How do you Restore the Neighborhoods?

Alorxico

So, I decided to hop into the game now that Toddlers have been added. I hit "New Game", made my Sim and jumped into one of the old neighborhoods only to find that it was empty.

Now, before I took a break from Sims 4, I had been tinkering with the neighborhoods to make them more unique and fit in with the story I was trying to weave for my Sims; but since it has been almost 6 months, I didn't want to fiddle with editing lots or rebuilding a neighborhood. I wanted to play with the lots EA had provided. But no matter how many times I hit "New Game" all the neighborhoods are this empty, ready-to-edit world.

How do restore the worlds to the defaults?

Simsweetie

Erm... weird. Have you tried repairing your game through origin?

Alorxico

Simsweetie wrote: »

Erm... weird. Have you tried repairing your game through origin?

I have and it was still the same.

rosemow

Hello
I am just checking. Is it all the worlds, and not just New Crest? Is the issue in Willow Creek as well?

If the issue is in all the worlds in the fresh new save game file, the autosave file may be causing issues. Go to your save folder in Documents -Electronic Arts-Sims 4 folder and move the slot_00000001.save to your desktop. That is the autosave file. Then launch the game, start a new game and see if the issue remains.

If you still have issues, try resetting your sims 4 folder and see if that helps. To do that, move your sims 4 folder ( that is in Documents -Electronic Arts - then the sims 4 folder is there ) to the desktop. Then start the game, and a new sims 4 folder will be generated. Start a new save game and test to see if the issue is in that new save game, Exit the game and then copy back the "options.ini" file and the "saves" , "screenshots" "tray" "custom music " and "mods" folders from the desktop sims 4 folder to the new sims 4 folder, replacing the new generated file/ folders with the old file/folders from the desktop sims 4 folder

UnrealRoot

Move the Sims 4 folder out of the electronic arts folder in documents to another area and start the game, the neighbourhoods should be completely clean and EA default.

lunasysims

Definitely move the Sims 4 folder to your desktop and start a fresh game. See if that works. If that doesn't and you've already tried to repair through Origin, make sure you backup your saves/tray/mod and do a reinstall.

Alorxico

rosemow wrote: »

Hello
I am just checking. Is it all the worlds, and not just New Crest? Is the issue in Willow Creek as well?

If the issue is in all the worlds in the fresh new save game file, the autosave file may be causing issues. Go to your save folder in Documents -Electronic Arts-Sims 4 folder and move the slot_00000001.save to your desktop. That is the autosave file. Then launch the game, start a new game and see if the issue remains.

If you still have issues, try resetting your sims 4 folder and see if that helps. To do that, move your sims 4 folder ( that is in Documents -Electronic Arts - then the sims 4 folder is there ) to the desktop. Then start the game, and a new sims 4 folder will be generated. Start a new save game and test to see if the issue is in that new save game, Exit the game and then copy back the "options.ini" file and the "saves" , "screenshots" "tray" "custom music " and "mods" folders from the desktop sims 4 folder to the new sims 4 folder, replacing the new generated file/ folders with the old file/folders from the desktop sims 4 folder

Yes, I am still having issues. I will give this a try. Thanks, Rosemow.

Bystander_41

I have a similar issue except I want my old neighbourhood back I've had the same neighbourhood flourishing and doing its on thing for years and then i saw the new update and mistakened the "NEW GAME" as in a way to make a new family and now its all blank slate.... is there anyway to get it all back? there was years of stuff I had been doing on there.... ugh.

luthienrising

Bystander_41 wrote: »

I have a similar issue except I want my old neighbourhood back I've had the same neighbourhood flourishing and doing its on thing for years and then i saw the new update and mistakened the "NEW GAME" as in a way to make a new family and now its all blank slate.... is there anyway to get it all back? there was years of stuff I had been doing on there.... ugh.

Select "Load Game" instead of "New Game". You'll be given a chance to choose from any saves you have. When you selected "New Game," you created a new one *as well as* your old one.

Junnet56

I've lost all my saved games too. But without thinking to back up my saved games in their folder. I went ahead and sent the 'electronic arts' folder to my desktop to restore the game and all all my saved files are gone. Is there any way to get them back or are they gone forever?

luthienrising

Junnet56 wrote: »

I've lost all my saved games too. But without thinking to back up my saved games in their folder. I went ahead and sent the 'electronic arts' folder to my desktop to restore the game and all all my saved files are gone. Is there any way to get them back or are they gone forever?

Is the Electronic Arts folder still on your desktop? If so, the subfolder Saves should still be in it (inside the subfolder The Sims 4), and you can move those into the newly created Saves folder in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Saves. (If you have reopened the game, it will have created that again.) If you deleted that from your desktop, check the Recycle Bin and restore it from there.

Junnet56

Thank you for the reply! Ah well you see when I moved the folder to my desktop, I then moved it back to my documents folder thinking 'problem solved'! Sorry I'm not very technical so I hope I'm making sense!

luthienrising

Junnet56 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply! Ah well you see when I moved the folder to my desktop, I then moved it back to my documents folder thinking 'problem solved'! Sorry I'm not very technical so I hope I'm making sense!

No problem! It's never a bad thing to let the game regenerate the folders, really. Drag it to the desktop again, start the game and quit, then move just the *contents* of Saves and Tray (that's your Library), Mods if you use them, Screenshots if you don't want to start fresh - and the Options.ini file if you don't want to reset your Game Option - back in place. When you restart, everything should be back

rosemow

Junnet56 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply! Ah well you see when I moved the folder to my desktop, I then moved it back to my documents folder thinking 'problem solved'! Sorry I'm not very technical so I hope I'm making sense!

Hello
When you look in your saves folder in the sims 4 folder, are your save game files there? Check to see what files are there now.

Junnet56

Ah I do have some saved files, however there're all from today so I don't have any of my older saved files. I'm guessing that I've lost the older ones now

rosemow

Junnet56 wrote: »

Ah I do have some saved files, however there're all from today so I don't have any of my older saved files. I'm guessing that I've lost the older ones now

Do you only have one sims 4 folder now? Do you still have a copy of the sims 4 folder on your desktop? Or do you have any back up copies of your saves?
I am sorry that you have this issue

Junnet56

I currently have an electronics arts folder on in my desktop and also in documents. I think I've made a bit of a mess with this one hahaha

Junnet56

Hang on a mintue, I have good news! I found the a 3rd sims 4 folder and it has all my older saved games! woop!

rosemow

Junnet56 wrote: »

Hang on a mintue, I have good news! I found the a 3rd sims 4 folder and it has all my older saved games! woop!

That is great! Move the current saves folder that is documents -electronic arts - Sims 4 folder to your desktop. Then make a copy of the saves folder that contains your older save game files, and place it where you removed the other saves folder from.

Junnet56

I've kept a back up and moved both my mods and saves folders to the electronic arts folder on the desktop, but my saved games aren't showing up in the game. Thanks for all the help though guys!

rosemow

Junnet56 wrote: »

I've kept a back up and moved both my mods and saves folders to the electronic arts folder on the desktop, but my saved games aren't showing up in the game. Thanks for all the help though guys!

Hello
When you press the load button in the main screen, are your save game files not there?
If they aren't there or the load button isn't there, the autosave file may be causing issues. Go to your save folder in Documents -Electronic Arts-Sims 4 folder and move the slot_00000001.save to your desktop. That is the autosave file. Then launch the game. See if the load button is in the main screen now. If it is, press the load button , load your save game file, play the game and see if it is working okay

If the load button isn't there, press the play button. Start the game and play the game for a little while. Save the game. Then exit the game completely, Reload the game and see if the load button is there now. See if you can load your save game.

If you still unable to load your save game files, try rolling back your save game files to an earlier version. These links explain how to do that.
https://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to-restore-a-previous-saved-game-in-the-sims-4/
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/783120/how-to-roll-back-your-save/p

Alorxico

Greetings, everyone.

@rosemow I wanted to let you know that I was able to restore my neighborhoods, but I had to delete all my old games and repair my game file. It appears that at some point, I had started a new game but never moved a family into a home before editing the neighborhoods. When I "saved" that game, it wrote over the default neighborhoods with the one I had edited. While I wasn't able to same my old games, I was able to save the families by uploading them onto the Community network, so I didn't lose anything important.

~ Alorxico

rosemow

Alorxico wrote: »

Greetings, everyone.

@rosemow I wanted to let you know that I was able to restore my neighborhoods, but I had to delete all my old games and repair my game file. It appears that at some point, I had started a new game but never moved a family into a home before editing the neighborhoods. When I "saved" that game, it wrote over the default neighborhoods with the one I had edited. While I wasn't able to same my old games, I was able to save the families by uploading them onto the Community network, so I didn't lose anything important.

~ Alorxico

Hello
Thankyou for updating us about what occured in your game. I am sorry that you lost your old games I am glad though that you were able to save your families.