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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 3:32 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Destroyed neighborhood
I’m really upset. I don’t know what to do. I’m a Simmer and I post YouTube videos and I can’t have this keep happening to me. My neighborhood has gotten reset TWICE. First the game crashes, and then when I go back into the game everything is gone. All my sims are gone. I come into the game a third time and everything is back except for one thing, it turns all of my sims into males. All of them, adult males, and I can’t undo it. I deleted all my sims and remade them, to my horror this neighborhood reset happened a second time, my game crashed, and everything was gone again. I tried deleting several extra neighborhoods, I tried deleting custom content, nothing is working. I don’t know how to fix it but I need to know how. Please help.
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Instructor
#2 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 3:44 AM
Please tell us about your OS system including graphic hardware and what version of Sims 2 are you on CD or Ultimate Collection. My opinion, you should never delete any neighborhoods loaded from the game. I did that once and got crashes too. Start your own new neighborhood instead. I would do a total re-install. Leave the neighborhoods and Sims that come with the game in there.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 3:53 AM
Quote: Originally posted by suzymarie64
Please tell us about your OS system including graphic hardware and what version of Sims 2 are you on CD or Ultimate Collection. My opinion, you should never delete any neighborhoods loaded from the game. I did that once and got crashes too. Start your own new neighborhood instead. I would do a total re-install. Leave the neighborhoods and Sims that come with the game in there.


I have a Windows HP computer. I open with Sims 2 apartment life, and I have deleted some neighborhoods that came with the Sims... although wouldn’t total reinstall delete... everything? Which is really what I don’t want. But the big neighborhood i deleted was one of my own I had created a long time ago. My computer is windows 10, but I don’t know my graphic hardware.
Alchemist
#4 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 4:38 AM
Do you have a back up? If so, then maybe we could find the source of the crashing--like if the game still crashes with no cc installed, or when running a clean hood, if it's a compatibility error, etc. You need to figure out if this is a game error or a computer/hardware error. If you don't have a back up, make one/get one; with Windows 10 you should be able to right click on the Neighborhood folder and choose Restore Previous Versions (may also be under Properties, then Previous Versions). From there you can hopefully select a date when your game was last working properly, find your hood folder and zip it, using a program like WinRAR or 7zip. Once your hood is backed up, you can do some testing.

Now, when you say " First the game crashes, and then when I go back into the game everything is gone" did you restore a back up first, or just simply try to boot the game again and found everything deleted? If the latter, that seems wonky to me, like the computer might be deleting files. If the former, you might just have an incomplete back up.

As for deleting the premade hoods that ship with the game, that's okay to do. For finding your hardware, click start and type or search for system info. That'll tell you your specs.

Finally, I would wait to reinstall as a last resort, or at least until you are sure you have proper back ups of everything. Installing can be a long process, and tricky on newer machines, so I wouldn't attempt that unless absolutely necessary.

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 5:23 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
Do you have a back up? If so, then maybe we could find the source of the crashing--like if the game still crashes with no cc installed, or when running a clean hood, if it's a compatibility error, etc. You need to figure out if this is a game error or a computer/hardware error. If you don't have a back up, make one/get one; with Windows 10 you should be able to right click on the Neighborhood folder and choose Restore Previous Versions (may also be under Properties, then Previous Versions). From there you can hopefully select a date when your game was last working properly, find your hood folder and zip it, using a program like WinRAR or 7zip. Once your hood is backed up, you can do some testing.

Now, when you say " First the game crashes, and then when I go back into the game everything is gone" did you restore a back up first, or just simply try to boot the game again and found everything deleted? If the latter, that seems wonky to me, like the computer might be deleting files. If the former, you might just have an incomplete back up.

As for deleting the premade hoods that ship with the game, that's okay to do. For finding your hardware, click start and type or search for system info. That'll tell you your specs.

Finally, I would wait to reinstall as a last resort, or at least until you are sure you have proper back ups of everything. Installing can be a long process, and tricky on newer machines, so I wouldn't attempt that unless absolutely necessary.


The only thing I had done was just boot the game back up and saw everything gone. I’ve never backed up a neighborhood before. Now I don’t think it’ll make a difference because I’ll be backing up all the destroyed sims characters who were turned into adult males when the neighborhood is reset.
Alchemist
#6 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 6:39 PM
@bubblegum princess girl That's what I mean about using Restore Previous Versions. It's a feature on newer versions of Windows, I think 7 and on, and it's like a system restore but just for the file or folder. So right click on the Neighborhoods folder, or your hood folder, and see if you have any saves from a while ago, when you know the hood was working.

Could be a long shot, but you might get lucky. Let me know if you need pictures and I'll post some when I get home.

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#7 Old 5th Sep 2018 at 11:12 PM
You need to have backups.

But you never ever delete sims. Doing that will corrupt your hood, which is why it went up in a big firey ball. Deleting a neighbourhood is okay, but that's about the only vanilla game item that you can delete safely.

Hood corruption: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Game_gui...ding_corruption

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#8 Old 6th Sep 2018 at 9:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
You need to have backups.

But you never ever delete sims. Doing that will corrupt your hood, which is why it went up in a big firey ball. Deleting a neighbourhood is okay, but that's about the only vanilla game item that you can delete safely.

Hood corruption: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Game_gui...ding_corruption
That’s weird.... what’s the point in having that feature if it only destroys neighborhoods?
Field Researcher
#9 Old 6th Sep 2018 at 10:15 PM
The developers of the game had no idea how destructive that feature was when they implemented it (in The Sims you could delete whoever you wanted, the game wouldn't get corrupt because it didn't have a complex memory or relationship or wants system).
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#10 Old 6th Sep 2018 at 11:21 PM
Don't delete sims
Don't delete graves/urns
Don't move sims between hoods
Don't use 'delete all character' cheat
Don't install occupied houses-sims/graves/urns/pets

They knew later on what it did but never patched it out, my guess is it was too much work. What they did is fix it in the next instalment-sims 3. Also as a sims 2 player, you need to know to make backups (goes for all the series I should think) using the essential mods to stop hood/game blow up and using Hood Checker.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 9th Sep 2018 at 3:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Don't delete sims
Don't delete graves/urns
Don't move sims between hoods
Don't use 'delete all character' cheat
Don't install occupied houses-sims/graves/urns/pets

They knew later on what it did but never patched it out, my guess is it was too much work. What they did is fix it in the next instalment-sims 3. Also as a sims 2 player, you need to know to make backups (goes for all the series I should think) using the essential mods to stop hood/game blow up and using Hood Checker.
I think I found out partly what’s been going on... I noticed when I played Minecraft the game was freezing up and I had to restart the computer. When I got back on that game, it deleted one of my Minecraft worlds. I think my computer has been deleting random things and I don’t know why...
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#12 Old 9th Sep 2018 at 3:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Isa-WP
The developers of the game had no idea how destructive that feature was when they implemented it (in The Sims you could delete whoever you wanted, the game wouldn't get corrupt because it didn't have a complex memory or relationship or wants system).
I guess I’m screwed because when it turned all of my sims into adult males I deleted them all and remade them.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 9th Sep 2018 at 5:34 PM
Are you near your hard drive space limit on your computer? That could be why things are being deleted.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 9th Sep 2018 at 5:57 PM
What's your anti-virus? They have been known to quarantine game files as viruses. Any time a game can't access files these days, trying without your anti-virus (while offline, of course!) is worth a shot.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#15 Old 9th Sep 2018 at 11:21 PM
Yes ^ make sure your anti-virus is set to ignore sims files. In fact that could be why your sims all turned male, anti-virus' can do some really odd things to the game.

Deleting sims is like shredding your junk mail in an effort to clean up, then tossing the paper around your living room, that's pretty much it.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
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