[NEEDS SAVES] Default Lots Showing in Surrounding World [ Edited ]

[BK747]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.108.335.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All expansions, game packs, and stuff packs except Batuu.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Load into a lot and look around at the surrounding world.
What happens when the bug occurs? The surrounding lots appear as the default builds available in the game when a new save is created instead of the lots I've built and added to the world. If I load into one of those lots, it will load correctly as the lot I've placed, but now the previous lot appears as a default as well. It happens every time in one of my save files, but doesn't appear to be an issue in another. Perhaps connected is that this save file also seems to now have some issues with endless load screens. I can load into lots when going in through build mode only. When I try to load a lot in live mode, it doesn't load and goes into an endless load screen.
What do you expect to see? For surrounding lots to appear properly.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. Bug started to occur after most recent patch. Already tried resetting Sims 4 folder and repairing game.

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Since the latest patch, I was playing mostly in a testing/build save file that I have, building some new lots. When I recently went back into my main play save file, I noticed the above issue. At first, I was getting endless load screens and I already troubleshooted this, following the suggestions for resetting Sims 4 folders and repairing the game, but that didn't solve the issue. I tried loading into lots through build mode to see if that would work and it did, but that's when I noticed the issues with surrounding lots showing as defaults. I eventually successfully loaded into a lot in live mode, and this issue was still present, though not all lots will load in live mode.

Edit By Crinrict: Added Tag to Title.

[EA_Cade · Accepted solution]

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Under investigation. Accepting as solution for visibility purposes only.

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Thanks all, 

At this time we have received plenty of saves for this issue and do not anticipate that additional saves will be needed.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

Thanks!

[crinrict]

@BK747 Do you have any residential rentals ? Did you replace the lots with stuff from the gallery ?

[Metroptimist]

I have this same problem in more than one of my save files, but without the endless loading screens. One lot (the saloon in Chestnut Ridge) even appeared as being bulldozed rather than the EA default, but when I traveled to the lot it was there as it should be. Some of the lots with this problem were downloaded from the gallery while others were lots I built myself, but in all cases they did not have this glitch prior to the most recent update and used to show up normally.

[crinrict]

@Metroptimist Do you have green and orange exclamations marks on any lots ? Usually it's more than one, starting in one neighborhood and expanding to the others.

[Metroptimist]

I assume you mean from map view, like the "incomplete lot" warning symbol? I don't have any exclamation marks on any lots as far as I can see, and all lots also appear as the correct version from neighborhood map view. I have noticed that in the save files where this bug happens, every single lot in every neighborhood will show as either EA defaults or bulldozed if it isn't the active lot (only the one lot in Chestnut Ridge has been "bulldozed" so far, everything else is just the EA default) from both live and build mode, so it appears to be a glitch affecting the entire world and not just certain lots.

[BK747]

Hey @crinrict 

Thanks for the quick reply!

There are many residential rentals scattered throughout the worlds in the save file, though none in the particular neighborhoods where I saw this glitch of the default lots appear. 

The lots are a mixture… some I built myself and others are from the gallery. None were recently added to the save file though (not since the update, before which time everything seemed to be fine). It’s a save file I’ve built over many years so they’ve been added to the world from the gallery over an extended period of time.

It sounds like my situation is presenting exactly the same as how @Metroptimist described theirs, other than the bulldozed lot. No orange or green exclamation marks on any of the maps.

As I’m thinking about it though, I believe the lots I had endless loading screens for live mode were lots that were either residential rentals or families who owned one. The lots I was able to get into live mode for didn’t have any connection to residential rentals… Would that be a cause of the endless loading. I’ll can test more lots for that correlation related to the endless loading screens and get back to you though if you’d like.

[crinrict]

@BK747 This all very much sounds like save corruption and there's several threads for similar symptoms.

Will need to search for them later on.

[BK747]

Thanks @crinrict I appreciate your feedback and you taking the time to look for those threads.

I consider myself lucky that this is the first time I’ve experienced save corruption. A couple questions as I’ve never dealt with this before…

a) If I put a backup version of the save from before the last update into my game, is it likely that that version is also corrupted or is there a chance it will run properly?

b) If I save households or lots from the corrupt save to my tray and insert them into a new save file, is that safe to do? 

[crinrict]

@BK747

These are basically the save corruption symptoms

- https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Houses-Lots-disappear/m-p/4620279 (ancient thread. Houses disappear from map and lot. Possibly replaced by the Orange exclamation mark issue)
- https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/WORKAROUND-Corrupted-R-rental-lot-Map-doesn-t-load-anymore-Whi... (a map can't be loaded at all anymore - related to residential rentals in that world)
- https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Orange-Green-Exclamation-signs-over-lots-Houses-disappear... (total corruption .. seems to spread to other saves for those affected. Don't know too much about this)
- Map shows different map: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-FR-Map-doesn-t-update-changes-to-lots-Can-t-change... (thought this was a FR issue but might be more general)

Think that's the most important one but there might be another similar to that last thread.

[Metroptimist]

My save file does not have a single one of the symptoms described in any of those links. Everything is totally normal from map view, I can enter all lots and neighborhood maps without any loading issues, and I do not see any exclamation marks of any color. No houses, Sims, or pets disappear when loading into a lot or household from either live or build mode, and my rental lots do not appear to have any trouble loading. The only symptom is that EA defaults appear on the unloaded lots in the surrounding world.

Is there any way I can test to be sure this one symptom is truly save corruption, and how should I address this? I would like to repeat BK747's previous question of whether it is safe to transfer the families and lots to a new save?

I also have spent years building the save file that is having this issue, and it would likely take me weeks or more to transfer everything to a new world. If I put in all that work only to find out the new save also has the issue, I would be totally devastated. This is a serious bug obviously caused by the latest game update and not anything I did myself, so I hope this problem can be presented to EA officially.