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Lalauri89's avatar
Lalauri89
Rising Rookie
1 day ago

Saved games gone

Hi,

I just updated my game and realized that it started with a super old saved file afterwards. I exited the game and went into my save folder only to realize that every save up until October last year has disappeared. Thankfully I did a backup at the beginning of January but still a lot of save files are lost. Can I get them back?

I have already tried everything from this thread.

5 Replies

  • Lalauri89​  There's an advanced search (through the listed Command Prompt command) described in this guide that might be helpful:

    ⚙️[PC] Sims 4 Missing User Content (saves, mods, etc.) | EA Forums - 12636780

    Please do search each drive, by its letter.  If you find your most recent saves but are having trouble restoring them, please post the results of each search.

    But if that search comes up empty, and your files aren't in OneDrive, then there's unfortunately nowhere else to look.

  • Lalauri89's avatar
    Lalauri89
    Rising Rookie
    1 day ago

    Thank you, I've tried that as well but no luck.

    I've also noticed that all neighborhoods got reset to their original state and game achievements also. I just got the "Just getting started - play The Sims for 5 hours straight" achievement even though I've been playing this game for ages.

    There are NPCs running around that used to be long gone due to ongoing neighborhood stories.

    It's like the whole game experienced a reset.

  • Lalauri89​  That's exactly what happened.  Everything you've described is save-specific, with the possible exception of achievements.  (I don't remember whether they're specific to the save or the user folder.)  So if your user data is wiped, you're back at the beginning.

    I'm sorry, but if you don't have another backup, there's nothing else you can do here.

    As for how this happened, where do you have the game itself installed?  You can see the location in the EA App, under Sims 4 > Manage > View properties.  If the game is installed into Documents > Electronic Arts, an update could have wiped any data in this Sims 4 folder that aren't part of the game's program files, which of course would include all your user data since that's where it's stored.

  • Lalauri89's avatar
    Lalauri89
    Rising Rookie
    13 hours ago

    Ok, I see.

    The game itself isn't installed into documents but my saves are. So yeah, that's what happened.

    Thank you for your help though!

  • Lalauri89​  The saves are supposed to be in Documents > Electronic Arts, and that doesn't cause any problems other than the OneDrive-related info you've already found.  I was saying that if the program files are also in Documents, the EA App might empty the folder when updating because it's checking the contents of the folder that contains the program files for anything out of place.  So if your game is installed elsewhere, this isn't why your saves disappeard.

    Other than that, and OneDrive, and possibly a virus, I don't know how the data would have vanished.  But then there are plenty of similar reports where I can't pinpoint a cause.