Sims Permanently Gone After Traveling?

[KirbyAndKat]

 I had a sim return home from Shang Simila right now when the notice to go home came up. I clicked ok and I noticed something odd: the "Going Home" background was a picture of Sunset Valley, not Starlight Shores (sim's hometown). This problem may not matter, but I think it ties in with the main issue.

  Main Issue: When the "Going Home" was finished loading, I didn't see the household portraits nor the panel at the bottom. All I saw were the Shang Simla foreigners, nothing else. So then, I closed the game and reopened to find the household thumbnail blank. No images, no data.

  Is there any way to solve the issue? You can ask questions in case. It's very devastating because it's my story file. I really don't want to lose it.

[moonshadow]

Sounds to me your game got corrupted. And there's nothing you can do but start over. Like I told you my game shows the Sunset Valley background too and I sent four sims to egypt on a 15 day stay and sent them home on the 4th day.

Sorry for the loss of your story.

[KirbyAndKat]

  I now know the feeling of an aggravated, yet somber simmer whose mourning their corrupt file. Thanks moonshadow. I always thought a corrupt file was a deletion of a save via an action (reinstalling, cc, etc.). Let's all take a moment:

R.I.P Twinbrook-Shores save and Cast Members:
Feburary 2012 something- March 19, 2012. 8:03pm

[xFezIsAFreakx]

  I now know the feeling of an aggravated, yet somber simmer whose mourning their corrupt file. Thanks moonshadow. I always thought a corrupt file was a deletion of a save via an action (reinstalling, cc, etc.). Let's all take a moment:

R.I.P Twinbrook-Shores save and Cast Members:
Feburary 2012 something- March 19, 2012. 8:03pm

I'm so sorry, Kirby! My very first sims 3 file ever, my very first attempt at a legacy, (Before even the first Dreamer Legacy!) suffered from this problem. I suggest you do what I do to prevent this ever happening again, which is use the Save As button and save two files. For example, Save it as Twinbrook Shores, or whatever the title of your file is, then the next time you save, save it as Twinbrook Shores 2. Then, alternate between them each time you save. You can of course do more than 2, I just do 2 to save memory. This way, if one file gets corrupted, you have the other to rely on which was only dated one save ago!
Sadly, even this method isn't foolproof, because the corruption can actually spread super quick to the second file as well. That doesn't always happen, but sometimes it does. So, as well as doing the alternate saves, I reccomend that you constantly backup your saves. Say, every week or so. I actually am so paranoid about losing my legacy that I back them up every day I play. So yea, what you do is copy the Saves folder in your Sims 3 folder, and paste it onto a memory stick or an empty CD drive.
If you want a quicker way to do it, just copy the saves folder and paste it somewhere other than your Sims 3 Folder. For example, I paste mine in the Documents. Backing them up every so often on something like a USB stick or an empty disk drive is still a good idea though because even if your computer fails or somehow gets broken, you will still have that save that you can then play on a new computer or whatever.
Finally, if you're not against mods, ErrorTrap by Twallan usually takes care of all these sorts of errors and corruptions.
I use literally all of these, I really suggest you do them too. Sorry if you already do these, by the way. You just didn't mention them so I felt it would be helpful to post.


Super long post, sorry, but I do hope it helps!

[Ricalynn]

Also if your game isn't already gone I'm in love with Crincrit's blog.  She keeps detailed records of things that can go wrong and how to fix them.  Here is the link to the Missing UI you subscribed above.  I actually fixed this problem by moving out the house before the trip abroad in an earlier save and then replacing them back into the house.


Did you try renaming the .backup file to Somethingnew.sims3 and opening in your game to see if it was before Shang Simla and therefore before the problem?   Every couple of saves I always rename the file so my files tend to look like Artie 1 and Artie 2.  If I go on a trip to China, I make an entirely new save Artie 2 China. So that I can go back if something terrible goes wrong.

[loveSims]

I'm so sorry Kirby. It happen to me once. Now I always have a backup if I'm traveling.

[Leto85]

You poor boy. I know how you feel.
I always make a backup specially for vacations. Every time my Sim travels I save it under a different savegame with "vacation" at the end of it. Everything that happens at a vacation destiny got saved under that file and when they got back home bugged I have another file from right before they traveld.
And the tip about the .backup file is indeed very helpful. It's not a 100% security system but it really is worth trying. Just like the next thing I'm going to say: save your family (bugged or not) to the bin and place them in a new town, or in the same town after you've removed the original. That has saved me like a thousand times.
Please try this. Even if it doesn't work you will few better just because you can say to yourself: I did have tried everything.

Once again+ good luck. And I hope ths next post underneath mine will be one from you with positive news.

Oh, and do what Fez does. Eventuality she calls her own methods paranoia, they are good methods.

[Hosfac]

I actually am so paranoid about losing my legacy that I back them up every day I play. So yea, what you do is copy the Saves folder in your Sims 3 folder, and paste it onto a memory stick or an empty CD drive.

You know what they say:  you're not paranoid if everyone actually is out to get you.  Thus is the case here.

What I do with my saves is that I copy the entire Saves folder to my desktop every day before I start my game.  This takes it out of harm's way:  it can't get corrupted if the game can't interact with it.  Then every few days I sort through my saves and copy the ones that I've made progress in to a flash drive...just in case.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Ironic I give all that advice when my hard drive kicks the bucket and the backup I made onto a disk drive doesn't work, therefore causing me to lose my entire legacy.

[Leto85]

Ironic I give all that advice when my hard drive kicks the bucket and the backup I made onto a disk drive doesn't work, therefore causing me to lose my entire legacy.

Ah come on! All that at once, really? You must feel the most unlucky girl in the gaming world out there at this moment. Tsjeeh, I think I actually am out of advise for this one.
Uhm... Cleaning the DVD you've burned the data too? I'm sure you've did that already.
Perhaps another computer is able to read the disc.
Could be.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Nah, the disc had actually been severely scratched. I haven't a clue how it happened, I had kept it safely in the Sims 3 box with the Base Game disc. Perhaps my two year old sister got her hands on it at some point? I don't know. Oh well. Anyway, this is off-topic lol so I'll stop now.

[KirbyAndKat]

Leto: I'm a girl, lol
My avatar's just a boy. Orel from Moral Orel.

I'm going to see if this backup folder on my desktop has the save.

[Leto85]

Leto: I'm a girl, lol
My avatar's just a boy. Orel from Moral Orel.

I'm going to see if this backup folder on my desktop has the save.

Haha, my mistake than.