My main save is gone

aaronrulz · March 2018

I only play with one save. I started a new save yesterday just to play a quick challenge. When I went to go load my original save it was not in the loading list. Only the current save and the MCCC saved file of that same game.

Why does this happen? I lost everything. All my neighborhoods filled with new houses are just gone.

Any reason why the save disappeared? I care more about preventing this from happening again than my annoyance of rebuilding and repopulating a new world.

auroraael14 · March 2018

I don't know how to stop it from happening but I've had it happen to me before too. It stinks. I now try to save a few saves just in case this happens there is a backup. Maybe someone else knows of a better way.

BMSO · March 2018

@aaronrulz Did you play with any other house hold during that time?

aaronrulz · March 2018

BMSO wrote: »

@aaronrulz Did you play with any other house hold during that time?

yea I played rotationally

GalacticGal · March 2018

There is a button at the bottom of the saves screen that says something about recovering a game save, have you tried that?

littlemissgogo · March 2018

GalacticGal wrote: »

There is a button at the bottom of the saves screen that says something about recovering a game save, have you tried that?

give this a go and look through this thread over here. hopefully it's just a silly bug of some sort and you can get your stuff back.

Amaraen82 · March 2018

Would doing a Restore Previous Version on the saves folder bring it back?

PninaSimmer · March 2018

This happens to me too unfortunately. I lost my deacdes challenge.

rosemow · March 2018

Hello
Sometimes a new save overwrites an old save.
Try recovering an earlier version of your save game, and it may be your main save game instead. To do that , go to the main screen of sims 4, and click on the " load game " button.Click on your new save game file picture. Then click on the " recover game " button down the right hand side bottom of the screen,. Press on an earlier version of the save game from the menu that pops up. Then load that save game version.

Dannydanbo · March 2018

Did you give the second save a different name using SAVE AS?

aaronrulz · March 2018

Dannydanbo wrote: »

Did you give the second save a different name using SAVE AS?

I didn't.

GalacticGal · March 2018

Dannydanbo wrote: »

Did you give the second save a different name using SAVE AS?

I always give the Save As a new name. I'm playing two separate games currently. I name the file after the 'main' family. Cantrell, for instance. Then I hit save periodically throughout the gaming session. When I play them the next time I'll play for a bit then select Save As and call it Cantrell-1 and then just save periodically, as before. I do the very same thing in my other save file. So far, I'm happy to report none have gone A.W.O.L. on me.

aaronrulz · March 2018

Well, i guess in the future I will do "save as", but either way this should NOT be happening.

klestrella · March 2018

This has happened to me a few times in the past, which is why I only play one save file at a time now. I used the “save as” option and assigned the files different names; I had even used the “save as” option every time I saved. As I played, I checked multiple times throughout gameplay to see that my saves were there. Unfortunately, the oldest, original file is always randomly erased at some point; sometimes during gameplay or upon exiting the game. I’m not going to say that the game’s completely at fault since it’s probable I could have done something incorrectly at one point, but it is very strange. I’ve never been able to figure out whether or not it comes down to human error or if it’s an issue that occurs in some games while not occurring in others.

Cynna · March 2018

I'm sorry about the loss of your save, OP. I really hope that you're able to recover the file.

Every since the save system was changed, sometimes a file can be accidentally overwritten. That's why "Save as" and renaming are not just a good idea, but necessary to prevent accidental loss. It's also a good idea to have, at least, a second save.

aaronrulz · March 2018

Cynna wrote: »

I'm sorry about the loss of your save, OP. I really hope that you're able to recover the file.

Every since the save system was changed, sometimes a file can be accidentally overwritten. That's why "Save as" and renaming are not just a good idea, but necessary to prevent accidental loss. It's also a good idea to have, at least, a second save.

Lessoned learned. Luckily I was not totally invested in the family I was playing so losing that didn't bother me. It's adding & replacing lots and repopulating that is so time-consuming.

Writin_Reg · March 2018

I always make copies of saves I don't want to disappear before I start a new game.

Karababy52 · March 2018

@aaronrulz Have you looked in your 'Saves' folder to see how many saves you have for that file? They're numbered with the most recent not having an extension for example; Slot_00000008.save (the most recent) Slot_00000008.save.ver0, Slot_00000008.save.ver1, etc. etc.

Slot_00000008.save would be your most current save, whereas, Slot_00000008.save.ver0 would be an earliar save. I believe you could have saves up to .ver4, which would be the very earliest save. BTW, those numbers are just an example, you most likely will have a different numbered or lettered save name.

You MAY be able to get your original save back that way if doing a recovery didn't work since you might've saved more than once since you overwrote it. But, if you haven't saved 5-6 times since then, it might work.

Here's a thread that explains how to recover an earlier save not using the in-game recovery option:

How To Roll Back Your Save

@rosemow if you have a simpler version to explain the method, perhaps you could post it here? Thanks!

I hope this perhaps can help you get your save back. If not, well, it's a bummer, but at least you've said it's not too much of a hardship for you. I agree with @Writin_Reg, it's always a good idea to keep a back-up of your saves. I back-up mine to folder on my hard drive and also once a month to an external hard drive.

rosemow · March 2018

I am sorry that you have had this issue occur

If you are unable to recover an earlier save version of the game, I hope that the placement of the lots and the populating of the world in the new save goes as best as possible.

EuphorialQueen · March 2018

Writin_Reg wrote: »

I always make copies of saves I don't want to disappear before I start a new game.

This is what I do as well. I keep copies of different saves outside of the game folder. The folder names are either the family name or the name of a challenge I may be playing. I also use a date at the end of the name to remember when I made the copy. This saves me a lot of grief.

EuphorialQueen · March 2018

@aaronrulz Here is another thought. If you have certain builds and / or households you like to use a starter save may appeal to you. Go into a new save and place the lots and population you want to use. Using the Save As option choose a name like New World or Fresh Start or whatever. Save a copy of the save folder outside the game somewhere else in your computer. *If* something happens or you just want to start a new family in your custom world you can use this file.
Just remember to move any existing save file first t avoid overwriting any current saves. Use a copy of your custom save to get a quick start.

Cynna · March 2018

aaronrulz wrote: »

Lessoned learned. Luckily I was not totally invested in the family I was playing so losing that didn't bother me. It's adding & replacing lots and repopulating that is so time-consuming.

As frustrating as losing a game can be, I'm glad to read that you didn't lose a save that you've been playing for years or something.

I agree with @EuphorialQueen. Since you'll be redoing your towns (which can be a pain, but sometimes they turn out even better than they were originally

), save the game when you're done and set it aside. Template files save a lot of time when you feel like starting over.

Karababy52 · March 2018

EuphorialQueen wrote: »

@aaronrulz Here is another thought. If you have certain builds and / or households you like to use a starter save may appeal to you. Go into a new save and place the lots and population you want to use. Using the Save As option choose a name like New World or Fresh Start or whatever. Save a copy of the save folder outside the game somewhere else in your computer. *If* something happens or you just want to start a new family in your custom world you can use this file.
Just remember to move any existing save file first t avoid overwriting any current saves. Use a copy of your custom save to get a quick start.

I do this as well. I have a totally blank template save with no premades, lots or venues and a custom made template save with modified premades, a few custom townies, lots and venues. I use one of these for every new save file in my game.

aaronrulz · March 2018

EuphorialQueen wrote: »

@aaronrulz Here is another thought. If you have certain builds and / or households you like to use a starter save may appeal to you. Go into a new save and place the lots and population you want to use. Using the Save As option choose a name like New World or Fresh Start or whatever. Save a copy of the save folder outside the game somewhere else in your computer. *If* something happens or you just want to start a new family in your custom world you can use this file.
Just remember to move any existing save file first t avoid overwriting any current saves. Use a copy of your custom save to get a quick start.

Great advice! Thank you!

Simplyobsessed · March 2018

I'm so sorry to hear this happened, it has inspired me to back up my saves regularly from now on. I have only ever backed up a save once, and that was when I moved from one PC to a new one.

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My main save is gone

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