Hi. So, yesterday I was playing and checked one of my Sim's memories about her first kiss, going steady and all that, just to find "$Subject" instead of the Sim's name. Then I found out she doesn't even know the sim. I went to the lot where this sim, Jasmine, lives. She wasn't there with the rest of the family, she doesn't even show up in the family tree, only her sister appears. Nobody remembers her. Then went to SimPE (which I use a lot) to find her character in the Sim Browser, but she's not even there nor is she in Sim Surgery.
I don't know what to do, is it possible to find her and restore her character data? Or should I make a clone of her and replace the $Subject memories? And, can this happen with other sims?
Why does this even happen? I hope someone knows and can explain it to me. Thanks!

This is definitely a bug--you're not using Legacy, by any chance?

Maybe you made some mistake with external tools earlier (you say that you use Sim PE a lot). Consider this person abducted by aliens or kidnapped or lost on a foreign trip.

Let me share some experience - the time my Sim data files became missing was after extracting their data to the SavedSims folder with Sim Surgery. Normally, the files share the exact same name with those from Nxxx -> Characters folder.

The issue was that I directly opened up the game and go to CAS to get a glimpse on how genetic children would turn out to be. Afterwards, I opened up BodyShop and deleted those in SavedSims, only to find out the files deleted were in the Neighborhoods -> N001 -> Characters folder...

I believe the issue stems from whichever files are saved most recently - loading a neighborhood and my Sims will have their data files saved once I exit. For that, files in SavedSims would then be less recent, and thus deleted first...

So always make backups and make them frequently enough. I made it through because of suffice backups in need.

- Deleting from your Downloads/SavedSims folder is always safer than deleting via ingame/Bodyshop.

It's likely okay to delete if you (recently?) made it and know it's not connected to anything (but if you're unsure whether something is texture referenced, a DR, linked to ingame textures, is a mesh, is directly extracted from the game, is a potential GUID conflict with an EA item, etc., delete via Downloads/Savedsims). If you extract sims, make face presets first, and delete the extracted sim files from the Downloads/Savedsims folder, not via Bodyshop.

- Bodyshop usually sorts items after the SortIndex number (Both sim presets and extracted sims have this, it's found in the Binary Index resource).

- Backup before messing around in SimPE, and also backup first if you do large sweps of deleting stuff ingame or in Bodyshop. You can end up deleting something that causes issues another place.

- Make sure OneDrive isn't causing trouble with your saves, and that you've got enough storage space in general. If the game can't find space to save, it can cause sims to disappear.

Check that any anti virus you have is set to ignore sims 2 files. I had those $subject memories years ago after a new anti virus quarantined certain sim files.

Check and see if you have OneDrive active and working, if so burn it. Disable or get rid of it. OneDrive can totally wreck your sims 2 game.

Hi! Nope, I have this game in this computer since 2020. This is the first time this happens to me.

Hi! Definitely will make backups from now on so this doesn't happen again. I did, in fact, clone a sim with Sim Surgery to make a Teen pregnancy story, but she is not the one who disappeared. I don't remember touching the disappeared Sim with SimPe, so I don't know what went wrong.

Hi! Thanks! Storage and OneDrive definitely have been a problem. I will try to solve it before opening the game again.