Hi,My Sims 4 has just started to get stuck on a certain time during gameplay. I have updated the game, repaired all game packs and extensions, saved as in another game, and I have no mods. It will just not go past a certain time and then will not let me click on anything. Any advice would be much appreciated Thank you 🙂

@CHUBSTERLOU5 As mentioned, you can copy over the content of your old Sims 4 folder to the new one, although it's best to leave behind cache files and other extraneous data. The households and builds you've saved to the in-game library are in the Tray folder, screenshots are in Screenshots, mods and custom content in Mods, etc. For the affected save itself, you can manually recover an older save from before Winterfest. The relative sizes of the save files will show you which ones are affected. Here's how to recover a save (use the manual method): https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/#wiederherstellen If your backups are affected as well, there are mod-related solutions to try to fix your save. I can't post mod links here, but this page has the information you need: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2020/11/father-winter-doesnt-appear-at-winterfest-endless-generation-of-father-winter/

Gameplay won't move past a certain time

16 Replies

KellySim15
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 I have this exact same problem and its only started today! My game won't go past a certain time and as soon as it does, the game completely slows down and almost freezes. The mouse still moves but I can't click on anything, move the screen around etc. Its like it's frozen but it hasn't?! And I cannot quit the game unless I manually shut down my laptop.

No matter how many times I restart or repair etc, it does the same thing over and over. I've been trying to fix this for hours ☹️
CHUBSTERLOU5
5 years ago
Yes same! I have to power down my laptop as I can't do a thing. I hope it gets fixed soon 😢
Every time I get an amazing family going, something crashes or glitches!
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 and @KellySim15 Is this your issue?

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/CURRENT-ISSUE-Game-Freeze-Extended-Loading-Times-Save-Game/m-p/9721942#M160860

If so, directions on how to fix it are in the post.

If that's not your issue, try switching to a different household before the time when the game gets stuck. Switch households, immediately "save as" to rename the save (so your original remains intact as a backup), quit, delete localthumbcache.package, reload, and try to play past the time when teh game usually gets stuck. If you make it past, save again, quit, delete localthumbcache, reload, and go back to your original household.
KellySim15
5 years ago
@puzzlezaddict thank you so much for linking me to this and taking the time to answer and provide assistance. I really appreciate it!

After reading that post, that's exactly the problem. I didn't even click about Father Winter not showing up to my recent Winterfest in the game until reading that article! That explains it. I have the file bloats, last exceptions in my folders as well etc.

I ended up doing this and it seems to of worked! Also removed Father Winter from Winterfest just incase until their is some kind of other fix for this.

@CHUBSTERLOU5
After reading the linked article etc, this was what helped solve the issue for me:

Move entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto desktop and launch the game. A clean folder will spawn with no content.
CHUBSTERLOU5
5 years ago
@KellySim15 @puzzlezaddict
Thank you for your replies.
I'm not very savvy with sorting these things out. It's sometimes a different language to me.
Trying to sort as we speak 🙂
KellySim15
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 that's okay, hopefully you manage to sort it but if not then I will try my best to explain how mine worked and I'm sure @puzzleaddict would help too 🙂

Fingers crossed it gets fixed for you!
CHUBSTERLOU5
5 years ago
@KellySim15 moving the folder reset the game so fingers crossed. Just gutted I lost my family I'd done so well on haha.
Thank you for helping! X
KellySim15
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 no worries! I think you can copy your saves back over but they have to be from the time before Father Winter was supposed to be there which can be hard to pinpoint sometimes!
There is an option to copy over other stuff again like your houses and builds etc but unfortunately I'm not tech savvy enough to know how to do that properly so I basically started afresh as well.

If you maybe look up how to do that, you can still find it all I'm sure.
Sorry I could help anymore there but if your new reset works and you have no issues then thats hopefully it fixed for you!

Thanks for starting this thread so we could work it out together 🙂 x
Sherryist
New Scout
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 I'm having the exact same problem. Someone gave me this link but the "solutions" are not solutions, this isn't solving the underlying issues. The game is now completely unplayable. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/CURRENT-ISSUE-Game-Freeze-Extended-Loading-Times-Save-Game/m-p/9721942/highlight/true#M160860
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago
@CHUBSTERLOU5 As mentioned, you can copy over the content of your old Sims 4 folder to the new one, although it's best to leave behind cache files and other extraneous data. The households and builds you've saved to the in-game library are in the Tray folder, screenshots are in Screenshots, mods and custom content in Mods, etc.

For the affected save itself, you can manually recover an older save from before Winterfest. The relative sizes of the save files will show you which ones are affected. Here's how to recover a save (use the manual method):

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/#wiederherstellen

If your backups are affected as well, there are mod-related solutions to try to fix your save. I can't post mod links here, but this page has the information you need:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2020/11/father-winter-doesnt-appear-at-winterfest-endless-generation-of-father-winter/