Stuck on Family Photo Screen After CAS (June 30 2026 Update)

Same exact thing is happening to me, I thought I was crazy. 

I’ve tried absolutely everything: reinstalling my game, deleting my entire Sims 4 folder from Electronic Arts and restarting the game so it generates new files (it works one time after doing that; the first time you open the game the CAS will let you get through, but when you try to make a new sim the second, third, or fourth time, it will get stuck again on the family photo screen. It’s so bizarre).

I have 0 mods, 0 CC in; I don’t even have my old saves or tray files in, so there’s no way it’s anything of my old stuff that’s broken. I’ve seen a few other people say the same thing, I’m thinking it’s a bug or something with the new patch that’s broken. I’m almost scared to even play in my old save because I don’t know what else will break..

Hi HeresTia​ ssss_bih​ 

are you both on Windows ?

If so, could you check if your security software is blocking the game: https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html 

I think I managed to fix it - I saw some forums say it was their windows defender blocking the game. Try going into windows defender, and allowing the sims 4 folder (I used the path to my sims folder where I install mods, and the path where the actual launcher is saved) to bypass windows defender. That should hopefully fix it for you :) I haven’t tried making a new character, but everything loaded fine when I saved her & put her in the world through my gallery. Any fixes I needed to do, I just did through MCC.

HeresTia​ crinrict​ 

Unfortunately, it did not work. I even disabled Windows Defender entirely, and it didn't work. The Gallery is also down, saying the files are corrupted; mind you, this is a fresh, clean, newly generated folder. My library works, just not the Gallery with everyone else's creations. Thank you for your responses, though. I appreciate it :(

ssss_bih​ If that didn’t work, try also to allow sims 4 to bypass your actual windows firewall, which is seperate from Windows Defender. I did both of these two steps and one of them seemed to work for me. If that doesn’t help, then unfortunately I’m not sure :( I hope a fix comes soon. It’s so irritating being unable to play when you get so invested…especially when EA releases new game-breaking patches every 30 seconds.

Are you using any other security software ?

ssss_bih​