Lost everything in update

@lillameetamart  That's definitely a strange error.  Normally, an empty Sims 4 game folder (where your content gets stored) suggests that the folder is being uploaded to cloud storage.  When the game can't find that folder, it spawns a new one with no content.  But it would be weird for that to correspond specifically with patches, not OS updates.  Still, it's worth looking into.  Does your computer run Windows or macOS, and what version?  Both have cloud syncing features.

Please also look in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4, specifically in the Saves and Tray folders, and let me know what's there, if anything.

There should absolutely be a way to prevent this from happening going forward.  But at the very least, you can always back up your entire game folder before a patch.  That way, if your game folder disappeared again, all you'd have to do would be to copy the relevant files into the new folder, and all your content would be back in place.

@puzzlezaddict Hey! Thanks so much for replying!

 My current computer is running Windows 10 Home 64bit.

 In the Saves folder, there is a total of 21 files: six for Slot_00000002 (1 save file, 0-4 ver files); four for Slot_00000003 (1 save, 0-2 ver); six for Slot_00000004 (1 save, 0-4 ver); and 5 Slot_00000005 (1 save, 0-3 ver). The Slot_00000005 files are all dated today, and the most recent others are from November 30.

 In the Tray folder, there’s 105 items, including HOUSEHOLDBINARY files, BLUEPRINT files, HHI files,  TRAYITEM files, BPI files, and SGI files.

 In case there’s no easy fix, could you tell me which files to back up in case something like this happens again?

 Thanks!

@lillameetamart  It sounds like your old saves are still there; the question is why they're not being read by the game.  Before you do anything else though, back up Saves and Tray—these are the folders you'd want to back up regularly anyway.

Please post the full file path for these Saves and Tray folders here.  When you highlight each folder in a File Explorer window, the path should show above the list of files.

Then open Sims 4, click "Load Game" if it's there (even if it only lists the save you just created), then hover over the folder icon for one of the households.  You should see a file path for the location of that save.  Please post that here as well.

@puzzlezaddict  Here's the file paths:

Saves: C:\Users\lmbur\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves

Tray: C:\Users\lmbur\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Tray

When hovering over the folder icon for a family in-game, this is the path: C:\Users\lmbur\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves/Slot_00000005.save

@lillameetamart  Strange, everything's where it's supposed to be.  Even the save that's currently showing is in the same place as the ones that aren't.

Try loading one of your old saves in a clean game folder.  Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  Launch the game once to generate a clean folder, but don't start a new save.  Just quit at the Main Menu.  Go into Saves inside the Sims 4 folder you moved, right-click on the Slot_00000002.save file and Copy, then right-click inside Saves in the new game folder and Paste.  Then open the game and see whether your old save appears.

If it doesn't work, delete the save file you copied over, and repeat the process, except with the Slot_00000002.save.ver0.  Be sure to delete the .ver0 on the end, so the file now just ends in .save instead.  You can try to access all of your old saves this way.

If none of this helps, do you use mods?  Did you with these old saves?  It's possible, although still unlikely, that a save that had been exposed to a mod that's now gone (or disabled) would no longer load.

@puzzlezaddict I loaded up previous saves, and they're all there and working. Well, in Slot_00000002 the main family for the save is, but none of my other buildings or families are there. In Slot_00000004 all of my families except for two are there. And in Slot_00000003, only one family is saved, and nothing else. And I've never used mods, so that wouldn't be the issue.

@puzzlezaddict I loaded up the game earlier this morning to go into the different saves and save families and lots individually to the gallery, to manually put them into my most recent save, and at one point one of the saves (which i had just checked) lost all of the other families in there. I quit and restarted the game and loaded up my mouse recent save file, and all of a sudden every family I’ve made on this computer showed up in my library. They weren’t there before, so I don’t know what happened, but everything seems to be working for now. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything else I can do, and it’s working, so I guess the problem is solved for now.

I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without your advice.

 Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it!

my problem is the ea folder deleted

@Simsandpaperbags  This is the master thread for missing saves and other user data:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/td-p/12475370

Please see the first post for possible fixes, although there's often nothing that can be done.

Since this thread is somewhat old, I'll lock it here.