After the new update to fix pictures turning black, all of mine turned black.

All of my photos are blacked out after the update that was supposed to prevent that from happening. My game is up to date and was fine last night. 

Hi! So with this new patch, I thought they fixed this glitch? And yet today, my photos have never glitched this much before. Playing my legacy save and randomly every single picture I have hanging on my walls (which is a lot, cause it's my legacy save), all are now blacked out. I'm so over this glitch.

the patch before I give it to you, you fixed the black photos, but then the memorial photos turned white, now IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FIXED ON THIS UPDATE, it's all broken. portaits i had to take for funerals are all black, baby photos wedding photos etc etc all gone, the memorial DID work but guess it did for a few hours and it goes back to default, 

I play family gameplay. photos mean so much 

it really needs sorting out and properly!. get someone to test first. because now the update has completely broken my game !

I'm playing on a very recent save file, a new game started after the 12.2025 update. Everything was more or less fine with the photos until the 13.01.2026 update. All the photos turned black! How can a bug that was supposed to be fixed cause so much damage to a recent save file from a month ago, without mods or custom content?

EA has announced a fix for this coming with the patch in February. I recommend you hold up on taking photos until then.

jpkarlsen But this does not mean that we will get back our photos. We have never recovered our photos without an older save. The funeral and graduation portraits will be gone unless you have an older save, and even if you try to save them on the gallery they are still black when you place them in the current save. I don't want to be mean, but I have been trying for a year to avoid these image-related bugs and I know that it is an old platform for such a complex game and the people are trying to solve all the bugs, but I am really tired to try and keep my save alive.  This is the first time I didn't make a save and my older save is from December, so I have two options now: to lose my progress since December or to accept that every funeral and graduation photo I have had so far is lost. 

This has never been about new photos, it's all the existing ones going black (the ones we can't get back) that have people so incensed.

I wasnt having this bug at all before the recent update. now every picture in every save is black!? What is going on EA? im assuming my photos are gone forever? thats a real low blow. EA keeps face punching me! im sick!

All my photos turned black too after the update. 😭 👌🏻 That's not ok. 

I've played the same family for over a year now, have HUNDREDS of photos and art at both my home and club, all black.  I've removed all of my mods, no difference, but we all know this is a save game corruption issue.  Never any significant problems with my game until this last update.  

I guess I won't be playing again until February and see if Maxis can get it right.  I certainly won't be purchasing any more buggy Sims content.

If EA/Maxis really cared about keeping their players happy this would be released as a hotfix asap.

Same here, I wasn't affected by the glitch until this recent update, now all my pictures are ruined. I've spent a lot of money over the years on this game, I'm absolutely sick of this. This game is so broken now, rather than fix it, they cash grab with another expansion pack. Fix the bloody game!! I for one am not spending another penny until something is done about the constant crashing of the game on my console and the glitches in the game 

I felt the same way they should spend more time fixing the game instead of putting out more new content that’s gonna break the game even further. I just started playing lilsims very veggie challenge. Thought the black picture glitch was fixed. Started taking pictures. Put them on my wall now they’re all black. They’ve said they fixed the problem several times but yet it’s still happening for a game that’s been around for as long as the Sims has not just the Sims four but the entire franchise you would think that they would spend their money a little more wisely and making sure that the community that plays their game is happy and will continue to want to play their game but EA doesn’t think that way at all they care about is their profits the bottom line so what in the game broken who cares we’ll throw a few bug fixes in here and there make the community happy, and they will say we’ve got some brand new content for you. Why don’t you spend your hard earned money on it just so we can break your game again. And another thing that I’d like to bring to their attention, they put out more bug fixes for the PC players then they do for the console players. I know that the console players don’t measure up to the number of PC players, but when you’re gonna fix a game, make sure you take the time to put as much effort in to the console players as you do for the PC players cause not all of us can afford to have a PC that will run a game this size especially when they have nearly every single pack y’all have ever put out for the Sims four.  Like I said, I’m one of the lonely little console players that doesn’t have access to custom content so I play the game the way the game was intended to be played and I don’t have access to the mods that the PC players have that can fix their game quicker than y’all can fix the game. 

Same here! I’m so so SO upset. I opened my main save and all my sims baby photos, grandparents photos, wedding photos, prom photos, everything was black! I just recovered my game to a previous save and I’m not gonna open it until the next patch. Hopefully my photos will be back. 

You speak the truth. Us console players are definitely second class citizens in the. Sims/EA universe. I feel like most of the time EA just counts on the modding universe to fix the problems themselves. And they just don’t care that console players are left with an endless string of broken features.

As I have written elsewhere this is unfortunately correct. The reason why they can not be restored is because they are saved as black in the screenshots folder. Which is why I recommended not to take photos until this is finally fixed by EA.

No they are not saved black, they simply are not saved, the images are not committed to the save file and with a broken link the photo objects just show black.

People with PCs and Sims4Studio and an older copy of their save with all the photos intact can restore them, but its not worth trying to do that until EA really properly fixes this problem.

So, does this happen on old saves? I ask because I have a semi-new save that was created before the latest update. I had the Sims take selfies and hung them on the wall. I then saved and exited the lot, then reloaded it from the main menu. Upon entering, all the pics were still the same. None was black. I haven't loaded my game yet to check and see if the pics remain the same or not.

Yes it affects all save files if you load them with the current game version.  They will appear fine when you load, you can even save the game and all the current photos on the lot you are on will be fine, but every other one in every other lot are toast in that new save you just did.

Don't use your old save. Just in case. 

My photos are turning black like crazy after the update. I spent so much time taking family photos in one save. I'm not saving/playing in it until this is fixed in hopes of them being restored eventually. Please for the love of god fix this bug. I know there are a ton of other people having the same issue and probably feeling the same way. 

My save is a brand new file I deleted everything started over. New legacy took a huge amount of pics and they all turned black….I’m so disappointed EA but not surprised. The bug clearly is not fixed. I play on Xbox :(

Found the solution btw.  I "obtained" a local ver 1.118 copy of Sims 4 and removed the Steam version.  My game is now running well again and I'm officially done with EA/Maxis going forward as I have zero trust in them.

I had updates turned off just for this reason. I didn't realize that when you update the launcher, it goes back to the default setting. Now my game updated and every photo in game is black. Good job guys.

I had just noticed my save file size went down. Now I know why. I suppose at least I know which one has my photos.

it really does my save file size went down too, thanks for sharing