Re: I downloaded the new high school expansion pack and now my game won't load

That's likely it. Thanks. Learned that lesson the hard way. But there's also no saved folder for steam either. Not one that I saw. I saw all other folders but not saves. So maybe the Steam platform saves games differently. I've seen that folder in the physical disc copy but steam has no such folder. There is only steam/steamapps/common/Sims 4 and all of the files under that folder. But I never saw a save folder. I did for my physical copy of the Sims 3.

@Shayth  Saves are in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > saves.  This is true in a Steam install as well as in an Origin install.

If you don't see the Sims 4 folder, you're probably looking in the wrong place, for example in OneDrive's Documents folder rather than the normal one, or vice versa.  Here's how to find the folder the game is reading; use the in-game option:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/

Good news: for the first time I tried loading the game after reinstalling it and it turns out Steam automatically loads your game if you've backed everything up before uninstalling. The bad news: there is no saves folder. I looked in all of the folders and there's nothing, not even in the back up folder. I tried clearing the cache and still nothing works. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the DLC high school and still nothing =/ fing EA, man. They literally broke my game......

Also, I tried without playing any mods and the game still won't fully load..

Thanks a lot for your very detailed walkthroughs so far =) I did search Slot_ and my computer found some, but didn't have a program to open the file with. I guess because I deleted the game, it no longer exists except for in the back up folder through Steam (first time I've used back up game data on steam). Attached is the dialogue yourself and one other person mentioned. I just tried the Sims again to no avail =/ I wish I could get a refund for something like this but I doubt EA will ever allow it, even though this is directly caused by them releasing a severely buggy DLC.

*Update* I just tried a factory reset and sadly that did not work. Just what did EA do, anyway?? This is so bad..Also, I can click "load game", click on my household, and yet I'll still be forever stuck on the loading screen.

@Shayth  Sorry for the late reply, and I'm glad to hear it worked.  Saves can't be opened, that's normal; the point was to move them to the location where the game itself would read them.

It's all good. We all have lives =) But the game found my saves. I think those were old saves from the back up file from Steam so the game found them eventually. But it doesn't seem like placement was the issue. It seems that EA provided a general game update as well as releasing the new DLC on the same day. And considering a lot of people had issues with that, there's a chance that that update is likely what messed my game up. I thought it was the DLC but my game gave me issues even when I removed it.