inventory disappears when traveling and world map bugs

hi. first time posting on this forum, but i've recently encountered a new issue i have no clue how to deal with. 

when i get invited to travel somewhere specific (most recently, to the magic realm), the load screen shows for about a minute before taking me to the world map. it becomes unusable, as it isn't in manage worlds or travel mode and clicking on a lot gets me nowhere.

once i reload my household, every sim's personal inventory is gone -- completely empty. ingredients, pictures, collectables, upgrade parts, all gone.

if i close without saving, it's fine, but i obviously lose my progress. in the past few days this has happened about 3 or 4 times, to the household i've played the longest (and thus with the largest personal inventory).  

does anyone have any suggestions? it's made it really hard to play the game if i don't save every five minutes ☹️