[BUG] Mail Not Delivering? *Fixed!!*

[Cheezey]

I found a temporary fix that seems to work in my game, although it's a bit of a pain and it seems that for it to work consistently, I have to go through this process every time I send something to the geo council.

Step 1: Make sure you have the item(s) on hand and ready to send once you're done with this stuff. Ideally, have it be a Monday or Tuesday in game, so the stuff will get delivered during the work week.  Mail seems more consistent on those days.

Step 2: Put an item in your family inventory.  You can take it out again afterward.  For whatever reason, this seems to help clear whatever is going on.

Step 3: Turn on testing cheats.

Step 4: Shift-click on the mailbox, and select reset.

Step 5: Exit the game completely.

Step 6: Clear your cache files.

Step 6: Go into Origin and repair the install of your game.

Step 7: Go into your game and place an item in and out of the family inventory again.

Step 8: Turn on testing cheats, and reset the mailbox again.

Step 9: Send your items to geo council in one shot.  Do not ask for postcards or do anything else with the mailbox.  (If bills are due, that doesn't seem to affect it, so don't worry about that.)

Step 10: Do not travel to Granite Falls or take any vacation until after the next mail delivery.  It might be best to not leave the home lot at all until the mail comes.  The times I got my mail, my sim had not left the lot other than to go to work.  Mail usually comes sometime after 10 AM and before late afternoon the following day.

I did not have any luck having it work again after a couple of days, so I went through the whole process again.  Also, any stuff I had sent previously was just lost.  I don't recommend testing your rare metals or gems on this.  I did get elements from everything sent in that first attempt, though!

Good luck, and I hope this helps some of you get your elements until the bug is fixed!


Edited to Add:

FYI, when I deleted and bought a new mailbox instead of resetting it in testing cheats, it didn't work for me.  A bit more good news, I asked for postcards the following day, and sent off another sample to the geo council, and both came back like they should have.  I don't know if that was just luck, or if it will continue to work, but I wouldn't risk sending anything you're not willing to lose on a follow-up attempt.

Edited By: MrsFlynn - Mar.31.2015

[ClayMask]

I found a temporary fix that seems to work in my game, although it's a bit of a pain and it seems that for it to work consistently, I have to go through this process every time I send something to the geo council.

Step 1: Make sure you have the item(s) on hand and ready to send once you're done with this stuff. Ideally, have it be a Monday or Tuesday in game, so the stuff will get delivered during the work week.  Mail seems more consistent on those days.

Step 2: Put an item in your family inventory.  You can take it out again afterward.  For whatever reason, this seems to help clear whatever is going on.

Step 3: Turn on testing cheats.

Step 4: Shift-click on the mailbox, and select reset.

Step 5: Exit the game completely.

Step 6: Clear your cache files.

Step 6: Go into Origin and repair the install of your game.

Step 7: Go into your game and place an item in and out of the family inventory again.

Step 8: Turn on testing cheats, and reset the mailbox again.

Step 9: Send your items to geo council in one shot.  Do not ask for postcards or do anything else with the mailbox.  (If bills are due, that doesn't seem to affect it, so don't worry about that.)

Step 10: Do not travel to Granite Falls or take any vacation until after the next mail delivery.  It might be best to not leave the home lot at all until the mail comes.  The times I got my mail, my sim had not left the lot other than to go to work.  Mail usually comes sometime after 10 AM and before late afternoon the following day.

I did not have any luck having it work again after a couple of days, so I went through the whole process again.  Also, any stuff I had sent previously was just lost.  I don't recommend testing your rare metals or gems on this.  I did get elements from everything sent in that first attempt, though!

Good luck, and I hope this helps some of you get your elements until the bug is fixed!

Thanks for the information!  Why not ask for postcards too?  Did you find that the mail didn't arrive if you also asked for postcards?

I would think that deleting and buying the mailbox again should be the same as the cheat, if you're playing something that doesn't allow you to use cheats.

[Cheezey]

Thanks for the information!  Why not ask for postcards too?  Did you find that the mail didn't arrive if you also asked for postcards?

I didn't test it with postcards, because I wanted to eliminate as many possible conflicts as I could. However, not long after I successfully got my elements using the process above, I tried asking for a postcard and sending stuff to geo council in the same day between mail deliveries, and it never came. I don't know if that broke the box, or if the box just bugs out again after one delivery no matter what you do, but I figured it was safer to advise against it if you want to make sure you can get your geo council elements back.

I would think that deleting and buying the mailbox again should be the same as the cheat, if you're playing something that doesn't allow you to use cheats.

I didn't try that, but it might work. Hmm, let me test that. I'll see what I can find out about postcards, too.

[oshizu]

I found a temporary fix that seems to work in my game, although it's a bit of a pain and it seems that for it to work consistently, I have to go through this process every time I send something to the geo council.

Step 1: Make sure you have the item(s) on hand and ready to send once you're done with this stuff. Ideally, have it be a Monday or Tuesday in game, so the stuff will get delivered during the work week.  Mail seems more consistent on those days.

Step 2: Put an item in your family inventory.  You can take it out again afterward.  For whatever reason, this seems to help clear whatever is going on.

Step 3: Turn on testing cheats.

Step 4: Shift-click on the mailbox, and select reset.

Step 5: Exit the game completely.

Step 6: Clear your cache files.

Step 6: Go into Origin and repair the install of your game.

Step 7: Go into your game and place an item in and out of the family inventory again.

Step 8: Turn on testing cheats, and reset the mailbox again.

Step 9: Send your items to geo council in one shot.  Do not ask for postcards or do anything else with the mailbox.  (If bills are due, that doesn't seem to affect it, so don't worry about that.)

Step 10: Do not travel to Granite Falls or take any vacation until after the next mail delivery.  It might be best to not leave the home lot at all until the mail comes.  The times I got my mail, my sim had not left the lot other than to go to work.  Mail usually comes sometime after 10 AM and before late afternoon the following day.

I did not have any luck having it work again after a couple of days, so I went through the whole process again.  Also, any stuff I had sent previously was just lost.  I don't recommend testing your rare metals or gems on this.  I did get elements from everything sent in that first attempt, though!

Good luck, and I hope this helps some of you get your elements until the bug is fixed!

@Cheezey, you have an amazing amount of patience and persistence.
Like other on this thread, my mailbox has been broken since the patch. In my dynasty file (which I have since abandoned), I noticed that I could get another sim to request/receive postcards (I didn't test elements) but it was a pain to restart the collection while monitoring which ones I already had.

For me, this has been the buggiest patch since the game released.
The personal inventory also glitches sometimes (I only get a partial display and need to switch to another sim then back to be able to scroll through the whole inventory).

I hope this gets fixed soon!

[Cheezey]

FYI, when I deleted and bought a new mailbox instead of resetting it in testing cheats, it didn't work for me.  A bit more good news, I asked for postcards the following day, and sent off another sample to the geo council, and both came back like they should have.  I don't know if that was just luck, or if it will continue to work, but I wouldn't risk sending anything you're not willing to lose on a follow-up attempt.

[ClayMask]

FYI, when I deleted and bought a new mailbox instead of resetting it in testing cheats, it didn't work for me.  A bit more good news, I asked for postcards the following day, and sent off another sample to the geo council, and both came back like they should have.  I don't know if that was just luck, or if it will continue to work, but I wouldn't risk sending anything you're not willing to lose on a follow-up attempt.

Thanks so much for testing all of that.

[ClayMask]

Good news!  I just ran a test on a game with a broken mailbox issue, and I was able to get the mail fine if I didn't leave the lot or game after mailing things to the Geo Council.  It even worked twice in a row.  I'm not sure if something changed, or if I had always left the game or lot without giving it enough time before.  I'm also not sure whether or not this will work for players without the Get to Work expansion installed.  Hopefully it works for everyone.

[oshizu]

Good news!  I just ran a test on a game with a broken mailbox issue, and I was able to get the mail fine if I didn't leave the lot or game after mailing things to the Geo Council.  It even worked twice in a row.  I'm not sure if something changed, or if I had always left the game or lot without giving it enough time before.  I'm also not sure whether or not this will work for players without the Get to Work expansion installed.  Hopefully it works for everyone.

@ClayMask, thank you so much for sharing your discovery!!!
I have the Get to Work expansion and I tried out your solution of mailing to Geo Council then staying home until mail delivery the next day.
It worked on two different files: one created before GTW came out and another one created last night.

I had given up on elements then found that the Scientist career requires elements for one of its inventions. Grrr.
So in my new household, I got the right quantity of elements the next day on two different occasions. The third time, I completely forgot and went fishing: those elements never arrived.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[ClayMask]

@ClayMask, thank you so much for sharing your discovery!!!
I have the Get to Work expansion and I tried out your solution of mailing to Geo Council then staying home until mail delivery the next day.
It worked on two different files: one created before GTW came out and another one created last night.

I had given up on elements then found that the Scientist career requires elements for one of its inventions. Grrr.
So in my new household, I got the right quantity of elements the next day on two different occasions. The third time, I completely forgot and went fishing: those elements never arrived.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You're welcome, although to be honest it's not my discovery.  Someone on Answer HQ, the site where we report the bugs, found it and I just tried it out and verified that it worked for me too.  I'm glad I could help you with your game.

[Tixxis]

Good news!  I just ran a test on a game with a broken mailbox issue, and I was able to get the mail fine if I didn't leave the lot or game after mailing things to the Geo Council.  It even worked twice in a row.  I'm not sure if something changed, or if I had always left the game or lot without giving it enough time before.  I'm also not sure whether or not this will work for players without the Get to Work expansion installed.  Hopefully it works for everyone.

This may be a bit of good news too. If you get the 'Space Rock Collection' completed, your twig of orchid will be delivered. If you send off for elements at this time - before mail delivery - you will receive them. I've not tested if postcards get delivered as well. But this 'system' has worked three times in a row for me now.

[ClayMask]

This may be a bit of good news too. If you get the 'Space Rock Collection' completed, your twig of orchid will be delivered. If you send off for elements at this time - before mail delivery - you will receive them. I've not tested if postcards get delivered as well. But this 'system' has worked three times in a row for me now.

Even if you leave the lot or save and exit after completing it but before mail delivery?

[Tixxis]

Not sure. My Sims did not leave the lot at the time.

[Joria]

@ClayMask
I had given up on elements then found that the Scientist career requires elements for one of its inventions. Grrr.
So in my new household, I got the right quantity of elements the next day on two different occasions. The third time, I completely forgot and went fishing: those elements never arrived.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This won't help the broken mail box issue but if you are in the Scientist career you CAN get your needed elements by transforming items with your ray gun.  What you get when you transform is pretty random, and there IS a risk of fire with using the ray gun, but I've gotten several elements this way.  Also, if you explore the science "world" and collect as many digs as possible you sometimes can find them that way.  It's rare but I did get one that way.  That ray gun is making my family rich!

[oshizu]

This may be a bit of good news too. If you get the 'Space Rock Collection' completed, your twig of orchid will be delivered. If you send off for elements at this time - before mail delivery - you will receive them. I've not tested if postcards get delivered as well. But this 'system' has worked three times in a row for me now.

Thank you for generously sharing your strategy for circumventing the broken mailbox issue.
I've always just grafted an orchid, forgetting that we can launch  a rocket ship without completing all the upgrades.

[MrsFlynn]

This bug should be fixed with today's patch.

August 6 2015 Patch Notes

MrsFlynn