Firstly, I tried to find a HELP thread for Sims2...I did not see one in the category drop-down menu next to the title box. Maybe I missed it somewhere?

I am on Mac....running Super Collection. Going through files I've had for Sims on an external drive, I found a bunch of .package files. I didn't know if they were for Sims2 or SIms3 so I decided to put them into Sims2 downloads and weed them out. Many things were not loading when I started the game with the added files so I took them out and all seemed well on starting (though I did not actually play the game after).

Today, I went to go into a neighborhood and it only showed zones (blue, green, etc). I thought that was weird so I just restarted the game and went into a different hood. Still nothing. I tried to place a house that I built. They are showing in the bin. Once placed, it vanished from the hood. The space shows the lot is still there. When I hover over it, it shows the name of the house...but there is no house. The price tag of a LOT (empty) shows, however.....though, it still show the name of the house. This is ALL neighborhoods and not just one.

I went back into my external drive (Time Machine) and restored the entire folder that has the neighborhoods, downloads, etc. I did NOT remove the current...just restored over it. Booted. Now it is hit or miss. SOME are missing... it's random.

When I looked around online for this problem, I only found discussions like this concerning downloaded custom content..... mine is custom, but they were built by me in the game. So, I am at a loss on how to approach this. ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Go to Sims Discussion/Sims 2/ and you'll see three sections. Top one is Help.

I don't know what was going on with your package files but never, ever copy one version of a neighborhood over another! The computer will replace some files and not others and it'll be a big mess - you just spoiled both copies. Delete or move one copy, then move or copy the other into its place.

I am sorry for your loss.

Help thread - at the top of the "Community forums", here: https://modthesims.info/f/31/

Can't say for sure what's going on, but restoring a folder over another one can cause issues, since you can end up with different versions of the same files, files in place of other files (same name), missing files, etc.

Weeding out package files - it's best done outside of the game, using any TS3/TS2 creation or CC-related program that can be run on a Mac (not sure about TSRW or S3PE? Or if there are any for TS2?) - if the program opens the file and shows what's inside, that's the right game (TSRW opening it would be a TS3 file). If you get an error saying the program doesn't want to open the file, the file doesn't "belong" to that program (TSRW wouldn't open a TS2 file). That's my preferred way, anyway. A bit easier on a PC since all the programs are available, but there are likely some you can use. CAS files can be checked with Bodyshop.

Missing lots - it sounds like something is "eating" the files, or not saving them properly - do you have a backup/synching program running? Those can cause issues with the game (best to not use them while running the game).

Depending on CC and how large the hoods are, it could also be Mac's issue with max number of open files.

Have you been restoring backups or doing anything similar lately? If so, did you overwrite files/folders? (If you did, don't. Always remove the old folder and put in the new folder, as overwriting can cause issues).

Are you even talking about Sims 2?

I don't recall there being 'zones' in the game.

But anyway, wrong place to post a help thread as others have stated.

Zones - maybe how residential buildings have a green square, and community lots have a blue square around them? Especially visible if the lots haven't been built on yet, or are unoccupied.

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Things can vanish on Mac's if you hit the file limit.

If you pasted a hood over the top of its self, this can cause all kinds of oddities. Unlike a normal piece of CC that will simply write over and be fine, hoods can cause texture issues. I did this back around 07 and had white sims with blue writing on them.

Apart from that the only other times lots can vanish is A corruption and B if you use one of the lot programs like Lot Adjuster, but I don't think you can on Mac. In those cases you pick up the lot and place it down again or load into the lot and they show up again.

So if I uninstall the game and reinstall it, I can open each folder and just paste the custom content where it belongs? Does that include neighborhoods? I am not running a program for backups at the same time the game is running. I do Time Machine backups so i can go all the way back to February for my custom content. If I go into Time Machine, I can also hit RESTORE on folders. Is it still better to copy and paste? Is it only the downloads (package files) that can be successfully transferred?

Thank you so much for your help!!

Appreciate all the input! I guess I never knew that about moving files for the game! I never had a time when I really had to do that until now!

Sounds like the Time Machine backup takes hourly (?) backups and stores it somewhere else in your files or on a different harddrive - does that sound right? If so, you may want to make sure you use backups from when your game wasn't currently in use. If you use a backup from when the game was currently running, you risk using a backup from when progress wasn't properly saved.

If it instead synchs (saves one copy to a cloud, and edits/changes this every time something changes in the original, always keeping the copy updated), just know that this can cause issues with the game as it doesn't play nice with synched backups (it's why you'll see a lot of PC users removing OneDrive from their computers).

Would not use the "Restore" function for sim files. When restoring a backup, you can replace a full neighborhood folder (remove old, then copy/paste the new one in), but don't start mix-and-matching files, or overwriting files or folders. That's when you run into trouble.

Downloads can be transferred between any game or backup.

Time Machine is on an external, but I only do that weekly. It does not run when I am using my Mac at all. I have all of the mods on my laptop....though, saved, too, on the external. When I reformat my Mac (sometimes I wipe it clean) and reinstall the game, I create a new downloads folder and copy and paste the custom content in the downloads (the package files). When I did it this last time, neighborhoods also went into a clean/empty folder from the backup. I had no issues with that. The troubles started when I was trying to find out where a folder of package files belonged to (Sims3 or Sims2).

So, if I completely dump the current install of Sims2 and reinstall, am I safe to drag and drop from the external? And, if so, anything else besides the downloads folder? It does not auto backup at all. I run it once or week or so. Appreciate the help.....I really do! I haven't had this issue previously!

Don't rely on auto backups.

When we say "back up your hood" we mean: With the game off, copy the neighborhood file to a separate location. External files are fine; external files are essential in the current trend of reducing rather than increasing file storage memory in computers. "The cloud" is just somebody else's computer; I wouldn't trust it with anything, myself. A flash drive, an external hard drive, anything like that will do. If you want to keep more than one backup so you can go further back in time, rename the file once you copy it - NOO1_1_7_25 or something like that, so you can tell your old backups apart at a glance. If you want to keep backups of your custom content, copy your Downloads folder in the same way.

When we say "restore" we mean: Move or delete the current file and move the backup into your The Sims 2 folder, renaming it back to its original name if necessary.

There is hardly ever any need to reinstall your whole game. If you want to restart a Maxis neighborhood from scratch, rename your The Sims 2 file and run the game. It will create brand new copies of the Maxis hoods. Close the game immediately. Move or delete the hoods you want to reset from the renamed The Sims 2 file, move the new copies into their places, delete the new The Sims 2 folder, and rename the old one back to The Sims 2. Load the game, and it will load with a new neighborhood and all you CC and the old neighborhoods you didn't replace.

Unless your installation files are corrupt (hard to do) it's pointless to reinstall. Most times the issue occurs in Documents or whatever is equivalent on a Mac- where it saves your games to. If you have a lap top consider getting sims 2 on there. Starter pack is free and comes in an easy to download format. People are even starting to put it on Linex and I've seen it work well on there as well.

I know you can play a 3/4 game on Mac, but Mac really wasn't designed for gaming or certainly not this game if you can help it. You can't get all the packs, you are limited to file size and you can't use the programs designed to run with the Sims 2. You are not the first person i have seen on a Mac who said all their lots vanished either. If you really want to keep going with it I would do what Peni suggested above first ^ before doing a reinstall.

Oh..totally. I am on a Macbook Pro. I haven't taken the time to play around with Sims4 to learn it...I did see it is very different in controls than the previous ones. I'd be on 3 if the laptop would support it...but when I switched from Windows to Mac, I lost that option! My son, though, just bought machine for gaming (Windows custom built) so I think I will take his iMac. I don't do a lot with gaming..just Sims..and maybe a Solitaire game .

I don't even do auto backups. I wouldn't even know how unless there is a way to do it on a cloud. I plug the drive in and do a whole machine backup and I never have it running with anything else. I am not that tech-savvy. When I install a game, I drag folders from a backup to the downloads, etc. (and only in that parent folder)....never when the game runs. Again, I am not that smart with tech nor do I know why someone would?? LOL I do have a Time Machine backup and a drag and drop one. In October, I lost an external drive due to an unknown Thunderbolt issue that fried it. That included my drag and drop Sims custom content....THAT is why I had to go onto the Time Machine backup to get the folders. I lost a LOT of stuff. Ports were replaced and so far so good. I have a new drive and I am working to retrieve what I can from it. Once I get that stuff done, I will get a second one and put second copies of it. I learned the hard way..many things on that drag and drop was not kept on the laptop AT ALL (music files, pictures) so those are gone and that hurt BIG TIME. Not doing that again! Thanks, again!

OHHHH!!! Is there a way to distinguish Sims3 package files over Sims2?

Yes, but it's a whole lot easier on a PC than on a Mac, because you need access to at least one CC-creating program for each game. Not sure if TSRW has Mac compatibility, but if it does you can run all the files through there, and the ones that don't want to open are likely to be TS2 files.
(TS4 files are probably the easiest to weed out, since S4Studio has a mac version).