[FIXED] Game creating tons empty households/Save game bloat/Insane Lag

Hi guys!

I have a strange thing going on in my game. After getting Cottage Living I disabled all of my mods to play through the pack. 

After a full day of play, I noticed this: 

The household manager is filled to the brink with empty households. I'm talking dozens and dozens of them, all unplayed households that are not in the world. I have no idea where they came from or why- they weren't there when I started the game. I don't know if it'll impact the game at some point, but it sure looks weird, so I figured I'd report it. 

Take care and happy simming! 

@MikageYimiki Did you also delete the localthumbcache.package from your \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 folder? I would advise you to do so. The game will automatically make a new one as soon as you restart it. Hope that will help.

Have fun playing. 😉

@Trismagistos I did not - thank you for the suggestion! I'll delete it and see if it no longer does it on a new save. Thank you for the help! 

I found a temp workaround for this, but not sure as of right now if it is permanent (as in if the game won't just make new unplayed households) nore if it fixed the lagging issue I was having, and what I bet you'll be having soon. but my solution was to use MCCC (new version for the patch) to "delete all culled sims". it deleted all the blank households for me! i will update much later when i play the game again and let everyone know if this fixed the lag and if the game generates more.

unfortunately, this did not fix the issue completely..... still got the lag, although it's not as bad. instead of being every few seconds, its like once every minute or so, but still REALLY suck. the lag in question, though, isn't a normal one. it's one where the in-game time stops and i can't click on anything or pause the game/fast forward. characters stand where they were and do idle animations until the time goes again.

and i just checked unplayed households again, and they are ALL back..... so yeah didn't fix anything.

(CM: Multiple posts merged. Check out this post for tips on how to edit and add more to a post.)

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.77.131.1230
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All except for Nifty Knitting, Moschino, Fitness, Luxury Party, Journey to Batuu, and all the kits.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play the game in the Henford-On-Bagley map.
What happens when the bug occurs? The game gets slow and soon lags and freezes
What do you expect to see? I expect to be able to play the game in the live mode, build/buy mode, and create sim without freezing and lag.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. Latest patch/installing Cottage Living

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Of course, theres always been lag in Sims 4 and I acknowledge that, but after installing Cottage Living, its unbearable. I've read other peoples questions about this and they have said they can use build/buy mode and create sim mode. I cant though which makes me really annoyed ☹️. Within about 5-10 minutes, the game stops and pops up that spinning wheel of death. Ive tried to wait for the wheel to stop but its endless. please help!

Before the Pond-Patch I had MCCs cleaner running and it too deleted about 50 empty households on a regular basis, though those never showed up in Manage Households or the Hidden Households. Many of them had recurring names: For example the Mayor Whiskers household was always listed. Mayor Whiskers had been adopted in this save file, but apparently there still was a Mayor Whiskers household somewhere, that was generated time and time again. 

how do i set up MCCC to do a clean up regularly?

The Cleaner Modul is the one I was referring to. It is pretty self explanatory, but if you have questions there is a link to the mod‘s discord on the page, where people can help you with the settings. =)