The Sims 4 Laundry List: February 3, 2026 Update Overview
Last night proved to be rich in discussions surrounding the expansion The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy. The developers shared a laundry list for the new patch arriving on February 3, 2026. They aim to improve the in-game family tree, as well as the algorithms responsible for tracking and displaying family relationships between characters.
As you know, every update usually breaks mods. This time, it’s going to be fairly serious.
Mod creators react to the The Sims 4 update
One of the popular creators, Lumpinou, writes:
The creator Sixam also weighed in:
What about the bug where photos turn black when saving the game? As we previously mentioned in this article, the issue is believed to occur when exiting the game using the “Save and Exit” button. But will this be fixed with the update? Let’s take a look.
Urgent Tasks List and Upcoming Bug Fixes
On January 27, 2026, the developers shared the issues they plan to fix in the February 3 update.
"Hi Simmers!
Welcome to the Laundry List, where we share the top community concerns that we’re currently investigating and hope to resolve. 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"
How the February 3 Update Will Affect Mods and Saves
The developers promise to expand and improve the functionality of family trees, genealogy, and the system that stores relationship data between characters. The Sims 4 update releasing on February 3, 2026 will affect the algorithms responsible for tracking and displaying family ties, making them more accurate and detailed.
Since the update introduces changes to core gameplay systems, it may impact the functionality of certain mods. This primarily applies to mods that expand or reinterpret family-and relationship-related data.
Based on testing results, issues may manifest as missing relatives, unexpected changes in relationships between characters, or family trees that fail to display the expected family lines. In rare cases, such disruptions may negatively affect save files.
Players who use mods related to lineage, generations, or complex family rules are strongly advised to remove such mods before updating the base game on February 3 and to wait for confirmation of compatibility from the mod creators.
The developers also thanked players for their patience and for supporting mod creators, emphasizing that keeping custom content up to date helps Sims’ family stories progress without issues.
A separate list of changes to the base game was prepared for mod creators and published on the EA Forums, intended to assist with adapting mods related to lineage and family systems.
How the Developers Are Addressing Save File Corruption
The developers describe improving save file resilience as one of their key priorities. Since September, the team has been closely examining player save files and, through this work, has implemented a preventive solution aimed at eliminating a wide range of issues — both those reported by players and those uncovered during the investigation process. In support of these measures, core game systems were also refined, including phased changes to template files and rental-related code.
The developers state that they are ready to shift their focus from the investigation phase to long-term prevention. Going forward, information about such updates will be published in the general list of urgent tasks rather than in separate monthly posts.
All changes related to save file stability will be clearly labeled in the patch notes, so players can always see what improvements have been made. According to the team, this approach will allow them to focus on reliably fixing issues while maintaining a strong connection with the community.
Full Laundry List in the Base Game Update
- [EA Forums] Resolved an issue that caused photos to turn black discovered after the January 13th Base Game update.
- [EA Forums] Fixed a UI issue in Create a Sim that was preventing elements from displaying in turn ons and turn offs, as well as the like and dislike buttons.
- [EA Forums] Fixed additional instances of an issue where entering and exiting Build Mode during Scenarios with goals would cause the UI to disappear or the game to become unresponsive.
- [EA Forums] Editing Mermaids or Aliens in Create a Sim should no longer cause a game crash.
- [EA Forums] Resolved an issue that could prevent room type assignments in Build Mode.
- [EA Forums] Simple Slattered and MasterCraft staircases no longer have an extra board when placing L-shaped stairs.
- [EA Forums] Book covers for Baking, Wellness, Snowboarding, Rock Climbing, Herbalism and Photography books should no longer change when placed on retail displays. Fabrication and Mixology skill books no longer have the same book cover.
- [EA Forums] Resolved an issue causing nail asset yfAcc_ManiNaturalShort_SolidDirt to cause a metallic effect to the entire body.
- [Bug Archive] Resolved an issue where Sims' Great Grandparents incorrectly had romantic interactions available to them with extended family members.
- [Bug Archive] Resolved an issue causing nail assets yfAcc_ManiGP12Forest and ymAcc_ManiGP12Forest to show lines around the upper arm on Sims.
- [Bug Archive] Resolved an issue where Sims didn’t complete the 'Dance With Someone' goal at Prom, preventing a Gold Event rating.
- [Bug Archive] Upgraded vacuums now work in the "Off the Grid" Lot type.
Updates on Top Community Voted Issues
The development team is also continuing work on fixing other issues that are planned to be addressed in future game updates. At the same time, it is emphasized that resolving certain problems may require significant time and technical resources. Even if a particular issue is already being worked on, this does not necessarily mean that a fix will be ready for the next update.
- Eyes/Eyelids Issues (Patch 1.110.265/2.01) - Work continues on this top community reported concern, and preliminary behind the scenes work went out as part of the January 13th Base Game update, we hope to have more to share soon on this one!
- Disappearances of Pets and Horses in Premade Households - The team feels they are circling a fix for this issue, and we’re hoping to have a fix for internal testing soon. We’ll share more on this one as soon as we’re able.
- Strangers in your conversation - We've begun investigating this issue, and the team is working on some new theories that could lead to fixes that we hope to share soon.
- Animals stuck/disappeared in inventory - We are testing potential fixes for this issue that look promising so far, we hope to have more to share shortly.
- Sims obsessively use objects - We have several proposed fixes under investigation for issues reported in this thread, we’ll share new information as it becomes available.
There aren’t many fixes, but some of them are quite interesting and important. For example, the black photos are promised to be fixed — this time for sure, we believe!
Another noteworthy fix involves stairs. The railings will no longer appear inside walls, if we’ve understood it correctly.
Accurate details will be known as early as February 3. In the meantime, we suggest reading our article on how to safely get through a game update, especially if you play with mods. After all, major changes are ahead that will break most mods and may even affect your main save.
