This is really strange. I've never had this happen before, but I have been noticing that if I use custom build items (walls, carpet, etc), they do show while building and if I go to play the house, etc right after that, it's fine. It is when I close the game and then restart it at another time that is the problem. At the restart and entry into that one building, ALL custom build items are gone. Now, it's only the build items and not anything else that may be custom...just that category. And it isn't just one certain item or two, it's ALL of the custom stuff. Again, it shows in buy/build mode (bin) and even when applying to the home (or whatever building). It's the exit and restart of the game that it vanishes. Hair, mods, etc are not a problem..just build.

I am running the Super Collection on Mac. Thanks for the insight!

Just to be clear, do you mean that it's just windows, doors, walls, floors that vanish, and not tables, chairs and statues? Also, what happens if you add walls, roofs or foundations- do they remain?

Does this happen if you drag your documents/ EA Games/ The Sims 2 folder to the desktop, and run the game to start afresh? Can you build and decorate a house then?

Yes..it's all build stuff.....doors, windows, etc. Everything else stays put. It's WEIRD. I don't have anything in my documents/EAGames folder. The folder exists, but there is nothing there. Most of the stuff I have is at ~/library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/ . Normally, I would go and do a process of elimination with the custom content, but it's ALL the build stuff that is impacted so I am stumped.

I'm wondering if it's a permissions issue with your neighbourhood. Does it happen in all neighbourhoods? What happens if you create a fresh neighbourhood and build a house?
If that fails then test with a fresh set of userdata. Drag ~/library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/ to the desktop and run the game to create a fresh set. Does it still happen?

With the Super Collection the Mac the only folder that means anything is at ~/library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/
You can delete the other folder as unless you have something old by EA games or Possibly The Sims 3 or The Sims 4, that folder will never be used. The Super Collection will only use the one inside the Aspyr folder.

@carrie640

I would do what Simsample advises and test with a new folder first.

I use The Super Collection and it mostly works fine for me, we should be able to get yours working like it should.

One question I have is do you have a lot of Custom Content? Because if you do weird stuff will happen, however if you don't have a lot of content in your Downloads folder then the cause of the missing build stuff would be different.

Use your Spotlight Search {that is the Magnifying Glass in the upper right corner} and do a search of your Mac and see if you can find any of it.

If you do have a lot of content in your Downloads folder, let me know so I can help you fix the problem, as other wise weird stuff will happen.

It is also possible that you game is not able to load the Build stuff because the file path is too long.

So anyway check to see if you find the missing content and let us know, then we can try to figure out what to advise you to do next.

OK! So, I haven't been on and it's taken me a while to test the build stuff. I created a new neighborhood first of all. Brand spanking new.... I installed a house I had done on the OLD neighborhood. I plotted it down.....went inside of it before moving any Sim in... all was good. I moved a Sim in....played a bit, saved, and exited to the neighborhood overview. Then I went back in. All content there. So I then exited the game and went back in. All content still there. SAY WHAT?? SO....I thought, maybe it WAS the neighborhood, right? WRONG. After a few days, it randomly decided to vanish..LOL I mean, there just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when it decides to leave. It's not missing in the game...it shows up just fine. It's when it's been used in the game, it will randomly vanish leaving the building with no flooring, default windows, no wall coverings... the house it naked. BUT, it was there and it still shows in the library/buildmode.

I have about 1900 items in the downloads folder. Many are mods and not just actual STUFF. I don't know if that's a lot or not. I haven't done anything with recolors because I have no idea how the CEP works with this game bundle.

OH! One thing that seems to have shortly have a Sim moves in...I get errors. I will attach one. It's not ALWAYS that exact error. I had one that said FIRE. I just delete since reset doesn't seem to be an option..I click it and the error box never goes away. Could that be relevant?

And with a new folder, it won't contain the custom content....so am I supposed to pull the downloads folder out and then put it back done with the new folder?

Thanks for the help!

If you created a new Neighborhood, your Downloads folder is the same. If by that you meant, you created a brand new The Sims 2 folder, it is different. That new one will be empty. And to test if it is any of your CC that causes your issue, it is better that it stays empty. If the same things happens then, you'll know there is something wrong, and that CC have nothing to do with it.

Yes, testing with a fresh folder so no CC will be useful, as if it works it tells us something.

Have you increased the Mac file limit? Check out lordtyger9's signature above for help with that.

I want to note that some Odd sort of things happen if you are trying to load content that is over the Mac's Maximum Open Files Limit. Basically The Game is unable to load all of the Files that is supposed to load and you will get some strange stuff happening.

However if you are having problems there are several basic things to do, Delete the Cache Files, Make a backup and Load the copy with out any Custom Content and then test that copy. If the error still happens it is not due to Custom Content nor The Mac's Maximum Open Files Limit being exceeded. Otherwise there is something wrong either with the Custom Content or you were trying to exceed your Mac's Maximum Open Files Limit.

Try the basic trouble shooting things I mentioned and get back to us. Some one will able to help, if we have more information.

So, I've been frustrated trying to figure this out and have just been using game-based items. THEN...you got it!!!! I went into one of my buildings built with ONLY game items (no custom content) and it's happening with those items, as well. More specifically, build items...again.. LOL A game door vanished and I was left with another door.... my windows? My windows were WHITE and game-based but upon re-entry into this building (after game/computer shut down and reopened), my windows were a different color (though, the same window). My door was completely different.... AND, a wallpaper vanished. ALL GAME-BASED. GAH!!!!!!!!

I haven't yet pulled the folder out so it regenerates, but since game-based items are going whack, too, does this change anything?

Try turning off your virus protector, load and play and decorate, save and exit. Basically, play with it off. Then load up again and see if anything has changed.

My question is did you remove your Downloads folder when you went to one of your buildings? If you have not done this, well you need to do that. Also you might want to make sure that you are not running any other programs/apps that you can see.

I don't know all of the different errors you might get if you are trying to play with too many files in your Downloads folder, but we need to eliminate that as a possibility.

Also go through your Downloads folder and remove all .jpg, .png, and .txt files and anything else other than .package files.

Just entering a lot that does not have CC is not the way to test this problem of yours, you need to Remove the Downloads folder temporarily.

Basically we need to find out what happens when you have no CC loaded, like when you have NO Downloads folder.

If you have this error when you do not have a Downloads folder that would mean that there is only a few things it could be.

Note: if you are playing on a Mac you have little real need for an Anti-Virus app, do you have one?

Please make sure that you have no Downloads folder and then start the game up and do some building and then test to see if there is a problem all without having a Downloads folder. Then get back to us.

I don't have an AV program running at all. If I remove the downloads folder, what am I looking for? Granted, my custom content will not be there at all so I am not sure I understand how that will tell me if it runs without the downloads folder? I am not sure what I am looking for? My game runs perfectly fine...except the vanishing build issues.

I will go ahead and delete the non-package files. I have just tossed the folder (when it unzips and the content is in a folder) straight into downloads versus just picking the package file in the past.

I REALLLLLYYY appreciate the help. I am sorry if I am a tad slow on understanding some things.....

Did you package the lot at any point during your previous play session? I’ve found that can be buggy on the Mac, and can randomly delete some of the build/buy options that were in the package from my Downloads folder.

For a while I thought I’d hit the file limit issue despite being well below it... but it did seem to be something that got triggered by packaging a lot. I now tend to take a backup of my Downloads folder before doing any packaging, and then exiting and copying that back into place immediately afterwards.

What @muridae noted could be the problem. So did you package the lot and then reinstall it? Removing the Downloads folder will tell us two things: one is the problem related to the Number of Files you have in your Downloads folder, and two is there a problem with one or more of the files in your Downloads folder, but see my next point.

umm Sorry I forgot that your issue involves Custom Content, so Maybe just have 2 or 3 Build type .package files in your Downloads folder AND NOTHING ELSE at a time, that way we could make sure that it is not a File Limit Problem, and at the same time if you don't have very many files it makes it unlikely that there is some kind of strange problem with one of the files. Check it with two or three files and then check it with a different two or three files if you can.

Make a test "The Sims 2" Folder so that you can't mess up your regular game when testing and put your regular "The Sims 2" folder on the Desktop temporarily, working on a copy is just a lot safer and it should be something that you do when ever you have to test something in your game.

Make sure that you only have 2 or 3 {or some really small number} of cc files that you use for building and then do some building, save and then quit and re-load the lot and look at it again. Make sure that you don't change anything in between saving and re-loading. Do not package the lot and re-install, just save it and then re-load the lot. Now does the problem exist?

If the problem is gone it is likely that it is either some side effect of the File Limit Issue or you have some mod or other file that is a problem.

If it is a File Limit issue that is fixable, so don't worry. If it is a case of a bad file that can be established by doing a 50/50 test.

Don't be sorry that this is kind of hard to understand, but it is one of the things Mac Players have to contend with sometimes: if we have too many files in our Downloads folder the game is unable to load all of them and strange errors will occur...this is called the File Limit Problem. So I am trying to make sure that your problem does not have anything to do with the number of files that you have in your Downloads.

The File Limit Problem is why I wanted you to remove any non .package files from your Downloads folder. The game tries to load everything in the Downloads folder and extra stuff just takes up room for no reason and may be the cause of problems if you have enough of them.

I know about The File Limit Issue because it was a problem for me and I had to do the Fix Twice.

If they are .jpg or .png files make a folder inside of Pictures and put them there for future reference as you might want to look at them sometime and if they .txt files or .doc files then put them into Documents, you may certainly want to read about the mod or what ever it is that the file came with.

Also you should later take time and organize the files in your Downloads folder if you have not already.

We should be able to get it tracked down at some point. I am sorry that it is so complicated, hang in there.

I use The Sims 2 Super Collection and I build with some custom content and I don't have a problem and I don't think muridae has this problem either or they would have told us, so it has to be something with your set up and that is fixable.

I removed the folder and it played fine. But it usually does. It's a very random thing when my content vanishes. Before I even removed the folder, I noticed that even NON-custom content started to vanish, as well. To be specific...it was windows...windows that came with the game. I used white. They reverted to brown. LOL Kid you not. I decided not to change them back because...well.....frustration. It happened in the same house with a door that was game-based. This all happened with buildings that were built within the current neighborhood and not packaged to a file and reinstalled (though, I did package them for future use).

I went through the downloads folder and removed anything that was not a package file. I found sim2pack files in there, as well. Strange.

I have also found that some of the mods are no longer working, either, or partially working. One such mod is No Friends Needed (for careers). The mod is for Maxis-created careers (which is all I use). Previously, only a couple of careers wouldn't work with it, but now, there are only a few that do. And when I saw "few", I mean one or two. Maybe I will try and resintall over themselves and see if that helps? Would deleting any cache files help on a Mac? I used to be on Windows WAYYY back when and was able to to delete them as part of trouble shooting. I am not as savvy with a Mac.

ETA: I did just go back and read that I can delete the cache files. Would that cause an issue or is it a file limit? I now have close to 1100 in the downloads folder

It’s saving the lot to a package that caused my random deletes from Downloads. No reinstalls necessary. Not sure if I had any mods disappear or break, as I restored my entire Downloads folder back over the top of itself to get everything back. Buy and build items are a lot more obvious, since you see their thumbnails change in the catalog.

I’m certain that when I tracked the cause of the missing files back to packaging lots it was because I found a reference to something similar from another Mac player, but my Google-fu is failing me at present so I can’t link you to it.

If it’s the Mac file limit then you’d often see houses or Sims disappear rather than just buy and build items. Bear in mind that all the Sims and lots you have in a neighbourhood count towards that file limit total, so as well as adjusting the limit itself it’s a good idea to delete any neighbourhoods you don’t plan to play. I do sometimes dabble with Pleasantview, but I think I’ve removed all the rest of the pre-made neighbourhoods, and only run a couple of custom hoods.

It can’t hurt to delete the cache files once you’ve restored the missing files. At the very least it’d help make sure they got their proper thumbnails back.

I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted in here, but I haven't even been on the game in so long! Today, I had the urge to bring it up. Again, my stupid custom build items were vanishing. I tried, first, to get rid of the packaged lot. I then built a new home with ALL custom build items. I've been playing for a few hours.....in that time, I have saved the game, exited to the neighborhood, re-entered the house...that all went ok! No vanishing content! Then, I played the house...saved...exited to neighborhood...exited the game completely..and went back in. No problems!!! YAYAY! I hope this is the issue and it's all good now!!! I will report back if it happens again! Thanks, again, for all of your help!

If you are not having any problems that is great.

Do try to remember what we told you about the Mac's Maximum Open File Limit, I had to set it to a higher number twice. A lot of weird stuff happened before I fixed it, so if something strange starts happening remember to test for the issue.

Oh, completely! That will be the next thing if it vanishes again. Thanks again!

I thought I would go ahead and change the file number....I used this https://wilsonmar.github.io/maximum-limits/ as a guide, but then it lost me at "adding this command to ~/ .bash_profile" Any idea what command and where? I did a GO TO and entered that, but there is no file/folder. Then I tried to look at the alternative posted about Watchman as it claims the file number will go back to default when the laptop is rebooted. That was completely out of my league of understanding! LOL I used to be a pro at Windows, but now with a Mac, it's a whole other ballgame. Scrolling down, it has a section on Sierra and higher. I didn't touch that because I didn't want to skip steps (and I have no idea what that means, anyway!). Is this the guide that I should be following?

I don't know the guide you are referring to, I did make my own Guide to Changing the Mac's Maximum Open File Limit and the link to that page is in my Signature.

If you go there you should either keep that page open to refer to it as you do it or copy and paste it into a Text-Edit file. Also I wrote it in such a way that you can copy and paste parts of it into the document that you need to create in order to do it.

If you do use my Guide feel free to ask me for help on it if you need help with it. Hopefully you won't find it too difficult to understand I did my best to write up something relatively clear in its instructions. Anyway check out my Guide, read it and if you need help feel free to ask me, in this thread or in PM either is OK with me.

Oh yeah if you want my attention in this thread put @lordtyger9 in your text and I will be sure to check this thread.

You are the best! Thanks!

@lordtyger9 So I am creating a NEW plist(s) and adding them to the locations you've mentioned? I do not have a LAUNCHDaemons, but I have Launch Agents? I do not currently see a Plist with the names you mentioned currently. I am guessing that is because I am creating (vs modifying) them?