Very Strange - Sims pic is gone, box still there??

[Leto85]

It worked    Tho i have the same problem again, now with 3 out of 4 family members 
Is there a permanent solution for this? 

I had that too. And that problem will infect your savefile so bad that even imigrating items or lots saved from that town to another will infect the other savefile too, unless you get rid of it by leaving and not saving and by removing it completely from the bin. Yes, it's that harsh.

[Pam]

@Lizzy:

It sounds like your file maybe corrupted.  Have you tried restoring an older back up of the file?  Also, when you look inside the Sims 3 folder to see the saves, do you see any that have ".bad" as part of the file extension?  If so, those files are corrupted and it can even spread to other files.  You need to delete every game file that has ".bad" in its name.  It won't help with your current game, but it will help you with new games that you start later.  That's the closest thing to a permanent solution we've got.

[Lizzy]

I've deleted the "broken" ones, "ingame" & I don't have a new saved file that is too far played to keep, i think ill just delete them all...

[Leto85]

I've deleted the "broken" ones, "ingame" & I don't have a new saved file that is too far played to keep, i think ill just delete them all...

Like a complete reinstallation? Than you have to remove every bit of sims out of your computer. Removing by removing the program, or by (which is better) doing it manually.
Well, if you need any help, you know where to find me (in the same country).

[fortheloveofcake]

I've been having a problem since the installation of University.
In my first game file, I sent two Sims that I had played for a while on a two-week term to Uni. No problems while at University, both arrived home fine, all sims in the household were working. I played the file for a few more hours then quit the game.
When I next started up the game, none of their faces were appearing in the User panel. I could see them all, but none would do anything. I could add and cancel things from their queue, but they would not move. I tried resetting each sim, did not help, so I tried resetting the whole town, also did not help. Turning testingcheats on, I could not shift-click them. It was like they were not even there! Their motives would not drop, and they had no moodlets, and the ones who had high moods, would not gain any LTHP's.
Eventually I gave up and deleted the file.

Then I started a new file. Spent a few sim days working and skilling, then sent this single sim off to University on a one-week term. All goes well at Uni. Upon arrival, she has no portrait, and is having all the same 'stuck' problems that the sims in the last save were having.

Any suggestions?
I do not play with any mods. My game is fully patched. I have a considerable amount of store content.
EDIT: Come to think of it, this began after I installed the new store venue, the Cinema Plumbbob. Don't know if that is causing the problem or not. None of the sims had ever visited the lot, however.

[Trip]

This is actually an old and particularly nasty post-travel bug that can be fixed only by going back to a pre-travel save. Though it probably has nothing to do with the Cinema.

[sunshine_2406]

I had this myself at University. Trip is right, the only thing that fixed it was going back to a previous save. I suggest using save as regularly while at Uni.

[fortheloveofcake]

 
I do not currently have World Adventures installed so I have not encountered this glitch due to travel before.
Hopefully the issue gets resolved in the near future, it would be such a letdown to run the risk of encountering this glitch every time a Sim returns home from University.
Thanks for the info 

[Zippacat]

!!!!FIX FOR GREEN BOX PROBLEM!!!

Okay so this happened to me yesterday. I never usually use mods and wasn't used to it. I followed the advice above about installing ErrorTrap as I had tried everything else. I needed a little extra guidance since I never use mods so I used the two links below.

First I followed this guide to set up all the folders: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Installing_Sims_3_Package_Files/Setup_and_Files

Then I installed the ErrorTrap package from this site: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/ErrorTrap

I went in to my game and you'll know it's working if the intro song doesn't come up (you install it when following the first link).

When I went to my household(4 adult sims and 1 baby sim) the faces had reappeared in the icons but I still couldn't select them. I tried to enter the cheat 'resetsim' and when the area to enter text popped up, four sims completely disappeared.

So I exited to edit town and selected not to save (make sure you don't select save). I then chose to 'switch active household'. Then I re-selected my 'broken' household and began playing. When I reentered the house, each sim was outside the front door and playable again!! The game is completely fixed!(Remember not to save anywhere along the way until you make a backup save when your household is actually working again)

So thanks so much to the suggestion above to download errortrap, it worked really well.

Note: I had made a copy of the family(without house) before all of this just in-case it destroyed them all completely

[samoht04]

I've been having a problem since the installation of University.
In my first game file, I sent two Sims that I had played for a while on a two-week term to Uni. No problems while at University, both arrived home fine, all sims in the household were working. I played the file for a few more hours then quit the game.
When I next started up the game, none of their faces were appearing in the User panel. I could see them all, but none would do anything. I could add and cancel things from their queue, but they would not move. I tried resetting each sim, did not help, so I tried resetting the whole town, also did not help. Turning testingcheats on, I could not shift-click them. It was like they were not even there! Their motives would not drop, and they had no moodlets, and the ones who had high moods, would not gain any LTHP's.
Eventually I gave up and deleted the file.

Then I started a new file. Spent a few sim days working and skilling, then sent this single sim off to University on a one-week term. All goes well at Uni. Upon arrival, she has no portrait, and is having all the same 'stuck' problems that the sims in the last save were having.

Any suggestions?
I do not play with any mods. My game is fully patched. I have a considerable amount of store content.
EDIT: Come to think of it, this began after I installed the new store venue, the Cinema Plumbbob. Don't know if that is causing the problem or not. None of the sims had ever visited the lot, however.

Since this is the same issue I'm merging these threads together. Also moving to the tech help board as it is a graphical bug and not really gameplay as such.