No frozen lakes or rivers during winter??

HI @beattleeyes 

Your computer is a bit low in specs and your graphics drivers are from 2012. Do check the Intel Site if you can find any newer ones that work: https://downloadcenter.intel.com

What settings are you playing on ?

The folder renaming I referred to is this:

Try resetting your user files as described in the factory reset described in this post: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4/FAQ-Troubleshooting-Steps-amp-Known-Issues/m-p/3621199

You won't loose anything. Just make sure to not delete any files  and make a backup.

After renaming, repair your game by right clicking on the game in Origin.

Try on a new game with nothing added back first (start new game). If it works, put back your save game and try again. If it still works, you can start putting stuff back.

• Options.ini (or just re-set all your settings manually)
• Tray Folder
• Screenshots/Videos/Custom music
• Rest of the save games (leave out slot_00000001.save which is the autosave and no longer needed - if you still have it)
• Custom content like clothing, hair, skins, make up ....
• Mods (one by one, making sure they all still work)

The rest does not need putting back, cause they are mostly cache files that recreate or log files that are not needed for the game.

No problem @beattleeyes!

It occurred to me while I was just playing my own game that maybe it is related to settings/hardware specs? I wonder if the ice texture doesn't display correctly on lower settings or maybe with some graphic card chips? It seems odd that you had ice showing up before and not now though.

I wonder if a recent patch caused this change for you?

I also double checked my game to be sure by starting a new test save in Winter and can't replicate it either.

Hi @crinrict

I'm hoping I've worked out what's causing the issue. I followed all of your instructions and backed up my Sims 4 folder and repaired the game and opened it up and started a new save in winter. Everything worked fine, the lakes and rivers were freezing over. 

I then went back to follow your steps of putting back my original folders. I started with the tray folder and copied everything in the back up folder to the new sims folder. I then opened my new saved game and the water was no longer frozen over just a blue colour  (similar to the water in sims 2). Does this mean there is an error with the old Tray folder?

Thanks again!

@beattleeyes It sounds like you've got one or more corrupted items in your old Tray folder and it could be a Sim or a lot. How very strange though that it would cause ice to disappear from the water! Stranger things have happened though to me during my time playing the Sims.

There's a program called Sims 4 Tray Importer, which you already may have on your computer if you've ever downloaded Sims or lots as Tray files from Tumbler or elsewhere, which will let you export each item in your old Tray folder individually, so you can then take them and try them one by one in your new Tray folder and see which one is causing your problem.

If you don't have Sims 4 Tray Importer, you can find it easily on Google. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link it here or not.

I've attached a screenshot from my install to show you how to export your Sims and lots as ZIP files. It's really simple, because all you need to do is just go to File>Export and then once you click Export it will bring up a box to save your Sim or lot.

Once you export a Sim or lot, all you need to do then is open the corresponding ZIP file and move all the contents from it into your new Tray folder. This is actually quite similar to the method used to find bad custom content, since it's basically the same steps of just checking each item until you find the culprit for your problem.

Try this and let me know how it goes!

@beattleeyes Does your existing save work if you don't put anything in the tray folder ?

Also moved this to the tech forum for further troubleshooting.