Sims 4 University Errors: Causes, Risks, and Fixes for degree_tracker.py Issues

from: SonozakiSisters

Spoiler: In all my years of playing, there was only one save corruption. Yes, related to degree_tracker.py.

In the Last Exception, you can see different error messages, but all of them either have this line:

Last Module Called: degree_tracker.py

or mention university files (most often in career_base.py):

*You can find this info in the Pretty Error CallStack of the Last Exception file*

This kind of error tends to show up at later stages of progression, as a result of a broken degree_tracker.

So, what are these errors, why do they happen, and how do you deal with them?

P.S. Lots of words ahead, I did a full-on investigation.

What is the Degree Tracker?

About trackers

Trackers are needed to properly handle situations and processes. They attach to a sim, collect the relevant data, and process it depending on the stage of a given process.

For example, a pregnancy tracker is assigned to a sim for handling pregnancy. It stores information about whether they're pregnant, how many babies, who the parents are, and so on. This same tracker triggers the functions for calculating genetics, childbirth, and clearing the pregnancy status.

As you can see, pregnancy isn’t just about a moodlet, a mood, or a growing belly. Without the tracker, there wouldn’t be any progression at all.

What about university?

The university tracker handles enrollment, academic performance, finishing the semester, getting a degree, expulsion, and other processes, including service ones.

It also attaches to every sim, and you can get all the info about their student life through the tracker.

Seems pretty standard, right? But that’s only at first glance.

Why do errors happen?

The reason

The answer is simple and complicated at the same time: loss of data.

As is often (unfortunately) the case, the problem doesn’t reproduce 100% of the time, which makes it really hard to pinpoint and fix the original cause.

In short, at some point, the tracker loses the data about student life. Everything looks normal on the sim’s panel, but those are just static values. Inside the processes, where the relevant structures should be, there’s emptiness: that very NoneType that shows up in the errors. For example:

Last Module Called: degree_tracker.py

Last Function Called: enroll

Error message: Exception in Sim Timeline: Exception running Element (AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'name'), CategoryID: degree_tracker:2265

And it’s there because the tracker isn’t aware that the data might be missing. It’s assumed that if the sim has a tracker, all the necessary university data is initialized, and the code goes ahead and tries to call their fields and functions. But really, how can a missing object have a “name” field?

*Yes, I’m including screenshots for the curious*

And yes, I did read the code before writing this article. Hopefully, no one’s surprised.

Risk factors

For now, it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of data loss. The university system is pretty fragile, so in some cases information gets corrupted and deleted.

There’s nothing we can really do about it, but it’s worth keeping in mind that data loss doesn’t happen totally at random. Below, I’ll break down the main factors that increase the chances of errors happening.

1. Cheats

The vast majority of issues are tied specifically to university cheats, including enrollment, awarding degrees, finishing the semester, and so on.

That’s because all these cheats check and change the enrollment status (set_enrollment_status). For example:

— university.enroll cheat:

if self._enrollment_status != EnrollmentStatus.PROBATION: self._set_enrollment_status(EnrollmentStatus.ENROLLED)

— university.finish_term cheat:

if self._current_credits >= self.CREDITS_REQUIRED: self._set_enrollment_status(EnrollmentStatus.GRADUATED)

— university.graduate cheat:

self._set_enrollment_status(EnrollmentStatus.GRADUATED)

And so on :)

But when data gets lost, the enrollment status disappears and turns into that same NoneType you often see mentioned in the tracker error description.

It’s not just me who’s noticed this: other modders have picked up on it too. I won’t be sharing screenshots or names; that would break the rules. I’ll just give you a translation of the discussion.

A: University progress involves enrollment. Cheats for enrolling are just as risky as cheats for finishing university. It’s also risky to enroll a sim in one save, then move them to another save: the game will lose their progression data. This doesn’t happen to every sim, but if you do run into the error, it’ll keep showing up until you fix it.

B: I suspect that the errors from cheats might be caused by changes in enrollment status (enrollment_status_change). <...> In my [mods], I don’t mess with sims’ enrollment status, so I don’t think my mods could be causing tracker errors in the Last Exception.

As you can see, the effects of cheats stick with the sim even across different saves. That’s why you can get errors not only with your own sims, but also with downloaded ones. Actually, there’s a brief step-by-step guide to troubleshooting right there on the same server:

A: Read the error. Figure out if cheats were used. If yes, use the fix (more on that below). If not, check whether the sim has a diploma in their inventory. If not, see if there are any downloaded sims.

So using other people’s sims with degrees that were earned through cheats is risky too.

2. Progression errors at university

Up above in the discussion, a physical diploma is mentioned as a risk factor. That’s actually true: if a sim is carrying a diploma in their inventory, and the data gets lost, the diploma will lose its proper link to the sim and will constantly keep throwing an error to remind you it’s there.

A similar issue happens with other university interactions too. For example:

— The acceptance letter ends up in another sim’s inventory

— A different sim reads the acceptance letter

— An enrolled sim who didn’t finish their studies moves to another save (and, as a result, loses their progression)

3. Certain mods

Among other factors – some university-related mods (like the MCCC cheats for university) or the old Life Decider from Kawaii Stacie (although just using mods from that author is a huge risk in itself).

But here’s what is NOT a risk factor – getting a diploma through a trait. That’s just setting the result without touching the university system at all, and it works the same as adding any other trait via cheats. For example, that’s how the Instant CAS Story mod by Chingyu/Vicky Sims is set up. This was also discussed among modders:

A: In that case, the tracker should be empty, yeah

B: Traits aren’t even tied to the tracker in tuning

C: That’s right

Why are these errors dangerous?

Alright, so why can’t you just ignore it?

First of all, you should NEVER ignore a MCCC error. I won’t repeat myself here – you can check out my other article for that.

Second, this isn’t some random one-off error, it’s a timeline error. The timeline is a global process, basically a timeline where all events and sub-processes in the game are mapped out. Just imagine how the game feels when corrupt code keeps interfering with the main planning process and prevents some stages from finishing. And when the timeline breaks, the whole save breaks along with it.

Third, it’s just annoying. These tracker errors will keep popping up again and again, your game will keep freezing up (hello, timeline errors) until you finally deal with the problem.

Is that really what you want?

How to fix it?

Okay, so we’ve figured out what’s going on and why, but what can you actually do about it?

If the problem is with mods: either remove them, or don’t use the part that’s connected to university (like the university cheats from MCCC).

If the issue is a diploma or university letter, try taking it out of your sim’s inventory.

If the problem is with the sims themselves, but you used cheats only recently, just roll back to an earlier save – that’s the easiest option.

But if that isn’t possible or doesn’t work for you, gather up everyone who got their degree via cheats, who was moved from another save, or who was downloaded with a diploma. And...

Kill them and resurrect them.

This works because when a sim dies, their data gets wiped, including any stuck or broken university tracker.

The easiest way to do this is with MCCC cheats. But there’s another method too:

1. Move all the problematic sims into one household.

2. Enroll all of them in university without using any cheats.

3. Switch to Manage Worlds and then back to this household.

4. You’ll get a notification that the sims have flunked the semester and are now on academic probation.

5. After that, have each sim drop out of university.

Honestly, it’s better to use the first option. It’s easier and more reliable. But I’m just giving you the full information from the MCCC server support. By the way, there are over a thousand cases of university errors there, and they always recommend handling the problem the way I described.

As a last resort, you can just delete the problematic sim if you don’t really care about them.

Preventive measures

The advice on how to reduce your chances of running into this error pretty much follows from everything above:

1. Don’t use cheats.

2. Don’t download sims with diplomas, unless it’s stated that they got them without cheats or through a university trait.

3. Don’t let sims who aren’t students touch diplomas, enrollment letters, or have anything to do with university processes.

4. Don’t keep diplomas or letters in inventories, especially if you’re planning to move the sim to a new save.

5. Try not to move students to a new save: either let them finish school first, or have them start over in the new save.

6. Don’t use mods (or specific modules) that are known to cause university-related issues.

But if you absolutely NEED to give someone a diploma without actually playing through university, do it by adding the trait, not with university cheats.

Hope this was helpful! :)