Investigating Game Launch & Save File Issues
Sul Sul Simmers, If you’re unable to play The Sims 4, we want to hear from you. The more detail you give us about the issue you’re having, the more it helps us be able to replicate it internally, which is the first step towards fixing it. Please only respond to this post if you have an issue with your game and by answering these questions, as this will provide us the base line info needed for our investigations; Does the game launch at all? If not, do you get an error message? If yes, does the game endlessly load? Does the game load, but buildings, lots, worlds, or Sims are missing? Is this happening to every save, or one specific save? Does this happen on new saves as well? Do you use mods? Does the issue persist after all mods are removed? Have you tried repairing your game while mods are removed? Does the issue persist after repair? Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the game? Does the issue persist? Receiving a save file of the issue happening is the most helpful way for us to be able to investigate further. If you happen to have a save file that will not load, please send it to us by following the instructions here, please also include the above bulleted information, or a link to your post in this thread for tracking. Our team will be reading every comment in this post and you can help us keep this thread on topic to ensure we don’t miss any critical info. If your issue is one we’re already tracking, we’ll move your comment to that thread to keep things organized. Thank you for your patience and help with our investigations!
Laundry List - November 25th, 2025
Hi Simmers! Welcome to the Laundry List, where we update the community on what's coming next to The Sims 4! We’re thinking about giving this series a new name and we’d love your input! The Laundry List is where we share updates on the topics you’ve been talking about most, so it only makes sense that you help decide what it’s called. Should we keep the current name, go with something more descriptive, or try something totally new? Share your thoughts with us in Discord via our feedback forum that is available now! As we move beyond our 150+ fixes with the November 4th update, we remain committed to resolving your top community reported concerns. Many of our remaining top community concerns are trickier ones to fix, as they’re deeply connected to other game systems and take more time to solve safely. That means you might see fewer fixes from this team, but each one will make a bigger impact and help create a more stable game overall. We also know that community concerns around Careers have been top of mind for Simmers, and you’ll see some investment into that area below. We’ll have another batch of fixes for you in early 2026, more on that below December’s fixes. These fixes are separate from the ongoing investigation into save file issues, which we’ve provided an in-depth update here. As a quick recap, we've shipped a fix for residential units causing a white screen, and our investigations into large saves and Error 801 is providing great leads for future fixes. We also published articles that provide guidance for playing performantly, and how to back up your saves for extra peace of mind. You can read all of these articles and more on our EA Forums Sims Game Info Hub. As always, if you’re hitting crashes, infinite loading, or missing lots, please read our post here to see how you can share affected saves so we can gather some critical information to aid our investigations. - The Sims Team Here’s the list of the top community concerns you can expect to see fixed in our December update: Top 5 Most Voted Fixes: [EA Forums] Sims will once again change into their outfits in front of toddler Sims. However, the cause of the issue is different for other ages and we’re still investigating those instances to hopefully fix in an upcoming update. (Base Game) [EA Forums] Sims are now able to travel between world/lots without the Seasons screen popping up. (Seasons) [EA Forums] Male Gallery Sims will no longer have high-pitched voices. Their correct voice tone will be used. This fix is not retroactive and will only affect future saves going forward. (Lovestruck) [EA Forums] We fixed an instance of Save Corruption that was resulting in Error code: 123:b378c837: In this Save, a Sim was dead, a ghost, and min LOD (Not actively engaged with by the player), which was causing some code around Small Business careers to crash the game on load. We made it so that if a Sim is referenced in this situation the game will not crash when trying to load. (Business & Hobbies) [EA Forums] Made progress on Children being taken away despite not being neglected. More investigation is required before we mark this one as fully resolved. (Life & Death) Base Game: [EA Forums] The Nature Soundscapes radio station will no longer wake up Sims when they listen to it while sleeping. [EA Forums] Teens will retain their active Aspiration (so long as it is not a ‘Teen-specific’ Aspiration) when they age up into a Young Adult. [EA Forums] We rebalanced the “Mental Fog” moodlet to appear after 3-4 days of running the “Work Hard” career tone. It used to appear after 1-2 days of doing this. [EA Forums] The Arrrmed Living Chair had a duplicate color swatch. We didn’t want to remove a swatch, because that might break existing builds, so we decided to change one of those swatches to be a new variant. When choosing what color to go with, the artist thought this piece of furniture might nicely match some of the Enchanted by Nature furniture in style. But it felt odd to add just one swatch, so we added an additional two other variants, but then realized the Arrrmed Living Chair was part of a set, and we probably wanted those three new variants to match other pieces of furniture from Base Game—takes a breath—so in total there are at total of 27 new free swatches (9 objects with three new variants each). Here’s a list of the updated furniture pieces. Enjoy! (We know Princess Cordelia would!) Arrrmed Living Chair Deep Delight Living Chair Cuttlefish Love Seat Cuttlefish Sofa Arrrmed Dining Chair Captain Rodrigo de Pablo Dining Chair Arrrmless Dining Chair Cephalopod Bar Stool with Back Support Cephalopod Bar Stool [EA Forums] The Main Menu will no longer show “WWWWWW” when there isn’t an active Household to display on the Main Menu. [EA Forums] Sims will once again change into their outfits and not remain nude in front of Toddler Sims. [EA Forums] We fixed an issue where Moodlets and Quirk notifications could occur for a Young Adult Sim. [EA Forums] We fixed some texture issues with the IndustryMatters Brick Facade with Wood Trim wallpaper when applied to wall corners for two of the wallpaper’s variants. Sims without the Horse Ranch Expansion were able to get a Fear of Horses, but this can no longer happen. Good and Evil Sims will no longer mourn excessively at gravestones. Adventure Awaits: [EA Forums] We partially addressed this Forum Thread with a significant fix. Pre-made Custom venues will now display and execute their premade Schedules in the Release mode version of the game. This means when you load into a premade Custom Venue, you will now see the proper schedules and gameplay. This was previously only working on our internal builds due to some code that needed changed. [EA Forums] cfTop_EP20PulloverLayered is now tagged as a Masculine style choice option. [EA Forums] All Adventure Awaits Toddler and Child hairstyles are now visible if you remove the Masculine/Feminine Style choice filters. The Gran Gran’s Flannel Curtain rods were using a different shader than the curtain set, but we’ve updated them to use the same shader. This was done on purpose since curtains and solid objects use different shaders, but in this case, it caused a difference in some lighting scenarios which made the objects look like they were different colors. ymTop_EP20FleeceCurve was missing fashion choice tags. These have been added. Autumn Apparel: [EA Forums] Fingernails will no longer clip through the yfAcc_GlovesSP69Leather asset. Business & Hobbies: [EA Forums] The ‘Stucko’s Top Stucco’ Wallpaper now extends fully to the floor when applied. [EA Forums] We added a missing purple variant color swatch to 8 doors and windows. Lang's Door Double Arched Nordhaven-Style Door Single Nordhaven-Style Door Arched Nordhaven-Style Window Nordhaven-Style Portal Window Nordhaven-Style Cottage Window Nordhaven-Style Window Nordhaven-Style Glass-Block Window Cats & Dogs: [EA Forums] We fixed a situation where it looked like you couldn’t have more than 7 Sims in a Household. This was because the Household had an empty Sim slot ‘reserved’ for an “Adopt a Cat” story arc that the player couldn’t know was happening in the background. This story arc will now just wait until there is an available household slot and not prevent the addition of new members to the Household in the meantime. [EA Forums] We added timing restrictions on how often a Pet can explore the PooHoo Bush to every 3 days. Doing this causes them to get sick and was previously happening too frequently. Sims will no longer receive a text from their Pet about missing curfew. City Living: [EA Forums] Sims in the Social Media Career will now automatically meet their Coworkers so that they can perform certain work from tasks. This fix will only occur on fresh saves. Cottage Living: Added a shadow to the Cottage Living pack icon. For Rent: [EA Forums] Lines will no longer appear on Sims’ arms while wearing either the yfTop_EP15StackedPocketShirt or ymTop_EP15StackedPocketShirt shirt if nails are also equipped. Get Famous: The “Attend Drama Club” interaction is now available as a Self-interaction and on other Household members when a Teen Sim is at max level in Drama Club and has left for rehearsal. This interaction will remain for 90 in game seconds afterwards to allow the player time to select it. Greenhouse Haven: The AirCycler fan will no longer disappear when viewed from a different floor than the floor the player is currently on. High School Years: [EA Forums] The Corndog food object is no longer using a block model (which appeared as invisible in the live version of the game). This also fixes the related issue where it didn’t appear in preview UI images. Life & Death: [EA Forums] House Parties and Spooky Parties have been added as viable options for the Bucket List goal “I want to throw the most bizarre costume party of all time!” [EA Forums] Ghost Sims will no longer appear as a regular, living Sim while in the Reaper Career attempting to collect souls. [EA Forums] The Mentor Coworker interaction is available on a Co-Worker while they are performing “Practice Reaping’ on the training dummy. The “Ingest Ambrosia” interaction is now available to Ghost SIms when Ambrosia was made by Sims from another Household. This was preventing Sims who were in the Reaper Career from eating Ambrosia. My Wedding Stories: [EA Forums] We fixed an issue where the “Exchange Vows” interaction could become greyed out on the Wedding Arch even though the necessary Sims were present for the ceremony. Paranormal Stuff: The Terrified and Scared emotions are now available in Sim Stats. Realm of Magic: [EA Forums] All variant textures display the logo of the bottle properly on the Classic Apothecary Cabinet. Seasons: [EA Forums] Children and Teens can now donate on the computer when in the Scouts after school program. Vampires: Non-Vampire Sims will no longer autonomously eat Plasma Fruit Salad. Multiple Packs: [EA Forums] We fixed an instance of Save Corruption that was resulting in Error Code 109:4fe45107:239aa048: There was a Clone Sim in this Save game that has a Household with a status of “None” in our code. We fixed it so if a Household is in this state it will no longer crash the game upon trying to load. (Business & Hobbies & Get to Work) [EA Forums] We fixed an issue where sand sculptures were auto-generating on beaches when it rained a lot. This is still occurring if the Weather Machine is used by the player, but we have a fix planned for that instance in an upcoming patch. (Island Living & Seasons) [EA Forums] We made a change that allows gates with lanterns to have the lanterns light up the area around them. This should now work for the following gates: Spanish Inquisition (Base Game) Woodn't You Like to Know (Base Game) Maiden’s Gate (Base Game) Barn Door Double (Cats & Dogs) Cozy Craftsman Gate (Seasons) [EA Forums] Sims who dislike Mischief or Singing will no longer autonomously do mischievous behaviors or sing. (Basegame & City Living) [EA Forums] The Police Station, Foxbury Commons, and other work computers are now fixable after they’ve broken. (Get to Work, University, & More) [EA Forums] The Tomarani Introduction will now fulfill the “Greet Co-Worker” task in the Doctor Career. (Get to Work & For Rent) Fixed an issue with Temporary Stays where certain Sims couldn’t be invited to stay over from a Residential Rental lot. (Growing Together) As we head into the new year, our team maintains focus on improving stability and performance across The Sims 4. We’re actively working on the following top community reported concerns, targeting our January Base Game update. [EA Forums] [EA Forums] We’ve confirmed that the Makeup Category for Toddlers is currently working live, but it requires custom content (CC) to appear. We’re still looking into reports that it stopped working after the Business & Hobbies release and that there may have been non-CC assets before, so we’d appreciate any screenshots or clues you can share to help us figure it out. [EA Forums] [EA Forums] We were able to load these saves using our Memory Boost feature, so it feels like a promising lead or (in some cases) a fix for PC players! However, we’re still in the process of testing this against different hardware scenarios. If you are experiencing these issues, please fill out our Missing Lot Data survey. [EA Forums] The server error when uploading to the Gallery or Library is the top community issue, and we’re actively working on a fix—though it has proven tricky. [EA Forums] We’ve identified the main cause of Sims standing around instead of caring for infants and toddlers and plan to provide an update soon. [EA Forums] Memorial Portraits and Graduation Photos no longer display a Sim’s image and appear blank is another top community issue we’ve made progress on and are targeting for a future update. [EA Forums] Sims attending a Work/School Rabbit Hole not remaining in the Rabbit Hole when loading a Save (where the Sims were Employees of an 'Open' Small Business) is another top issue that we think we’re testing a fix for. [EA Forums] “Sims using objects obsessively” is another issue we’re tackling. This is a rather complicated issue to solve that might take some time, but we have some creative solutions we’re discussing. That’s just a brief update on what we’re currently looking at fixing next! There’s plenty more and at least six other issues in our top 10 community issues we want to at least get started investigating. They’re all tricky ones, so thank you for your patience, reports, and continued support! For the latest news, follow Sims Direct on X and join our Discord community - we’ll share updates as they’re available. Thank you for your patience and for all the helpful reports. Please keep posting any issues you encounter on The Sims 4 EA Forums. We’ll keep checking in, and together we’ll make this game the best it can be.
