[BY DESIGN] Filters for packs not working in the gallery

@secretlondon123, yes!  While I certainly need to add more tags to my uploads, some people put way too many, as if they are hashtagging every noun and adjective they can think of.! 😞

Just in case the issue is unclear to anyone, let me give the following example Sims, who each appear in the Gallery.

Dee Fawlt uses content from no packs, only base game.

Vanna Pyre uses content from the Vampires Game Pack and nothing else.

Miranda Made uses content from the Island Living Expansion Pack and nothing else.

Cyrus Wren uses content from Vampires and Island Living.

The first three Sims work exactly as expected. If no boxes are checked, Dee is the only one that appears. Vanna will appear when the Vampires box is checked, but not if it isn't. Similarly, Miranda will appear if the Island Living box is checked, but not if it isn't. The problem is Cyrus.

Say we have a user named Drake. Drake has the Vampires pack, but not Island Living. Drake checks the "Show Owned" option, expecting to see content he can use in his game. Dee appears, Vanna appears, Miranda doesn't... and Cyrus does. But Drake doesn't have enough content to use Cyrus in his entirety; some parts of Cyrus will be disabled if Drake downloads him.

Another user, Ariel, has Island Living but not Vampires. She has the same problem: Cyrus appears when she's specifically looking for Island Living-friendly content.

Barring hashtags - which are often abused - there is no way to configure the search so that Vanna appears without Cyrus (ditto Miranda without Cyrus). Cyrus (and other content like him) will absolutely clutter up the search results of people who can't fully use him. The only way Cyrus won't appear is if you happen to uncheck each and every last box that contains content that he uses, a problem that multiplies quickly - a LOT of Sims or houses use content from many different packs. If a house has an item from every single pack in it - not exactly unreasonable - then the only possible way to make it go away is to uncheck every single box, giving you only base game content.

What I'm suggesting is that, if you uncheck a box, everything that contains content from the corresponding box is removed from your search results. Dee, Vanna, and Miranda will work no differently, but Cyrus only appears when BOTH Vampires and Island Living are checked, not one or the other.

@HeroicJay, that was an excellent explanation of a difficult problem! 🙂

We can only hope that they change this! 🤞 

This is so weird. I tried to use the Gallery seriously for the first time, and tried to filter on content that's compatible with the packs I have. Eventually I realized that the filter is inclusive, which makes no sense to me.

What on earth would you use the packs filters as they are now for? They do nothing useful at all, except if you choose Show Base Game.

I don't think this should be tagged [BY DESIGN] anymore. There's a dropdown option called "Show Owned" that ticks off only the packs you own, but the content it filters out is nothing close to "showing owned".

Edit: Perhaps it's better to file a new bug report on the "Show Owned" behaviour instead. Some google searches seem to indicate there used to be a checkbox that let you tick "include unowned content" or something like that. That option isn't there anymore, and how the "Show Owned" dropdown option behaves has to be considered a bug. I'll go do that.

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? MAC 1.58.63.1210
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? 4 expansions, 4 game packs and 4 stuff packs
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Use the gallery with more than one DLC pack installed, but not all.
What happens when the bug occurs? In the Gallery, when choosing the Packs filter dropdown option called "Show Owned", the content listed as a result doesn't have any relevance to the packs you own. It lists pretty much any content because in my case, when I own 12 packs, it'll list any creation that contains just one thing from one of those packs, even if the creation also contains things from packs I don't own. What "Show Owned" does is tick all the boxes for packs you have in the filter option below, but ticking those boxes gives results that are "inclusive". Even if that inclusive behaviour could be by design, this behaviour can not be considered "Show Owned" in any useful form and has to be considered a bug.
What do you expect to see? Either "Show Owned" must be its own filter, or unticking pack boxes should "exclude" creations containing things from that pack.
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? No

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This is an old issue, but apparently there used to an "include unowned content" checkbox instead of the "Show Owned" dropdown option. The "Show Owned" dropdown option is buggy.

@Draumkvad This is by design.

merged your post with existing thread.