[INFO] How to Use Mods and CC

When Your Game Doesn’t Work: Finding Broken Mods and CC

In this post:

• Testing "Vanilla"
• Making a "Clean" (New) User Folder
• ... and some other useful tricks
• Previous Known Issues
• The Broken/Updated Mods and CC Lists
• The 50-50 Method: Batch Testing
• Other Things to Check For

Testing "Vanilla"

Sometimes your problem isn’t a mod but looks likely to be one. Sometimes you don’t think it’s a mod but you’ve been asked by a helper to make sure of that. This is called (in Sims world) “testing vanilla.” Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4
2. Drag or move (not copy) the Mods folder to your desktop.
3. Delete the localthumbcache file.
4. Start Sims 4 and test what’s needed (including whether you’re asked to test in your previous save or a new one). If it works, guess what? It was your mods/CC!

If you still see mods in your game when you do this, you have an installation issue and are in the wrong folder.

"Clean" User Folders

If you’re asked to test on a "clean folder," here’s Crinrict’s method. Mine is similar:

1. Drag the folder "The Sims 4" out of Documents > Electronic Arts to the desktop.
2. Restart Sims 4. You should see no option to load an old save! If you do, you moved the wrong folder.
3. Reset your Options (you won't be putting the old file back for that).
4. Test in a new game to see if you still have the problems you did before.

When putting content back in after creating a new folder, copy files out of the old folder into the new one. You'll want to copy back these:

• files in Saves
• files in Tray
• files in Mods (but not the Resource.cfg file), but don't forget to test!
• files in Screenshots and Videos

... and some other useful tricks

Some mods leave errors even after being removed. You might need to do a "Save As," have a Sim travel to a new lot, load a different household, or edit a Sim in CAS, for example. Testing a new save or new household can help problem-solve this too. Feel free to post to get support if you're sure your issue is a mod but it seems to persist in your save.

Previous Known Issues

The Mod/CC Issues Master Post lists and links to some recent and common issues that are known to be caused by broken mods/CC. 

Mods and CC broken from earlier patches and some older "known issues" are in Previously Broken mods and CC.

If testing vanilla showed that your issue wasn’t mod-related even though it really looked like it was, you might also find it in that post, or head to Gameplay Issues or Bug Reports.

The Broken/Updated Mods and CC Lists

The Broken/Updated Mods & CC lists kept in this Forum (previously, on AHQ, and before that, the earlier Sims forums) give players a convenient first stop when they have an issue and a way to generally keep up with mod news. A new list is started for most patches. If a patch doesn’t require a new list, that info will be in the top post. When you’ve found by testing vanilla that a mod is the cause of your problem, or if it seems really likely that it’s a mod, checking the lists might save you the hassle of more complicated testing.

More on using the current list is in this post above.

When to Check Previous Lists

If a recent patch was for an EP or a major addition to the game (on the scale of when Infants were added, for example), there will have been many mod updates. Many of those mods won’t need another update for a long time. Some of you with a lot of mods hoping not to have to test all of them might want to check the most recent major update list. You’ll find those linked in the Mod/CC Issues master post.

The 50-50 Method: Batch Testing

Often, the lists don’t solve your problem. That might be because you’re using mods that we can’t discuss in these official Forums. It might be because you found a mod that broke a really, really long time ago. You might have found one that hasn’t made it to a “broken” list yet.

Thankfully, you don’t have to test every gameplay mod and set of alternative eyelashes separately, one at a time! You can batch-test with a system that Simmers call the 50-50 method. Here’s how:

NOTE: As of patch 1.114, there's a bug with Mermaids with custom tattoos, where if you remove a custom tattoo (including CC ones) that a Mermaid is wearing, the game crashes on the main menu. Before testing your Mods folder, remove custom tattoos from Mermaids or remove that save from the Saves folder.

1. If you didn't do that already, test vanilla — without mods or custom content. See above.
   
2. Drag your Mods folder to your desktop and/or rename it. Both work to trigger the game to make a new Mods folder.
3. Delete the localthumbcache file from Electronic Arts > The Sims 4.
4. Start Sims 4 then exit. Now you have a new Mods folder.
5. If you have enough disk space, make a test copy of your original Mods folder on your desktop. You can the test copy for the 50-50 so that you don’t lose the organization of your original folder.
6. Divide your test folder up into batches. You might not need to do much for this step depending on how your Mods folder is already organized. You can start with batches as big as half your Mods folder.
7. Some mods depend on other mods to work. That might be a CC mesh or an injector mod like XML Injector or a core library mod. Make sure dependencies are batched with the mods that depend on them. Otherwise, a mod might seem to not work, but it could just be an installation error.
8. Start with one batch. Copy it into the new Mods folder the game made. Try it out. Is it all okay? If yes, delete it from Mods, delete localthumbcache, and drag that batch to a folder for cleared batches.
9. If a batch fails, test part of it. Somewhere in that failed batch is a problem. Separate it into smaller batches and test those separately. It’s common to take out half the batch, hence “50-50.” Remember to keep track of what’s already tested and what isn’t, and keep deleting localthumbcache. Test these sub-batches and keep making them smaller and smaller to narrow down the cause of the problem.
10. Finally, test the likely culprit alone or with only the mesh/injector/core mods it requires.

A 50-50 won’t always find a mod problem. It will, for example, miss issues that aren’t a result of a game patch, like duplicate files, mod conflicts, missing dependencies, having mods you don’t have required packs for, and wrong mod installation. However, while you’re doing the 50-50, you might notice some of these issues, and it’s a great opportunity to make your Mods folder better organized for next time.

If you have gone through the 50-50 with no results but putting all your mods back in is broken, you might have a mod conflict. Try testing additively: Batch by batch, add mods. If a batch breaks, something in it is conflicting with the other mods, or inside that batch.

Other Things to Check For

• Duplicates: Having two copies of a mod, especially an older version and a newer one, can cause lag and other game issues. NOTE: Better Exceptions by TwistedMexi will identify and show you the location of duplicate files. Do not use tools that retain older file dates instead of newer ones. This makes literally no sense. The best way to find duplicates is to
  
  1. Keep your files organized by creator.
  2. Actually look in the folder when you add or replace files
  3. Delete the old files
• Installation issues: Are your mods that have ts4script files only one folder deep? Do you have mods requiring packs you don’t have? Are you missing mesh/core/injector mods your mods/CC depend on? Have you installed mods that are listed by their creators as conflicting with each other?
• And more: Are your mods in the right folder? Is OneDrive or another syncing app messing with them? Do you have merged .package files that could include broken content?

A Note on “Conflict Detectors”

Mod “conflict detectors” are, unfortunately, accurate only for finding duplicate files and Sims 3 mods. When they point out that two mods “speak” to the same piece of game code, they aren’t telling you if they do that in a way that causes any problems. In other words, they don’t accurately show you that two mods conflict in a way that is meaningful. They also can’t tell you if a mod is outdated.