[CL] [ECO] Apartment Lots become generic lot/Broken Thumbnail/Red X
Hello,
I have been experiencing a recurring save corruption issue since one of the patches released around March–April 2026. I have played The Sims 4 for more than 10 years, own all expansion packs, and play on a high-end PC. I have already tested many common troubleshooting methods, including:
- -Removing mods
- -Deleting cache files
- -Disabling Neighborhood Stories
- -Disabling N.A.P. voting and Eco Lifestyle gameplay effects
- -Restoring older save backups
Unfortunately, none of these methods permanently resolve the issue.
Main Symptoms:
The issue usually begins with visual or lot-related corruption:
- -Some San Myshuno apartments suddenly display white placeholder blocks and may appear as "General" lot type.
- -Evergreen Harbor apartments may show incorrect thumbnails, including:
- -Red X icons on gray backgrounds
- -Thumbnails copied from completely unrelated lots that were recently visited or edited
- -Nearby lots may suddenly lose their proper preview images and appear blank or reset to default visuals.
These symptoms often appear before more severe problems occur.
What Happens Next:
If I continue playing after the above symptoms appear, the save often progresses into more serious problems such as:
- -Endless loading screens
- -Blank neighboring lots
- -Incorrect lot data
- -Increasing instability during travel
At this stage the save usually becomes unusable.
Additional Observation:
Even if I quit the game without saving after noticing the corruption, the most recent save file may still load with these symptoms already present.
Because of this, I often have to restore the second or third most recent backup save to recover a stable state.
Most Reliable Triggers:
The issue appears most frequently when:
- -Entering and editing multiple lots consecutively from Manage Worlds without entering Live Mode. Usually after editing 2–4 lots. This is especially noticeable in newer worlds added by recent expansion packs. The issue can occur whether I: Build from scratch. Replace lots from the Gallery. Change lot types. Make only minor edits (such as bedroom count).
- -Traveling between multiple community lots during a play session. After visiting approximately 5–6 lots, the game may freeze for several seconds. The freeze does not always generate a Last Exception report.
- -Occasionally after heavy inventory interactions. Examples include dragging items repeatedly, using Copypasto on plants or potions, or performing large inventory updates. This trigger is inconsistent and may not always reproduce the issue.
Important Notes
- -The affected apartments themselves are not Rental Residential lots.
- -I rarely use For Rent gameplay in this save.
- -The problem did not occur in my game before the March–April 2026 patch period.
- -Prior to that period, I regularly edited many lots in a single session without any issues.
- -The issue can often be reproduced without entering Live Mode at all. Simply editing several lots consecutively from Manage Worlds appears sufficient to trigger the corruption.
I am reporting this because the problem appears related to lot data, apartment data, or world-level data becoming corrupted over time, and I have been able to reproduce similar symptoms repeatedly across multiple play sessions.
Thank you for investigating.
Edit By crinrict: Added Tag to Title, Adjusted Title
