For eight days I have been trying to figure out what was making my pets suddenly disappear, and I may have found a temporary solution to use until the teams fix this bug. I was out of ideas and finally decided to use an in game cheat just to see if it would work. Enable testing cheats then Shift/click on your pet and go to the remove trait section. In the selections there's an option to freeze your pet's motives. I decided to give it a shot since nothing else seemed to be working. I had also noticed how often my cat would have the unhappy face icon in it's thought bubble even though her portrait had the green background which usually indicates the pet is happy. And once I froze the kitty's motives she stopped disappearing off the lot. There are a couple of things you will notice once you do it, so be prepared if your kitties don't use the litter box or eat from the food dish very often. I have not yet tried this on dogs so if you use this with a dog, feel free to let me know how it goes. However, kitty does accept treats and food my Sim cooks for her. She has the friendly, frisky and playful traits, but even when I made a cat with the independent trait that cat would disappear and not come home. Kitty acts normal, is playful and runs about the house and yard but stays home now. It has been three Sim days and no disappearing act so far. Before I froze her motives she would disappear several times during the day. I would travel to another lot, bring her home and off she'd go again in a matter of minutes. Very annoying, and disappointing, because I love having pets in my game. But it became such a hassle to go and find her two or three times a day I was ready to ditch the idea of a pet until the teams fixed that darn bug. That unhappy face icon in her thought bubble just struck me as odd because it was happening ALL the time, even after my Sim gave her a ton of attention. So something is off with our pets' happiness level, that is hidden and we have no way of knowing why the pet is unhappy, but I do know that can trigger a pet to run away. But if the pet had run away, no matter how long I waited the cat would not come home and there was no way to post a lost pet notice. Very odd, I must say. Anyway, I know there are a lot of PC and console players who are dealing with this right now, and I hope my little trick works for them as well as it is for me.

After playing for a Sim week all was fine until the cat became quite upset after being scolded for waking her owner. She disappeared a short time later but I was able to call her back home without needing to leave the lot. Kitty returned but left a few hours later and again came home once her owner called for her. I am seeing this is happening to other players where all is fine until the pet is scolded for misbehaving. That seems to be the catalyst for the pets then taking off and not returning when called. But my cat isn't ignoring being called home this time around. Which is not what was happening before I enabled the cheat for locking kitty's motives. So at this point I am going to continue tweaking things around until the teams release a fix, I find a way to fix it myself, or I end up banging my head on my desk in total defeat. Please share your thoughts, observations or successes because this bug has to be nuked one way or the other.

Thank you for this info, I’m going to try it. This bug is so disappointing as most of my families have pets, I thought the sickness was bad for my rotation, but this is ridiculous. It seems your tip here at least helps a little bit, but this really seems like a bug that should be given priority since it essentially breaks an entire pack.

@Kita5399 Let me know how it works for you. I have frozen kitty's needs, her motives, and her emotional level at happy. I have applied these one at a time then tested for a full Sim week afterward. All three cheats are now in play. So far there have been no random disappearances. But for some reason I believe those are tied to the pet being scolded. Everything was fine with each cat I created until the felines were caught scratching the furniture or waking the owner then was scolded. How that ended up being the reason for all this happening is beyond my understanding. But as far as I can see, the environmental changes don't make a difference in how the pets behave. Pets don't seem to be aware of the changes at all. One of my saves has a German Shepherd and she began to disappear right after being lectured about barking. The only common thing between cats and dogs disappearing off the lots is they were all lectured about bad behaviors. And so far I have not found a way to cheat those away. There is a way to give a pet all the bad behaviors, but I have yet to find one that erases those from each pet. And if the pet owner tries to teach the pet not to do bad things, the pet takes offense and runs off. I guess I will just buy my Sims new furniture or put up with the yowling at 3 AM because at the moment we don't dare try to train any pet in the game.

So I tried this out.. First I went to the Lynx house since all 4 cats kept disappearing the last time I played. The motive freeze seemed to work, I was able to lecture for scratching, and for being on counters with no problems. I also took one of the cats to be treated for sickness, and returned with no issues. I played them for 4 Sim days with no disappearing cats. Then I went to a house with a dog, and can report that it did not work at all. After training to play fetch the dog continues to disappear every few minutes, even after trying the cheat. :/

That's great news it's working for the kitties. I did run into a small snag when I repealed one of the NAPs and voted in the Green Gardening Initiative. All my plants reverted back to their just planted stage, and kitty decided to start disappearing again. But after three days she was staying home. I replaced that gardening initiative with a different one because it really messes with my gardens, and it appears as if it impacts how the pets act. Tomorrow evening I am going into the save with the doggo and see what happens once I freeze her motives. I am also going to check and see which initiatives are in place in that neighborhood. The good news is I was able to correct the bad behaviors the cat had without her hissing at my Sim then disappearing several times a day. But even though things have settled down a lot from how things were before, I am still investigating to see if the NAPs are a bit at fault in all of this. I regret voting for the one that promotes art, though. The streets in my towns are littered with clay sculptures, and they are slow to go away once that initiative is repealed. Bunnies and Eifel Towers are everywhere my Sim goes. :/

Fix for pets disappearing | EA Forums

74 Replies

paigeisin5
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
After playing for a Sim week all was fine until the cat became quite upset after being scolded for waking her owner. She disappeared a short time later but I was able to call her back home without needing to leave the lot. Kitty returned but left a few hours later and again came home once her owner called for her. I am seeing this is happening to other players where all is fine until the pet is scolded for misbehaving. That seems to be the catalyst for the pets then taking off and not returning when called. But my cat isn't ignoring being called home this time around. Which is not what was happening before I enabled the cheat for locking kitty's motives. So at this point I am going to continue tweaking things around until the teams release a fix, I find a way to fix it myself, or I end up banging my head on my desk in total defeat. Please share your thoughts, observations or successes because this bug has to be nuked one way or the other.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
Thank you for this info, I’m going to try it. This bug is so disappointing as most of my families have pets, I thought the sickness was bad for my rotation, but this is ridiculous. It seems your tip here at least helps a little bit, but this really seems like a bug that should be given priority since it essentially breaks an entire pack.
paigeisin5
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@Kita5399 Let me know how it works for you. I have frozen kitty's needs, her motives, and her emotional level at happy. I have applied these one at a time then tested for a full Sim week afterward. All three cheats are now in play. So far there have been no random disappearances. But for some reason I believe those are tied to the pet being scolded. Everything was fine with each cat I created until the felines were caught scratching the furniture or waking the owner then was scolded. How that ended up being the reason for all this happening is beyond my understanding. But as far as I can see, the environmental changes don't make a difference in how the pets behave. Pets don't seem to be aware of the changes at all. One of my saves has a German Shepherd and she began to disappear right after being lectured about barking. The only common thing between cats and dogs disappearing off the lots is they were all lectured about bad behaviors. And so far I have not found a way to cheat those away. There is a way to give a pet all the bad behaviors, but I have yet to find one that erases those from each pet. And if the pet owner tries to teach the pet not to do bad things, the pet takes offense and runs off. I guess I will just buy my Sims new furniture or put up with the yowling at 3 AM because at the moment we don't dare try to train any pet in the game.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
So I tried this out.. First I went to the Lynx house since all 4 cats kept disappearing the last time I played. The motive freeze seemed to work, I was able to lecture for scratching, and for being on counters with no problems. I also took one of the cats to be treated for sickness, and returned with no issues. I played them for 4 Sim days with no disappearing cats. Then I went to a house with a dog, and can report that it did not work at all. After training to play fetch the dog continues to disappear every few minutes, even after trying the cheat. :/
paigeisin5
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
That's great news it's working for the kitties. I did run into a small snag when I repealed one of the NAPs and voted in the Green Gardening Initiative. All my plants reverted back to their just planted stage, and kitty decided to start disappearing again. But after three days she was staying home. I replaced that gardening initiative with a different one because it really messes with my gardens, and it appears as if it impacts how the pets act. Tomorrow evening I am going into the save with the doggo and see what happens once I freeze her motives. I am also going to check and see which initiatives are in place in that neighborhood. The good news is I was able to correct the bad behaviors the cat had without her hissing at my Sim then disappearing several times a day. But even though things have settled down a lot from how things were before, I am still investigating to see if the NAPs are a bit at fault in all of this. I regret voting for the one that promotes art, though. The streets in my towns are littered with clay sculptures, and they are slow to go away once that initiative is repealed. Bunnies and Eifel Towers are everywhere my Sim goes. :/
babajayne
5 years ago
Is this an issue people are having just with the Eco Lifestyle pack? I don’t have that pack and I don’t seem to be having this problem. I’ve played a house with 2 cats that were scolded at least 4 times and they didn’t run away. I’ve played a house with a dog who was learning to play dead and she didn’t run away either. These were in the past week.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@Paigeisin5 I never thought to look at which NAPs might be active. I think the Lynx house had the one encouraging eco power sources, not sure about the house with the dog. That’s a good thing to keep in mind, I’d like to know if something specific triggers this. You’re right that training seems to be a factor in it.
paigeisin5
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@babajayne Yes, this problem with the pets began right after installing EL. Unfortunately. New pack. New problems. I waited before adding pets to my new Eco Lifestyle saves because I was busy trying out all the new features. I haven't opened any of my earlier saves until some of the new bugs are ironed out. Those older saves don't need to be hit with new glitches.
paigeisin5
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@Kita5399 I got tired of all the NPCs hanging out at the community board which is right across the street from where one of my Sims lives, so I don't allow NPCs to vote for the NAPs anymore. The ones they always vote for are never ones that actually help the environment, such as the Sharing Is Caring one. All that one does is let NPCs take anything they want off your lot and any other lot they go to. It was fun in the beginning, but it got old very quickly.

When I enacted the Green Gardening initiative and my garden went bonkers, then the cat began disappearing again, I had a feeling those might be having an affect on the pets, too. Which should not be happening. And if I recall, my save with the dog also has that one as a NAP. If that NAP has the ability to reset all plants back to the just planted stage, what else can it do? That's a question only the teams can answer. I have a mod for the plants, but no one has created one for the pets. And if the pets are being manipulated by the environmental changes, of which there are many, the problem with them running off their home lot will remain. I didn't believe that was possible until it happened to me last night while I was playing. Or maybe it was the first time I was able to make the connection because I was focused on the training and lecturing being the reason behind the glitch. It's a mystery for sure. But now I have a better understanding of the situation and that will make it easier to pinpoint what is triggering the pets to leave their home lot for no reason. And I have an idea the pets' behavior is being pushed by more than one thing.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
"Paigeisin5;c-17565856" wrote:
@Kita5399 I got tired of all the NPCs hanging out at the community board which is right across the street from where one of my Sims lives, so I don't allow NPCs to vote for the NAPs anymore. The ones they always vote for are never ones that actually help the environment, such as the Sharing Is Caring one. All that one does is let NPCs take anything they want off your lot and any other lot they go to. It was fun in the beginning, but it got old very quickly.

When I enacted the Green Gardening initiative and my garden went bonkers, then the cat began disappearing again, I had a feeling those might be having an affect on the pets, too. Which should not be happening. And if I recall, my save with the dog also has that one as a NAP. If that NAP has the ability to reset all plants back to the just planted stage, what else can it do? That's a question only the teams can answer. I have a mod for the plants, but no one has created one for the pets. And if the pets are being manipulated by the environmental changes, of which there are many, the problem with them running off their home lot will remain. I didn't believe that was possible until it happened to me last night while I was playing. Or maybe it was the first time I was able to make the connection because I was focused on the training and lecturing being the reason behind the glitch. It's a mystery for sure. But now I have a better understanding of the situation and that will make it easier to pinpoint what is triggering the pets to leave their home lot for no reason. And I have an idea the pets' behavior is being pushed by more than one thing.

Yes it’s an interesting theory. I’m going to start a new save, and have all eco options off from the start (NPC voting & environment effects). I want to see if the pets have any issues at all, and if so what (if anything) seems to be a common trigger. I have those options disabled in another save, and I still have pet & plant issues in it. That save didn’t start with the options off, so that damage may have already been done in that one.

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Fix for pets disappearing

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