When loading into my game from my last save from last night (January 12), all my photos across the save are there. Now when I try to save today after the update, upon logging back into the game all t...
Ideas
EA_Solaire
Community Manager
Community ManagerHi all,
We wanted to provide an update here as we know this issue has been frustrating, and these pictures represent important moments in your Sims’ lives that matter to you. Before we go into more detail below on the nature of black photo issues, we do have a fix confirmed for the issue reported in this thread that will be released with our next Base Game update on February 3rd.
What causes black pictures?
Black pictures are a symptom of different issues, not one single bug. Most of the black picture issues you’ve seen recently trace back to changes made around The Sims 4: Businesses and Hobbies. Before Businesses and Hobbies, the game saved all custom images (i.e. tattoos, custom CAS paints, photos) - both ones still in use and images you had used before, but have now replaced - directly in your save file. This kept pictures safe, but it also caused save files to grow very large.
In Businesses and Hobbies, we introduced optimizations to reduce save size by removing custom images that are no longer in use. While this helped performance and storage, it also introduced new edge cases. In some situations, images that were still being used were mistakenly removed. When that happens, the game no longer has the data needed to display the picture, resulting in a black image.
Why does this bug keep reappearing?
There are many ways that different systems use custom images in The Sims 4. This means a fix to resolve black photos for a specific scenario won’t resolve the issue elsewhere in-game. Even when symptoms look the same, the underlying causes can be different.
Can already broken pictures be restored?
It depends on the type of issue.
- If the image data was permanently deleted there is no way for us to restore it. Once that data is gone, it’s unrecoverable.
- If the image still exists but isn’t displaying correctly (what we call a “blank picture” issue), those can sometimes be recovered through fixes.
This difference is why some fixes apply retroactively to older saves, while others only prevent the issue from recurring in the future.
We know pictures are deeply personal to how many of you play, and we’re continuing to treat this as a priority area. Thank you for your patience, your saves, and your detailed reports, as they directly help us track down these issues and improve the game.
You can say whatever you want, but you introduced this bug in the latest patch that allegedly was supposed to fix this very issue. People are crying here, and you are going to release an expansion pack focused on legacy gameplay with broken photos. You even have them in the trailer. It is inexcusable.
Exactly this!!
Right! Make it make sense!
I totally agree with you. My pictures were working fine until this January 2026 patch. Even new pics are turning black. The more updates we have the worse the game gets. I've been playing the sims since early 2000s. And this Version is the worst. Nothing EVER works, correctly. It's Sad!
Unacceptable. The people who work on this game for a living have lost the plot. You pay all sorts of attention in your words to how much you know we love creating our family legacies. And yet this.
I'm going to try and remain cool. But hundreds of photos are now blank in my save. Hundreds of paintings. I do not understand how you broke it even further. This needs to be fixed in an emergency update. It simply CANNOT wait for the pre Expansion pack update. This should be your top priority right now as this was the key focus of your recent update and it simply didn't work.
My entire families pictures are gone. Wedding photos. Baby pictures, first date pictures. Photos painted by the husband of his wife GONE! It needs to fixed immediately not later. I am trying not to be angry but this is outrageous and then to say it MAY be able to restored is completely unacceptable.
Why is EA Solaire's explanation not pinned at the top?????
/facepalm I swear.
TA1111 There's no solutions at the bug forum hence you can't pin anything.
It's linked though.
crinrict EA_Solaire Pinning an informative update from the EA Community Manager makes sure people first see accurate, current data about the photos going dark.
Players know it's not a solution. But it is an explanation and EA Solaire's post answers the FAQ.
Thank you EA Solaire for acknowledging that the photos are meaningful for the players.
Thanks so much for explaining, that makes a lot more sense now!
Could the sudden drop in image quality of photos have to do with the same root cause, that the higher quality texture maybe got deleted and switched for the lowest quality version of the photo?
https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/in-game-photos-have-become-blurry-as-if-compressed/12512904I wonder if mermaids that after some time lose their tail is also a texture that got optimized like this and deleted? https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/il-mermaid-tail-is-invisible/11936742
Photo resolution got nerfed a few months ago, but yes now Paint By Reference images are similarly nerfed to 1/3rd of the resolution they used to be after this last patch that super-broke all the custom image saving routines.
They're breaking one of the most interesting mechanics of the game here. Even when they manage to fix saving photos and paintings, the decision to force them all to very low resolution kills the appeal to even use it. EA_Solaire give us back the option to have higher resolution images, make it an OPTION and by default leave it at your new terrible low res, let us use this feature like we used to before you all started wrecking it last year!
Just bring back the orginal photo resolution. I don't care if my save file is large, at least it's stll safe to play. How could the devs downgrade the game feature for optimizations and turns out it's worse!
Honestly this is so frustrating. All i hear from EA is excuses and empty promises. I dont understand how you guys can continue to release new packs and ask for more of our money when a major major element of the game has been broken for a year. You continue to push new content and packs, meanwhile you cant even fix the current game. I have spent hundreds of dollars maybe even in the thousands on Sims on all the games and packs. I will not continue to support. The packs are overpriced, the game is so glitchy and frustrating.
People have been playing the same save for years and doing multiple generations and now have lost all the photos they have taken. That's beyond frustrating and devastating to players who have put in so much time and money. This bug has been occurring for a year with no fixes yet you continue to sell new packs.
You should make a patch to allow people to import their screenshots into the game as framed photos as all the photos are in there saved. We just need a way to put them in our game without having to make custom content!!!
I agree with the comments that said you guys need to treat this as urgent and give it an emergency patch and NOT make us wait until the next planned update.
I also agree with the commenters that said the fact that you guys are pushing another new pack even though you JUST promised us you were taking time off of that to FIX THINGS (many of which have not only NOT been fixed but have been made WORSE) is reprehensible. Legacy gameplay is so severely broken in so many ways that you've told us to pretty much stop doing it, but now you want us to shell out $40-80 (depending on where we live) to play legacy style?
I'm honestly disgusted, disappointed, and actively seeking an alternative to the sims because I don't have any faith in the dev team after we were promised you were taking time off making new packs to fix stuff and that turned out to be a big fat lie. It's one thing when a patch is supposed to fix something and it doesn't. I get it, code it complicated and I doubt you're trying to lie in that case. But to tell us you're taking time off to work on fixes and then four months later you've got new content to shill out to us? You've been working on that this whole time, while pretending to care about the game breaking problems your longest standing customers have.
I've loved the sims since the sims 1, and these issues could have all been avoided if you guys had taken the time to fix issues as they came up, BEFORE churning out the next expansion, instead of adding more floors on top of a crumbling foundation. You chose greed instead. But that pales in comparison to the slap in the face I felt seeing the ad for the next expansion come up so soon after you assured us you were taking time off to dedicate yourself to fixing problems.
My computer broke and I lost all my save files of the sims 4. After this I installed the game on my new computer after the photo "fix" was already released. The first time I started my new save file after having put brand new photos on the wall the previous day, the photos were black. I have no mods installed and though I do own business and hobbies my new save file has never been started with business and hobbies active.
To add to this. Besides the player photos going black, the signed autograph photos also have the same issue.
I don’t even have the Business and Hobbies pack. This is a base game issue. Basically all I’m hearing is you all purposely shrunk save files for absolutely no reason at all (because no one is complaining about their save files being too big in sims) caused a maybe unfixable bug. Released an update that was supposed to fix all of this but actually made everything worse and now you’re saying the data maybe deleted forever and it is potentially unrecoverable because you all decided to change something nobody asked for. This is outrageous. This needs to be fixed immediately not February 3rd right now. Delay this new pack that we didn’t ask for and fix the game! Stop releasing new packs and FIX THE GAME!!!!
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