My Packs: EP: 01-16 // GP: 01-08,10,12 // SP: 01-03,05-09,11,13-18,26,29,35,38,46,48,49
Edit: Also Photos on the wall getting black after restarting game.
I stored photos in the DIY Chest and reload the savegame. If you open the DIY Chest you can see the preview image BUT if you put them on the wall, the photos turn into black.
I remember that in the past this bug was an issue before, than it was fixed and later come back.
I've really lost all hope when such obvious and easily verifiable bugs still slip through after a patch like this.
Edit By crinrict: Adjusted Title
Note from EA_Solaire:
Hi all, this issue was fixed in update 1.120.140/ 2.26
Photos captured with Phone/Camera will no longer turn black once they’ve been put in Sim’s Inventory or placed in storage chests and the game is relaunched. This fix is not retroactive and will not address instances where photos were already missing data, but the fix will prevent this from happening in the future (even in old saves).
Not sure if this is something others are dealing with but, when I'll have my sims pose for a picture or get them to take pictures of their kids doing something cute so I can have a family photo wall type of thing, I'll set it up with pictures on the walls, all in frames etc and then when I go to play my game the next day or whatever and load in, almost all the pictures that are on the wall AND in the sims' inventory are blacked out. This also happened when I got my one sim to paint a picture from referance...I got him to take a picture of his wife and kid and paint them and give it to her as a gift, she put it up on the wall and when I went to play the next day the picture was once again blacked out. I took out ALL my mods and played around for a week and this STILL happened, I put mods back in and it was STILL happening. It's super frustrating and I shouldn't have to dive into how to make CC just to have family photos of my sims in their houses. I'm doing legacy gameplay. would be nice to have family pictures over the generations.... Please if you read this far, can you like/upvote this so it can get noticed/looked at by EA!!!
I mean, I try to be as patient and understanding as possible when it comes to the fixes they keep making to the game, but SERIOUSLY, THE PHOTO PROBLEM IS STILL THERE WHEN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE FIXED IT!? And please don't tell me it's because of mods or CC, because I don't even use those. This is unbelievable, seriously!
Hello, I have the same problem... I had this issue before. After the update, I opened a new save file, and everything was fine at first until today when, upon reopening the game, I discovered that a photo had turned black. It was just a simple photo in a frame on a desk. I hoped the update would fix the problem, but it persists. It's really disappointing, and as with the first time, I won't buy any more DLC if such a problem can't be resolved. Thank you for reading.
1. I made a NEW save on 12/18/2025, the day I'm making this comment, and I took photos with the digital camera.
I "saved and exited to the main menu", came back to my photos being black.
NO FILTERS WERE USED. I just took a normal photo.
The photos that are still showing are outstanding (1) and normal.
In the screen recording, the photos in my inventory look normal, but once I took them out, they were black, except for one that was normal quality.
I'm not sure if the quality plays a part in it, but that seems to be the case.
2. I made another sim to test this out and it's the same thing.
The photos in the back are poor quality and the photos in the front are normal quality.
I did the same thing, I "saved and exited to the main menu".
Also, on a different lot, scarily, all the photos look black even if they were and still are fine. (I loaded back in, and the 3 photos were still okay)
3. This time I click "save" and then "exit to main menu", SAME THING, the poor-quality photos are black and normal photos are fine.
4. This time I "save", go to manage worlds, "save" again and then "exit to main menu".
unfortunately, that doesn't seem to help either. In an old save, I've been doing that because I thought it helped, but maybe those photos were normal quality.
5A. This time I traveled, "Saved", and then "Exited to main menu", but I left the photos on my home lot.
As you could guess, same thing.
5B. This time I'm keeping the photos in my inventory and traveling, saving & exiting to main menu separately of course.
2 photos were normal and 3 were poor. I named them based on what their quality was.
Same thing, the normal quality photos were fine, and the poor-quality photos turned black.
Except they look normal until you pull them out of the inventory.
But it's mainly for candid/tripod photos that you can take whenever, it's not for selfies or to take photos with.
Tip: if you save a camera state (holding ctrl + any number between 4-9) while in tab mode where you want the photo to be taken, when in camera mode, if you click the number, it will jump to that state.
Weirdly a few photos will look black in the inventory, but upon "saving and exiting" and reloading they are still okay but will still look black if in the inventory which is scary. (Edit: I just saved and exited to main menu, when I fully exited the game and reloaded, the photo didn't visually look black anymore)
Also, when grabbing the photos, the preview image is completely different then the photo I took. It's from a photo I took earlier on this ridiculous journey.
Also looks different in the inventory...
Just to reiterate,
Photos in storage boxes and digital frames turn black,
photos with filters turn black,
photos that are poor quality turn black.
cherished and Photo Booth pictures turn black when placed from the gallery :)
photos that you saved to your library in case it turns black in game, will also be black.
There's no saving this.
The only thing you can do is:
Don't take photos with filters.
Make sure the photo is Normal+ quality, if it isn't, take it again.
Don't put your photos in any storage item or digital frame.
Edit: I edited this post so much, but I tried again and separated the poor and normal+ quality photos, and now 3/7 of the poor-quality photos are fine. I guess and assume you still have a better chance at your normal+ quality photos NOT turning black.
Every so often, the photos my sims take turn black. This is very frustrating. Apparently this has been an issue for over 4 years now. taking photos is one of the coolest game mechanics, especially for players like me who enjoy creating large families. This bug takes me out of the game and ruins some cute family memories I try to capture.
i created a “buffer” household with no photos. Once I’m done with my main household I switch to the buffer household and save and exit from there.
when the game loans in I select save and manage households then select my main household and the photos are all there! Including inventory and digital frame photos. No luck with paintings though!
then when I’m done I go back to my buffer household, save/exit and repeat!
nothing else has worked for me before this and I’ve been dealing with this glitch for months. Lmk if this works for any of you??
Fingers crossed! I’m a legacy player so this bug has been devastating!
