I can't save my game anymore

This has been happening for me as well, since Sept 2.  I tried to play a game that last saved fine on Aug 29 and it's not saving changes, even using Save As and trying to create a copy of the file leaves it with the same content as Aug 29m even though the file itself says it was last saved later on.

I don't know what triggered this. I started a new file Sept 3 and (fingers crossed) so far it seems to be doing okay and saved after a couple times opening and closing. But now I'm afraid to open any of my older files because if this is a corruption issue, I don't want it affecting my legacy files, etc. t 

The file that won't save anymore is a new one I started after getting Lovestruck on release day, and the only thing I can think of that's different in this file from other saves I have is that it has a lot of Sims downloaded from Cupid's Corner, so my total number of Sims added to the game is 64/150, which is pretty high for me and the file size I've noticed is VERY large compared to all my other saves (even my longtime legacy), but other than that, nothing weird happened while I was playing. No error messages. It just won't save any progress I make anymore. It keeps going back to the same Sim day/time. Recovering the save doesn't change anything, and repairing the game didn't fix it either. 🤔

My game has been doing this since I tried to save on Sept 2 a file that I last played Aug 29 (and it was fine). There is no error message when this happens. It's not the Error 0 issue. The game acts like it's saving fine, but no changes are saved. The file date/time stamp update, but the content doesn't change when you go back into the file. Doing Save As does not change anything. I don't use Mods or have CC and rarely have any glitches so this suddenly happening is freaking me out a bit. 

One thing I just noticed is that this file (which I've only been playing since Lovestruck came out) has ballooned to a humongous file size compared to all my other save files (it's 220,000K whereas even my longtime legacy file of multi generations is only 18,000k, I'm starting to wonder if it has something to do with all the Cupid's Corner Sims that are downloading into the file as I've been playing with the Lovestruck features. Manage Worlds says I now have 64/150 Sims in game, which seems a high number for me. My played Sims only total about 20. 

I started a new file Sept 3 as a test with only a couple of my own Sims and so far it's saving okay and the file size is only 8,000k. But now I'm afraid to open any of my older files with my legacies, because I don't want these saves destroyed and I don't know what triggered this. 😬

YoungerSatan  Does "save as" work?

YoungerSatan and cchant86  Is all of your progress gone, or only some of it?  For example, the sim-day and time might be stuck, but some build progress remains, or your sims have new items in their inventories; or it could be that the entire save reverts to its previous state.

Please also let me know what antivirus you use, and whether OneDrive is running on your computers, even if you never use it.

cchant86  I've merged your other post into this thread to keep the relevant info together.  Since you mentioned there the actual size of the save, which I agree is alarmingly large, please open that save and see how many sims are in Other Households and whether any of those households look corrupt.

If you're willing to temporarily add a mod, it would be useful to add Show Sim Info by frankk (NOT the MTS version, which is outdated).  Click a sim and select Search All Sims, and you should get a window that lists all sims in the game, including hidden ones.  The total might be excessively high.

Thank you for merging the posts and for the info about that mod. I got it and here is the info I've found:

In the file that no longer saves and is 222,000k in size, it says I'm using 64/150 Sims and there are 577 total in the game.

I re-opened a legacy family file I'd last played on July 21 that is only 18,000k. That one says I'm using 36/150 Sims and there are 607 total in the game.

In the "bad" file, I tried deleting all the Cupid's Corner Sims that I'd added and was playing with and brought my Sims total down from 64/150 to 20/150, but that didn't make a huge dent in the file size. It only went down about 200k. 

What I did notice, though, reopening the bad file over and over is that it seems to be saving Build/Buy changes (like adding an object to the lot), but it's not saving when I sell any items from the family inventory, and it's not saving any of my Sims' progress going from day to day. It keeps going back to the same day, my Sim no longer has her job (which was the first thing I noticed missing when this all started happening Sept 2), but items she fished during the unsaved time are still in her inventory, yet her Fishing skill is back to 0 as if she's never fished at all. So it's almost like it's saving a few things, but not everything. 

I do use OneDrive, but I've been using OneDrive since January (new computer got for Christmas) and haven't had any problems at all playing Sims almost daily until Sept 2 when my Lovestruck file suddenly wouldn't save anymore. 

I have about 50 different saved games (I know! LOL! I start a lot of challenges.) and had been playing with them fine with no issues, so I'm not sure OneDrive is causing this.  The problem file was started a couple days before Lovestruck came out and I've been playing that file exclusively since then.

The last good save of the Lovestruck file was on Aug 29. Unfortunately, I accidentally overwrote that one on Sept 2 while trying to figure out why things weren't saving. So the next "good" file I have for this same group of Sims is from August 3. I opened it last night and saved it as a new file. It was 75,000k in size on Aug 3. When I re-saved it and played it last night and saved again, it went up to 135,000k after I added a reno of Streamlet Single to Willow Creek. Do lots increase the file size that much? Seems high. 

Maybe I'll have to go do some experimenting with deleting some lots I added and see what that does to the file size. I don't have all the lots in the game filled, but I have a lot of them occupied with something , but my 18,000k file from July 21 is the same way; I've built up most of the cities so my Sims have places to go (minus Cuidad  since that wasn't there when I saved that file Jul 21.) and that file size hasn't blown up much. 

I have managed to save the families I was playing with from the bad file to the tray and added them to a brand new game file I started Sep 3, and so far it's continuing to save okay. And the file is still small, only 8000k, but I'm still nervous about it happening again since I don't know what caused it. 😓

ETA: fix typos. I called OneDrive Overdrive. Oops!

Also, did some more tests with other families in the "bad" file and the build/buy stuff is mostly saving (a cat wand and a child's bike that were in personal inventory did not save), but the Sims progress is not saving at all. I removed some lots I'd downloaded, one was a 64x64, but the file size only went down to 119,000k. 

Hi puzzleaddict.

No, unfortunately "save as" also doesn't work. What's weird is that I keep trying to kill a sim off, then save. There are now 6 grave stones, but the sim is alive every time I started the game, no matter what.. 

My antivirus program is Bitdefender and yes, OneDrive is on my pc. I tried getting rid of it before, but the folder is still there. And if I delete that, all of my saved images and program will be gone. I've tried that before.

cchant86  No, saves should absolutely not grow anywhere near that much with so few changes.  And I agree that OneDrive is unlikely to be the problem here.  If your entire save file were exactly as you'd left it, that would be a possibility—the idea would be that your newer file was being replaced by a synced older one.  But when some changes stick and others do not, it's almost always save corruption.

The number of sims in the save is fine.  I've seen cases of more like 10k sims, mostly hidden, and that was pretty clearly the problem for those saves, but below a thousand it shouldn't affect performance.

If you want to do some experimenting, you could repeat the actions that increased the older save's size to 75 MB, to see whether you can reproduce it; then do it again but with Lovestruck disabled.  (You could use "save as" so as not to damage this save.)  Beyond that, I'm not sure how to diagnose the issue, and to be honest I'd suggest pursuing the thread at AHQ if you get any traction there.  Crin may have more ideas and is better at pursuing this kind of issue than I am.

I will say that corrupt lots are a known issue right now, but adding one mostly causes crashing or endless loading, not a save that appears to work until it's time to save.  Still, you could test the same lots you've been using in a new save, and also see whether placing them as unfurnished makes a difference.

YoungerSatan  How large is this save file?  Perhaps you have the same issue with some kind of corruption that's also bloating the save.  Please also look for more reasonably-sized backups.

I don't have an answer, but I do have the same problem. My last save is from September 2nd (in my Saves folder), however when I load my game that is not the save that is loading.

mamzelle12  How large is your save, and what exactly is it called?  Please write out the entire file name, or post a screenshot of the contents of the saves folder.  And is this save available to load at the Main Menu, or can you not see it at all?

This is my save folder (first time this ever happened to me so not sure if this is what you're referring to, but here's a screen shot ; 

On the main menu I see my game but it's an older save, guessing August 24th because that's what Steam says I played my last game, although I played on Sept 2)

mamzelle12  Try loading the .ver0 file (third listed here).  First, rename it to this:

Slot_00000050.save

Or choose a different number if 50 is taken; the number needs to have eight digits, and the lower the better.  (The game doesn't always like it when the files don't start with a few zeroes.)  Let me know whether this file is available under Load Game.