Ideas

Seasoned Novice

2 months ago

Status:

Fixed

Photos/Paintings turn Black/white (Patch 1.120.140/2.26)

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 the photos have turned black! I had to load back to the previous save from last night to get my photos back. But now I can no longer play/ save the game!! The photo system is completely broken. I don't know what code they put into this new update, but I cannot play anymore without the pictures turning black after saving. Please help fix it, I don't know what else to do other than ask for help. I tried making a new save, but photos still turn black.

I've no mods/cc installed. The update today mentioned "fixes" with photo system items like graduation photos, celebrity photos, memorial photos, but I have a feeling somewhere within that coding something has gone wrong for existing photos.

EDIT: Paintings are affected too. They turn white.

Edit By crinrict: Adjusted Title

Note by crinrict

More info from Maxis on the issue:

Photos turn Black (Patch 1.120.140/2.26) | EA Forums - 13095325

Please use the following threads for other instances of this issue

[COL] Cross-Stich by Ref turning white/blank | EA Forums - 13016359

Please create a new thread if you have this for Puzzles as it currently doesn't have one.

Note by crinrict

Thanks for all that have provided info. Seeing that Maxis is on top of this, I will personally stop testing on this. Thanks to everyone that sent me saves.

For a possible workaround by jacknifelee please see this post (apologies if someone else posted this earlier, I haven't had time to read the whole thread):

Photos turn Black (Patch 1.120.140/2.26) | EA Forums - 13095325

Also a note for the next upcoming fix. Since black photos are a symptom of a bug and not a bug itself, the issue can have many causes and each needs to be fixed separately. The only safe thing you can do is keep backups of your save game and/or upload rooms with your photos to your library or gallery.

This is true for the upcoming patch when they fix another instance. Do not throw your backups away. Keep them safe. You can also keep the files in the screenshot folder in a safe place and then restore them from there if necessary:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2025/04/custom-photos-in-game-fix-for-black-photos/ (it's a bit of a tedious method and unfortunately doesn't work for console)

You can also find a mini tutorial here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mini-tutorial-148326243 to restore them from a backup. I haven't personally tested this though.

438 Comments

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felixtcy
Seasoned Newcomer
1 month ago
Just came back to play to play my 4 year old story after taking a break for a year or so, to this. Messed up. Has me thinking I may just retire it all instead. Plenty of other games to invest my time in.
sizzles21
New Spectator
1 month ago
i have recently uploaded my game and i notice when i click on my household the pictures on the wall have gone black. i have check my screenshots and all the photo are still in the file but not showing in game. This has never happened to me before can it be fix.
IndusNoir
New Observer
1 month ago
I will tentatively say that the bug appears to have been fixed in the new update, at least I have not been able to get it to trigger doing all the things that would usually do it, make new save, load save, save away from lot, swap household, save and load again etc. It would take more testing to know for sure, but at least so far it looks promising.
EDIT: To clarify, I've only tested photos, I don't know about paintings by reference as I don't really use that feature.
nickinbigd
Seasoned Ace
1 month ago
Did photos that had previously turned black return to their prior state? Or did they just fix it from never happening again?
IndusNoir
New Observer
1 month ago
As far as I know, once the data is lost for the photo, it is gone for good, the only way to fix it is to use the method linked in the main post, which requires having a backup save from before the issue arose and of course it only an option for PC.
Always backup your saves, use "save as" often to create new saves and keep copies of your old saves safe in a different folder.
nickinbigd
Seasoned Ace
1 month ago
Well, for those of us on Xbox, we could conceivably access a prior save and save those photos to our gallery? And then import them into a current/new save? My understanding was that the bug did not affect old saves that weren’t accessed during the bug, I hope that this is true.
IndusNoir
New Observer
1 month ago
Yes, using the gallery to transfer uncorrupted photos to replace those that were lost would work.
However, I now hear that the update has been reverted, so who knows what is going on...
crinrict
Hero+
1 month ago
Status changed:
Upcoming Fix
to
Fixed

Resolved an issue that caused photos to turn black, discovered after the January 13th Base Game update.

Fixed in Patch 1.121.342/1.28

Please create a new thread if you're still experiencing this issues

Please continue to keep backups of your saves.