My sim has vanished without a trace.

[SarahKOM]

I have no idea how it happened, but when I loaded the game yesterday my main sim had disappeared.
She's a Young Adult in Sim State University. There are two other playables in that dorm(Pinenuts Plaza).

They both knew her, but now she's gone from their Relationships. Her dorm room is still claimed, and she's still in the loading picture, no one has tried to take the room.
I've tried using Insim to summon her back and to restore all family, but she didn't show up there either, just her mother and the cat. I can't even find her in SimPE.

I know I didn't delete her package thing from my folders because I've checked my Recycle Bin, or with moveobjects because I don't use it. I didn't kill her off and I  didn't do anything with SimPE either because I installed it just to look for her.
She just disappeared.

Two errors came up when I loaded that dorm, but I can't remember the wording. I think they were to do with the other dormies though. I'll check when I load it up again, though I'm a bit wary of Pleasantville right now.

She was there the night before and all I've downloaded since then CCwise were a few new skins and beers for my sims.
The other two playables are fine(so far), but they have no knowledge of her whatsoever.

Could someone help or should I just give up all hope and reinstall?

[jolrei]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

Anyhow, a couple of things you might try:
1) Use the lot debugger to retrieve missing sims.  This should find your missing sim and return him/her to the mailbox.  It will throw an error - press reset. (that is, if your sim is retrieved).  Since you can't find your sim using SimPE, the package may not be there at all.  You say you checked recycle bin.  This implies you are not sure that the sim's package file is actually in the Characters directory.  If it is not there, you likely don't have much that the debugger can retrieve.

2) If none of the above works, you can reload a backup of the 'hood.  You may lose a few sim days of gameplay, but at least you will start from a pre-breakage point.

[SarahKOM]

I just downloaded the lot debugger, going to try it soon.
Thing is that I didn't touch the Characters folder, or the neighbourhoods folder. I just checked the Recycle bin on an off-chance. I checked my music folders too.

I don't have any back-ups of that particular hood; I only played for two days.

[Emma]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

I think you mean Jodie Foster.

[DrNerd]

This happened to me last month.  The thread's farther down the page: There But Not-There Sims.  You can try some of what was suggested to me in there.

Bad news?  There was no fixing it.  I had to rebuild the neighborhood from scratch rather than risk just re-creating the missing Sims and leaving whatever glitch created the problem in place.  The good news?  You're losing two days and not four generations.

[jolrei]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

I think you mean Jodie Foster.

I was really hoping I didn't, but you're right.

@SarahKOM:  I am thinking that rebuilding the hood may be the best option.   You might try doing a "Deleted 2" process on your sim, provided you can find any remnant of the sim with the lot debugger for "prep for delete".  If you can't do that, it becomes iffy whether you will find any of the other bits of the character in SimPE to complete the deletion.

Do you recall what the status of the sim was when you saved and quit the last time the sim was around?  Were they, for example "off world" at work, on the cell phone, etc.?  Any errors during the save (any failed save, crash, etc.)?

If the sim shows up in the family icons (i.e. s/he has a picture at the left of the screen), what happens if you move the family out of the house and move them into a new house (try a maxis default house, just for the experiment to ensure there is no CC in the house)?

[Emma]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

I think you mean Jodie Foster.

I was really hoping I didn't, but you're right.

For once

[SarahKOM]

Jolrei, as far as I know she was dancing in her dorm room.

She doesn't show anywhere else except the dorm room door picture and I don't think the lot debugger could find her. Hence, I'm restalling. Agin. Ugh.

[unregister]

Two errors came up when I loaded that dorm, but I can't remember the wording.

Just curious, when the error messages came up, did you hit delete? I had a sim go into an error, reset, cancel, nothing worked, same error kept returning. I had to hit delete. This cause my sim to be gone from the game.

i hadn't saved in a while, but I did have a more recent backup. I replaced his charector file with the backup file. Anyway, had problems as it really screwed up memories as a sibling had been born before the delete but after the backup. The games was still playable, just memories in that family were messed up.

[jsalemi]

Just curious, when the error messages came up, did you hit delete? I had a sim go into an error, reset, cancel, nothing worked, same error kept returning. I had to hit delete. This cause my sim to be gone from the game.

i hadn't saved in a while, but I did have a more recent backup. I replaced his charector file with the backup file. Anyway, had problems as it really screwed up memories as a sibling had been born before the delete but after the backup. The games was still playable, just memories in that family were messed up.

FYI, deleting an active sim from a lot doesn't actually delete the sim from the game.  If you save the lot and exit to the neighborhood, and then go back into the lot, you'll find the deleted sim standing by the mailbox. This is how you do an 'ultimate reset' on a somewhat borked sim when all other tools fail.

That's why the sim's memories were borked when you restored a backup of just that sim -- you overwrote the proper version of the sim that would have just returned if you saved and reloaded.  As it is, you've probably sent that hood spiraling towards a BVBVFS, as messed-up memories tend to propagate over time, eventually corrupting the memories of other sims unrelated to the family.  I suggest you put the lot debugger on that family's lot, and use all of its tools to clean out trash and corrupt memories -- that may save your hood, or at the least, buy you time before it implodes.

[unregister]

Just curious, when the error messages came up, did you hit delete? I had a sim go into an error, reset, cancel, nothing worked, same error kept returning. I had to hit delete. This cause my sim to be gone from the game.

i hadn't saved in a while, but I did have a more recent backup. I replaced his charector file with the backup file. Anyway, had problems as it really screwed up memories as a sibling had been born before the delete but after the backup. The games was still playable, just memories in that family were messed up.

FYI, deleting an active sim from a lot doesn't actually delete the sim from the game.  If you save the lot and exit to the neighborhood, and then go back into the lot, you'll find the deleted sim standing by the mailbox. This is how you do an 'ultimate reset' on a somewhat borked sim when all other tools fail.

That's why the sim's memories were borked when you restored a backup of just that sim -- you overwrote the proper version of the sim that would have just returned if you saved and reloaded.  As it is, you've probably sent that hood spiraling towards a BVBVFS, as messed-up memories tend to propagate over time, eventually corrupting the memories of other sims unrelated to the family.  I suggest you put the lot debugger on that family's lot, and use all of its tools to clean out trash and corrupt memories -- that may save your hood, or at the least, buy you time before it implodes.

That's why I no longer play that neighborhood and started Crescent Island. This was sometime ago. All I remember is that he was gone and nowhere to be seen after saving and going back ingame. He was the most gorgeous toddler ever born in my game, I didn't want to lose him. I think he arrived at the mailbox with the old charector file installed as a toddler but acting like an infant. It was a mess, I used the age Sims cheat to grow him back to a toddler. When the next baby was born, the memory wasn't right between them. I just tip toed out and cloned him in SimPe and started a new hood and haven't played the hood since.. I knew that I made a mess and wanted to stop before it got worse.

So if an error is on the sim person, it wasn't on an item or action just the sim itself, the deleted sim will return?

I know that when an error has occured on a item, and I am forced to use delete, the item is gone and doesn't return to the lot. Is something different happening if it is a sim rather than an item?

Good to know that there is a chance to fix it with the lot debugger, I will definately try it as I really do miss those families. Thank you for the suggestion.

[jsalemi]

So if an error is on the sim person, it wasn't on an item or action just the sim itself, the deleted sim will return?

I know that when an error has occured on a item, and I am forced to use delete, the item is gone and doesn't return to the lot. Is something different happening if it is a sim rather than an item?

Yes; unless the sim is really borked, the sim will return if you save the lot, exit, and reload it immediately. Sims are different from objects because they're sims. Unlike objects, a sim has  a "home base", so the game will attempt to return the sim there.

Same if you delete a playable that's a walk-by on another lot -- the sim will still be at their home lot when you go there.

[Zazazu]

Sims are different from objects because they're sims.

That was classic.

[jsalemi]

I couldn't think of any better way to say it.

[kuronue]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

I think you mean Jodie Foster.

Was it a good movie? Worth huting for on IMDB and then Netflix? I'm always on the lookout for new movies and I like odd plots like that

[jolrei]

Isn't this a movie where Nicole Kidman loses her daughter on an airplane and is the only person in the world that even remembers that she ever had a daughter?  Spooky.

I think you mean Jodie Foster.

Was it a good movie? Worth huting for on IMDB and then Netflix? I'm always on the lookout for new movies and I like odd plots like that

It is, as you say, an interesting plot premise.  But there you've caught me out.  I have not actually seen the movie, since I am not really a Jodie Foster fan (I didn't consciously avoid it, but never bothered to put it on my list of "must watch" flicks, and then life got in the way).  Things are always worth hunting in IMDB, for reading the reviews and user comments.  Who knows, it might be great.

[Emma]

My daughter loved the film. I watched while I was playing the sims so I wasn't paying much attention

[J. M. Pescado]

Sims are different from objects because they're sims.

That was classic.

But not as funny as funny as 0x247, "Brain - Remove Obj from Sim". Coders know what I mean.