All my sims are gone in one neighborhood

[MonkeyZero]

So, I open my neighborhood (its a custom neighborhood) and all my lots are there, but they're just empty. No sims in the sim bin, townies, and npcs don't remember them, nada. The sims that came with the game (the Ottomas family and co.) are there, but none of my sims. The characters file for that neighborhood is full, and everything, they just don't show up in the game. I haven't deleted anyone from the sim bin, and I don't use boolProp that often, except for the occasional toddler killing and getting rid of the school bus. I do use moveobjects on quite a bit, but I don't think that'd be too much of a problem.

So I removed the downloads and saved sims folders, and the sims are still awol. Obviously the the sims are still awol if I remove the neighborhoods file. Anyways, I tried creating a new game by renaming the sims 2 folder and then running the game, and that worked, so I tried plopping the file for that particular neighborhood to the new game, and no sims were there.

I had this problem before, but I just ended up saying goodbye to my sims, but I've put quite a bit of work into this challenge, and I really don't want to have start over (again.) I downloaded some cc before the problem started--just some hair and a couple custom lots--but as I said the problem persisted after I removed the downloads folder.

I have a mac 10.7.3, and here's system specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version (system): 1.68f98
Serial Number (system): C1MHJ6XXDV13
Hardware UUID: 96F8E838-7BB4-5E57-81B2-98FFEA4324C1
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled


Intel HD Graphics 3000:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 384 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0126
Revision ID: 0x0009
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1280 x 800
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes


patches don't really work on macs as far as I can tell, so I'm not patched. If someone could please help me, I will be forever grateful.

[Mootilda]

Unfortunately, if your neighborhood doesn't know about your sims, then they are probably lost forever. I don't believe that the User files can be used on their own. Can you tell whether you still have the User files for your custom sims? Can you tell whether your sims' Sim Description records still exist in your neighborhood package?

It would be nice to understand why this is happening to you. Can you tell us what you did immediately before this happened? Did your game crash? Did you have any other problems immediately before this occurred?

I've heard that there is a limit to the number of files inside a folder on the MAC. Is it possible that you are running into this limit? Have you been using clean or empty templates and no-regen mods to reduce the number of sims in your neighborhood? Can you tell us how many User files you have in your Characters folder?

It's odd that you lost all of your custom sims, but none of the shipped sims. Is it possible that you somehow overwrote your neighborhood package with the original version?

[MonkeyZero]

I still have the files that are something like N004_User00013.package and such. I don't know what you mean by description record. I didn't have a crash or anything. Before I played, I did force quit when loading the neighborhood because it wouldn't load. That seems like a likely cause. As I said, I did download some cc, custom lots being the most likely culprits. I have 90 files in my characters folder, which is certainly fewer files than I have in many other files. I don't know what you mean by clean/empty templates or no-regen mods. I don't think I could have overridden the neighborhood package because I still have all the lots where they used to be. Thank you for your help.

[MonkeyZero]

and another weird thing: all the furniture in the lots is exactly how I left it, and the bedding in one house is still up as if a sim were there. There are dirty dishes and everything.

[Mootilda]

To check the Sim Description record, you would need to open the neighborhood package using SimPE. To find out whether you still have the User files for your sims, you need to examine your User files. You can do this by opening each User file in SimPE, or by browsing your Characters folder using the Clean Installer.

Forcing your game to close during load could definitely corrupt your neighborhood. I don't suppose that you have a recent backup of your neighborhood?

If you'd like, I could examine your neighborhood to see whether I can find your sims. You'd need to zip up your neighborhood package and your Characters folder and attach the zip file to your post here. If it's too big, you would have to use one of the file sharing sites, like mediafire, and give me the download link. I'd also need to know the names of some of the missing sims.

[MonkeyZero]

I don't have simPE (mac doesn't allow it) but if you would be so kind as to look at it for me, that would be great. I've attached a link to media fire. It's a pretty big file. A couple of names are Slaine, Sithmaith, Gwennin, Bryn, Rowan, Mael, Cian, and Aodh (It's a medieval Ireland themed neighborhood.)]
http://www.mediafire.com/?326ihaasn4sceh8

[Mootilda]

You might want to check out this article about running Windows programs on the MAC:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=366580

I'll grab that neighborhood and let you know what I find.

One other thing: if your game is hanging during load, it may be related to your graphics. Your computer isn't really up to playing the game with those EPs. You might want to read this FAQ to understand the problem and potential solutions:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

Results:

I was unable to find any of the sims that you mentioned, either in the neighborhood package or in the Characters subfolder. Because of this, there is no way to get your sims back.

However, I did notice that you have a lot of duplicate sims, like Cyd Roseland, the Ottomas family, the Ramaswami family, and all of the strays which are added by the Pets stealth neighborhood.

This seems to imply that you have somehow managed to add the stealth neighborhoods to your neighborhood multiple times. I can't imagine how this happened, but it would significantly increase the number of sims in your neighborhood and get you much closer to the maximum number of sims that you can have. It may also be a sign of neighborhood coruption; stealth neighborhoods should only be added once automatically.

Because of this, I believe that you would benefit from installing empty templates, especially for the stealth neighborhoods. There are a number of threads which discuss empty templates. You can download them here:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13382.0.html

You should also read this list and avoid doing anything which is known to corrupt your neighborhood:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Avoiding_Hood_Corruption

I would also like to suggest that you start keeping backups of your save game on a regular basis. You can decide to backup every time that you play, or once a week, or whenever something interesting happens in your game. Whichever strategy you decide to use, though, keep a couple of backups rather than just one. For example, if you decide to backup every week, you might want to keep your last four backups, so that you actually have a month's worth of backups. Here's a FAQ which explains how to backup your save game and how to restore from backup:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Back_Ups

I'm sorry that I don't have better news for you.

[MonkeyZero]

Okay, thank you for your time.