suddenly there was a duplicate person and dog, but I thought it was just a one time bug. Later on, I saw the duplicate person in Pupperstone Park (also Brindleton Bay). I do not use any custom content or cheats, I only downloaded a house or two from the gallery. I picked houses which mostly use items from the packs I own. Other items I don't own were automatically removed by the game, according to a pop-up message. I thought this would be fine, but perhaps this actually causes the duplicate issue?

Is it right to conclude the game took them and turned them into NPC even though the original family lives in a house?

But most importantly: could I delete the "currently not in world" duplicate family, or would that also delete the original family from Newcrest? It does bother me and my gameplay, because the love interest of this Sim now knows two of the same guys. It's complicated 😞 I attached screencaps from the household manager. The yellow circled one is original family, red circled is duplicate.

Thank you so much in advance for your help. I don't really want to play further until this is solved. ☹️

@IrisuChan 
This whole random clone family is fascinating. The only time this has happened to me was when I added some of my households for my active family to meet. It was my fault since I added same household twice. {Ooops}

To offer a solution to your question:
"But most importantly: could I delete the "currently not in world" duplicate family, or would that also delete the original family from Newcrest?"

Save the game.
Go to manage world and merge the not in world household with another household.
Edit: Or place them on a lot of their own. (Thank you @IrisuChan  )
Go to live mode to be sure the Newcrest household is still there.
If all is well you can go back to manage world and delete the duplicates from that household.
If the Newcrest household is still intact save the game with a new name and continue to play.
If something goes wrong you can go back to the old save you made before starting this process.

@IrisuChan It's funny that the one time I saw duplicate Sims in my game also happened in Brindleton Bay. I had just moved my Sim there and the neighborhood was a little too empty so I created a new household of one Sim + one cat and moved them into one of the empty houses using Manage Worlds. The next time my Sim visited the pet park her new neighbor showed up with her cat, but then suddenly another Sim exactly like her showed up too! I checked in Manage Households and sure enough there was one version of this Sim in the house where I placed her and a doppelganger Sim in the "Not in World" category. The only thing I can think that happened was the game glitched as I was importing the household in Manage Worlds and brought two versions in my game instead of just one. I am certain that I did not import her twice.

My solution was to edit the doppelganger Sim in Manage Households to give her a new name, new looks, new hairstyle, clothes, etc., and leave her in the game as a homeless NPC townie rather than deleting her.

@RandomBuzziness Haha maybe something is going on in Brindleton Bay!! 😉 Your solution sounds great, I could also just place the duplicate sim and adjust him!! I'm pretty sure I haven't imported this family twice either, I created the sim and his dog and moved them into a house immediately. The only thing was that I downloaded that house, but surely that couldn't mess with the game and cause a duplicate- or could it?

Just a while ago I tried to delete the duplicate sim from household manager (the one not placed in the world) and then I checked on my original family, which was still there. I also checked one of his friends' houses and all memories she had of the duplicate guy had disappeared. I haven't saved my game after this test, but it seemed to be a good solution. So I hope this is the solution?? (or I could as you said adjust the duplicate sim and leave him as NPC) Or do you have any other suggestion?

@IrisuChan Either solution should work just fine and the end result is pretty much the same either way. The doppelganger Sim has a different Sim ID than the original so as far as the game is concerned they are not the same Sim at all, they just look the same. You can edit the doppelganger and he'll just be another NPC townie or you can delete him and the game will eventually spawn another NPC townie whenever it needs one.

If you choose to edit the doppelganger Sim in Manage Households you don't even need to place him in your world first, you can just edit him from the Manage Households screen. When you are done the game will move him over to the "My Households" tab. You can leave him there if you choose as he will still just be a homeless NPC no matter which tab he is shown under, or if you want you can click on the "heart" icon and move him back into the "Other" tab.

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@IrisuChan wrote:

@EuphorialQueen  it really is interesting! Especially since I was playing that household and suddenly there was another dude and dog just like them. HAHA.

 

Would it be okay to not merge the "currently not in world" family with another household, but put them in a separate empty lot? Because I want to remove the duplicates in the end, anyway. Then when I placed them in a new lot, I'll check if the original fam is still there in Newcrest. I guess better to put the duplicate family in another neighborhood than Newcrest, or not? Please advise. ☹️ After years, I finally could get into the Sims4 (after always being a die-hard Sims 2 fan) and I enjoy it so much now, until I saw duplicate sims :D thanks in advance for your help!!

 

UPDATE: if I open the household manager and delete the duplicate family, the original one in Newcrest is still there. I went to the house, and all is fine. I went to another Sim house and the memory of the duplicate Sim was gone. I haven't saved yet; but would this be OK to do?? seems fine?

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Sorry that was me overthinking ... again 😊
I am glad you worked it out.

Thank you @RandomBuzziness for stepping in to support this person.  😇

Thank you for helping me! It was fine, but right after deleting the duplicate Sim, the original guy texted my active sim and asked to hang out. I agreed and he "came over" except he wasn't really there nor in the area! But my sim talked to him like he was in the room with her... I couldn't invite him either because he was "already" at the lot. However later he left and I tried to invite him again, then everything was fine. 🙂 thanks so much again!!