Tiny Builds Christmas Village Challenge
Yay, excitement is in the air as we get closer to the Christmas holidays so let’s kick it up a notch with another tiny build challenge. For this theme, think of vintage / Victorian buildings inspired by Christmas village sets like Lemax and Dickens. Challenge criteria Create a Residential or Community build, and build as high or low as you wish, however the lot size cannot be larger than 10x10. Align your architecture, colours, textures and decor with the vintage / Victorian Christmas theme. If you plan to build based on a specific building from Lemax, Dickens or similar village sets, it would be great if you post a quick note in advance so we don't duplicate. Include at least 3 objects from any of the free EA Store Happy Holiday Presents and / or Just for Pets collections. All EPs, SPs and official EA store content can be used, however no external 3rd party content please. You can Custard check your export file to double-check. More than one submission is fine, and links to sims or households created for your residential builds are welcome. No budget limit so let your imagination soar! When your creation is available on the Exchange, just reply here with the name of your build, the download link and up to 5 pictures including front view. You can link to additional media if desired. Submission deadline for inclusion in the showcase video: Dec 19, 2025 Tips! Do play test your builds to ensure no routing issues. Don’t want to have those sims stomping and getting stuck right! Windows and flooring tiles can go wonky if placed too near the lot edges. Adding them at least 1 square away should work, however test your build by placing a copy elsewhere in the world. Take a look around to ensure all is fine and fix this and any floating tiles as needed before final export. Take screenshots in Live mode. That removes gridlines from view and looks more attractive. Hidehi’s Christmas Village created by Rflong7 is a pretty builders world for use with this challenge since it features snow covered terrain, however there's just one 10x10 lot. You can easily bulldoze the existing larger lots to add 10x10s using the in-game tool, however you can build in any world of your choosing. Looking forward to seeing your tiny Christmas creations!
[PLEASE READ] Save Game Corruption
Please read the first post carefully and post in the thread that reflects your issue best. Go in order from top to bottom if you see multiple of the symptoms. The top ones are more specialized as the bottom ones. Please feel free to use this thread for general discussion of the issue, but note that this thread is NOT being tracked by Maxis any longer. The threads linked below are being actively investigated. Please follow them for any updates. Problem The save game starts to disintegrate itself. Lots start to get deleted, causing endless loading, loading into empty lots or Error Codes 800/801. Where to post It seems that in order to better track the causes for this issue, separate threads are needed. You do not need to repost any info you already posted here. There are currently different issues so please use either of these going forward. Make sure to read through the first post of each to be sure you’re posting in the correct thread. If you get a White screen after loading into world with an R-rental, please use this thread: White Screen when loading world (Patch 1.109.207) If your save is corrupting and you have a lot of r-rentals in your save game, please use this thread: [FR] Corrupted Lots/Houses disappear in saves with lots of rental units If you get Load Error 800 or 801, please use this thread Load Error Code 800/801 If your game shows all the neighboring lots as default/empty instead of the correct lot, use this thread: Neighboring Houses show as Default/Empty | EA Forums - 11903590 If you downloaded a specific lot from the gallery and that gives you endless loading/crashing when leaving the lot or trying to load into it, please use this thread: Endless Loading/Crashing when trying to load a certain lot (broken object(s). Please be aware that this issue isn't a corrupted save game. It's a corrupt lot. If you downloaded a few random lots from the gallery and you start to get endless loading with them, please use this thread: Placing lots from the gallery freezes game/endless loading If you're buildings are disappearing but the furniture is still there, use this thread: Floating furniture and building completely gone If you’re buildings are disappearing/reverts to base, you have exclamation marks or lamas on the map or the houses are different on the map and in the game (even after loading into the lot), please use this thread: Houses/Lots Disappear If you want to discuss repro steps with others, there's a thread you can use here: Save Game Corruption - Testing and Findings From 10 Years of Experience | EA Forums - 12541920 Troubleshooting The issue is really hard to pinpoint but there are a few things that can accelerated the issue. This issue is not mod caused but it can be influenced by mods and cheats, especially if you create lots of Residential Rental units in your save game. Save Game Size. The issue usually typically happens on larger save games. There are a few factors that contribute to save game size that you can keep an eye on Lots of huge houses with lots of objects: Try to keep those down. Consider using empty houses for set decoration if you don't play certain lots but want houses to make it look nicer Photos Sims take ingame. Try to only keep the photos you really like and that contribute to your gameplay. Delete everything else. Photos take up a lot of space in the save. Lots of Sims. The game creates Sims at abundance. Delete the ones you don't use from time to time. Usually there's nothing you can do once it starts happening. Update 2025/04/24 by Crinrict This is currently not on the laundry list yet but Maxis listed it as something that needs extended investigation Laundry List - April 24th, 2025 | EA Forums - 12111206
Pictures taken are black!
Console: PS4 Whenever I take pictures using the camera, my pictures turn black. I've tried saving it right after but it does nothing. Had a picture room of my children as the grew and came back to a room full of black pictures. Please fix this as I really do like taken pictures of my families as they grow. Thank you[COLLECTION] Issues with Swatches (Buy/Build/Phone)
This thread is for all issues with swatches (missing, duplicate, wrong color) in buy/build. Please create one post per object. Information to provide Name of the object Pack of the object Screenshot of the issue Index Duplicated Swatch Armed Living Chair duplicated color swatch [CoL] Duplicate Swatch Garden Party Wainscotting Wallpaper Simly Park Shaker Cabinets have duplicate swatches Swatch Thumbnail Preview [HCHSP] [LD] Wrong Upper Cabinet Thumbnails (Zoomed Out) Shelf Swatch Thumbnail Doesn't Match Item Colour [GRO] Haughty Herringbone Floor / Wall Grey Swatch has Black Preview [GHK] Greenview Door - green/yellow has brown preview HBD Sliding Door wrong icon swatch (twice same icon) Swatch Displays Incorrectly IndustryMatters Brick Facade with Wood Trim Has Incorrect Corner Texture [DTMK] Wall Texture Inconsistency across wall sizes [GT] chalkboard warm wood color instead of grey [CD] Hands Free Railing shows brown on blue swatch Simly Park Shaker Counter show with gold swatch instead of silver/black Misc [HSY] Phone Case Swatch Does Not Match Design [HSY] Yellow Phone Case has Swatch that's Pink with Stars [SBCK] Room Divider missing swatches [BH] Purple swatch only on one door Raw Style-Wall Pattern: Wrong price for some swatches [GF] 'Modern VIP Exclusivity Door' missing swatches Partly missing transparency on yellow swatch of 'Inspiration Desk' Some swatches of The Schmapple Micro have fewer texture details "The Sloop" and "The Sloop. Jr" are missing swatches from Feb 2025 update[FR] [CHEAT] Unable to increase rental unit cap
Since the most recent base game update I am no longer able to increase the residential rental unit cap from 6. I have tested this in both a modded and vanilla game with no luck. I've entered the cheat bb.increaserentalunitcap on as I've always done and this no longer appears to do anything. I've never had to enter testingcheats true or testingcheats on but I did anyway just to cover all basis and it made no difference. I don't see anything mentioned in the update notes where this feature would be removed so I'm assuming this is a bug. Edit By crinrict: Added Tag to Title, Adjusted Title
[LD] [DU] Memorial Portraits/Graduation pictures show up blank
The memorial portraits from the Life and Death Expansion Pack appear to be bugged as they no longer generate an image of a deceased sim, instead showing a blank white image. Extra Information: I'm on Windows 11 PC I'm on Version 1.117.227.1030 DX11 of the game. I don't have Journey to Batuu and Outdoor Retreat Game Packs, Cool Kitchen, Perfect Patio and Luxury Party Stuff Packs, Refined Living Room, First Fits, Industrial Loft, Courtyard Oasis, Country Kitchen, Throwback Fit and Fashion Street Kits. Found initially in a modded save, but I tested in a non modded new save and the issue still occured. Edit by crinrict There's a few similar issues now. Please everyone use the appropriate thread for the issue you are seeing. [GF] Can’t frame an autographed photo | EA Forums - 11858990 [GF] New autographs turned into family photos | EA Forums - 12323735 Photos/Paintings turning black/blank (1.102.190/1.82) | EA Forums - 11936008 [LD] Memorial Portraits No Longer Generate Image of a Sim and Show Up Blank | EA Forums - 12501962 Edit By Crinrict: Adjusted Title
Shopping cart notification blocking UI
Since the last patch I have had continual popups show up on the shopping cart icon, promoting the, Grange Mud Room kit. I used to get a popup every now and again advertising this and that, but now it happens, every time I travel with a sim, every time I enter and leave CAS, every time I go into edit world. It covers in game notifications and is very distracting. At first when I enter the game there is noting on the cart for about 5 minutes, then the light shows up and the popups begin. I am playing on PC, in a completely vanilla game that has never had mods/CC installed. I have all Expansion, game and stuff pack and also have most kits. I am finding this situation to be very invasive in my gaming time and it is putting me off playing and definitely putting me off purchasing any more kits or up and coming packs. Note from EA_Solaire: Hello all, If any of you are still encountering this on the latest game version (without mods), could you please provide your save files, as well as screenshots or video clips of this occurring in-game to assist with our investigation? If so, please send me a private message with a link to the file. Instructions can be found here: [INFORMATION] How to Send User Files to The Sims 4 Team Thanks! If you're having issues with your game freezing due to main menu ads, please see the current bug report here: Frozen game/menu after ad
Unable to load savegame: purchased pack not recognized
I have two PCs with Sims 4 installed - one at my parents' place and one where I live. I transferred the save to an external drive to move it to the second PC - worked fine so far. When I moved the files back to the first PC, I try to resume the game and get to a "load game" screen, where Sims asks me to select a savegame - stating "requries horse ranch" (which i own!). I click on "play" and get a popup "missing content". When clicking on "view packs", it shows me the horse ranch dlc with the note "you already own this pack". I quit the game and repaired the entire Sims 4 - this won't solve my problem though. Please assist, as I am quite obviously stuck in a screen that shouldn't appear in the first place!!! To be clear: I did this move-savegames-around-thing various times and never had any problems. Please fix your **bleep**, EA. Also, it is incredibly hard to find a place for opening tickets on your site - why do I have to create a public blogpost instead of being able to create a private ticket...?
