How to understand that The Sims save is corrupted and what to do about it?

Save game or its elements breaking is not uncommon in The Sims. And we all want to create a family with multiple generations and enjoy playing with it. In this article we'll discuss how to understand when something is wrong with your save and how you can resolve this issue. 

Signs of a broken save: 

• Endless loading when entering the game through the "Resume Game" window or when switching game modes or traveling with Sims. 
• Errors with codes: 102, 109, 110, 111, 122, 135 when loading a family or lot. 
• Game crashes when loading a save without error pop-ups. 
• Game crash when entering CAS for a specific family. 

What to do: 

1. Remove the Mods folder: If the problem disappears, then your save is fine and you need to update or remove broken mods. If the problem persists, continue with the troubleshooting. 

2. Remove the Tray folder: If the problem disappears, then your save is fine, and you need to clean up the Tray folder and check for archives, package files and other file types that shouldn't be there. If the problem persists, continue with the troubleshooting. 

3. If the game fails to load even before reaching the main game menu, remove the Saves folder. If this fixes the issue and the game launches, then one of your saves is completely broken and cannot be restored. You can find the broken save by adding one save back to the Saves folder at a time and checking which one causes the game to fail to launch again. Note that each save file can contain up to 5 components.

4. If the previous steps didn't help identify the issue, you can try repairing the game through the program you use to update your game, such as Steam, EA App, etc. Make sure to clear the game cache beforehand.  

Usually, this button will have a corresponding name like "Repair Game Files" / "Game Repair" / "Restore" and so on, depending on your application. 

5. If the previous steps didn't help identify the issue, you can try loading an earlier version of your save (note that the game only keeps the last 4 save points) or restoring a save. When restoring a save, it completely overwrites the files and rolls back the game progress to the restoration point, and you won't be able to recover your progress, so it's important to check if the issue is related to broken mods or unnecessary files in the Tray beforehand. 

6. If none of the methods work, unfortunately, the only solution is to start a new game from a new save. 

Signs of a broken family: 

• Endless loading or game crashes when switching to a specific family both in live mode and in Create a Sim (CAS) mode; 
• Game crashes when sending a character to any other lot with characters not from your family;  
• Game crashes when sending a character to any other lot using the map mode. 

What to do: 

1. Remove the Mods folder: if the problem disappears, then the issue is related to your mods, and you need to update them or remove the broken ones. If the problem persists, continue with the troubleshooting. 

2. Remove the Tray folder: if the problem disappears, then everything is fine with your save, and you need to clean up the Tray folder, checking for archives, package files, and other file types that shouldn't be there. If the problem persists, continue with the troubleshooting. 

3. If you cannot access a family with two or more characters, then you need to split them into different households and check which specific character is causing the crash. Typically, the issue occurs with only one sim in the family, often a child, toddler, or infant. 

4. Remove the broken character from the game using the Edit Household mode to prevent corruption from spreading further in the save. If possible, and if you saved the character in the Gallery, you can re-add them to the household and adjust their relationships and traits using the MC Command Center.  

NOTE: The feature from the Command Center to transfer appearance from a broken sim to a newly created one DOES NOT WORK and transfers the corruption to the new sim. This solution is not suitable. 

UPD: The well-known modder Lumpinou has released a fix that helps resolve the eternal loading problem. Please note that the fix will only help if you have an in-game script issue.

Download here

If the bug is related to an outdated mod, a conflict between mods, or unnecessary files in the Mods/Saves/Tray folders, the fix will not solve the problem – you need to clean the folders.

Signs of a broken lot: 

• Endless loading or crashing when attempting to access the lot through any means; 
• Endless loading or crashing when trying to place a pre-built lot on the lot. 

What to do: 

1. Remove the Mods folder: If the problem disappears, then your save file is fine, and you need to update or remove broken mods. If the issue persists, continue troubleshooting. 

2. Remove the Tray folder: If the issue disappears, then your save file is fine, and you need to clean up the Tray folder, checking for archives, package files, and other file types that shouldn't be there. If the problem persists, continue troubleshooting. 

3. If the previous steps don't help and the lot remains broken, there is currently no solution to this problem. After discovering a broken lot, it's recommended to switch to another save file, as this issue can spread and potentially corrupt your entire save permanently. 

NOTE: Sometimes demolishing a lot using the "Bulldoze" button in build mode can cause lot corruption. Be careful and avoid this by demolishing structures manually or replacing them directly with items from the library without deleting the previous ones. 

How to survive a save file corruption with minimal stress or minimize the risk: 

1. Make backups in advance: back up important lots, families and the save file itself so you can roll back to a point before the corruption with minimal progress loss or simply transfer buildings and sims to another save file. 

2. Save important gameplay sims to the library at each life stage so that in case of corruption you can restore them with minimal progress loss. 

3. Keep an eye on the Mods, Saves and Tray folders, ensuring they don't contain any unnecessary or broken files. Regularly clean them up and update mods in a timely manner. 

4. Update mods to match your game version and avoid using outdated mods even if they seem harmless. Many errors nowadays are caused by mods like Control Any Sim, which often eject sims from your family after use and cause family corruption. 

5. Clean the game cache every time you make changes to the Mods, Saves and Tray folders to minimize the number of broken scripts. 

6. Download only fresh builds and sims made for your game version from trusted sites, avoiding re-uploaders. 

7. Keep an eye on news from the authors whose builds/sims you use: they usually warn if a specific lot/character is broken and should be removed from the game. 

8. Minimize the use of the gallery and downloaded builds/sims whenever possible, as not all gallery users warn or clean up the materials they upload there. 

9. Avoid using the "Bulldoze" button in build mode: instead demolish buildings manually to reduce the risk of lot corruption. 

 

If you encounter bugs or errors in your game, you can always reach out to our Sims 4 Help Bot for assistance – consultations with a manager are completely free. Additionally, you can take advantage of our services for cleaning/updating or assembling your Mods folder from scratch, among other helpful services.