[ARCHIVED] In-game clock not matching gameplay (1.68/1.33)

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
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? 1.68.156.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All of them.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Have a Sim either have a job or be enrolled in school. Wait until it is time for them to leave for their shift. Eventually when they leave, wait to see if they return when their shifts should be over.
What happens when the bug occurs? My notifications about work/school arrive late. My Sims do not head out to complete their tasks on time, and the do not return from the rabbit hole unless I manually cancel their actions.
What do you expect to see? My notifications arriving on time, and my Sims heading out to complete their tasks on time. I also expect to see my Sims returning from the rabbit hole autonomously without having to manually cancel their actions.
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. After the 11/17 update.

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So I wasn't sure how to title this, but basically the game clock is way off. My Sim lives in university housing and attends full-time (four classes). She also works part-time as a barista. Her shift at the coffee shop starts at 5:00 am, but she does not go to work. Even if I wake her up and get her out of bed, she will stand around. I don't get a notification until an hour (around 6:00 am) after she should have started saying that work starts in another hour (at 7:00 am). By that point her shift should have ended, and she should be getting ready for class. When her class time rolls around (at 9:30 am), again she stands around and does nothing. I get another late notification saying class starts soon, and then she leaves when her class should be completed.

Also, when she is working, she does not come back. The task bar (circle?) fills up after she's been at work long enough, but her job doesn't end. She ends up working until I cancel the task and send her home early which gets her in trouble. As I said, she lives in Britechester, on UBrite's campus, but I've also had this problem with another family living in Willow Creek. With that family, sometimes they go to work/school on time, and sometimes they don't. Regardless of what time they start, they never come home after their shift unless I manually cancel it. One Sim's job ends at 3:00 pm, but if I let the game run they won't finish work until after 10:00 pm. It's the same with any level of schooling. 

I've taken out my mods and tried to play without them, but that didn't work. I've also updated my game and repaired it, but so far nothing works.

@theangryuniverseSo I went ahead and deleted my Sims 4 file (after backing it up), and uninstalled the game. I reset Origin and cleared its cache before reinstalling the game and all of the expansion packs. I did NOT drop any old files into the folder (like my user settings) and instead played a completely default-style game.

After testing, this seems to have worked. I no longer have any problems with time, notifications, time sensitive options (like cooking), or sims leaving/returning, but I'm not sure if dropping old saves will bring the problem back. I will test it out though and see, but hopefully this trick works to repair your game.

Edit: So I've pulled my old save files back in, and they work fine. I've play tested a few sim days in different worlds with households of various sizes, and things seem to be back on track. As of yet, I haven't experienced any problems. My saves are the only thing I placed in the new Sims 4 file so far. I went in and manually changed all of my settings/preferences to match what I had before, and now I am slowly reintroducing mods.  I hope this helps; let me know if this worked for you. 

I found the cause of my time-shift. I changed seasons length in that save, once from the default 7 days to 28 (original time shift) and then I changed it from 28 down to 14 (time shift witnessed for the Salary Person career). 

Shifting the season length from 28 days down to 14 reproduced this text issue every time.

I had the same thing happen. It's like the game's hanging up on something, but the clock is still "running" but it doesn't save the time changing because it's hanging on something.  It seems like lagging and time lapses were especially bad around city living festivals, and holidays. Also, if my sims travel to another lot, after the lagging issue, they travel back in time!

@nicoleee123Yeah, I'm starting to run into the problem again. At first it was fine, but now it's back to how it was. I even tried a super repair on my game and still no dice.

I really didn't want to give up on this save, but it's starting to look like I might have to start fresh. I'm going to keep this save file in case a fix comes along, but for now I'm going to transfer my all of my sims to a new save and see how it works.

Edit: So even completely wiping my game after reinstalling did nothing. I created all new saves (which took so so long), and the problem followed me. I did notice that the game clock is only 30 minutes behind instead of an hour now, but my sims still don't return from the rabbit hole. It seems like a major lag in the game. My clock will freeze for a moment and then try to catch up. The seconds also go by slower than they should. I'm honestly out of ideas on how to fix this, and it doesn't look like we're getting much help, so...

For now I'm just going to stop playing. I have other games that don't give me as many issues as The Sims. It's time for a hiatus! Hopefully you have more success than I do. Best of luck!

I'm so glad to see I'm not alone here!

I recently uninstalled and reinstalled my game, and things worked fine. Now the problem has started to happen again, and it is particularly bad in San Myshuno, where my current sim household lives. 

So... I guess it has something to do with the festivals. Once one of them starts lagging and doesn't finish/disappear, things go downhill. Badly. 

Maybe this is something the team should look into. But from my experience, this most likely won't happen. Sadly. 

Hello.

If anyone is still seeing the issue (without mods) and are willing to share save files, instructions are here:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Team/m-p/6065302

Thanks.