krisisvp The concerning merged files aren't the ones directly from a creator of their own work - they're the ones that show up online containing many people's CC/mods. If you don't have those, you're fine.
Do you have MC Command Center? PandaSama has a tutorial on how to use it to find duplicates: https://www.pandasama.com/tutorials/checking-for-mod-duplicates/
Otherwise, it might just be that you have more content than your system is handling well, and that your solutions is going to be to delete the mods and CC you don't actually use -- the stuff you downloaded because you like it and might use it someday.
i cut my mod folder down from 40GB to 15GB, started a new save to test, and it's still crashing.
thank you for all of your suggestions (re: duplicates -- i already went through everything with mod manager and got rid of all of them).
i'm kind of at a loss at this point. i'd never had this issue until last november (i think they had an update back then).
krisisvp When you're 50-50'ing, is it always starting with the same batches? Have you tried making a new user folder (rename "The Sims 4" that Mods is in) and moving the mods into the newly created folder, in batches, testing on a new save?
I've been trying batches randomly in no particular order.
I just made a new user folder, like you said. I launched it with no mods. My game flashed black a few times like it does when I have mods installed. Then I got this ... maybe this has been my issue all along?
krisisvp Time to take this issue to Tech Support, then. It may indeed have been a coincidence that it seemed like a mods issue. Once you're not getting that all all , with extensive gameplay over multiple sessions, that's when to start reintroducing mods.
