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Trehpike's avatar
4 years ago
Solved

Sims keep holding invisible book after putting it down

Sims 4, sim reads a book, puts book down on table, floor, book shelf, etc. appears to be holding the book in an empty hand. Cannot do any other actions that require that hand or two hands such as washing dishes or cooking. Sim will sleep with one hand appearing to be holding the book. Sim will shower with one hand appearing to hold the book. Go to the bathroom and appears to be holding the book. Hand is empty book is where the sim set it down. If I manually put the book away the sim still appears to be holding the book. Occurs with or without mods. Male or female characters. Different house holds, different careers, different game saves, happens in all. Must reset the sim in order for the hand to go back to normal. Until reset any action requiring both hands are aborted. Sim will go to work still holding the imaginary book. Cannot eat, drink water, and in some cases open doors while holding the imaginary book. Must reset the sims manually. Complete Sims 4 game install. With latest updates and Spa Day Patch. Windows 10, full update, Nvidia 750, full update game ready updated, 18 gig ram, 18 TB hard drive space, octa-core, 4.2 GHz, 5.1 surround, 3 monitors, HD. Stranger Ville, Military Career level 8. Image shows Sim with hand holding imaginary book. Book on the floor.

Edit By Crinrict: Adjusted Title to better reflect the issue 

Edit by trehki. Sorry I did figure out the issue was the bookcase on top of the sims dresser. Sold existing one and purchased a new one problem solved. I guess I never looked back. 

Edit By Crinrict: Added Tag to Title

  • @Trehpike 

    The hand thing you are seeing usually happens when there is no accessible bookcase or a storage chest/box nearby.  I see no bookcase object in your pic.  If you are using one of the small surface mounted bookcases (looks like a row of books with bookends) and it is sitting on something like a dresser, you might get the hand thing and a routing error because you can put those small ones in places where sims cannot put books back in them.  Those don't work right on every surface like dressers and some desks for some reason.  You can get books out but not put them in.  As you said, you can reset the sim to get the empty hand thing to go away but you can also travel or save and quit and reload the save.

    Hope this helps.

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  • @Trehpike 

    The hand thing you are seeing usually happens when there is no accessible bookcase or a storage chest/box nearby.  I see no bookcase object in your pic.  If you are using one of the small surface mounted bookcases (looks like a row of books with bookends) and it is sitting on something like a dresser, you might get the hand thing and a routing error because you can put those small ones in places where sims cannot put books back in them.  Those don't work right on every surface like dressers and some desks for some reason.  You can get books out but not put them in.  As you said, you can reset the sim to get the empty hand thing to go away but you can also travel or save and quit and reload the save.

    Hope this helps.

  • Sid1701d9's avatar
    Sid1701d9
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    @CGrant56 Its even funnier when a kid does it, they litterly stretch themselves out to put books away especially if bookshelf is adult heights.
  • @Trehpike Could you please edit your post and fill out the bug form ? Seems you weren't prompted for it.

    Editing should help with that.
  • dinsazanes's avatar
    dinsazanes
    Seasoned Newcomer
    2 years ago

    I have been having this glitch every time they read a book.  They set it on the floor, then can't go to bed.

    What fixes this, is to get in build/buy and pick the book up and set it back down.  Fixed.

    Then you can reshelf the book in Live mode.

  • MammaKG's avatar
    MammaKG
    Seasoned Novice
    10 months ago

    Even though my sim has put down "The Green Lady's Lost Tome" she still holds her arm like she would if she held the book. I have to Shiftcklick and Reset Sim for her to be able to do anything else. Have tried removing all mods and restart game. I ended up removing the book from household so she could do anything except looking in and pretend to hold the same book all the time.

  • Product: The Sims 4
    Platform:PC
    Which language are you playing the game in? English
    How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
    What is your current game version number? 1.110.265.1030
    What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? all of them
    Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Read a book or cancel reading a book.
    What happens when the bug occurs? After the sim is done reading, they will stomp and complain that they can't put the book down. The book will be on the floor, but they'll still be in the position of holding the book. You have to Reset them to get the book in the inventory or for the sim to interact.
    What do you expect to see? For my sims to not be "stuck" after reading skill books.
    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. October 22, 2024 patch

    I am playing on Directx 11 I don't think this matters but just in case for some reason it does. I also noticed it happened 100% of the time while on the Widowshild Townhome in Forgotton Hollow and only about 80% of the time on Willow Creek Archive. It was happening with skill books and the vampiric tome books.

  • Yeah, the whole "invisible book" glitch in Sims 4 is so frustrating! It’s like, come on, I just want my Sim to live their life without looking like a sleep-deprived librarian. Honestly, though, this reminds me of a time I was stuck on a completely unrelated problem—writing a super detailed nursing paper, of all things. I was losing it over small details, just like with these Sims bugs. That’s when I stumbled on nursing paper made easy and it seriously saved my sanity. Sometimes, you just need a fix to keep things moving, whether it’s a game patch or help with something bigger. Anyway, EA really needs to patch this soon—it’s been around forever!

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