I've noticed lately that I've been getting a lot of "Object Error: Bad Gosub Tree Number" problems, but never pinpointed the issue before: It's something to do with phones. When the testing cheats are ENABLED, I point at a phone and the error comes up; likewise, if the active Sim has a cellphone and I point at them to try and pull up the pie menu. When the cheats are NOT enabled, I can get the "CALL..." option on both menus, but they won't complete the action, and it disappears from the tasks queue. Rather than try to sift through my thousands of CC packages, I was hoping someone with a little expertise could tell what the issue was just by hearing the symptoms. The household in question has a backed up toilet and can't call the plumber; also the teenagers are starting to throw tantrums because they can't call their friends. Buying a new toilet fixed the one problem, but buying a new phone has no effect; the issues persist. Could the lot debugger be of service here? I should add that this happens on more than just this lot. Any bright ideas? Any particular custom package that is known to cause phones to malfunction? I could always go through and remove any packages having to do with phones, but hopefully someone out there has a laser pointer brain.



So... the moral of the story is - beware of downloading lots full of CC, as the Clean Installer gives everything those garbled filenames that don't mean anything to look at them. When I do so, I try to quit out right away, and sweep all those files into a separate folder. But sometimes I get carried away. After doing an unsuccessful 50/50 sift of my buy mode and behavioral CC, I realized that it could very well be ANYTHING in that "Murphy's pub" lot, which should really have been the first thing I tried removing. I still have no idea what part of that folder caused the error, so I'm off to hunt up the original download source, to see what's included. At least my phones are back in working order.

You have some hack that modifies what phone calls you can make that is not installed correctly.

This program can be of help with figuring out which mods are causing trouble: http://www.picknmixmods.com/Sims2/N...CausedThis.html

If you get the "bad gosub tree" message with the program, it can be caused by a missing support package, such as Cyjon's mods often needing their "smarter EP check" mod from here: http://cyjon.net/node/323 (as an example - there are other mods that need different support packages, so make sure to read about the mods you have).

"bad gosub tree" means you are missing an extra file like Simmer22 said or you are missing a needed EP. It says you only have Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Seasons installed, so its possible some mod you have installed requires a later EP.

I do have some idea of what generally causes the bad gosub tree messages, and actually, some of Cyjon's mods are among my personal suspects for this issue. I've looked into picknmixmods, which sounds really great, but it's not for Mac... maybe the creator would be willing to help me pinpoint the problem file? I guess I'll find out. Thanks!

I don't know if there are a lot of ways you can check for problem files on a Mac (without virtual Windows version) other than the usual 50/50 and other usual non-program ways of doing so. It's difficult to know which files are causing problems.

If you have the Mac version (Super Collection or disc versions up to BV) you should be very wary of which mods you're downloading, and make sure to read descriptions carefully, especially nowadays when most of them are made for all the games up to M&G. You'll not want to download mods that are made for higher EPs than that, unless they spesifically say they are made for a spesific EP you know you have, or that they work for lower EPs, too.

If you can't use any of the programs to find mods that don't go together, you can still look through descriptions of those mods to figure out if you've put in one that requires an EP you don't have, or if they have known conflicts with anything or require an additional mod. You can also try a 50/50 search with similar mods, or test two mods against each other, to see if they're conflicting.

Once you've gotten everything working, you'll not want to add a bunch of new mods in a go, but instead maybe a couple, then test out the functions (preferably with testingcheats on, so you get notified if there are any errors), and if everything works fine, you can add a couple more. That way it's easier to know which mods are causing trouble. You can even add them to a "quarantine" folder for a little while if you're unsure.

Oh, I have a quarantine folder! Most of the things that go in there never make it back out, so I suppose it's more like Download Alcatraz, LOL. I've gone and removed some suspicious files from the active downloads folder though, and now the phone error messages have ceased, although my people still refuse to make calls when directed... the action instantly vanishes from the queue.
I keep my CC in 5 folders: Buys, Builds, Bodyshop, Bungalows (lots) and Behaviors... I've only got 150 things in the Behaviors folder, and none of them are to do with phones... although I suppose I might've erroneously placed a bad apple into one of the other Barrels. The search continues... but at least the errors are gone, for now. I must've trashed something else, though, because now my downtown preview pic shows up as the green contour lines of death. Oh wells. Thanks for listening to my woes.
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There is an error where sims pick up the phone and it vanishes from queue because a sim gets stuck invisibly on your lot. Try using a mod like simblender (I think Mac can use that) and on there check for clear away non family, or clear away invisible sims but any label that is to do with being rid of sims not a part of that family.

Hi! I don't know if you're still searching for a solution for this, but I had the same thing happen to me a while back. It was the "Community Lot Parties" mod. Do you maybe have that one?

I know mods are weird and for some reason they don't affect everyone the same way, but after testing every one of my mods, I found this was the one messing with my phones (even when it was the only thing in my downloads folder).

I hope your problem is/ can be solved!

Thanks, I will look to see if I have that one.

Jo, I’ll see if there’s something there that sounds like that. Wouldn’t I have to do that on every lot, though? It’s not just the one family that can’t use their phone, obviously. I do have Christianlov’s Easy Phone, but I’ve had that a while, and it’s always worked in the past, side by side with the regular phone (have to have both, because the Easy doesn’t let you call services).

I cleared away all non-residents from one of my lots - although there was nothing specifically mentioning invisibility - exited the lot, and went back in. The phones still don’t work. Interestingly, the Sims can answer the phone, and hand it off to others; they just can’t initiate any actions with it. It’s super annoying because now I can’t call a group together to go hang out at the nice junkyard I just put together. Guess I’ll keep combing my buy-mode downloads for suspicious phone packages.

I don't have that mod, but neither could I find it on MTS to see what it was. Often, though, package filenames bear no relation - once you've installed them - to what they're called on the download page. Maybe you picked it up from a different site - do you remember the exact name of it, or maybe who created it? Meantime, I'm just going to un-install anything with the word "phone" in it.

I got it here: http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...c,101151.0.html

I'm not sure if the can't phone out glitch is mods or a vanilla bug, but I have had it before. One one lot where I couldn't get rid of it I boolproped my sims mobile/cell phones.

Wow, that does sound like it could generate all kinds of problems. No, I definitely never downloaded that one. I'm guessing it's something to do with the game treating your Sim having called their buddies to the party from a comm lot as if they had called them from home? Just a wild stab in the dark.

No, that didn't work in this case... with cellphones, I didn't get the bad gosub thing, but outgoing calls still wouldn't appear in the queue. ALSO - and I'd forgotten this minor glitch amidst the more serious problems - while I was testing stuff with the 50/50 method, I'd click the phone to try making a call, and the active Sim - who would be doing something else - would jump to their feet and stand to attention, ending whatever task they'd been performing.

Part of me says fugheddaboudit, your problems are over now... but I hate not understanding why things happen, and so I'd almost like to re-install that Murphy's Pub lot again from simper-fi, to figure out what specific piece of CC was causing the issue. Besides, they did have some nice Guinness signs in there...

Do you by any chance have Pescado's Phone Hack? I put it in a few years ago, but it stopped the whole Sims telephone system working. That made life for my Sims impossible, and I had to immediately take it out again. I guess it must have clashed with other mods I had already.

Eventually Aysarth solved my problem by making me a mod that met the one problem I had that I wanted the Phone Hack for: stopping the nagging phone calls my Sims were getting every day from friends and relatives complaining that my Sims never 'phoned them.

Have you put on Boolprop to see if if this gives an error message?

@chitownriverscum it sounds like you fixed your problem, but here are some resources for next time to help you read Error Logs:
Reading Error Logs
Common Errors
TS2 Object Errors

When you experience crashing or jump bugs, etc., it's often best to do as Jo suggests and turn on boolprop and see if you get an error. If you're using a Mac, this is probably even more important that you know how to do, if some of the more modern programs like the What Caused This Utility don't work for you, since, as you know, there aren't as many Mac users.

@Phantomknight - thanks for those links - is there a more extensive guide somewhere on reading those error logs, or is that much info sufficient for a novice like myself, to pass on to more trained experts? I was never much of a coder, but as an IT guy, I spent a lot of time diagnosing user-end issues, and I've been wanting to know how to read those logs for a long time.

In the end, I narrowed it down to a group of four files, none of which I could see having anything to do with phones, but hey - I'm an amateur when it comes to the under-the-hood stuff. All I know is, when they were in the downloads folder, the glitch persisted, and when they weren't, I could make calls normally, manage groups, and everything else. I treated these as a group, since apparently I had installed them all at the same time. Although I keep my downloads organized by function, I don't do much re-naming, and rely on the "date added" statistic when doing quarantine maneuvers.
Tycho H's "No One Goes To College"
A_Lamare's Upgrade to Full-Time Career
the Thermal Changer Painting
the tikitray (the least likely candidate)

Well, what do you know? I opened the last error log, and the Upgrade to Full Time name was right there in the code. If I sent you the text, could you explain it to me?
Or... looks like I could also send it to Midge the Tree.

Yeah, I think I mentioned: - cheats Enabled, I get errors... Disabled, the actions just never really make it into in the queue.

@chitownriverscum, yeah, it doesn't hurt to post the error log. Someone in the help section could know how to help you. Otherwise, the links, especially the Midgethetree ones, will help you learn how to read the error log yourself. At least they helped me.

Anyway, so you get errors when 1. all of the files are in your Downloads folder or 2. each file, individually, causes an issue? Looking at the names, I'm wondering if they are the right version for your game. Anyway, if you want to narrow down your issue, turn testing cheats on, put the files back in your folder (maybe one at a time) and see what errors you get. Then post the log.

So I went back to the date I started this thread, and found an error log that pertained to this problem. By doing a 50/50, I had narrowed down my list of suspect files to 4, including one called "no one goes to college"... which sort of makes sense given the mentions of "physics major" etc., in the text of the log itself. While I do have University installed, I haven't played a college hood in probably a decade - I find them overly tedious, sort of like college itself was for me - and was perhaps getting tired of being reminded that "it's time to start thinking about..." re: my teenaged Sims. Would this mod effect the phone system? Possibly, if it were conflicting with something else I have installed. Having said that, I admittedly don't REALLY have a clue what I'm talking about, and also cannot now find any mention of this mod on the internet.

However, I have attached both the sample error log and the mod under scrutiny. Not sure if they're related... perhaps someone with some actual knowledge of Sims nuts and bolts can take a peek. Since I've removed those 4 files, the phones have been working as they ought to... but I'm still curious about what was causing the issue.

@chitownriverscum I can't tell if you have a conflict, especially since I don't know all the other things you have or your other problem files. But it definitely seems as if Lamare's Upgrade to Full Time Job is causing an issue. First, I would check the download thread, make sure you don't have any outdated files and that you installed it correctly. Then test with no other cc and just that mod. If it works, then it's probably a conflict. If you still get the error, then you can report it in the download thread for Lamare to look into.

As for the other, it looks like that TychoH mod used to be uploaded here on MTS and it was either taken down or access to that page was restricted. Nopke recently did a version of this mod; maybe try that instead?