Hello. I'm having an issues with my own custom hoods. I can't get them to show up, but they show in my 'Neighborhoods' folder. All 3 randomly disappeared and clean base game hood templates aren't being recognized after reloading the game when I finished cleaning out my CC furniture..
What I've tried:
1. Uninstall - Reinstall a clean game with no mods. Removed all left behind information from the AppData folders, etc. Loaded up, added my 3 custom hoods. Also, I tried just making a new hood and replacing 'N004' with mine.
2. Saw a post from EA support saying to remove in your hkey_local folder (and so on...) the 'TM' in The Sims 2(TM).
3. Uninstalled again, played the game vanilla style for a couple of hours, then added back my folders.
I don't what I could be missing on fixing this issue. I'm using the UC from Origin.

I will be forever grateful if anyone has any idea, even the smallest to help me..

Okay, I'm not going to be actually very helpful here but I do have troubleshooting questions that may lead you or someone else around here in a fruitful direction, and that's better than nothing.

Are you running with your anti-virus on? Modern antiviruses have a tendency to register Sims 2 files as viruses and quarantine or even, in some cases, delete them. Depending on the program, I understand that even whitelisting doesn't always work. So getting off the internet and running without the antivirus is always something worth trying in cases where data seem to be missing.

Are you running directly from Origin, or is everything located on your PC right now?

What's your setup - OS, installation location, etc? Certain OSes have their own peculiarities. I think it was Win8 that tended to mark data files as read-only, apparently at random, for example.

Are you sure you're in the Documents folder and not the ProgramFiles folder? Just checking, because there have been cases where people have been trying to add new neighborhoods and downloads and whatnots in the ProgramFiles location, and that doesn't work.

If you have Windows 10, do you have more than 4GB RAM? There have been some possible cases of saving issues and lag plus things like sliders not working in CAS when people only have 4GB RAM (issues could be individual). Win10 is a memory hog and demands quite a bit. The game needs at a minimum (and preferably without CC) 2 GB, but with CC you need at least 4 GB and the 4 GB patch. Just something to keep in mind. If you have at least 8 GB you should be good. Win7 and Win8 might also need 8 GB or more to get the most out of TS2, just to be able to use the 4GB patch.

The clean templates could have been installed wrong, so you may want to go over the instructions again. You've probably already done so, but it doesn't hurt doing it once more.

The UC can be a pain. Make sure that after you install, update/fix (if that's an option), before you do anything else. I'm not sure if the install is updated or not. Then you can install clean templates, etc. And don't update or reinstall after that, because it wipes anything in the ProgramFiles.



Was yours called "N004" previously?
If yours was for instance called N006, you can't replace the files in the folder N004 with your files as-is, because some of them have got internal naming corresponding to N006.

Also, if you had for instance CDs with the Store Pack (I think some of the collection packs came with it), the hoods may not work. If you didn't have the Store pack but anything up to M&G, in theory it should work to replace a N004 for a N004 neighborhood, and in theory you should be able to replace them from a CD to UC game if that's what you're doing (mine crashed a lot, but there could be various reasons for that...)

You should however be able to put in a N004, N005 and N006 hood as long as there aren't any with those names there from before. It is possible you'll have to move out or delete the NeighborhoodManager file - I think that one is safe to delete (as far as I know it's sort of a cache file for the neighborhoods).

Hello and thank you guys for responding to me.
I'll mention quick that I have been using my current setup for a while now. I never had this issue with my current setup in the last maybe 2 years? before upgrading my graphics card a few months back. Everything has been working fine.

@Peni, I haven't tried this before since I've been using the same antivirus with my game for the last 5 years. I am using Kaspersky, though.
OS information: Windows 10 build 19402, Graphics: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER @ 8GB, Processor: Intel i7-8700 (6 cores) @ 3.2GHz, 16GB of RAM.
I've messed around a few years ago with my files being stored in my D Drive. Like, all of my 'my documents, pictures, etc' are stored in my D drive. Never had an issue. So, my installation file for Sims 2 is 'D:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection'. As for launching the game, I've been using Sims2RPC from Lazy Duchess since it's came out. Other than that, I was using a no need for origin bypass.

@Simmer22, yes, I am sure that I am going through my 'My Documents' folder. Yes, more than 4GB RAM and did install the 4GB patch. I've installed them correctly. I was using them just fine until everything disappeared. It just won't override. It generates new base game/EP hoods as soon as I load the game. When I uninstalled, I made sure I had everything completely wiped, except my needed files and a backup of my ProgramFiles for TS2. I literally went through every folder especially the %AppData% ones. The neighborhood was labeled as 'N004' and I replaced it with the new 'N004' I made for testing. I've been using origin's UC only for the last few months. I did try deleting that NeighborhoodManager file every time I tested something. Never worked either :/
As a last resort, if I have to, I will end up backing everything on my USB and just reinstall Windows...

Can you make changes to the N001-3 and E/F/G neighborhoods that stick until the next play session? Can you use downloads without them disappearing? Are your ingame graphic settings and options sticking to the next play session? Just wondering if it's a neighborhood-wide problem with resetting 'hoods or a fully resetting TS2 folder you've got, or if just new neighborhoods aren't working.

Check if your Documents path is like this:
D:\...\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\...
If it's not, the game hasn't got a clue what it's pointed to.
(especally now after reinstalling)
With Windows 10, it's "Documents" and not "My Documents", just in case it makes a difference (they keep changing it every other version or so).

And one more thing - check if you have the game files in the Documents location set to "read only". It would make the game not save your progress. Probably not the problem, but could be worth checking just to tick it off the list. Win10 is known to be a pain with the files in the ProgramFiles location, by resetting them if you edit them directly - could be something similar happening.

Reinstalling to fix problems rarely solve much with TS2 (unless you actively mess up the install files somehow and don't have backups) and should in most cases be used as a last resort rather than something that's tried first. It sets you back to square one, and in most cases whatever the problem was will show up again because it was a problem a reinstall couldn't solve. These days, problems tend to either be hardware related (graphic cards and such, usually solvable by editing certain files), or stem from a borked saved game (which can usually be fixed with a "soft reinstall" by wiping the Documents location and starting over), or an issue in Downloads (which can be sorted out), or something else solveable without a reinstall (even one or two borked files in the install location can sometimes be fixed without a reinstall). Also, an uninstall can leave a mess in various places (as you seem to have figured out with all the files that need cleaning up). So sometimes it can be worth it to try and fix a problem with the install you already have, especially if things have worked previously with that install, because with a reinstall things are a bit more likely to get messed up. The UC is easier to reinstall than CDs, but can still leave a mess.

Reinstalling windows will not help, you don't want to do that.

Besides verifying file paths as simmer mentioned, do you have One drive backup enabled? That causes some mismatch's with files as it is a continuous backup. Personally I'd uninstall that app (I did), but at the very least try to turn off auto backup.

I figured out the issue from a lovely person on reddit. Thank you everyone for pitching in and many thanks. I appreciate all of you