this has never happened before while playing the sims??? suddenly my screenshots are black and i don’t know how to fix it. some of my pictures look cut off or just completely black. i’ve repaired my game TWICE and even made a backup folder, put my stuff in that folder and started everything over, but nothing has changed.im in need of assistance since something like this has never happened to me while playing the sims. even when i went to my capture manager and scrolled down, those pictures that were black didn’t even show up in my sims game. please help if anyone knows how to fix this or has had this issue before!

Switch to windowed fullscreen incase you are playing in fullscreen.

@jo0kth Do you normally play with any other programs running in the background, and if so, does it help to close them? It's possible that something that has a user overlay, for example Discord or Steam, is interfering with the screenshots. And just to be totally sure, do the screenshots look black if you open them?

i usually close all programs when i’m playing the sims! so nothing is on in the background or anything. when i click on the screenshots and scroll through them, they just appear black. they don’t finish loading or anything, they’re just completely black or halfway black

the screenshots are still the same ;(

@jo0kth Just as an experiment, please drop the in-game resolution to the lowest setting you have available. You can put the game in windowed mode first so it doesn't look stretched. Then take a couple of screenshots and see whether they capture the game window or not. If that doesn't help, move the Screenshots folder to the desktop and try again.

screenshots black in sims 4 | EA Forums

11 Replies

Zasz_Zerg
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Switch to windowed fullscreen incase you are playing in fullscreen.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@jo0kth Do you normally play with any other programs running in the background, and if so, does it help to close them? It's possible that something that has a user overlay, for example Discord or Steam, is interfering with the screenshots.

And just to be totally sure, do the screenshots look black if you open them?
jo0kth
New Novice
4 years ago
i usually close all programs when i’m playing the sims! so nothing is on in the background or anything. when i click on the screenshots and scroll through them, they just appear black. they don’t finish loading or anything, they’re just completely black or halfway black
jo0kth
New Novice
4 years ago
the screenshots are still the same ;(
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@jo0kth Just as an experiment, please drop the in-game resolution to the lowest setting you have available. You can put the game in windowed mode first so it doesn't look stretched. Then take a couple of screenshots and see whether they capture the game window or not.

If that doesn't help, move the Screenshots folder to the desktop and try again.
Zasz_Zerg
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
As a workaround until it works again, pause the game for each screenshot, hit the print key, open paint, use the insert option in the top left, save file as the desired format.
Or do it like me, get greenshot. A little tool Im using for all my game screenshots.
jo0kth
New Novice
4 years ago
Oh, i haven’t tired this method yet, but i did have something else to add onto my first post:
i’ve been on windowed mode recently and been taking screenshots ever since then and the rest of my screenshots are perfectly fine and okay, but those photos for some reason are still black. i’ll get back to you once i try your method though!
jo0kth
New Novice
4 years ago
Okay i’ve tried your method and it still hasn’t worked. honestly i think nothing could help my screenshots return to normal and they’ll just end up staying black ;/
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@jo0kth Are you saying that some of your new screenshots look fine, but others do not; or that all of your new screenshot are fine but the old ones are still black? There isn't a way to fix a screenshot that's already black, and I'm sorry if I gave that impression. The point was always to stop the problem from happening going forward.
jo0kth
New Novice
4 years ago
i’m saying all my new screenshots are fine! but the other ones shown in the pictures are still black ;(