Simpocalypse - The Tale of Lost Saves

Well I didn't lose everything in death of my own laptop i managed to copy some files

but I think this is awesome opportunity to start fresh new save with new sims and new buildings

maybe try playing without mods for a bit and add them back one by one when you notice a need for certain mod

when I changed computer
I still had one of my latest saves to play (despite losing my whole tray due to my own dumb)

but I ended up putting it aside in favor of making new sims and new save

which well actually i really am happy i did because my graphics went from lowest to ultra when i changed computer so everything i built or made in cas in old save just looks so weird in ultra graphics :lol:

if you really miss your old save sims you could also recreate the ones you liked and spin their story over I did that to couple sims ;)

and well you could even insert it in your story: simpocalypse happened! but no worry the new generation of sims raise from the ashes!

"LehmanLegacy;d-991922" wrote:
I am utterly devastated.

Yesterday my trusty laptop decided to not be able to turn on, and I have had to factory reset the entire thing to get it to turn on again…. Meaning I have lost all of my Sims, and other game, data.

Not accounting for the CC I’m going to need to track down again…. HOW CAN I GO ON NOW THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED?

Tell me your coping strategies…. Help…

Ohhhh, that hurts. Many of us have been there, done that. *sigh*

Over the past 20 years of playing the Sims, this has happened to me more than a few times (harddrive crash, game crash, accidentally deleting the wrong file, etc), so I feel your pain. But I think you might end up surprising yourself once you get back into a fresh new game with a fresh new pair of eyes and find yourself making a few changes and improvements to the way you had things set up before (households, builds, which mods/cc to add back in, etc) and after a while you may find out that you like your new saves much better than the old ones.

Speaking for myself, I discovered that I quite enjoyed restarting some of my households from scratch, even though it took a long time to feel like my families were back to where they were when I lost my saves, I think it actually went faster rebuilding everything and everyone.... maybe because I knew exactly how I needed to set things up based on how they were before? *shrug*

It's a pain to start all over again, but believe it or not, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you just might end up enjoying the journey to get there. :)


Also note: Backup backup backup! Something I think we've all had to learn the hard way.... backup your tray folder, mods folder, screenshots folder, and saves folder to an external drive (flash drive or external harddrive or cloud server).

For Sims 2, I didn't know about some of the bugs triggered by using cheats, and lost my Sims multiple times due to having to restart.
Each time I recreated my first families for it, and then decided to keep a list in case it happened again. Pretty much all the families I liked, or remembered were put down on it, so I could recreate them.
For Sims 4, I have shared some of my families to the Gallery, so if I ever lose my game information, I would have some of my families still created to bring back in.
However, when I first got the Sims 4, I did random save files, and didn't know much at the time, and I stopped playing for awhile. I ended up deleting all of them, and started from scratch, and honestly I am happier with how my game is going now.
Losing your game sucks, but a fresh start may give you new ideas.
Also, with CC and mods, you can find the ones you remember, and slowly bring them back in as you find them.

A few months ago, my laptop installed an update that completely erased all of my saves. I’m still not entirely sure why that happened or where they went, but I honestly didn’t mind having a fresh start.

I’m so sorry to everyone who’s lost their saves, too!

I have never had my computer wipe everything from the game but I did once delete what I thought was my "back-up" of my back-up mods folder, which turned out to actually be my real, one and only mods folder, and I lost about 30GB of CC. Some of it is no longer available, because the creator took down their downloads.

But, after beating myself up over, I just looked at it like a fresh start and went on a CC/Mods shopping spree for a few days.

This used to happen to me a lot in TS3. I say, Give it a week or so until you’re less frustrated about it, otherwise the new save won’t be fun for you because you’ll be too busy missing the old one. Then start a new save file a bit later. Sometimes a fresh start on a game/save can be better than the first one, you might find.

It’s also a good way of weeding out CC you never use, which is what losing all mine in TS3 helped with since I only replaced the stuff I used 24/7.

Do you no longer have your My Library in your Gallery? No, of course you wouldn't. Your saves and Tray are likely gone. :open_mouth: That's a blow. If the Sims you were playing are premades, then you should be able to just restart them. No, gameplay won't be the exact way it went before, but this allows for a sense of newness. A clean start, an ability to take a turn in the road, so to speak. Trust me, it can be fun again. Loosen up, change your original plot a little to encompass something new. Or, as suggested above restart your family from the aftermath of the Simpocalylpse. That, too, can make for a very interesting story to play out.

If that doesn't work out, then start over completely, from the beginning. I had to do this myself. My Rock Star lost his only sister and her husband at the Charity Event Erik was hosting. My very first Emotional Deaths. The brother-in-law died first, but his wife seemed oblivious, until suddenly, she was clutching at her heart, too. Devastation set in. I came to the boards and sought advice. Some said I should play it out and I tried. Erik had his two identical twin nephews to care for, while he juggled his music career, and his selfish, spoiled girlfriend who apparently hated children, let alone precocious Toddlers, turned out to be useless. Erik was drowning in his new responsibilities, haunted by the constant fear Social Workers would come take that kids from him. Me? I was a wreck. LOL

Perhaps, the search for the cc you were using will give you enough space to put your loss into perspective and allow you to reset. We can get so very invested in these pixelated people, I know. I can't let go myself.

I am the Queen of Restarts. The first time my favorite Sim died I was crushed. But, the good news is, when we create Sims in CAS and click on the check-mark, they immediately to into the My Library section of the Gallery. Mods you should be able to get from the site of the creator. CC can be difficult and time-consuming to track down. But, for me the 18th century stuff was more in abundance since the time when I had first gathered it. Found the little white linen cap the females wore in that time frame, yay! As well as more dress-styles for both men & women and a few for Child Sims, too. :)

A new save also is fresh, free of the corruption a long-save can end up accruing over time. Go into CAS and make your Sims again. There has been so much added to this game, such as likes and dislikes you may find yourself renewed, too.

The other piece of advice I will give, is for you to place your new save file (and Tray if you build) onto a flash drive. That way should you computer betray you again, you'll have a back up.

Hope this long-winded post helps you. Know that you aren't alone in your pain. I'd bet many of us have been where you are.

My laptop had died but I had saved a copy of my backup to Cloud. For some reason still unknown to me, not all my saves survived. I had just lost about 3 years of gameplay! I was, and still am, devastated. I still have the pictures of my sims and often find myself looking through them lol.

"LehmanLegacy;d-991922" wrote:
I am utterly devastated.

Yesterday my trusty laptop decided to not be able to turn on, and I have had to factory reset the entire thing to get it to turn on again…. Meaning I have lost all of my Sims, and other game, data.

Not accounting for the CC I’m going to need to track down again…. HOW CAN I GO ON NOW THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED?

Tell me your coping strategies…. Help…

@LehmanLegacy June 2019 some chick on the Microsoft support line wiped my computer to factory settings and updated windows 10. I lost a years worth of stuff, music I created, a book I wrote (I thought it was in the cloud, it wasn't) and ALL of my Sims saves. Took me a while to get over it. I was able to restore my PC from a 2018 backup, but I started playing the sims 4 Christmas 2018 so I lost all my saves. Thankfully I save every sim and build to the gallery, so I was able to restart, but the legacy save I created that was just gone.

Now I have a NAS with two drives that are mirrored and I back everything up to that. So if, God forbid, I have a drive failure I have my system restore on an external drive and all my game saves backed up to my NAS.

As for CC, I keep a spreadsheet of all the CC & Mods I am using in game. So if I need to update a mod I know where I got it from. I still can't locate some of the CC hair, which is mostly what I downloaded then, I had back then. But anything I have now is in that spreadsheet.

So it took me about a year to recover, but I heal slowly.

Also @LehmanLegacy when you save your sims, lots, rooms always save them to the Gallery and My Library. That way you have a back up in the cloud. And Periodically save your sims as they progress (have family, promote up in career, etc) so you have the sim saved when they are skilled up and have additional traits. It helps if you need to rebuild the game. Or if you start a new save and want the mature version of your sim in that new save.
https://i.postimg.cc/Y9XXM4gf/Gallery.png