waiting for something to happen?

GUIDE STARTS HERE

if you are a visual learner, this guide is not for you; however, there are several videos you can watch! i recommended googling it. i havent watched any modding videos in years, so i have none to share, but there are several!

"how do i install mods? why arent they showing up in my game? what am i doing wrong?"

first and foremost, when it comes to installing mods, always download recently updated mods. scrpit files & mods that change/add gameplay elements always need to updated for the recent patch. scarlets realms mod list can be helpful for this. for cc (custom clothes/furniture), having the most recent version is still important, but if you want to download cc from, lets say 2022, it should still work fine. typically if a file is broken, it will show up as a broken texture in game or not show up at all when you use it. sometimes, it will prevent your game from running, normally you will recieve an error upon opening the game when this happens.

secondly, always download your mods from a trusted source. i exclusively get mine from patreon, but creators may host theirs on the sims recourse, their own websites, etc. basic internet safety, just be smart with what and where you download.

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how to install mods. im used to windows, so sorry if something is inaccurate for mac.

if you are on mac, the path for your mods should be this: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods (macOS)

if you are on windows, the path for your mods should be this: C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Mods

i will be using one mod as an example, adeepindigo's healthcare redux / hcrx (is what ill call it for short). you dont have to download it, but its a very common mod that requires certain packs and utility mods, which is why im using it as an example. other common mods include mc command center by deadpool, ui extensions and more columns in cas by weerbesu, basemental by basemental, wicked whims and wonderful whims by turbo driver, relationship & pregnancy overhaul and lgbtqia by lumpinou, and tool mod and better build buy by twisted mexi.

go to the mods page. locate the mod you want and read its description. make sure the mod you want to download doesnt need any other mods or any specific game packs for it to work. (for healthcare redux, it requires get to work, and has many optional packs. it also requires general pie menus and lumpinous mood pack, you need both for the mod to work at all. this is similar for other mods).

download your mod of choice, mine is hcrx, always make sure the mod has been updated in recent months (if its a gameplay mod). an outdated mod can corrupt your save. i exclusively download my mods from patreon or modders website. (for hcrx, adeepindigo has it on their patreon)

once youve downloaded all you need, move your mod from your downloads into either a. your mods folder, or b. a folder made just so you can unzip and organize your mods. if you do that, make sure to add the files into your mods folder when youre done! (i always do this to make sure i have everything i need before adding it to my mods. some people have trouble with mods if they unzip it directly into their mods folder, im not entirely sure why, but unzipping it into another folder should prevent that from happening)

your folder, whether it be your mods folder or another one, should now have 3 things: lumpinous mood pack, general pie menus, and adeepindigos hcrx zipped folder. the mood pack and general pie menues should both be package files, you can move them directly into your mods folder now.

in the folder of your choice unzip the folder using 7zip. right click the folder > extract > extract here. a new folder or multiple files should appear. you can place this folder/these files directly into your mods folder. make sure the script file is only one folder deep. the folder your script files are in should look like this: The Sims 4/Mods/[folder name here] or The Sims 4/Mods. again, any deeper and the mods will not work

once youve added your mods into your folder, open your game. if you havent already enable mods & script files in your game, go to your settings and enable them! after that, close and relaunch your game.

mods should now be installed and working!

the most common problem people encounter from my experience are mods that are outdated or noncompatible- a lot of mods conflict with one another because they share the same tuning- if a mod is conflicting with another mod it may not show up in your game. remember, your mods should always be unzipped! a zipped folder will not work!

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for custom content, see here

go to your site of choice. i reccomend patreon. sentate & serenity for clothes. theyre patreon creators and have a lot of amazing choices. there are several creators to choose from, some on tsr, some on tumblr, some of sfs, etc. (always choose from a trusted creator and a trusted site! if downloading from sfs, sim file share, please be vigilant! some popular creators have had their account hacked. please be careful!)

download the cc you want. clothes/hair/makeup/skin/furniture/etc. make sure you dont need a required mesh, or game pack. a mesh is what gives the clothes or furniture its shape. without the mesh, the clothing will be broken and unusable. most creators make new meshes. a game pack (ep, gp, stuff pack, kits) are dlc EA releases. some clothing may require one of those packs for its mesh. creators almost always list what pack or mesh is needed if it isnt included in their download. ive never seen anyone not list it!

open your downloads folder, you will see various files that end in .package. these are aptly named package files. you can place them directly in your mods folder without any extra work.

you may see zipped files, right click these files to unzip them. after youve unzipped them, you will see more package files. they may be inside of other folders. move these package files into your mods folder as well.

open your game, you should get a pop up that shows what mods are in your game, if your mods are enabled correctly. if you do not get that notification, check you have your mods enabled in the settings. if they are enabled and are still not showing up, double check where youve put your mods. make sure its in your mods folder!

go to create a sim or build buy, your custom content (cc) should be there! i always suggest checking that the cc youve installed is working correctly!

if something youve installed isnt working correctly, remove it! broken cc can occasionally cause a lot of problems in your game! i suggest using better exceptions, but there are other ways to find broken cc!

ps.. if youre still unsure of how deep your mods can go into your mods folder, heres a guide

for script files, it will always need to be one of these two: the sims 4\mods (files go into the mods folder directly) or the sims 4\mods\[folder name] (files go no more than one folder deep)

for package files, it can be anything from the sims 4\mods (files go directly into the mods folder) to the sims 4\mods\[folder name 1]\[folder name 2]\[folder name 3]\[folder name 4]\[folder name 5] (files can go no more than 5 folders deep)

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now.. for the age old question, "why are my mods not working?"

heres the simple answers:

you did not install them correctly

mods are not enabled in your game

download the meshes, delete bad files, update, reinstall, and enable your mods! that should fix them!

your mods are outdated and thus broken.

for cc, if your sim is showing up with a question mark texture or something similar, then you are missing a mesh. this applies for bb as well. download the mesh or delete the cc.

for bb cc, if the item doesnt place and/or disappears after you place it, you have bad cc. delete it or find a way to repair it.

one of the most common questions i see is about ui. if your ui is broken, its because one of your ui mods are broken. if you dont know what mod it is, check for ui cheats or better build buy. any mods that change your ui will be the cause. if you have an updated mod but an outdated game, then you need to update your game. the tldr is that your mods are broken. if the broken ui or other game issues persist then check the previously linked troubleshooting guide. goodluck!

important note:

if youre still having trouble, the guides i added above can help! especially the second one! be careful!

when the sims 4 is updated, mods break. i have multiple suggestions on what to do when the game updates and mods break:

do not update your game. turn off automatic updates and wait for the mods to be updated before you update your game. this way, you can play with your old mods while you wait.

if you do update your game, do not enable mods right away. have a back-up non-modded save to play while you wait.

if you update and reenable your mods out of habit, or accidentally select your modded save, do not save your game. disable mods until theyre updated and see the second suggestion.

dont play! this is what some people prefer to do, i personally dont do it but hey! its a perfectly acceptable thing to do!

do whatever you want, really! the beauty of the sims is that its a life sim you control. of course, i strongly suggest 1-3, but you can do whatever you want. take out certain broken mods, disable them all together, etc! its your game, just have fun!

dont tell her qpp - she hates this photo! she thinks it looks too much like a photo youd see in a movie, you know, one of the ones taken before the girl tragically dies!?

good thing her daughters, maki and naomi (both teenagers now), were readily avaliable with their digital camera!

PREFACE

this guide is for those who have tried updating their mods, but something still doesnt seem quite right! ive been there, done that! this is a fix that has worked for me and, honestly, it is a bit of a convoluted way to do it!

i want to preface this with this may not be the fix you need or are looking for and that a lot of these steps can be avoided if you simply want to try to update your mods and repair your game! a lot of times, doing those two things will fix it!

if something still isnt quite right, you can try this! tldr: you take your mods & saves out, delete your cache, repair your game, run your game, put your saves and mods back in. heres a step-by-step on how i personally do this

GUIDE STARTS HERE

if youre experiencing a homescreen that says "wwwww..." where the household name should be, try repairing/restoring a previous save before continuing with this guide. as far as im aware, that glitch means your household has been corrupted and therefore lost. the game cannot detect any sims in that household, hence the 'w' where the name should be. you may have to delete that save file, and start fresh.

if you are experiencing ui glitches besides the "www...", try updating all ui mods that you have. this includes but is not limited to: ui cheats, better build buy, more columns in cas, more traits in cas, expanded build buy, custom ui colours, etc.. if the issue persists, make sure your game is updated, sometimes an up-to-date mod and an out-of-date game can cause severe ui glitches. if the issue still persists; follow this guide.

if you are receiving a pop-up that says your game cannot run due to a specific file, remove the file. that error means the file is corrupted. if you recieve the error multiple times with multiple files, follow the steps listed below. if you continue to recieve the error after following the steps below, you will likely need to delete your cc and reinstall it. i understand this is frustrating and will likely take a long time, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

now onto the rest;

first, run your game. make a new save, make sure your current save isnt just a fluke. if it is just your current save, try recovering your save. if it isnt just your current save, do the following:

close your game entirely. even after closing the window, check your task manager to be sure its not open in the background

open your sims 4 game folder. your game path should be one of these:

C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\ (Windows)

Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/ (macOS)

once youve located your game folder, remove your entire save folder and mods folder. put these onto your desktop.

clear you cache (localthumbcache. this can be found directly in The Sims 4 folder. also delete the contents of the folder cachestr)

run your game with nothing in it. if the issue persists, close the game and open up whichever app you use to play it (ea, steam). if the issue doesnt persist, skip to the final steps.

to repair your game, open the app you use to run TS4 and repair your files. typically this is done by clicking the game in your library and clicking the three dots, an option to repair your game should be there- however its been awhile since ive done this so i may be wrong! look it up if you need to! also make sure the game is completely up-to-date. if you cannot repair your game, clear the cache of the app you run it with. if this does not work, uninstall and reinstall the app. if issues persist, check online fourms for help!

if you use the anadius version of the sims 4, make sure you repair and update your game using his launcher, too.

once your game is updated and repaired, run the game with no mods or saves in it once again.

if the game loads and runs fine up till here, create a new save and test it.

if the new save runs fine, add your saves back into the game. do not add back the folder, only the files within the folder. your game should automatically create a new saves folder, as well as a new mods folder.

test the saves, if they work as normal then youre good to move on to the final steps. if they do not work, i suggest doing one of these:

try to recover/restore the save. you can do this by restoring a previous version from the "load save" menu, clicking the floppy-disk will allow you to restore a previous version before the bug happened.

if you cant recover your save but can open the save file without any immediate crashes, try to open cas and save the sims to your gallery.

if neither of those options work, your save may be a lost cause. im so sorry!

if everythings worked up to this point then youre good to do these... final steps

before adding back your mods folder, update all of your mods! (unless you know which mod is causing the issue)

are your mods up to date already? check their compatibility with both the game and other mods! most mod download pages will have a list of what is/is not compatible.

did you install a mod that requires a pack you dont own/have installed? either remove the mod or install the pack! you can check here to see a list of every sims 4 ep/gp/etc. name and number!

did you install a mod that requires a different utility mod that you dont have? either remove said mod or add the utility you need! this often breaks a game! a lot of mods require lumpinous mood pack, i always recommend to check for that first!

readd your mods, use the new mods folder that should have been created! make sure your script files are directly in your mods folder or only one folder deep, no deeper! make sure any other file (package files) are no more than five folders deep. typically, modders will tell you how deep their files can go, but one folder deep is my general reccomendation!

test your game! if it works, then congrats!

if any issues continue to persist, you can send me a message or an ask with the trouble youre having and i will try to help. otherwise, you may need to contact ea. this guide should be able to fix all problems regarding the game, unless the problem stems from a bad mod that you keep readding or game troubles themselves. the sims 4 is very buggy, play it safe, backup your saves!

happy simming! heres a song you can listen to while you troubleshoot!

bonus! mari working while her toddler, ayame, sleeps the day away