A missing family :( (and problems with changing active household)

[Miniagge]

Hi!
Here is my problem, I hope someone can help me! =)

The first problem I got was that when I tried to change active household, the game freezed. It was like in the map view, but with no icons, menues and so on. And I couldn't do anything except from browsing around the neighboorhood (in map view).

I used ctrl alt delete to close the game. And then I tried the same thing again, but it still didn't work. Then, I got my second problem! One of my families is gone, and this makes me very sad. Their house is empty, now it's just a house in the neighboorhood that you can move in to if you want. The family disappeared after the game crashed when I tried to change the active household to this particular family. I had to turn the game off using Task Manager, and when I then started it again the family was gone.

The people in the family exist among the friends lists of other sims. But when I try to invite them, they say that they will come, but they never appear. However, once I saw one of them around town, but she had a completely different name. I did not test whether I could converse with her before she disappeared. Now it seems, however, that it works to change the active household. I tested it three times and it has worked all times. But the family is still missing. What should I do?

I have no CC at all, and have never had it. I have all the games, expansions and stuff packs in addition to the latest SP. My game is in version 8.0.152.012001.

I have played in this neighborhood for two years and is very fond of it. I would be incredibly happy if someone could help me!

[Miniagge]

I have one more question...

I have a backup (on the The Sims 3 folder) that's fairly new. Should I try to move the current The Sims 3 folder and paste the backup in "My name"/Documents/Electronic arts instead?

(I hope you do not get too annoyed by my bad english  )

Thanks in advance!

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Miniagge.

It sounds like you have a corrupted game file.  If you have kept copies of your game along the way, you can go back to one of those.  And if you haven't been keeping copies, now is a good time to start.  You just have to use "Save As" and give the file a slightly different name.  For example, you could have files named Miniagge Family A, Miniagge Family B, Miniagge Family C, etc.

However, if you do not have extra copies of your game, you can try to recover a previous save that the game makes for you.  The instructions can be found on this thread.  I hope this helps you.

[Miniagge]

Thanks a lot for your answear! I'm very happy that I have found this forum!

Maybe I can try to recover a previous save and se if that works.

But is it possible to rename the The Sims 3 folder and put it somewhere else and then but an older The Sims 3 folder in ../Electronic arts ? Or can that cause some problems? Cause I have a copy of a fairly new The Sims 3 folder on an external hard drive...

[Miniagge]

Hi again!

I tried to recover a previous save, but the problem already existed in the old saved file (the backup).

So, should I do the thing I ask about in my previous post? =)

[Pam]

Yes, you can do that, if I'm understanding you correctly.  When you do a back up of the entire game, you copy the "Sims 3" file that is located at C:Documents/Electronic Arts.  Then, of course, you place the saved folder back in the same place if you want to restore the entire game.  That's the same thing we recommend when someone has to re-install the game because of a crash or something.

[Miniagge]

Ok, thanks a lot! I will try that!

[Saltypaws]

The issue with not being able to change active households just started and my sister has tried everything to try and fix it.  We went through this forum carefully and tried everything, but she still cannot change active households without it freezing up.  That is the only major problem she is having right now, but if you have a few families in a town, it is a big problem.  I hope some of these problems get worked out soon. 

[Miniagge]

My problem is solved now, but that was because I have an old copy of The Sims 3 folder stored on an external hard drive. I replaced the existing The Sims 3 folder to the one on the external hard drive. Unfortunately, I lost some playing time, but not too much. I was lucky that I made ​​a backup. Right now, I can change the active household and the missing family has come back. But I suspect there is a risk that problems will come back.

Many thanks for all your help!

I hope the problem will be fixed for everyone else too. If this is a bug that came with the last update, one can hope that EA fix it ...

[Miniagge]

I'm sad to say, but some of the problems are back again ...
I played for a while and everything seemed fine, until I changed the active household. Then there was a bug that I had before. I could change the active household, but the sim icons to the left was sims from the previous family, not from the new household.

Do you think that this is a bug and not corrupted save data? Maybe it's caused by the newest update?