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SalieG1's avatar
SalieG1
5 years ago
Solved

Mods file got deleted (not by me)

Hi all,

to paint a picture: I was trying to figure out why my kawaiistacie slice of life mod wasn't fully working and scrolled thru some fora looking for some answers.

I thought that one of the issues might have been related to 'to many or to deep in folders' or perhaps a conflict with some other mods.

I got one mod out and then deleted the localthumbcach and the last_exception files and restarted the Sims. (As many have stated that it could be helpful to refresh these files once in awhile.)

When starting the game I noticed that my sim on the saved file picture was bald, (which is not a good sign) so I closed the Sims without saving. I went back to my mods folder to see what was going on. Everything was still there. (FYI yes mods enabled is on in the sims settings)

Presumable it had something to do with the both files I deleted. I went to my garbage bin and restored both files. I restarted the Sims. The saved game picture with the sim had the cc on so I felt reassured that everything was back in to place. However when clicking on play household, my sim was bald and pretty much naked. (=insert curse word here) I closed the Sims without saving.

Again went back to my mods file only to see that EVERYTHING DISAPPEARED. (I cry) Out of the bleu,  all the files are gone.

Mods file states last changed at 1pm this happened at 2pm.

Also normally my mods file is listed in the quick access bar of my explorer. There as well not visible. It's not in my garbage bin either. Something must have happened I just can't see what exactly.

I tried repairing the game. This time in the mods file only a recource.cfg popped up (time stamp Dec 19 12:56) and last_exception (time stamp Okt 23 17:16)

Honestly can some one tell my that my file just got lost somewhere (PC's be doing weird stuff from time to time) and that  I do not have to start over from scratch. I fear it's lost but maybe just maybe someone knows something. Or can explain why this might have happened. Any thoughts?

Cheers

pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    5 years ago

    @SalieG1  The localthumbcache file stores thumbnails, including those for sims and apparently for household previews as well.  So since you restored it, that would explain why the preview looked normal again—even though the custom content was still gone, the image in the preview was intact.

    @TGamez1 is correct in saying that if you save your game with your custom content missing, it's removed from that save even if you later restore it.  This isn't due to any corrupt files, in Origin or within the game, but just the game saving with no access to the data for the sims' cc hair and clothing.

    However, since you didn't save, it sounds like your mods and cc stopped working exactly once, and later disappeared from your folder; the other details are irrelevant.  Please look in OneDrive, if you have it active, for a stray Mods folder.  If you find one, you can move it back to your hard drive and disable OneDrive's automatic syncing function.

    If there's nothing in OneDrive, search your computer for any stray mods: open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter *.package (with the asterisk) in the search box in the upper right corner.  This will turn up any .package files on your hard drive, probably including a number that are unrelated, but you can go through the list looking for your missing content.  If you see anything familiar, click on the file and then click "Open file location" to open the folder that contains it.  You can repeat the process for *.ts4script as well.

7 Replies

  • TGamez1's avatar
    TGamez1
    5 years ago

    @SalieG1 Was your mods and cc out of the game when you saved? If so they will be nude/bald sims in your game. You need to exit game without saving.

  • SoyokoAnis's avatar
    SoyokoAnis
    5 years ago
    @TGamez1 Not really.

    @SalieG1 Rename The Sims 4 folder in Electronic Arts and open the game for a new save. Tell me if their is a new mods file added.
  • TGamez1's avatar
    TGamez1
    5 years ago

    @SoyokoAnis I did abit of research and it does happen like that.  As to where the files have gone, i have no idea.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    @SalieG1  The localthumbcache file stores thumbnails, including those for sims and apparently for household previews as well.  So since you restored it, that would explain why the preview looked normal again—even though the custom content was still gone, the image in the preview was intact.

    @TGamez1 is correct in saying that if you save your game with your custom content missing, it's removed from that save even if you later restore it.  This isn't due to any corrupt files, in Origin or within the game, but just the game saving with no access to the data for the sims' cc hair and clothing.

    However, since you didn't save, it sounds like your mods and cc stopped working exactly once, and later disappeared from your folder; the other details are irrelevant.  Please look in OneDrive, if you have it active, for a stray Mods folder.  If you find one, you can move it back to your hard drive and disable OneDrive's automatic syncing function.

    If there's nothing in OneDrive, search your computer for any stray mods: open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter *.package (with the asterisk) in the search box in the upper right corner.  This will turn up any .package files on your hard drive, probably including a number that are unrelated, but you can go through the list looking for your missing content.  If you see anything familiar, click on the file and then click "Open file location" to open the folder that contains it.  You can repeat the process for *.ts4script as well.

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    @SalieG1

    @puzzlezaddictis right. If you accidentally saved your game with mods removed, all your sims in that save will be naked and bald if they had CC clothing and hair. Unfortunately this is permanent on that save. You would have to manually re-outfit everyone. You'll need to be diligent in NOT saving when mods are not there. Personally, I don't even risk it. If I remove my mods/cc, I always play a NEW save to test it. So, if everyone ends up bald, it's no big loss.

    But since your mods folder is empty, that's the reason why. The Resource.cfg file was recreated automatically when the game saw one didn't exist.

    As to how this happened, I have no idea. The game won't do that. It never touches the mods folder, even during updates. It's a very common misconception that updates and patches will corrupt your mods. It's completely false. I've been playing since it was released and modding just as long and I've NEVER had the game corrupt mods.

    Of course it never hurts to have a backup...

    I'd recommend what @puzzlezaddict said. Run a search of your hard drives for "*.package" and see what turns up. If you just accidentally moved the folder (which is EXTREMELY easy to do), you'll find it somewhere.

  • SalieG1's avatar
    SalieG1
    5 years ago

    @Psychotps 

    @puzzlezaddict 

    thanks for the feedback really appreciate it. The explanation of the localthumbcach, I didn't know that. Learned something new. Thanks! :D

    For sure it had nothing to do with the new patch, everything worked fine. It was just me trying to get the entire mod working and going back and forward in my mods file that probably caused the error.

    I think eventually the game saw the file as corrupted and therefore refreshed it, deleting everything in it. The search on my pc didn't retrieve all of the data but Recuva from ccleaner did most of it. Or at least gave me the file names that where missing so I can redownload them. I will try the *.package as I didn't search for that specifically. It might turn up somewhere who knows.

    As for the safe file I am in luck that I didn't safe anything and was actually tweaking it in a new game. I wouldn't do that either to my generations game. High risk that is ;-)

    I did learn that for some reason I made a backup in May (found that out in my pc search) so not everything is entirely lost. 

    The one thing to never forget: always make back ups. 

    Again thanks a lot.

    Cheers

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