1. Which game(s) do you have?
Obviously the original game, along with ambitions and world adventures.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32 is what I could find.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None of them.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
In the select family menu, in the start, no.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is almost completely gone. The only thing that remains are those help popups, or at least the one that tell you when you take a screenshot still works. And the mouse pointer.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yup, just got back, 6 days from China.

7. How many traveling?
A SimBot, a resurrected ghost, and his adopted son who is not a ghost.

8. How are all travellers related?
The ghost guy ordered the robot before he died with his lifetime points, the son was adopted ages ago, this is not my first vacation with the son, but it is with the robot. And the other guy wasn't dead last him he went either.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Tale..Tell..I don't remember whats it called, its that swampy one that came with Ambitions.

10. How many days?
6.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They lasted the entire 6 days.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No? Is the EA thing vanilla? Because if so, yes?

15. When did the issue start?
After I loaded the game.

16. What were your sims doing?
Every single one of them were sleeping.

17. What things have you tried?
Restarting, screaming at computer, pressing tab, pressing F10, more screaming followed by crying followed by screaming.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
I think the screaming helped a bit.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I noticed I can click and drag objects around, even while the world was unpaused.

1. I Have the Sinms 3 And The World Adventures
2. 2.9.10.007002 version
3. eerm. round about 8 sims (1 adult and 7 toddlers)
4. The Dont Have Icons But on the Family Tree There is an invisible icon which takes forever to load but eventually does.
5. dont know, sorry
6. No
7. N/a
8. n/a
9. n/a (sunset valley, town)
10. n/a
11. n/a
12. n/a
13. dont know tbh
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, i guess
15. i think it started happening after i, maybe. installed a narr career installer, thing
16. nothing as i was on a different lot. but when i resumed playing the older family their toddlers had dissapeared
17. googe-ling, thats why i cam on here. i dont know what to try.
18. n/a
19. n/a
20. i found out that the sims/toddlers that went missing had a trait in common: can apprehend burglars, which dosnt exist .
hope you can understand that. thanksxx hope i'll get it fixed :')

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3, World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
Sims 3 1.14.11.7001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All four in the household.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes. The sims do not appear, the panel is there but blank.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
Riverview.

10. How many days?
My main sim was a teen when I started. He now has two teens of his own. I have not time-progressed anyone. Everyone is whatever natural age the game has given them. So, many days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Both.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story.

15. When did the issue start?
Three days ago.

16. What were your sims doing?
Two were at the gym, one was home, and the last was visiting friends.

17. What things have you tried
Oy! I've tried the F keys, the "Edit Town" save, the "fixall" and "resetsim" cheat, emptying caches, moving CC, reloading older saves (which cannot be saved again, lest the problem affects them as well), and some choice curse words.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Please, someone, is there a hero out there that can save this town from total destruction?

1. Which game(s) do you have?

TS3, Ambitions, WA, HELs

2. What game version/patch level? 4.2.32.007001


3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

None - they have disapeared but I sent them to the mirror to change appearence and changed their hair and colour and they came back. this happpened when I was changing playable families after one family glitched out.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

the family lot is missing from loading interface but the family shows up

5. Do you have any UI issues? no

6. Were the sims traveling? no

7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? no
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? none
15. When did the issue start? I am not sure
16. What were your sims doing? not sure
17. What things have you tried I have tried lots of things
18. What worked? changing their house I think the house has an issue
19. What didn't work? deleting holes, time machine
20. Anything else you would like to add?

my game starts to glitch b/c of the time machine when I zoom out of the lot and go to neighbourhood view the house disapears or looks really flat and u can see the sims but no house. the problem comes and goes when I move the time machine.

Just to clarify, this is all occurring only in one town (with older saves from that town as well though)

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base and WA

2. What game version/patch level?
2.9.10.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Actual sim is not invisible, but doesn't show up in UI, is no longer selectable, and is frozen where he stands

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes - Sims pictures will not show up and part of UI that shows mood bars, etc, doesn't show up

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, in first instance

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Married

9. Which country are the sims in?
Egypt

10. How many days?
Don't remember, couldn't see that info anymore in save

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Could not phone, so I waited until vacation was over (wife was still running around, though didn't seem to be finishing most of the interactions she autonomously started), they both disappeared and game decided to recognize Egypt as the new home neighborhood (original sims were nowhere to be found)

12. Returning together or separate?
Should have returned together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA

15. When did the issue start?
Don't remember, it may have started after a windows reinstall, so game reinstalls, patches, and putting backup-ed saves back in. I think the newest patch was part of this new install as well, so that may be a problem? It's been about a month since I've played, so that would put the timeline about right (this save was from 7/14, the slightly older one from 7/9).

16. What were your sims doing?
They had just arrived in Egypt, not doing anything yet

17. What things have you tried
Tried taking out CC, tried older saves (they were at home, husband was selected, same UI problem as before and frozen, wife was selected, UI reappeared and she could be played normally but husband could no longer be selected or interacted with)

18. What worked?
Nothing so far

19. What didn't work?
Taking out CC, trying an older save

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Saves with other sims seem to be fine, so I assumed that I didn't do anything wrong when putting the saves back in...

Also in case there have been issues relating to this, I believe the wife was pregnant (the earliest stages) during vacation (but not during the older save that had problems).

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, World Adventures and Ambitions.


2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One, in a family of 6 (if I count the missing Sim). He was an Al Simhara Sim and had a private wedding with one of my Sims. He's living in the household, but I was never given the option to control him. So he's not invisible at all, he's just unselectable due a lack of UI icon.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
As mentioned above, no, he doesn't.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes, the missing icon of this particular Al Simhara Sim, who joined my household through the private wedding option with one of my Sims. But apart from it, everything is just fine.

6. Were the sims traveling?
He was a Al Simhara Sim. But the household hasn't traveled after the marriage.

7. How many traveling?
XXXXX

8. How are all travellers related?
XXXXX

9. Which country are the sims in?
XXXXXX

10. How many days?
XXXXXX

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
XXXXXX

12. Returning together or separate?
XXXXXX

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No. I'm using AD85 Extended Mod (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=381046).

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No. I'm using AD85 Extended Mod (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=381046). As well as the following tuning mods: AbortionClinicV2, No Mosaic and Store everything in fridge.

15. When did the issue start?
Just after the marriage. The icon of the Al Simhara Sim never popped up.

16. What were your sims doing?
Everyone was at home, chatting.

17. What things have you tried?
Run the game vanilla. The icon still doesn't show.

18. What worked?
I went back to a previous save and, instead of adding the extra Sim to my household via marriage, I did so using the testingcheatsenabled true and the pie menu that pops up once you Shift Click on a Sim with this cheat enabled. After adding him, got them married and the UI was perfect.

19. What didn't work?
Running the game vanilla didn't solve the problem.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
This post was originally created in June, so I'm wondering if there's a workout for it already or if the newest patch should have somehow fixed it.

EDIT: Found a work around!

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Basegame
WA
Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
Basegame and WA: 1.15/2.10 for region 2
Ambitions: 4.3.4 for region 1 (i'm from Australia so no region2 patch obviously)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Two sims (icons/sim panel missing, but can still see sims just can't do anything)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I can only see half of the control panel, ie. i can see the live mode option but instead of build/buy modes been unusuable on vacation i can enter them. I can see the life-time achievement panel but no life-time wish, no money, and the sim needs panel.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes (only happened when they went travelling, doesn't happen at home).

7. How many traveling?
2 sims

8. How are all travellers related?
sisters

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
3 day trip

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
no sim panel, thus no option to return home, and cannot click on them and force them to do anything

12. Returning together or separate?
Cannot return at all

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression is enabled in my options

15. When did the issue start?
when my 2 sims arrived in China

16. What were your sims doing?
Travelling to China, they appear at basecamp but they're not playable.

17. What things have you tried
Reloading the saved game. I'm not keen on reinstalling all the games again as i had to do that 3 times to get ambitions to install correctly, but if you guys believe that is the required solution then i will do that .

18. What worked?
Nothing so far
Update 13.09.2010: Starting a new town and trying a completely different family works. I can see all sim icons and the sim panel and i can control them. backup from 2 weeks ago worked, however the data isn't the same as when i saved it and made the backup.
A backup save from earlier that day was also corrupted and not playable.

19. What didn't work?
Trying to travel to China again

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
No, everything else is good besides the memory leaks that come with the game lol
Backups seem to become corrupted to if you play them. All the data from the original save seems to transfer into the backup.
Update 13.09.2010: Forgot to mention, but my computer seems to load foreign countries faster than loading a town. In the past when i didn't haveAmbitions installed i can recall than when sims went to travel i could wait up to 10 minutes for the place to load (without CC).

1. Which game(s) do you have?
- TS3, World Adventures & Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
- TS3 BG: 1.14.11.007001
- TS3 WA: 2.9.10.007001
- TS3 AMB: 4.2.32.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
- One.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
- They have the plumbbob when selected, and a permanent thought bubble coming from knee height.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Not that I noticed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
One other from the lot was traveling, and when they returned (which glitched) the other was invisible.

7. How many traveling?
One (not the invisible one).

8. How are all travelers related?
Yes. The father was traveling. "Daughter" was home.

9. Which country are the sims in?
France

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When it was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Err... separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No.

15. When did the issue start?
When the vacationing sim came home.

16. What were your sims doing?
Invisible sim was... reading, I think??

17. What things have you tried?
Freaking out. Reloading from last save. Restarting game. Taking the same vacation again.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Anything I tried.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The vacation the sim was on glitched as well. I don't know that they're related, but it would make sense if they were.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, HELS and AMB.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
There was no icon at first, but there is an empty one now after moving the missing Sim to an other house and then back to the playable house.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No.

6. Were the sims traveling?
They had been travelling recently.

7. How many traveling?
Three.

8. How are all travellers related?
A father and two sons, the younger son is the missing Sim.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Thery were in Egypt.

10. How many days?
Three days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They returned when the vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
They returned at the same time, but in two seperate cars.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?
I noticed the family picture being missing in the main menu yesterday, but I didn't play them then.

16. What were your sims doing?
I don't remember, they might have just returned home.

17. What things have you tried
Move the missing Sim out and back, age him up, move the family to a new neighbourhood, try to change apparance in the mirror.

18. What worked?
Noting.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I have no hacks, custom sliders, CC or anything else that didn't come from the store. When I took the invisible Sim to the mirror it didn't just show hair for teen guys like it should. It showed hair for all ages, both male and female and there was a black head with a store icon. Only one of the travelling Sims has a moodlet for visiting Egypt, there are two days left on it. The family picture is missing when the invisible Sim is there, but was back while he was moved out.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
2.3.33.003001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No; not in UI, not in relationship panels, not in the "split family screen"

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Since the Sim was deleted in-game, I have not been able to call up the family tree for any of his immediate family.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
--

8. How are all travellers related?
--

9. Which country are the sims in?
--

10. How many days?
--

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
--

12. Returning together or separate?
--

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
Several game-saves ago. I have a neighbourhood full of Sims I play on rotation, so it took me a little while to realise I hadn't seen this Sim in a while. Then I remembered I had deleted him when he got "stuck" between the levels of a house, intending to restore him, only the game had crashed soon after and I forgot what I meant to do.

16. What were your sims doing
He was in the kitchen of a neighbour's home, trying to give a bottle to a toddler. He indicated that he couldn't get to the toddler, even though the toddler was right beside him. His moodlets indicated he was in an undecorated, dark room, the way it does every time Sims get stuck between levels. In the past when sims got stuck I deleted and reset them. I deleted him, and then as I was sending the rest of his family back to their home lot, the game crashed. When I played it later I forgot to reset him.

17. What things have you tried
ResetSim <firstname> <lastname>, split family/move out family/change active family, invite Sim to public lot (Sim icon was not available to invite), call all family members home, delete the current saved game and revert to backup 18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Everything :P

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I would really like him back, if only for the recovered functionality of the family tree. I can use the tree as long as I start with somebody who was no closer to him than a cousin, but clicking on any of his siblings in the tree causes it to freeze.

I would also like him back just for the sake of having him, though. I have been playing this neighbourhood for over a year now, they have really grown on me. The family I started with is spread out all over the town; he was engaged to be married and now his fiancee doesn't even have him in her relationship panel. Would LOVE to get him back if at all possible, but failing that, I would at least like the family tree to work again.

UPDATE: I was not able to recover my Sim, but I did get the family tree problem fixed, so that is something. I ended up installing twallan's Master Controller, and used a few of the genealogy/invisible sims menu options all together. Not sure which one(s) worked, as I piled them all in together, but now at least the family tree shows up properly.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Basegame, World Adventures, HELS, Amibtions and Fast Lane Stuff.

2. What game version/patch level?
Base: 1.15 WA: 2.10 HELS: 3.3 Amb: 4.3 FLS: 5.0

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One Sim became invisible when they arrived in China.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
After saving and exiting, upon restarting the game the UI had disappeared completely.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Roommates and romantic interests

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
6 days, one Sim had the Prepared Traveller lifetime reward and the other had the Jetsetter reward.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
I did not return them as the UI disappeared while they were in China, making the game unplayable, so I deleted that save and restored from a backup.

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Awesome Story

15. When did the issue start?
When they travelled to China

16. What were your sims doing?
Arriving in China on holiday

17. What things have you tried?
I just restored from backup, I have learned that when a save game borks, there's no way to repair it.

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I experienced a similar issue when using desecrate's Weapons Mod, where the Sim's thumbnails and portraits in the UI were invisible as well as the Sim's lot, and the Sim panel was not functional - I could not expand it and their money was 0. However when right clicking on where my Sim's portrait should be in the UI it zoomed in to my Sim, who was visible (and the house then loaded) however I could not direct them to do anything, they were just performing autonomous actions. I could also switch between my Sims using the space bar, but again I could not access the Sim panel. This was preceded by a problem with CAST where I could not transfer patterns or presets to new items (a red cross displayed below my cursor when trying to drag it to a new item). However only my save games that had a Sim with one of desecrate's shootable guns in their inventory were affected, all other save games were fine. I have reported this to him in the mod thread.[/pre]

Thank you for having this post. Hopefully we can get some of this sorted out.


1. Which game(s) do you have?

WA, HELS, and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?

4.3.4.008.001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Almost all of my custom downloaded Sims, including my Dexter who is missing for some other Simmers as noted in the comments on the Dexter Morgan page here on MTS, and a some other Sims downloaded from MTS.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

No

5. Do you have any UI issues?

No

6. Were the sims traveling?

n/a, not able to find them in CAS to load them

------------------------------------------
The following do not apply to my situation:

7. How many traveling?


8. How are all travellers related?


9. Which country are the sims in?


10. How many days?


11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?


12. Returning together or separate?
-----------------------------------------------

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

SC doesn't exist anymore

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Using Twallans Story Progression and many other NRaas mods

15. When did the issue start?

Not sure, I haven't seen these Sims for a while now in CAS.

16. What were your sims doing?

n/a

17. What things have you tried?

I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the game and the Sim without success. I have compared my Dexter to a Sim recently created by Arisuka, and have attached the jpeg

18. What worked?

nothing

19. What didn't work?

everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?

Just a jpeg of the parts of the Sims in S3PE, where Arisuka's Sim has one extra part than my Dexter. However, there are other Sims not appearing in CAS that are from other creators as well.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, HELS, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No Icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
She's still in the list of friends but other then that she's completely gone, can't call her or find her when I back track through town.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, from the park to home.

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Mother and daughter

9. Which country are the sims in?
Sunset Valley, no traveling.

10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
Few sim weeks into the game, it happened when I had the mother queue up reading the newspaper, it stomped the queue and then the daughter vanished.

16. What were your sims doing?
Riding in a taxi together

17. What things have you tried
Reset "simname"

18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Reset

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Only other time I've had sims disappear is while using the time machine, this was the first time it's happened even without owning the time machine yet.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Obviously the original game, along with ambitions and world adventures.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.0.87.006001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
The first thing to go missing was his face on his icon and on the toolbar

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is almost completely gone. The only thing that remains are those help popups, or at least the one that tell you when you take a screenshot still works. And the mouse pointer. No interaction with objects possible

6. Were the sims traveling?
Had been back from France for less than a day

7. How many traveling?
Just the one

8. How are all travellers related?
He has a wife and a baby at home.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Was in France, got home when his icons dissappeared, became invisible in China shortly thereafter

10. How many days?
6.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
He lasted the entire 6 days.

12. Returning together or separate?
Alone. He travelled alone.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Don't think so.

15. When did the issue start?
Sometime within 12 hours of returning from France (first vacation)

16. What were your sims doing?
I think sleeping when the icon disappeared.

17. What things have you tried?
Restarting, pressing tab, resetting sim, waiting til the end of vacation and travelling home (upon which none of UI came back), trying to change appearance and plan outfit (he got stuck before he could plan outfit, then wouldn't move even after resetting. He was invisible in CAS for change appearance.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?

I think I had testingcheatsenabled active.... yeah... (just easier to remove glitched objects that way)

He was a French tourist before my founder married him. I played him invisible for a while before the UI disappeared. My other saves are fine. I have some CC, but haven't installed anything new recently.

I was playing SV, and had removed all the EA houses, lots and families. I was playing only 10x10 lots (and experiencing a lot of blocked route tantrums). I had moved a few homeless and npcs into houses via moving into family, then moving them out. Some homeless/npcs moved themselves into my empty 10x10 lots with only fridge and bed.

Most I have done recently, that is, the night before, was a defrag, and a registry clean. Of course the game was not running. I used some stuipid free one that only let me fix 15 problems, then got a different registry cleaner that let me remove specific entries (troubles reinstalling sims1). Only entries that were removed were Livin Large entries, so no chance that borked it, and it played fine for 24hrs afterwards anyhow.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
World Adventures and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.0.8.7

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
just one

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no picture, just the mood colour

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I don't know what that is...

6. Were the sims traveling?
Not the invisible sim.

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
The travelling Sim was the father in law of the invisible Sim.

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
when it was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no

15. When did the issue start?
Everything was normal. I saved and quit the game. Nothing special happened. When i re-started my game a bit later, my Sim was invisible.

16. What were your sims doing?
sleeping

17. What things have you tried?
re-start the game, delete all cache files, remove custom content (and delete cache files again), reset the Sim.

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
n/a

20. Anything else you would like to add?
After my Sim returned from the trip i played 2 more days or so at home. In that time his grandbaby was born by the now-invisible Sim. Another grandchild grew from toddler to child. I don't remember to have completed challenges or anything else notable during that time. Also I hadn't installed any new custom content. And there was no error while saving.
My "solution" was somehow painful. I moved the invisible Sim out and then deleted her from my game. My family will have to do without her. But it hurts

Not sure if my issue is related to missing sims...but I was advised to contribute...read my comment at the bottom..

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3 WA and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
one (but again, not really sure if they are "missing"

4. Do they have an icon or not?
yes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
no

6. Were the sims traveling?
yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
china

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
tried both...didnt work

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression? not sure...not familiar with these..

15. When did the issue start?
this is a new install, I had started playing sims 3 on my laptop, but my desktop has better specs and runs smoother (and has more HDD space) so I reinstalled on that pc...this is my first character, and her first trip...so this just started and I have never had this issue on my laptop, but I also just purchased ambitions, and had not previously played the game with ambitions and some of the custom content I have installed (added on since playing with my laptop)

16. What were your sims doing?
she was in china, my time was up there and I had checked ok to go home

17. What things have you tried
clearing cashed files, removing custom content

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
n/a

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
my issue isnt really that my sim is "missing" just that when I try to return home I get to the progress bar and my pointer is in "processing" mode...the progress bar gets to about 3/4 of the way and then stops...the mouse is still active in processing mode and tips are still scrolling away...but nothing happens after this point and Ive even left the game for about an hr to see if anything would happen....nothing does and I have to end the task to get out of the game.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, AMB

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
all 3 I took on vacation

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is completely gone. No icons or anything. The only thing I can do is scroll around and change game speed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
3

8. How are all travellers related?
Mother and her teen twin daughters

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
It started the second China finished loading. They were scheduled to stay 3 days though.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Wasn't able to return home

12. Returning together or separate?
see above

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's

15. When did the issue start?
The second the load screen for China finished.

16. What were your sims doing?
nothing

17. What things have you tried
Cleared cache and took out all CC and tried resetsim

18. What worked?
nada

19. What didn't work?
everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
It seems for me to only be an issue when leaving for vacation right now. For now I will just keep them away from vacations, it still sucks really bad though since it kind of ruins the challenge I am in the middle of. Good luck to you all figuring this thing out.

Hello
First I am sorry for not answering as per rules to this post but I believe that this could be due to a trainer running OR CC installed. Its NOT within the game itself but from modifications we made to it.
I have thousands of CC in the game and so far the only 2 occasions I was missing sims and partial UI was when going to Vacation with a trainer ON (blush) sorry been playing sims since the out of Sims 1 just got a little tired of progressing slowly

SO what I wish to convey is that its most probably if not a 100% only to a mod from the user. Either a hack an object or a trainer as I believe it was in my case.


also when in create a sim after selecting a third sim the game instantly shuts down - very annoying when making a quicky family tree again now without any CC or trainers with ALL games of Sims 3 nothing went wrong. Several pregnancies went fine and a few deaths.

That is from me

Wish u luck will post if something new comes up

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3; WA; and Ambitions
2. What game version/patch level?
4.5.6.0090013. How many sims are missing/invisible?
one (but not sure if she's missing house went down to bottom level can't see inside of it at all can only see the base of the house)4. Do they have an icon or not?
don't know
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes it is gone
6. Were the sims traveling?
yes , she went to france but was home a few days inviting her french lover (ooh la la) over and spending the night game was fine until next day
7. How many traveling?
1
8. How are all travellers related?
n/a
9. Which country are the sims in?
She's at home now but she was in france before
10. How many days?
3
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When Vacation Was Over
12. Returning together or separate?
n/a
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
NO
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
NONE
15. When did the issue start?
The issue started after I returned from France was home a few days and invited my sims boyfriend over to stay the night 3 nights in a row, the boyfriend came from France. Also I had NO problems like this before EVER . It was running just fine and has been since Sims 3 came out. I went to bed got up next morning tried to play and NO UI! I could only see the base of the house so I didn't see my sim come in or out of the house so I'm asuming that she's gone too.

16. What were your sims doing?
I saved my game afer she went to bed I believe.
17. What things have you tried
Updating With New Patch ; Removing All Custom Content
18. What worked?
Nothing
19. What didn't work?
Everything
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
Yes. After I seen the UI gone was the same day Late Night Came Out. So I seen that my game needed to install the new patch so I said yes. After that happened My game kept crashing and WOULD NOT Load AT ALL. So I removed All Cutome Content then My game loaded NO PROBLEM HOWEVER, NO USER INTERFACE So Then I noticed my Download Manager Needed an Update So I thought that Might help so I updated and Still No UI. Don't know if anything is clashing with Custom Content Along With Patch/s For The Download Manager. Something to think about maybe?? Very Frustrated Can't Play Game AT ALL. Never Had This Problem Until OCTOBER 26TH 2010. Hope Someone figures out the cure soon. I Am Thinking That IF I Install LATE NIGHT That it will contain the FIX. I will try and Let everyone know if it works or not. If someone else trys it first let me know please. Thanks luvlyreflections

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA

2. What game version/patch level?
definitely latest

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No are completely gone

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is completely gone. No icons or anything. The only thing I can do is scroll around and change game speed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
Only one travelling

9. Which country are the sims in?
France

10. How many days?
6 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Returned home

12. Returning together or separate?
Returned with partner had married out there

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's

15. When did the issue start?
became invisible whilst on, holiday

16. What were your sims doing?
Got married

17. What things have you tried
I did not have any cc installed at the time.

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
lone sim went to France, got married to one person, then divorced and married another. Became invisible after first marriage. Went electricuted (by trap) reappeared. Now she has come home, I went out of the game to try and use Twallen's mod for making Sim not invisible, but when I reloaded the game, the main task bar at the bottom was invisible, her new husband is stuck in bed and she is gone. I can right click him and make him active sim (albeit with no ablility to move about, or with main menu bar being available) so I can click on the town hall and use the fix invisible sim option. The box appears in the top right hand of the screen to acknowledge it has 'worked', but 1) invisible sim is still missing, and 2) the menu bar is still missing.

It would be okay if I could get to the 'Edit town' screen and change active households, or just move that family out and delete it (or similar) but because of the missing menu bar, none of this is possible. All i can do is hit Q and quit out of Sims that way.

Hi

Ok I have managed to solve the problem of the menu disappearing. I enabled twallan's mod which allowed me to make the sim revisible. After selecting that option via the town hall, I then brought up the console command box and used the cheatsenabled true command,, hit Q, saved and exited the game. When I logged back in, the menu was back, and the husband was an active household member. problem is, the wife has completely disappeared from the household, although she still appears in his relationship panel, but just with no social interactions.

Perhaps she is a small sacrifice to pay for getting my neighbourhood back, but I am determined to find her, so if anyway can help me get her back that would be great. PS time had not passed, and as she was a member of my active household she has not 'moved out of neighbourhood' via story progression.

Success!

Have now solved how to get my Sim back.

After doing all the above, I managed to change the active household to a sim which has the missing sim as a good friend. They then invited her over, and she came! I then invited her to 'move in', which she did. I then promptly moved her and her husband out again into the house they were once in before. Issue resolved.

Hope this helped a few people.

I found this info at the official forum and found it interesting:

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base game, WA, Ambitions, and Late Night.
2. What game version/patch level? 6.0.81.009017
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? Three. Everyone in the family who didn't go on the trip.
4. Do they have an icon or not? No.
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yeah, the whole UI is missing.
6. Were the sims traveling? Yes.
7. How many traveling? Just one.
8. How are all travellers related? N/A
9. Which country are the sims in? France.
10. How many days? 3.
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? When it was over.
12. Returning together or separate? N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No. But I usually use AwesomeMod. I removed it before playing with Late Night though because it hasn't been updated.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? EA's.
15. When did the issue start? Upon returning home.
16. What were your sims doing? Returning home from her vacation.
17. What things have you tried? I reopened the game several times. I removed all CC and tried it that way. Then I searched for solutions and found none.
18. What worked? Nothing.
19. What didn't work? Everything?
20. Anything else you would like to add? The sim who traveled was an elder female. When she got home everything loaded properly except for the entire UI. I could scroll around the screen enough to see that she was safe at home, but I couldn't click on anything. Her family was also missing. Her family consists of her husband (also an elder), and her daughter and son (both teens). It was her first time traveling, but her teens have gone to France before and returned with no problem.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Mase game (Fast Lane, HELS) Late NIght

2. What game version/patch level? 6.0.81.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Have only been playing a couple. Both of them and their butler.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Sometimes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
On other occasions the whole UI vanishes

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
NA

8. How are all travellers related?
NA
9. Which country are the sims in?
NA

10. How many days?
NA

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
NA

12. Returning together or separate? [
NA

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
THree days after installing/playing Late Night

16. What were your sims doing?
One as playing base. One was sitting reading.

17. What things have you tried?
resetSim (a lot), evicting and uninstalling and reinstalling Late Night

18. What worked?
I can get them back sometimes with any of those, but it doesn't last.

19. What didn't work?
See above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The freeze, get stuck half in/half out of beds. It seemed to bring them back MOMENTARILY when I left the lot. Chose "go here," to the neighbors lot. I thought it was Bridgeport, so I tried playing Late NIght in Sunset Valley. Seemed oerfect, for a day, then the symptoms returned. ARGH!