Sims 2 University objects disappearing
Hello! I'm struggling a lot with my sims 2 game recently and I have no idea what's going on. So the issue for this thread is that more and more objects disappear everytime I return to the lot. I tri...
Forum Discussion
@Tremayne4260 ive sent this message today but I don't see it in the thread 😭 so here it is...
Okay thank you for being reassuring. I will try this right now. However 2 things, just so you know what happened beforehand, I am Soooo sorry for the long thread, you might need to take some notes lol. I broke down the most details to help you help me. I'm extremely grateful for your time my heart is crying:
1. My game also crashed 2 weeks ago and I restarted everything
2. In My Documents, I have 3 sims 2 folders...
So what happened is I haven't played for years and I recently started playing again and I did something that crashed my game (I did not know then that these actions were absolute no-nos: putting an occupied lot to the bin / trying to move occupied lot from a hood to another / putting sims-families originated by the game in the bin and delete them). I have sims 2 Deluxe Nightlife and University expansion. Everything went down when I tried to move my occupied dorm. The game crashed a first time and when I reloaded it, Pleasantview was missing.
I tried moving it again and it crashed at the same moment. Now when I got back Strangetown was missing.
I thought that me trying to rename the dorm was the problem so I tried moving it again without renaming it and it crashed again. This time when I got back to the game. Veronaville AND my custom neighborhood were gone.
When I went to my documents, I've noticed I had 2 Sims2 folders....one was dated 2011 and the other 2017. Both had all the files. So after reading online, I've renamed one of the 2 folders because it was the one the game was using if I remember correctly. I deleted the other one. Now I can't remember if I was told to move the file like you just told me, or copy paste it, like you just told me not to lol. Everything happened about 2-3 weeks ago and I've tried so many things that I no longer remember the exact details. I must have saved my ask for help text so if you need I can send it to know I think I've described everything that I did.
Anyways so there were no longer any sims 2 files in My Documents and I loaded the game. There was still no neighborhood to choose from....but when I went back to my folders, it did generate a new one. I just started over without the base game neighborhoods. In my new game, I created 2 customs neighborhoods to see if one would disappear but they both stayed after that. *Note that when I've downloaded SimPE, it generated the Sim Retriever neighborhood in my game. But I never entered it I was scared this would screw things up as it said it was a temporary neighborhood. This Sim Retriever neighborhood was also there.* Since I saw that it didn't change anything I took the folder I moved to my desktop and put it back in My Documents. So as of today I'm clueless as to why I have a third EA GAMES folders......
There's the one the game is using, because all my newest custom content is in it and when I've downloaded SimPE it linked to this one. The second folder was created at the same date but I don't know why it's there. The 3rd folder is the one I renamed that's dated from 2011.
Now I've just checked them all and it seems like my game has been navigating between the 3 folders.
This is what I found out:
•EA GAMES FOLDER #1 (the main one):
*Sims2 folder last modified= April 23rd at 3:27am-->my game had already crashed at this point.
*neighborhoods folder= last modified April 23rd at 4:58 am.--> My game had crashed already. However the neighborhood files:
There are 4 neighborhoods, which is confusing to me because I only had 3 neighborhoods in the game (the ones I described, my 2 customs (one test and the other where I started over) and the Sim Retriever):
-N001: last modified April 10th. Storytelling: Academy LeTour base game sims+ 1 family from my old neighborhood....I don't know why it's there. They were not even on campus so I'm confused why their picture is in this folder.
-N002: last modified April 23rd at 2:29 am-->this is the moment I saved my game. I was playing in the regular neighborhood, not on the university campus where it has a lot with missing objects because I haven't seen your message yet and I didn't want to play until I fixed it. Then I wanted to go in the neighborhood but that's when it crashed for a reason I can't explain. That's the custom neighborhood I've been using and backed up in SimPE. storytelling has Academy LeTour base game sims + all my new sims I created.
-N003: last modified April 11th. Storytelling: Academy LeTour base game sims+ another family from my old neighborhood....I also don't know why it's there. They were also not on campus so I'm confused why their picture is in this folder.
-N004: last modified April 09th. Storytelling: omg everything from my old main neighborhood....???? Maybe that's the Sim Retriever neighborhood folder...it must be.
•EA GAMES FOLDER #2:
*Sims2 folder last modified= April 23rd at 2:44am-->the first time I got back in the game after crashing and realized everything was gone.
*neighborhoods folder= last modified April 7th. Neighborhood files:
There is only 1 neighborhood...
-N001: last modified April 7th. Storytelling: none, there's not even a storytelling folder. There's just the characters folder. And files files N001 downtown/neighborhood/university
•EA GAMES FOLDER #3:
*Sims2 folder last modified= April 23rd at 2:48am-->The 2nd time I loaded the game to see if it was just a nightmare.
*neighborhoods folder= last modified April 8th. Neighborhood files:
There are 4 neighborhoods, this must be my old game. They're all last modified April 8th at the same time:
-N001: Storytelling: the exact same as EAGames folder #1
-N002: Storytelling: only has Academy LeTour base game sims
-N003: Storytelling: Exact same folder as EA Games folder #1
-N004: Storytelling: Exact same folder as EA Games folder #1
SO NOW....should I delete EA Games folders #1 & 3 before moving the main one to my desktop?
I hope I gave you every detail that you need to picture what I see and understand what's happening.
@kcassendo , move all three folders out of the EA Games folder. I think the game is getting confused about which one to get the data from. Before moving them, you might want to rename each folder something different like Folder 1, Folder 2 just to keep them straight. Move them all out so the game can generate a new folder from which to find the game data. Once the game has restarted, there should only be one Sims 2 folder in the EA Games folder.
I didn't mind your long post as it was very informative and you told me exactly what was happening. 🙂 You are most welcome for the help as I too have had lots of problems with Sims 2 and did cry a lot over the game. The Sims series has been my lifesaver for many years as I enjoy the game in all its versions. We'll get this sorted for you and then you can have fun.
Omg I understand you! I think it's a shame that gamers have to go through so many crashes and frustration as the game has A LOT of glitches! And I'm so grateful that some of y’all are like geniuses because I can't sort it out alone. We invest so much time in our game so yes it does create a lot of stress!
Alright so I just moved the 3 folders to my desktop and I'm starting the game now. I'll tell you what I see
@Tremayne4260 OMG!!! Strangetown, Veronaville and Pleasantview are back as options. You have no idea how exciting it is to see them! 😂
It did indeed create 2 EA GAMES folders in My Documents.
Alright so what's the next step 😁😁😁
@kcassendo , ok the next step is to add back your CC a little at a time. Add CEP 9.0 first to make sure your CC recolors show. 🙂 We'll figure out your saved games in a bit. Also try to organize your CC if possible into folders within the Downloads folder with names like Build, Walls, Floors, Furniture, Clothes, and so forth. I know there's a mod at Mod The Sims that will allow you to check CC to see if corrupted. I can't remember the name of it, but check it out.
We'll want to test to make sure that the CC is working as it should in your game. 🙂
@Tremayne4260 Okay I'll do that. But what is CEP9.0?
@kcassendo , oh sorry that's the color enabler mod from the Mod the Sims that allows recolors of objects to show up in the game.
Okay I see. Is it mandatory to have? If my cc always worked properly?
@kcassendo , not that I know of, but I wasn't sure if you did have or use recolors in your game. 🙂
@Tremayne4260 hihi no I haven't. Okay so I'm going tô organise cc. But a lot of them have names that look like this--> 9373cg7363828df lolll how can I know what it is? 😩
@Tremayne4260 also I did not find any corrupted cc detector except for sims4. I only found the hood checker, but I found the delphy cc organizer so I'm using this right now to organize everything. Do you suggest I run the game after every new cc?
@Tremayne4260 okay I'm getting so confused.....I'm moving my cc type by type into separate folders and somehow, some unknown files have made their way to the download folder....when I check with Delphy, some of them are typed as "Sim" while others are typed as "unknown"....I don't know why and how they're here...Should I just move the whole download folder and then see if an item is corrupted with a boolprop cheat?
@kcassendo , yes, move your Downloads folder out of the Sims 2 file. You need to make sure your CC is not corrupted as often that is the problem. I organized my CC when I added it to the game to keep what I wanted to and get rid of bad CC and keep the folder organized. You don't have to if you don't want to, but do check to make sure it's still good.
Okay. I just moved the folder and I'll see how I can delete some of the unnecessary cc....it's a bit hard to do because even with the Delphy program, some are marked as unknown and have no description 🤐
Worst case scenario I'll only keep the most important cc which were used in sims (eye colors, careers, jobs, cars, etc) and lots to be sure.
Should I do the "boolprop testingcheatsunabled true" to generate the pop-up error msg?
@kcassendo , I would not because using that can cause your game to become corrupted.
@Tremayne4260 Okay I see. So I have all my cc back! What is the next step? 😁
@Tremayne4260 in fact, could you kindly enumerate all the steps so I can try to fix it today? If I have a problem in between I'll sure let you know but I will tell you in The end if everything worked or not 🙌
Thank you so much for your help I'm excited about solving this
@kcassendo , not a problem! I'm so excited for you too!
So, now that you have checked all your CC and know that it is ok and have added it back, it's time to start up the game. Start up the game and make sure all is well in that you see the original Neighborhoods and your CC. Next either create a new Neighborhood or start up one of the originals and decorate a home with the CC you were having problems with before. At this time use just those few objects you mentioned in one of your earlier post. Save the game and exit. Wait a few minutes and then start the game back up again and check the house to see if your CC is back in place as before.
If you want to add back the saved games you had before, you may need to rename the Neighborhoods to numbers other than what the original Neighborhoods are named. At the moment, I wouldn't add them back because I want to make sure the CC issue is solved first. We can worry about them after we make sure this problem is solved. 🙂
@Tremayne4260 Alright I will try that now!! I'll create a campus and try on it since it was only in campus that my objects were disappearing. Have you ever used the Delphy program? To organize cc?
@Tremayne4260 also, I know that for careers and skin tones it can be dangerous to delete them if the Sim had them in the last save, but what about objects? Does it matter if I delete let's say a plant pot that I had placed in a house? Or it'll just disappear from the game with no issue one I retrieve my saved game?
@kcassendo , deleting objects isn't as bad. The game will simply "replace" the objects if they are missing from your CC.
@Tremayne4260 okay thanks. So what is the list of steps to recover the saved game?
@kcassendo , if you want to add back your saved games, you need to make sure the neighborhoods are not named the same as any of the current game neighborhoods. N001 is Pleasantview, N002 is Strangerville, and N003 is Veronaville. So if any of your custom neighborhoods are named any of these three, you will need to rename them and each of the files found within. So if you see a file named for example N002.Lot001, you will need to rename it to whatever name you choose for your custom neighborhood such as N004.Lot001. And you need to do that for each file in the Neighborhood folder. Once all files are renamed, you can then simply move the file your Neighborhood folder (found Documents > EA Games > Sims 2.).
If you custom neighborhood does not share a similar file name to any of the three files listed above, simply move the entire Neighborhood folder into the existing Neighborhood folder in your Sims 2 file.
@Tremayne4260 Hi Tremayne sorry for the delay!!
Okay I will try that today. Should I also move the savedsims and packagedlots folders?
@kcassendo , yes move both of them.
@Tremayne4260 hi Tremayne! So I renamed every file and just moved the new folder to the neighborhood folder and in the game it added a town named "Downtown" instead....and I can't enter it as the game crashes when I try to do so....any idea why? ☹️
@kcassendo , that's probably a corrupted file. I just checked and the Downtown folders I have are all attached to each town like Pleasantview and Veronaville. That's weird that it would do that.
