Save Data Lost

@kawaiisims261  Regardless of how much EA happens to be paying at any given time, there are always a few people here who are happy to help out a fellow player.

The first thing to note is that mods have to be updated to match your game.  So you'll need to check the sites where you found your mods to find out if they're compatible with your game's patch level.  If not, you won't be able to use them until they're updated as well.

The second thing is that the reason your game prompted you to create a new household is that it couldn't find your game folder.  (I'm not talking about the program files, which live in applications, but the folder that contains your saves, mods, etc.)  TS4 will only look in your EA folder in Documents on your computer; if the folder is anywhere else (you put it in Applications?), the game will generate a new one with none of your existing content.  This can also be a problem if you're allowing your Documents folder to sync with iCloud, as that would remove the folder from your hard drive.

One other thing to know is that sometimes an update can corrupt your game folder.  Thus, the best practice is to drag that folder out of Documents and onto your desktop when you're ready to update, and then remove your mods or run the game without custom content until the mods have been updated as well.