Strongly advise off buying/placing the new Lin-Z (Alexa) object until a patch fix. Or at the very least, copy your save to your desktop before you do -- you might need it!https://twitter.com/EnglishSimmer/status/1075704588701974528For specifics, it seems (if I understand this right on only one coffee) that the issues are: Travelling to a lot that has one Deleting one Putting one in your inventoryThe fixes available are: Going back to a pre-using-the-thing save. Which is not ideal.If you have not yet had this error but do have a Lin-Z, you can try deleting it, saving, exiting, and then deleting the localthumbcache file. This has been reported to work by some people to remove the Lin-Z from relationships. Edited with details from @crinrict : The main problem are visitors atm. They seem to form some kind of pseudo relationship with LinZ as soon as they enter the lot/room. If you delete LinZ when that has already happened, those Sims will be borked and I haven't found a way to save thoseIf you didn't have any visitors, make sure all your Sims in the household have a relationship you can see in the panel, before deleting it.If you delete it and one or more SIms have a pseudo-relationship, the lot becomes unloadableSame happens if you move it to the household iunventoryUpdate:Workaround!https://twitter.com/crinrict/status/1075775195611189252https://twitter.com/crinrict/status/1075775785800105985New update: Update your Sims 4 in Origin! Yay!

"Simpkin;c-16881089" wrote:what is lin-z?Lin-Z is an Alexa-type controller added in Tuesday's patch.

Was about to go into game and take a look at it too. Glad I saw this guess I gotta wait til a fix it made for it before I can use it. :( Thought it'd be a nice object for my tech sims and my family homes.How strange that it's causing problems

"LadyKyn;c-16881094" wrote:Was about to go into game and take a look at it too. Glad I saw this guess I gotta wait til a fix it made for it before I can use it. :( Thought it'd be a nice object for my tech sims and my family homes.How strange that it's causing problemsApparently it takes just the right sequence of events to trigger it -- more complicated than I put in the OP but also not entirely controllable -- so it might just not have happened in testing, unfortunately. It's hard to test for something you don't 100% control.

@luthienrising Thank you so much for sharing this information. Definitely going to delete that thing for now. Glad I kept my stereo that had been in the room where I put Lin-Z.

Thanks for warning us. I haven’t played since the patch was released but I will be careful not to buy the object for my families. I’m glad I seen this thread because I was going to let my actress sim have one.

Lin-Z object warning! *Update your game

luthienrising
Hero+
6 years ago
"Simpkin;c-16881089" wrote:
what is lin-z?

Lin-Z is an Alexa-type controller added in Tuesday's patch.
LadyKyn
Seasoned Traveler
6 years ago
Was about to go into game and take a look at it too. Glad I saw this guess I gotta wait til a fix it made for it before I can use it. :(
Thought it'd be a nice object for my tech sims and my family homes.

How strange that it's causing problems
luthienrising
Hero+
6 years ago
"LadyKyn;c-16881094" wrote:
Was about to go into game and take a look at it too. Glad I saw this guess I gotta wait til a fix it made for it before I can use it. :(
Thought it'd be a nice object for my tech sims and my family homes.

How strange that it's causing problems

Apparently it takes just the right sequence of events to trigger it -- more complicated than I put in the OP but also not entirely controllable -- so it might just not have happened in testing, unfortunately. It's hard to test for something you don't 100% control.
JaggidEdje
6 years ago
@luthienrising Thank you so much for sharing this information. Definitely going to delete that thing for now. Glad I kept my stereo that had been in the room where I put Lin-Z.
SimsFan19922015
Seasoned Newcomer
6 years ago
Thanks for warning us. I haven’t played since the patch was released but I will be careful not to buy the object for my families. I’m glad I seen this thread because I was going to let my actress sim have one.
AlbaWaterhouse
6 years ago
Thanks for the heads up!
JaggidEdje
6 years ago
This is really too bad.. I was going to try to hook up Lin-Z and Potty Mouth to see what the genetics would make of their kids.
loubyloulou
Seasoned Novice
6 years ago
I think deleting the object if you've already placed it might also cause a problem. Here's a summary from @crinrict's site:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/en/2018/12/error-1029285f331/
luthienrising
Hero+
6 years ago
"Stormkeep;c-16881153" wrote:
@loubyloulou OH plum! My tumblr feed had a warning about it that said you should delete it so I already did.
Grrr
Going to see if I can cull the thing out of relationships on a global level using MCCC. Really hope I don't start having issues. >.<

Hmm..also making a list of all the sims I know that visited my household while I had it, maybe go around town and use MCCC to get it out of their relationship panel will help.

The issue seems to be deleting it *after* a non-household Sim has a relationship with it. You may be able to get away with it before that - just be sure to keep backups in case it doesn't help, and delete localthumbcache. There's still testing happening, too.
JaggidEdje
6 years ago
@luthienrising Thanks for the info! Definitely no one outside my household developed any relationship with it...heck, my household barely did.
That's good news.

I do have a backup save (several, including one pre-patch) just in case. Again, thank you much!

Edit: I was able to successfully travel to a restaurant with my whole active household + every sim who had visited since I got the speaker. Hoping that means things are fine.