My Patchy isn't becoming Alive

@2FAB4YOU38I just tried a new Patchy in a test save & he did come to life after I maxed out our friendship level. He even came into the house and watched the Romance channel on TV xD He does not seem to be bugged by the latest patch.

How is everything else working with him? Are you able to unlock the Scarecrow outfit? Are you able to Ask for Gardening Tips and Check Pockets for Seeds?

He'll only come to life for a few hours a day, usually between noon and 5 pm, give or take. You can try running a CC and mod-free test save on a different lot just in case something is going on there. My test save was at one of the starter homes in Willow Creek. Btw- the Gardening career is pretty cool if you want one of your Sims to be able to work and garden at the same time. Good luck :D

I'm having the same issue as well and I replaced patchy with a new one and have maxed out all interactions and he refused to come alive for the whole summer. (I'm playing 28 days lol).  I'm already in Fall now and patchy is still "dead" so I'm thinking to get a professional gardener at this point and hope there's a patch that will fix all these soon. 😢 😢😢

@Player_goq0p7lw  How is everything else working with him? Are you able to unlock the Scarecrow outfit? Are you able to "Ask for Gardening Tips" and "Check Pockets for Seeds"?

Yeah, everything works except patchy coming alive lol 😢😢😢

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I have my garden all in planter box and there's no much space and I put patchy in the middle.  Does patchy only work if he's in a open area and does my sim need to be at work for patchy to come alive? 

@Player_goq0p7lw Your Sim does not have to be at work for Patchy to come alive and I am only guessing about him needing space as he has always worked fine for me. Here's a pic of where I have Patchy placed in my test save:

In this pic, my Sim is standing at the edge of the lot with her garden in the background. There is at least one square of open space on each side of Patchy's tree stand, so not a large area but not super small either. Again, I am only guessing as to whether this is necessary or not. It took only one game-day after I maxed out the friendship level with this Patchy for him to come alive. He "wakes up" every day around noon and goes back to his tree stand around 5 p.m. The next time I play I will try to make his space smaller to see if this has any affect on him.

I always place my garden plants directly in the ground (I rarely use planter boxes or pots) so as an experiment maybe you can try planting at least one plant directly in the ground? To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that you even need a garden with Patchy. If there are no plants to take care of he will generally try help out around the house in other ways (i.e. clean things, take out the trash, etc) or he'll find some harmless way to entertain himself like watch TV or play with a computer. He'll never do anything bad as far as I've seen.

OT- Curiously enough, I think he counts as a household member when it comes to having enough beds to advertise for roommates. My roommate ad was cancelled shortly after he came alive. I need to test further on this.

I hope this helps & that we can find a way for Patchy to work in your game! :D

@Player_goq0p7lw, @2FAB4YOU38  and @RandomBuzziness , I have not played with Patchy lately, as I have been testing other things.  But when I last played with him he acted just as @RandomBuzziness said.  I do play with planter pots and planter boxes sometimes, and he attends the plants in those just like the ones directly in the ground (at least when I last played him), but it is still a good idea to try planting your plants directly in the ground, especially if you don't have a lot of space
And I agree with @RandomBuzziness , that your problem might be because there isn't' enough room for Patchy. 

However, @Player_goq0p7lw and @2FAB4YOU38 , do either of you play on a console or on PC/Mac.  If you play on a PC/Mac, do any of you use Mods or Custom Content (CC)? 🤔  If you do, please try the following:

1) Move the Mods Folder to your desktop

2) Delete localthumbcache.package file in the game folder.

3) Fix you game in Origin by logging in and go to Library, then right-click on The Sims 4 and choose the "Repair Game" option from the list.  Wait until Origin finishes repairing all your packs and not just the base game.

4) Now, when you turn on your g❤️😃ame again, it will create a new mods folder that will be empty.  Check to see if your game is now working without mods/CC.

5) Now you can try adding back items from your Mods folder one at a time checking your game each time to see which item is causing your game to not work properly.  If you have a lot of items, you can try the 50/50 Method. 

The CC creators will usually update the CC items and Mods after these updates, so when you find out which one is the culprit, you can get the updated version from whoever made that item of CC in the first place.  You should try these steps anytime you have problems in your game to rule out CC/Mods problems.  It is the responsibility of the Mods/CC creators to update their items anytime EA releases a patch/update, and it is the responsibility of the people who use Mods/CC to make sure they are using the most recent version. 

Now, if this doesn't work, there might be another problem with your game, but it is best to rule out any Mods or CC items first! 😉

I also think @RandomBuzziness is correct in that if you don't have a garden, Patchy should still come to life if you interact with him enough, and do different things on your lot, some helpful, but other times he quietly occupies himself , or he will talk with your Sims! ❤️

I also noticed that he animates around noon and goes back to his post between 5:00pm and 6:00pm.  However, Patchy will have a different personality for each time you buy him.  The first time I got him, he was Evil!!! I thought this was supposed to be a Halloween thing and assumed all Patchys were evil and didn't play with him until @SheriGR kept saying how nice he was! 😃  I thought she was joking until she told me that hers had some other trait!  Since then I've never had another Evil Patchy! 🙌  I did have one with the Genius trait that loved to play chess all the time! 🤓❤️😃  Just know that if your Patchy spawns with the Evil, Mean, Hates Children, or even Hot-Headed he may not be so nice!😞  However, most of the traits are good traits or at least neural so there probably won't be any problems! 🤔

Edit:   I forgot to say that if Patchy gets hit by lightning, he will burn to a pile of ash and will be no more, unless you buy a new one! 😢

@PugLove888 You should consider yourself lucky that when lightning struck it destroyed Patchy, because in my game, a thunderstorm once happened and struck Patchy's stump while he was alive and running around the house! I could not replace the stump and the "lost" Patchy completely corrupted my save file. The only option left was to revert to an older save in order to fix it. There's a bug report on it somewhere, but since it's considered an "edge case" it's unlikely that this has ever been or will ever be fixed. Now, I always place Patchy's stump under cover in a shed or something.

@DMDragonCT, I wondered what would happen if Patchy was off his stump and it got struck.  Guess I now know! 🤨  Thanks for the warning!