Lost an old family

[AFSDFKJHIOUH]

I recently downloaded Sims 4 after about 4 years of not playing it. I had an old family and I had a house that I put a lot of effort into. I have the house, I can find saves of them under "Gallery">"My library". But I can't find any copies of my old family. I played this family for a while and I'm pretty sure I saved them, I wouldn't just delete them for no reason. I am on a new PC too, so I don't know if I will be able to look into the game files. Are there any tips for finding my old family?

Thanks,
VJ

[MrsFlynn]

If you're missing any families, have a look in the My Library tab as a copy of each family created gets saved to the library every time you create and save a new family. These files get saved in the Tray folder inside the Sims 4 folder. - C:\Users\Username\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Tray

Or check Manage Households, it's up in the right corner for the map screen.

In the My Households tab (which is automatically selected) you should be able to find what families are in-game and what world they are in. To play a family, find them in the world they are in and select them to play.

If they aren't in Manage Households, maybe you saved your game playing one household and then switched to another household before exiting the game?

If that doesn't help, click Load Game to see what other saves you have. Check each of those saves through their Manage Households to see what families you have in those games.


** Important Notes:

After the game saves the 5 original backup files, it starts over making new backup files and will overwrite the old backups as you continue saving the game using Save.

If Save is continually used, the game progress gained or family played may be lost. This is why it's important to use Save As, give the save a new name, save often and back the files up in case they maybe needed later.


If you exit CAS or the game before the household is finished being created, you loose that family and will need to start over. 

However if you've already created the household, but not placed them in the world you need to load the game and either click the Play button to continue from when you last played, or Load Game button to select the household.


Sim families from another game save cannot interact with another Sim family from a different game save. To get them to interact with each other they need to be in the same game save.

To get the families all into one game save, go to the main menu and click Load Game for each of the families you want to save. Save the family and their house to the library and place them into one game save.

How to Save Family to Library:
- From Manage Households - Select family, take them into CAS (click the pencil icon in lower right). Then click the folder in the upper right corner to save to the My Library tab.
- In-game - Click on the mirror, dresser or closet and select Change Sim.

How to Save House to Library:
- From Build mode, select the folder in the upper middle/top of the screen and select Save lot.


The My Households tab has player created, played or unplayed households. Sims in the Other Households tab may loose progress information such as skill levels, relationships, etc.

If you don't want this to happen to any of the households, click the heart to the right under the household's photo to move them to the My Households tab.


In case you need help with anything mentioned above or need help restoring or renaming a saved game file, please see the posts linked below.

How to Play/Start the game?
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=21899.msg450011#msg450011

How-To: Restore a Saved Game
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=21519.msg387147#msg387147

Saving Sims to Library
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26325.msg439597#msg439597

How-To: Save A House/Lot To Library and Sharing it to Gallery
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26324.msg439569#msg439569

Families Keep on Getting Deleted
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=29389.msg473904#msg473904

[AFSDFKJHIOUH]

Thanks. I looked in Load game, and there wasn't anything there. As for "Manage Households", I looked there too. The only families that are there are the ones that they precreate - none of those are familiar to me. The game files are all new, since I installed it on my new PC. I don't have access to my old one. Take a look, I attached it below. They're new files all created today. And I tried opening  them, and nothing happens in game.

What I can find is all my old Lots saved in my profile that I made public, all 38 of them. But no saved Families -- that's what confuses me.

[MrsFlynn]

I'm thinking maybe the families didn't get saved to the Library?

Have a look at the post linked below to see if any of the household files it talks about look familiar in your tray folder [\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Tray]

Save/Share an Individual Sim/Household:
https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=25262.msg428634#msg428634

I'm not sure if there's anything else that can be done if you're not able to find the family in an older save, the in-game Library, or in the tray folder. 

[Brian_Z]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure your game saves are local to your computer.  Your library should contain your created households, but they'll be the way they were first created when you started the game.  Saving their progress later on to the library is something you have to take the time to do manually, and I know it's not something I think of very often.

[AFSDFKJHIOUH]

Yeah, I think when I was playing 4 years ago I was using the Save and not the Save As. At some point, the family might have just been overwritten. Or, I just didn't upload it to my library at all. Unfortunate either way, I guess. Thank you both for your help!