Sims file lost

[Sheaheas]

Hi, so I've been having a lot of glitches with my sim 4 game and decided to attempt to fix it on my own. I watched a video and opened up a new sims file, it said to move it to your desktop and open up a new game to open a new file. I then moved the old files to the new folder as directed. But when I opened up a new sims game there were none of my files and played games in there. There was nothing in the cloud but it was under my name. Does anyone know where the files are or what I might've done wrong? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@Sheaheas  It sounds like you moved the Sims 4 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts to your desktop?  That's the user data folder, and it holds all your saves, as well as any other content you've created or added to the game.  When you move that folder, the game can no longer read it and creates a new one in its place; the new version doesn't contain any of your existing content.

You can manually move your saves and other content to the new folder, but it's best to make sure the game is working properly first.  Are you still seeing the same glitches as before?  If so, please describe them more fully, and let me know whether your computer runs Windows or macOS.

[Sheaheas]

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for replying. My problem seems to be that when I did manually move my content to the new folder I opened up my game and it still didn't bring up my saves. I'm not sure the mistake because I moved absolutely everything I can find sims related into one folder through the art documents. 

These are the screenshots of my folder on windows 10 laptop, wasn't sure how to make it smaller so there are several images. I also have managed to create seperate folders as you can see on the left, I did move all those into the save one labeled The Sims 4.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Sheaheas  Okay, there are a lot of files in that Sims 4 folder, and maybe enough duplicates that the game is having trouble reading anything.  Please move the Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, or somewhere else convenient.  (If there's already a Sims 4 folder there, rename one of them first.)  Launch the game to create a new folder.

Now, instead of moving everything over, go into the saves folder inside the Sims 4 folder you moved, copy just one save, and paste it into the saves folder in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4.  The save you move should end in .save, not .save.verx.  Let me know whether you can see the save in-game.

[Sheaheas]

@puzzlezaddict ok, so I deleted everything with copy or 2 so there were only 1 of each in the first folder. I copied it and went into the saves folder but when I copied it it either said saves inside the folder because there wasn't another saves inside of it. When I copied it into the new sims 4 folder it just came up as saves- copy. I'm not very knowledgeable on tech things so it is likely I missed something.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Sheaheas  Just to clarify, an individual save file needs to be in this exact file location:

Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves

The only things in that saves folder above should be actual saves, no other folders or files.  A save file can't be inside another folder inside saves, or the game won't read it.

The Copy in the save name may be because you copied the saves in their original location first.  There's an easier way instead.  First, move out all the files with the word Copy in them.  (You don't have to delete them, just get them out of the way.)  Then right-click on a save file, one that reads Slot_0000000x.save (with x being a number 0 to 9 or letter a to f) and select Copy.  Open Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves, which should now be empty.  Right-click in the empty space and select Paste.

Don't move over anything else.  Just see if the save can be loaded.  Let me know either way.

[Sheaheas]

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for all your help but nothing seems to be working so I'll just have to restart a new game.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Sheaheas  I'm willing to keep trying if you are.  But if it's not worth the effort, I understand.