How long does it take for the store to restock itself? I bought some stuff just to make room for things I need like repair items, but the shelves still sit empty.

It should be every 8 hours (updated in 1.00.01 - was every 12 hours) if you're not pausing the game at all. If you pause the game, you may extend the time it takes to restock store items.

Thank you very much!

Does it only restock the spaces of item you purchase? Or does it randomly change everything?

It randomly changes everything, whether or not you've purchased any of the items there.

thats good Lady! i would buy things just to make empty slots b/c i thought it only restocked what u bought! thanks!

Yes thanks Lady that was also one of my questions

It takes 8 hours for the varied items in the store to restock or change. I had noticed it took around 8 hours but I wasn't sure so I timed it and it took exactly 8 hours.

Thank you Gypsy - at least we know how long it takes now. I have been playing for 3 days and I am still waiting for tape to fix the hose.

I see that it's been changed to every 8 hours for 1.00.01

I'll update my answer above, so that it's clear.

is there A GAME UPDATE?

only the .01 update mentioned above. To check to see if you have this update, open VF & go to the menu. If it says 1.00.01 in the lower left corner, then you have the latest.

Is this every 8 hrs, regardless of whether the game is open or not? and when does the time start? when you download the game?

Yea, I was wondering myself how frequently the store restocks. I've been playing it since the day after it was released and I have only seen the supplies to fix the hose in the store one time for one family. The very first family I started are getting old and their kids are grown and gone and I still haven't seen the necessary supplies in the store yet. They keep asking me to help them do some of the necessary repairs (yep, not asking for upgrades, they have quite a few already, actually asking for help with the repairs) and I can't help much. The store won't give me the supplies to fix the hose or the supplies to fix the floors either one. All I've managed to fix is the birdbath and I do have something to fix the walls but that won't work until I can fix the hose.

Frustrating!

I need to pay attention, it really seems like mine is longer than 8 hours...I will need to leave it on all the time and see when it changes so I can time it. Also my first family I started 3 days ago still hasn't seen any of the fix items..no tape, no floor kits, no bird bath part...grrr that family is really boring right now as I do nothing but wait for those. My other family that I started the day after the first has had 2 floor kits and 1 tape.

At the risk of getting yelled at here, I have to admit something, I've played with the clock to force store restocks. It just doesn't restock fast enough. It would be nice if you buy something from the Misc section it would restock within the hour.

That would be a nice feature...replace sold items faster than a full restock. Ive thought about playing with the clock but dont want to age my peeps faster than I have to.

I have left mine for 24 hours. No store restocks.

Anoetic, did you leave the game paused while leaving the game alone? If so, the store won't restock while paused. (And can take longer to restock after unpausing)

I've no issues with the speed of restocking; just what is restocked! I keep seeing different types of candy or fruit, but no tape or floor repair kits.

Yep, me too, arnie! I really wish it would simply restock about every 4 hours but if not, then somehow set it up so certain items in particular are far more likely to restock than other items, if you know what I mean.

So does anyone know then on when the 8 hours actually starts? ie does the store restock 3 times in a real life 24 hours? and if so, what times are those? 8am, 4pm and midnight?

It isn't the same time of day for everyone, since it's based on the game start time.

It would be nice if there was a counter on the shop screen showing how long until the next restock.

Thank you for the response. and yes I agree with Andrea. it would be nice to have a counter or something to be able to tell how long till next stocking.

We are planning to shorten the restock time, but probably won't be able to add a timer/counter to the store. Some things are easier to do than others.

Lady: Thanks for all the answers, it is appreciated!

I like the wait. It makes it really worth it when the item you're waiting for comes in.

I definitely don't like the wait, bren, especially not since the one family where I'm on the second generation still hasn't had the items necessary to fix things offered. I watched the original parents die and now the daughter and her husband are growing older and still nothing. But a couple of my newly started families had items offered right away. I bought them even though I had to skimp on the groceries to get them -- I'm not taking any chances, lol!

I also am having the same problem. I need another wall repair kit (the first one dried out) and it's not showing up! I'm already into the 2nd generation and it still hasn't shown up again. Grrr! Any advice?

Although I understand the frustration on the wall repair kit not being available, I wouldn't worry too much about where your game is without it because

I've been playing since the day I got the email about the game and still haven't got the tape!

Ok. I have been timing my game all day today to see when the store actually restocked. it was to the minute 8 hours after I opened my game. Which means that I either turned my game at the precise moment that the store updated this morning. or the 8 hour clock doesnt start until you turn your game on for the first time during the day.

Is there a log where you can check times things happen like you have in vv games? If so where is it stored on the computer? I have been looking but have'nt come across it yet.. Thank you in advance..

I found it, i was looking at something else here & came across the answer. So i now can check what i needed to look for in my log.

I have a .02 version. Not sure what day that was.

I have the most current update and mine has been on unpaused since Monday and I have not had the store update

Sometimes you're in the next generation before getting the repair kits. I do wish they would stock a bit more often too. I look for them every time I open the game.

I'm just fed up with empty shelves all the time, I havn't paused the game and it is still not restocking, it hasn't restocked since Monday! I havn't kept it on all that time, but I can't do that anyway.

When you say you haven't kept in on all the time, do you mean that you have paused the game? If so, that could be why your store isn't restocking. I believe that this issue is going to be looked at for upcoming versions, however.

We haven't seen the store fail to restock on schedule, except when either pausing the game or adjusting the system clock on the computer (time travel) are involved. Is either of those possible in your case?

I pause the game whenever I'm away, and the shop still restocks three times a day (I check it everytime for useful items even if I have no time to play). So, is this stg not supposed to happen?

no I havn't paused the game just quit it and turned the computer off. I finally got fed up with it as the other family I started is working fine, so I've deleted that first family and started again. I don't know why but that game obviously got confused, maybe because of the 2 updates, I don't know, but I do know that for 4 days, with just one pause of 2 hours or so in all that time, my store did not restock the varied items at all.

This seems accurate to me. I know I have only been getting 2 restocks a day. One when I first open the game in the morning and once in the evening. I have been watching very closely the last few days. Last night my store restocked at 7 pm. (Which means it should have stocked at 3 am and 11 am today). I was restocked when I first turned the game on (around 9 am). Nothing at 11 am. Then I was finally restocked around 5 pm (approximatly 8 hours from when I turned it on this a.m.)

Edit to add that I haven't paused my game or time travelled.

Sid, this is what my game is doing also. only 2 times a day. When I open and 8 hours later.

And i also have not paused or time traveled. I dont know if this is a bug or if it is supposed to be that way but its real frustrating.

I'm up to my 3rd generation, and most likely soon to be 4th as the parents passed away leaving two kids, 16 & 18 and I still haven't had the tape to fix the hose.

It does add to the suspense though, but the new update does say it updates the store every 4 hours now.

How are you guys telling time?

Real Life 4 hours? Is there an in-game clock to see what time it is to my little people?

Real life time

Yep. If it is 3 p.m. at your house, it is 3 p.m. at theirs as well.

I am having a restock issue too. My last restock was at 9pm yesterday. I haven't paused the game at all. I am also not sure I know what time traveling is. I have two families going on at the same time and only one is having the problem.

I am having sporadic restocks too. Looks like every 12 hours still, I will have to time it. But no time traveling, no pausing. For me its like the time starts over if I close the game and then open it 3 hours later... So I either have to open the game then close it and not play for at least 8 hours, or leave it running all day if I want it to restock.

I think the 8 hours start counting when you open the game. Like if I open the game at 11 am I'll have new items in the store, and then I'll only have new items at the store at 7 pm so I'll open the game at about that hour, and then I'll have new items again at 3 am but at that hour I'm sleeping so I end up by only seeing new items twice a day although they're refreshed 3 times a day.

I thought the .04 update changed restocks to every 4 hours though.

I have five families and on two of the families the store will not restock. oddly enough it is the two families i started out with. the other three restock on schedule

ever since I updated to .04 the blank spots I had won't restock! it's been two or three days and one family is only getting different outfits restocked but none of the blank spaces are being filled

Mine started restocking after I updated to the .05 version today

I haven't gotten a restock since friday.

after downloading .05 My store in all of my games restocked at 6p.m. and should have at 10 but didn't.

I downloaded the update today .. and mine has not restocked in 6 hrs. I have not paused nor changed time.

my store didnt restock until after 3 am. it seems to still be on the 8 hr restock

I updated as well and I still haven't had a restock in like five days

Have any of you time-traveled at any time while playing the game? It's important that we know that in order to determine what the problems might be. It could also be that upgrading doesn't resolve a problem that resulted from an earlier version. You might try starting a new game in an available player slot to see if the problem persists there, too.

Lady, I have never time traveled or paused the game. I will start over on one of my games to see if it helps though, and let you know asap!

The restock worked after i started a new game. but if you are actually on that game slot when its supposed to change you have to exit and re-enter the game for it to restock. Also my "mom" wouldn't "release" the baby until i exited and re-entered the game.

It seems to me that the update is not 'cleaning up' the problems of games that were started in earlier versions.

I have the newest update. I play on a Mac, the problem happened with the 3rd generation. I finally restarted today because with no restock I was stuck where I was. I have only had this problem with that family, none of the others. No time traveling for me.

We're still evaluating this issue, but it would really help if everyone could provide as much detail as possible about the generation they're on, whether the affected games were started on an earlier version, and whether or not there has been any time travel or pausing since Virtual Families was installed.

I have the Mac version of the game, upgraded to .05 on May 4, and up until today only had one family going. I purchased the trial on 4/29 and got the full version on May 3. I had paused the game a couple of times prior to getting the full version but not at all since, and I never alter the time/date on my computer, so no "time-traveling" is ever done.

I opened the game this morning around 9:00-9:30, bought a store item or two, and left it running all day in the background. By 4:30 p.m. I still had no store restock. In the meantime I had started three more families periodically throughout the day. Although I didn't time them as closely I don't think they got the 4-hour restock. I will test them more thoroughly tomorrow. I am absolutely sure that it was at least 8 hours for my original family to get their store restocked.

I am on a 3rd generation (pc version), have not time traveled or paused at all/ever. The effected game was started before the update

I have two families now one is Gen 1 and the other is Gen 2. So far so good. I was actually surprised with a store update!

I've been playing since the release, only been using pausing. I was on the fourth or fifth generation in my five families. I did restart one and the store is restocking, the older families have been around for awhile I installed the updates when they came out but I guess I'll have to restart them since the one family is playing perfectly

I have paused the game sometimes and I still get a restock. However I noticed something else when I have paused the game. I noticed that the food in the frigde goes faster I thought the food would be the same as before I paused One example is I had over 1100 food yet it droped to 350 after I came back to the game and unpaused it. I only paused it so they not get too old to have the baby, as they failed to have one.

I have time travled once and ever since then the store wont restock and all my other files i paused when i time travled so its the only file that is stopped is the one i didnt pause and im on my 8th generation

What version are you using? I don't know if it ever self corrects. Lady or Xay will be along soon with the correct answer.

Now, people, do you really want to time travel!

NOPE! i have never done it and its posts like this that makes me happy ive never done it!

i have the latest one .05

LadyCFII & Xay has left the building, I think!

Here's what Xay says about time travel: Time travel is considered.......

The best advice we can give about a messed up game due to time travel is to either wait it out and see if the game starts working properly again, or start the game over.

And, as I said earlier in this thread, there may also be unintended effects from updating to a new version with existing games already in progress. We try very hard to make sure the updates don't disrupt game play, but sometimes there are unavoidable issues.

If new games are working correctly, but games started before the update are not, it's likely an update-related problem.