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lillameetamart's avatar
lillameetamart
6 years ago
Solved

Lost everything in update

Hey everyone!  This is an issue I’ve had with a few updates in the past, and I’ve finally decided to ask for help.  With some game patches, everything gets deleted. And I mean EVERYTHING.  All fam...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 years ago

    @lillameetamart  That's definitely weird (still), although there was a few issues after the November patch that caused some sims to disappear.  (Most were mods related, but not all.)  It's supposed to have been sorted out now, but maybe saves that were already affected don't revert to normal.

    If you look in the .verx files, are the missing families there?  If so, you could play one of those backups forward, and you might only lose a couple of days' worth of progress, depending on how often you save.  Or you could save the missing families to the library and place them in your most recent saves.  They wouldn't have relationships with the other sims in that save, but there are cheats to fix that if you want.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago

@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.

lillameetamart's avatar
lillameetamart
6 years ago

@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!

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    6 years ago

    @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.

    • lillameetamart's avatar
      lillameetamart
      6 years ago

      @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

      • puzzlezaddict's avatar
        puzzlezaddict
        Hero+
        6 years ago

        @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.

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