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GremlinGamerGir's avatar
GremlinGamerGir
3 years ago

Build not saved

I normally wouldn't ask... but I'm almost ready to contact my psychiatrist.

2 days ago I spent 10 hours building on a new lot (that I started the day before). Yesterday I opened the game and 10hrs of progress wasn't saved. I accepted it and thought I must have not saved properly for the first time ever.

So I then spent 22 hours (no joke) barely moving from my chair, nearly completing the build. I made sure to save incessantly. 

Today I opened the game and the lot is back to the save from before I lost 10 hours. I've lost 32 hours of building time in less than 2 days. I'm about to have a conniption. Sims 4 is the only joy left in my life. Please help. 

I don't use OneDrive (not synced), I've scoured similar issues on here for a few hours, and have been attempting solutions that have worked for others. 

I've looked through my program files and save slots, but they match the save without the progress, as if I never saved. I can see evidence logged I was actually playing in the EA Desktop Logs folder - which is the only proof the last few days weren't a fever dream.  

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
What is your current game version number? 1.96.397.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Cottage living, get famous, cats & dogs, city living, get to work, dream home decorator, tiny living, laundry day, vintage glamour, holiday celebration
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Building on a lot.
What happens when the bug occurs? Saving game after building doesn't work, building progress lost.
What do you expect to see? My progress saved.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used. There is debug, but that's in original save too. 
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Possibly! I had a browser error message that I couldn't open a webpage due to storage space. I then cleared out/transferred my computer files to external hard drive to free up space. But, I didn't touch the EA Documents folder or any program files. 

Other possible triggers (no idea if this would impact, I'm gasping at straws):

  • I've near used an elevator before, in both builds I lost, I added an elevator
  • Never built apartments before. I had levels, (but also stairs). 
  • Regular residential lot in Del Sol Valley (Vacuous Green)
  • I have no current gameplay in Del Sol Valley and saved to a game with a sim in a different world
  • My game crashed when I was using my security camera app
pc

3 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @GremlinGamerGirl  If you try saving your progress in a different save, does it work?  I'm not suggesting you go through the entire build process again; just play for a few minutes and save.  You can use a new save rather than an existing one if you want.  If that doesn't work, please try using "save as" instead, which creates a new slot.  Try it on the other save you're testing and the main one.

    I'm also curious whether saving a build to the in-game library works.  You can just build a box in a new save and see whether it saves properly, and if not, whether there are any new corresponding files in Tray.

    Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

    And let me know what antivirus you use.

  • GremlinGamerGir's avatar
    GremlinGamerGir
    3 years ago

    Thank you for replying. The save I used (after losing 10 hours) was from a recovered file, that I had saved as a new game. When I started the game after that, the new slot had disappeared. I've built on it again to test and saved a new game in a new file since then - everything is saving so far. It also saves to the library fine since.

    It looks like I've just lost that build and it's not a persistent issue (I hope). Honestly, if it weren't for the single log of evidence I could find showing the time I was playing, I would have questioned my own reality. Will back up to library more now. I probably won't build on that lot again for a while and started in a new world. 

    I ran a dxdiag when looking through previous posts, but I'm cautions about sharing a lot of data. Admittedly - I'm using a HP laptop. AVG antivirus.

    In task manager the game is running at 50/70% CPU; 2000MB / 90% memory; 0.1MB / 1% disk space; 0% / 0% network and 90/94% GPU, if that helps or is relevant. I have a few browser windows, and EA app running. It crashed when starting up my security camera app so I guess it can't handle both anymore.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @GremlinGamerGirl  A dxdiag doesn't contain any sensitive information, which is why we're allowed to ask for it on this forum.  But if it would make you more comfortable, I could let you know when I'd seen it and you could take it down (editing the post gives you the option), or you could upload it to a third party and PM me the link.

    AVG can mess with Sims 4 data, but it's almost always sufficient to set the proper exceptions.  Even if you have already, please double-check the settings, and make sure you have an exception for EADesktop.exe.

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html/#avast

    I still think it's worth spending a few minutes building in that save and then seeing if you can save your progress, both with "save" and "save as."  You could just look at the saves folder immediately afterwards to see whether the new save is present.  If it's not, that's one issue; if it does show up and disappears later, that may be another problem entirely.

    The hardware usage you've reported is high but not unreasonably so for Sims 4, and it shouldn't have any impact on this issue.

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