serenade on digital piano issue

@aodoherty  Ok, you probably already looked at this but did you check the relationship panel to make sure that they are still shown as married, and/or have a high romantic score?   Those do deteriorate over time, unless you have a mod set to freeze relationships.  So if there haven't been enough social interaction between them, then the bars will drop.  I didn't even know that option was there since I don't use the digital piano much.  It's probably on the regular pianos too and I just haven't noticed it before either.  The way the thing is worded though makes me think that a certain level of romantic relationship is required for it to go active and the game is not seeing enough of a that kind of relationship so it keeps the option greyed out.  

Also My male sim and female sim are all in the same active household. Now they have twin kids.

Only pianos don't work for the serenade.

There's no this issue with guitar and violin. Only Pianos... My sim completed the friend of the world aspirations, so the relationship can't be decayed. Also they are living in the same house, so it can't be decayed as they are talking everyday. Also my female sim completed this friend of the world aspiration too.  I tried with different household in the new game but still don't work with completely vanilla status.  

And one more thing i want to mention is that sim who performed the serenade in youtube, yes that same sim is the one I'm currently playing. Now he cannot perform that serenade any more... ☹️  He was able to do it in August last year even with mods and ccs.

@aodoherty, when you started having this problem, did you test this without your Mods/CC?🤔  While this could be a bug, we have had a lot of updates since last August and some of your Mods or CC could now be outdated.  You would need to get the most recent version of any outdated Mod or CC. Also, sometimes bits of corrupted data can linger, so it is best to do 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 game 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 any time 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. 

If you try the steps listed above and still have the same problems, then it might be a bug.  But we need to rule out any outdated Mods/CC problems first! 🙂
Please update us on if this helps your problem or not! 😇

@PugLove888It could be my bad English.  I've done from 1 up to 4, and then still don't work, so I posted here. I know what to do first before asking questions here.

@aodoherty, I'm sorry I worded that poorly!🤭  Yes, you took out your Mods folder, so you did try to test it without your Mods. 😳  And the game repair sometimes helps too!🙂  But still, sometimes bits of corrupted data remain, and deleting the localthumbcache.package file is often a crucial step in fixing that.  It is usually best to remove your Mods folder, delete the localthumbcache, , and repair your game.  
Then if you start up your game and it still doesn't work, we can rule out a Mods/CC interference. 😉

So, can you try to do all the steps to make sure.😇  It very well might not make a difference, but for many people with problems in their game that use Mods and CC it fixes the problem.  We need to rule out completely a Mods/CC conflict first. 🙂

@PugLove888Another one I want to tell you is my other vampire sim was able to perform this when I got back to The Sims 4 with DU last December. I will try this male sim again after current male sim's graduation. The current sim is Roy, another vampire who was able to perform this last December was J. I will try with J again.

@aodoherty, thanks for testing with another Sim that you had been able to do the piano serenade with more recently.  But please also try doing the steps I listed in order.  If it turns out this is a bug, you can make a bug report afterwards, but until then, we need to rule out any Mods/CC conflicts. 😇

@aodoherty I tested this last night and I cannot reproduce this issue in my game with my Level 10 Piano skill Sim. The "Serenade" option works just fine when I try it on a piano, both with and without singing. If it's a bug with either the pianos or the piano skill, then it does not seem to be something that is generally affecting all games like some of the other bugs we've seen recently.

I'm with @PugLove888 in that if you remove your mods/cc without also deleting the localthumbcache.package file, then you can't be certain an outdated mod or CC is not causing this. Sorry if you have already tried this.

If the serenade does work for Roy, perhaps it could be that J and Diana's relationship is somehow glitched? If so, the game might not be recognizing their relationship status as being sufficient to meet the requirements for serenading, as @CGrant56 suggested. You could try using the resetsim cheat on one or both of them or use Manage Worlds to temporarily move one or both of your Sims out of their home and then back into the same one (if this does not fix anything just exit your game without saving so you won't lose anything by trying).

It seems like you have put a lot of time and care into this family so I hope we can find some way of fixing this with you!

Today, I tested all family who has level 10 in Piano skill. First of all, I will post all screenshots.

Spoiler

I didn't remove any mods or ccs at this moment. This is J sim. His name is Jinwoo, a Korean name, my nationality. 

He can play the tunes even though I didn't remove anything. Only different point is that his wife is Zoe Patel from Oasis Springs, Maxis sim.

I was so happy, so I recorded his playing. :D

So beautiful...I love this tune :D He is playing this tune in Roy Winn's house.

Looks like the video doesn't work properly so I brought this from youtube again.

And then, I switched the active family to Roy Winn Family.

Spoiler

Roy is exactly on the same spot where J sim performed serenade for his wife.

Also Roy's wife is in front of him.

I evicted whole Winn family at the managing world and put them back in but still didn't work.

Spoiler

This household is totally different one from J or R families. These guys even don't know about Roy and Jinwoo.

Both of them don't work. I created these sims when ROM was released. So this household is the latest sims I created.

Roy sim was born in 2017, Roy is a very old vampire sim.  Jinwoo was born in maybe 2018 as the 2nd generations from his vampire parent sims.

Roy married with Jinwoo's sister. So Roy's wife is not a premade sim by maxis but Jinwoo's wife is.

Spoiler

The guys in the white box cannot perform serenade at all.

Only the guy in red box can do.

Now I just took out all mods folder one more time, then repaired whole game in Origin one more time.

Of course, deleting cache files is regular routine  I do before starting the game.

Then I tried again.

Spoiler

They still cannot perform the serenade each other.

Spoiler

Even though, this Louie's violin skill is only level 6, but there's no problem to perform the serenade.

It doesn't work only for PIANO...  If the game didn't recognize their relationship, then even this violin and  guitar serenade wouldn't be available.

And Also...On piano, even singing serenade wouldn't be available if the game didn't recognize their relationship but singing serenade on piano works.

Spoiler

These guys are the 1st generation in that family tree screenshot above. They have 2 sons and one daughter, and that daughter married with Roy.And One of their son, Jinwoo married with Maxis sim in Oasis Springs.

Over all, Only Jinwoo sim can perform that serenade who has Maxis female sim as a spouse. The others have all my created sim or 2nd generated from this guys and they cannot perform the serenade. But the sim in the video from youtube I posted on the first writing, is Roy. He used to perform the serenade and the woman sim in youtube video is his current wife. But now he cannot do it any more. anywhere in the world.

Here is a question. If the game didn't recognize their all relationship, then why all of them can perform serenade on guitar and on violin? If the game didn't recognize their all relationships, then why all of them can  perform 'singing serenade' on Piano? All the instruments were supposed to be inactive but only serenade On PIANO with no vocal(singing) doesn't work. 

I feel like maybe the game doesn't recognize their Piano skill level?

(Post edited by CM to add spoiler tags. Click to expand and reveal images)

@aodoherty I have to say I agree with your logic here. Those are very good points you've made on this unlikely being a relationship status problem vs. a piano skill problem. I should have thought of those before I posted and sorry if I got any of their names wrong. For either of the affected male Sims, can their wives perform the serenade on the piano? This would confirm it's not a relationship status issue.

For one of the affected Sims, can you try a skill level cheat to manually change his piano level to see if this helps at all?

stats.set_skill_level Major_Piano {1-10}

https://simsvip.com/sims-4-cheats-codes/#Skills

Maybe go with stats.set_skill_level Major_Piano 9 to temporarily set his piano skill at level 9? If it works you can use the same cheat to restore him back to level 10 later.

If this does not work either, there is a mod you might wish to try that will allow you to see all of the hidden traits of your Sims. Perhaps this could provide more clues as to what is going on here. I do not leave this mod in my game as I rarely have a use for it, but I have temporarily installed it to find the cause of unusual behaviors with my Sim's roommates.

I hope some of this helps or that someone else will provide better answers than me. I very much wish to see your game work properly again so that your Sims may enjoy this lovely song!