lots won't load

@pif623

Please go into Documents > Electronic Arts and move the Sims 4 folder to your desktop then launch the game. It will be like new again. Play for a bit and then save and quit, then reload that save - does it freeze/crash?

I tried doing that but when I started up my game none of my saved games were there.  I thought you mean that everything would run smoothly, not like it was 100% brand new lol.  Is there a way I can do this without losing all of my saved games?

The point of this "clean folder test" is to try to isolate the cause of your problem.  If you can play a new game using this new folder for a while without seeing the issue (make sure to try to load several different lots), then you can start adding your old content back into the new folder.  You can go back to your existing saves to see if the issue shows up again, and as you add your content back in, you'll narrow down the list of possible causes.  But it's important to find out whether the issue is still present in a clean folder or not, as that will give Bluebellflora a better idea of how to help you further.

The issue is still kinda present even with the new folder.  I've played around with it and have had mixed results.  Some lots have loaded (my test family, The Zest household, and the Free Spirits) but other lots (The Vatores, The Pancakes, Lobo, etc) didn't load.  Half of the time the game froze, the other half it crashed.  The only difference is that when it freezes it's just the giant plumbob frozen on the screen, as opposed to the game making it's I'm-done-loading noise but with a completely black screen.  I am unsure where to go from here.

Bluebellflora is the real expert; I'm sure she'll have more troubleshooting advice when she's back here.  But in the meantime, it would be helpful to post your computer's specs, so she has a better idea of how to move forward.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4756624#M4

@pif623

Please can you provide more information about your Mac. Instructions on how to do so here - http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-4-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4612396/highlight/true#M162

@pif623

Thanks 🙂 Have you considered upping the RAM in your Mac to 8Gb? 4Gb is low and may be causing the issue. Are they large households you're trying to load? How about if you try to enter the lot in build mode? Which town are you playing in? I've deleted everyone from my towns but I'll start a clean game and load up the households to check later.

Also, how much VRAM does your NVIDIA GeForce 650M have? You may find downloading the driver from NVIDIA may help (I did it on my Mac with that GPU and the difference in gameplay is astonishing) but it's not normal practice so don't do it unless you feel comfortable. I have written a guide here on how to do it.

Make sure you have nothing else running on your Mac whilst you play too.