Entire business lot poofed from existance

[sara_dippity]

Okay, here's what happened in no particular order... Bought pre-built comm lot. Entered the lot with one playable sim on a Friday evening and left on a Sunday afternoon. Energizer was present. Bought a lot of merchandise wholesale and placed some crafted goods from the inventory... Had trouble planning uniform.... A professor showed up, but didn't shop and left quickly.
I never saved while I was there. Took the taxi there and back...

That's what's similar to my experience. I had an energizer in the employee break room. I wonder if having an engergizer breaks the outfit planning...
I planned an outfit on another lot with the same family with no problems, even with Mr. Big. I didn't plan his hair though, that's when it stopped working before, and when i planned the outfit the second lot, an energizer was not present. I had a professor walk by the second lot. The second lot is still fine.
I'm not going to try planning an outfit again, I'm chicken, hours of crafted work is stocked at the new lot.
Anyone have feedback on if they did or didn't have a problem with outfit planning with an energizer present?

[phyllis_p]

I did not have an energizer present on my poofed lot. 

So your problem seemed to start when you tried to change the hair?  Hmm ... maybe that's the key.  As you see from my post above, I accidentally changed the hair, and that's when the problems seemed to start.

Phyllis

[taichikitten]

The deed is gone. I know exactly where it was, totally gone. Damn deeds. Why make them hangable if they shouldn't be?

The deed is hangable because - according to the Prima Guide - one of the ways that you can offer your business up for sale is to hang the deed out on a wall (or place on a surface) and mark it as for sale.  If it is purchased, then the entire business is transfered to the purchaser.  Otherwise, unless your Sim is giving the business to an heir, the deed should probably remain in your Sim's inventory.

Obviously, this is not what caused the lot to disappear (the uniform thing is probably responsible for that as you and others have deduced), but I thought I'd offer an answer to this question anyway.

[Simlover]

So far (touch wood) I have been able to

1. save my sim at her business
2. travel to work via car
3. use the mind control mirror to control employees
4 hang my sims deed on the wall of her shop

all without problems..I wonder if maybe because I chose a lot in pleasantview not downtown to create her business?

[akatonbo]

I've just seen someone else report the problem elsewhere, and when I related what I knew aobut the bug, they indicated that they'd also tried to set uniforms and had it behave oddly. Have asked whether any of it was hairstyle related.

[tamber]

the same thing happened to me made a house and added a shop to it decided to set the uniform but set 2 by mistake so deleted them but then it wouldn't let me asign another uniform saved game and left lot and when i went to play it again the lot had gone no sign of the family or the house it has to be something to do with the problem with the uniform was it because i deleted one ?

[phyllis_p]

the same thing happened to me made a house and added a shop to it decided to set the uniform but set 2 by mistake so deleted them but then it wouldn't let me asign another uniform saved game and left lot and when i went to play it again the lot had gone no sign of the family or the house it has to be something to do with the problem with the uniform was it because i deleted one ?

The plot thickens.  I deleted uniforms too -- maybe that's what triggers the glitch.

Phyllis

[E-double]

Yup. I left that step out. I did delete a uniform that I had saved for Cassandra. I had about 3 different saved uniforms for her (one had a different hairstyle). I went to delete one of them (the one with the different hairdo) and all of the ones I saved had vanished right along with the one I was trying to save. I was not able to select or save any new uniforms for Cassandra or her employees.

[sara_dippity]

Hmm, I can't remember if I deleted one or not.

[JadeEliott]

Someone else deleted uniforms and had the same problem:

http://www.sims2community.com/showpost.php?p=337686&postcount=17

"I have now reproduced my disappearing business lot problem, no idea whether its same problem as simjunkie2000 had.

This is how it happened in both times:
I was choosing custom worker uniforms, I added two clothes to uniforms. Then I selected and tried to delete another one. Deleting took long time and after that both uniforms disappeared from selection screen and I couldnt add or select more uniforms, nothing happened from selection buttons. After that I left lot and returned to my residential lot, there I called to sell my business lot and saw that preview picture for that lot had changed into white picture with grids on it. Everything on that business lot had disappeared, lot was still named correctly but its value had dropped to empty lot value.

Anyone else can reproduce this kind behaviour? I'm able to select custom uniforms, but deleting seems to have problems.."

[shezoe]

May be it helps - this is written in the Prima Guide:

"
- When an owner is saved on a community lot, no other playable sim can travel to that lot. The lot's name appears grayed-out in the lot selection list.

-  If an owner is saved on a community lot, you can't play owner's home lot until you reload the community lot and send him or her home. This is so even if other members of the owner's family remain on the home lot. "

May be the owner was saved, and that's the reason the lot dissapeared.
Perhaps the solution is, to sell the community lot, and buy it again.

In short - never save a business lot before leaving.

i don't know why Maxis would do this. Is there a good reason for it?  it's just habit to save often in case of a freeze or shut down. to not be able to save in your community lot-EVER-even if you've spent three sim days there is just nuts! Especially if you're like me and are always building stuff as you play n don't want to risk losing three hours worth of building/decorating when the power decides to flicker or something.

[Hook]

It looks like you can save all you want.  The problem appears to be with the uniforms, not saving he game.

And if you save and exit while the owner is on the business lot, expect to have to go back to the business lot to play him again. He's not gonna go home on his own.  The fact that you can't play the rest of the house is because not everyone is there at the time; the business owner is at his business. This is what I'd expect from the game.

Hook