Photos/Paintings turn Black (Patch 1.120.140/2.26)

I own all Sims 4 packs and play on Mac ; this happens when mods are enabled and disabled.

I am experiencing a severe and worsening black photos bug following the 1.120 patch (13 January 2026). The issue affects placed photos (on walls, tables, desks, or any lot surface) in rotational legacy saves. Pre-patch, I had moved all important photos from Eco Lifestyle cardboard boxes to walls because those boxes were causing black photos on unload. After the patch, the problem has flipped: placed photos on walls and surfaces now turn permanently black on inactive households after household switches, saves, exits, or reloads, while inventory photos remain safe.In my first test on a post-patch save, I loaded Household 1 (photos intact), played normally, switched to Household 2, saved as a new file, exited the game, reloaded into Household 2 (photos still fine), then visited Household 1’s lot. All placed photos on Household 1’s walls had turned black, while Household 2’s remained intact. This suggested the corruption happens specifically to inactive household lots during unload/reload.

I then rolled back to an older, intact pre-patch save and tried to “fix” Household 1 by travelling the household off-lot and back, re-saving as “Test Photos”, exiting, and reloading. Household 1 photos were fine on reload, but as soon as I switched to Household 2, Household 2’s placed photos turned black. This showed that travel can temporarily pin the active household’s textures, but switching corrupts the inactive one.

Further testing revealed that exiting the game is a major trigger. In another older save, I switched between households in-session (photos fine), went to Manage Worlds, saved as a new file, exited, and reloaded into the last active household. On reloading, the placed photos in the previously active household were now black when I switched again. Saving again from the corrupted state spread the issue to other households.

I tested inventory safety by moving some photos to household inventory and some to personal Sim inventory in an older save, saving as, exiting, and reloading. Household 1 reloaded fine. Switching to Household 2 caused placed photos there to go black. Returning to Household 1 showed that untouched wall photos had now turned black, but all inventory photos (both personal and household) remained perfectly intact. Placing photos on tables or desks also blacked out in the same way once corruption spread via save/exit. This confirmed that only placed lot objects are affected; household and personal inventory are completely safe.

Finally, I tested Gallery recovery in a corrupted test save. I placed a previously saved my residential lot from my Library (photos looked intact in the preview and on initial placement in Household 1), switched to Household 2, saved as, exited, reloaded into Household 2, then returned to Household 1. The newly placed photos from the Gallery had turned black again, exactly like the originals. This proves that even redownloaded lots and rooms suffer the same permanent texture loss on unload/reload after the patch.

So basically, the patch’s photo “fix” is not retroactive and appears to have made the situation worse for existing legacy photos in rotational saves. Placed photos permanently lose their texture references when their lot becomes inactive during switches, saves, exits, Manage Worlds usage, or reloads. Once black in a save file, the photos are gone forever—no moving, re-placing, repairing, or reloading recovers them. Household and personal inventory photos are unaffected and remain the only truly safe storage method. This is devastating for rotational gameplay, as it erases visual history across households. I have multiple save backups and detailed reproduction steps if needed. Please prioritise a retroactive fix for existing photos in rotations. Thank you.

PS: this also applies to Life & death frames for family portraits and graduation photos from Discover university ; the become blank if hung and are fine in Sim's inventory/household inventory