Please use this thread going forward: Thumbnails regenerate with every session | EA Forums - 11867043
I'm noticing the same issue.
But the size of the localthumbcache doesn't seem to be the problem here, at least for me.
I tested this with Basegame only (all packs disabled), without mods, in a fresh save. Still happening - the game seems to be generating new thumbnails each time you restart the game.
It's particularly noticeable in the relationship panel, but I think it happens all over the UI.
Below a comparison of thumbnails that were in the localthumbcache file after I launched the game/the test save for the first time and thumbnails included in the localthumbcache file when I launched the game/this save for the second time (I loaded the Spencer-Kim-Lewis household).
The ones I framed in red were generated anew, although the same thumbnails were already existing in the localthumbcache file (framed in green).
Aye, I'm gonna suspect that this is some newer thumbnail glitch introduced with the Lovestruck patch where we can hide thumb portraits in Relationship Panel. Sounds about right.
And now we have the new Death EP that is just going to add to the file bloating problem. Specifically when generating one of those new townie "victims" who are destined to die, Generated as a living sim, with the usual assortment of living sim thumbnails, only to be killed, made dead, mere moments after coming into existence, to be given all new Ghost thumbs, rendering the living sim thumbs as garbage, junk thumbs, bloating the file and assuring its need to be deleted every five minute, which it will do automatically when hitting 100 mb.
Maxis, rein it in. please. Much, much needed a decade in.
I figured it might be a different underlying issue for what I'm noticing now, but with exactly the same result.
I'm not sure when this started happening but the person that brought it up to me initially said the've been noticing it after October 22nd patch.
I also haven't been noticing the thumbnails regenerating in the relationsship panel before.
But I've noticed for a while now that the thumbnails in the Library keep regenerating - which is particularly weird because Library items should be using thumbnails that are stored in the Tray files. And if you check the affected households for example via the Sims 4 Tray Importer, you'll see that the original thumbnails are still there, but the game is not using them. I've been also noticing that the little sim thumbnails in CAS (household panel) recently keep generating for a long time, as if the game does it multiple times in a row or has a memory problem.
I have found these two reports describing the issue with portrait thumbnails in the Library and Manage Household menu. I feel like this is all related somehow, but I'm not sure.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mods-CC-Issues/Thumbnails-resetting-bug/m-p/13925595
I did some more testing and I believe for the Library it's a different issue.
It seems that deleting the localthumbcache.package will trigger the regeneration of thumbnails in the Library. So, for whatever reason, the game is indeed using the thumbnails stored in there instead of the Thumbnails stored in the Tray files. I don't think this is how it used to be. And I'm not sure if this was changed on purpose. But if this is how it works now, we will have this issue repeatedly, since deleting this file is necessary from time to time.
Yes, I too have been seeing the stored Library Sims thumbs also regenerating more than they should, seeing as they should, as you say, have their own Tray thumbnails separate from the localthumdcache file.
I wonder if this goes way back to a patch-fix-with-patch-glitch from about two years ago? If you remember back then, the thumbnails for Sixam aliens got messed up, so that all aliens were being depicted in their human disguise in all their thumbs. When Maxis got round to fixing this, reverting back to their true Sixam alien appearance in thumbs, the fix it came with a (supposedly) unintentional reduction it image size. In all family thumbs thereafter - not just aliens - the sims were smaller, the whole family further back in the picture. Typical fixes, doing something extra they shouldn't.
Only recently, when Maxis advertising the new Framed Family Portrait object players get free if getting Death EP before a certain closing date, did the family thumbs in the framed object in the promotion pictures of the freebie items, look like it has gone back to being the larger images - or more precisely family closer to the camera again - seen prior to the Sixam thumbnail fix years ago.
And now that I'm on the subject, do the thumb images of those Framed Wall Decor objects, - the most recent freebie one and the old sims mobile promo one from four or five years ago that can be modded into the game - also get added to the localthumcache? You would think it will just use the family thumb already generated. But as a few reports now are saying many thumbs are being doubled or even tripled unnecessarily, then if that large family thumb is being duplicated for the Framed Wall Decor Portrait that's really going to bloat out the localthumbcache in everyone's game, even if they have a minimal amount of sims.
Whatever it all amounts to, it's clear that thumbnails are broken, glitched or being poorly implemented in more ways than one now. So Maxis really do need to do a refresh on the whole thumbnail generating, storing and saving systems. To say they are outdated in this decade old game is a gross understatement.
