My hood sneaked in, sorry I've only had a corrupted lot once before and I simply moved the Sims into a new lot - the original lot is still in the lots bin so I did not lose anything. Sorry, I meant to give this advice earler, but got sidetracked that sneaking neighbourhood

Added the responses to the first post.

Other causes of lot corruption:

1) Using Alt-Tab to switch to another application when you have a lot open in build mode can lead to the lot saving to a blue square that can't be entered, edited or even bulldozed. Dizzy-Noodles describes the problem well here. I had experienced the problem earlier, but mis-diagnosed the cause until I saw her post. (See my later post in the same thread.) I actually got rid of my lost lot by identifying its file in the Lots folder (My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\Nxxx\Lots) and deleting it in Windows, but restoring from back up would be safer.

2) An odd one I've discovered recently. I create a new lot in my building 'hood (where no Sims live, and which I never play). I save and quit the lot, and move it to the Lots Bin, so I can use it in another 'hood. (I then usually copy it back from the Lots bin to my building 'hood so I've still got it there.) I then go to another, playable, 'hood, and copy the building from the Lots Bin to a location there. Then, without moving Sims into it, I enter it in Build / Buy Mode and make further changes. I then save the lot and exit to the neighbourhood -- and the lot is completely gone from my neighbourhood! I cant even find its file in the Lots folder (My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\Nxxx\Lots). I think the workaround is to exit and restart the game after placing the lot in the Lots bin and before placing it in my playable 'hood. Or possibly to exit and restart after placing it; I would think that would force the lot file to save properly. Technically I maybe shouldn't call this lot "corruption" as the lot isn't merely corrupted -- it has vanished without trace!

Recently I had a borked self build dorm lot. I think it was caused by an overeager me using the batbox to remove certain things that came up there, while one of the students just had called his father to invite him. So, the father was basically the loiterer that moment, which I removed without thinking why the option was there. After that the lot crashed.
First I thought it was because I already had the game open for quite some days. Then I can get a crash. Happened before.
But with opening the same lot, it soon crashed again. Then I thought maybe there was a mod or CC conflicting my game.
Pulled out the last mod I had put in. Did nothing. Another crash.
My next step was to then move them out, bulldoze the lot and hope for the best in a different dorm.
At that moment I didn't feel brave enough to let the same sim invite the sim that caused the crash.
But the moved sims didn't crash the game in the new dorm, so I assume this step I took did the trick.
Other sims in other houses can invite sims just fine, so it had to be local (one lot).

I've never had that Andrew, but some things got fixed with later EP's.

Will whoever disagreed with my last post (post #28) please post back and tell me exactly what you disagree with. Because all I'm trying to do is describe what happened in my game, and I can assure you that the two things I have described really did happen on more than one occasion. So I presume you're not disagreeing with the fact that they happened. They may of course both be entirely my own fault, but in that case I would like someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong. Or I may have misdiagnosed the cause, but again I would appreciate being told what you think did cause it. If I was expressing an opinion, I could see the sense of disagreeing, but since I was trying to make a factual report, it really makes no sense to disagree with my entire post, unless you really believe that I'm making the whole thing up.

This is why I never click the "Disagree" button. It seldom helps anyone.

[Little rant over!]

It sure sometimes can cause confusion if it isn't pointed out what someone meant with a disagree.
I do not use that button either and most of the time I merely ignore the occasional disagree I get.
Maybe that person will come back and explain, maybe not.

I'd imagine that the disagrees are related to joandsarah's post that those problems got fixed with later expansions. People are disagreeing that it's a problem for lot corruption (for them).

And seriously, if you get hung up over disagrees then you're going to be miserable because some people I can only presume disagree for the fun of it. My thread on Chris Hatch's family friendly hacks had someone who went through just about every post there and added a disagree, either in a protest about an adult site being mentioned (my guess) or just because they were bored, because all the posts were different and it seems strange that they would have a valid reason to disagree with every one. I rarely disagree myself. Only if I find a post spreading bad information or if it's offensive.

Yeah, invisible visitors will do it. Had to move family out. No problem with lot after that when new family moved in, though. Have no idea what caused it. Then, more recently, I had a lot meltdown that affected the neighborhood and linked neighborhoods. During a lightening storm (very severe one), everything light colored flash very brightly. I figured that was not a good sign so I exited without saving. Yet, when I reentered the lot to replay it, the same thing happened.. I saved the game. When I tried to play the neighborhood again...only original sims existed (all cc remained and cc lots) in the entire neighborhood. All sims borned to these originals were gone! Shopping district was empty of all sims! I guess because many sims there were linked to neighborhood's. I removed several hacks that had been recently installed (one of them the child support one and another, that #&*? tricycle) and everyone reappeared except for that particular lot's sims. Only the original occupant remained on that lot.
I always have problems with Nina's original lot (that was the one that melted down) especially when I send Michael off to the boneyard. Sorry for the neighborhood, but I thought since it was affected by that one lot...

I've been using the boolprop cheat box, and I got two glitches I hadn't seen before:
sims taking babies to work with them (good luck getting your work done, guys!)
sim baby's diaper disappeared (ew)

Upping this thread in case anyone else has made new discoveries during the 7 years