😁Tips to Keep Your Sims 4 Save from Breaking Down! 💣🤞🏾
If you've been on YouTube lately, you've probably seen the wave of players dealing with corrupted saves, forever loading screens, and worlds breaking beyond repair. It’s frustrating, but after months of rebuilding my own save (with over 30,000 mods and CC files—yes, really😕), I’ve found some ways to keep major errors at bay.😁
While no save is completely error-proof, these tips might help you avoid game-breaking issues and keep your Sims’ world running smoother.
1️⃣ Backup, Backup, Backup!
Always keep a copy of your save outside the game—on your desktop or an external drive. Do NOT rely on the in-game "Recover Save" feature, because if your save is corrupted, chances are the recovered version is too.
2️⃣ Use "Save As" Instead of Spamming Save
Instead of constantly clicking "Save," use "Save As" and create a fresh save. Overwriting the same file multiple times (7-10 times or more) can bloat the file and slow down your game. Once you've saved a new version, delete the old one (since you have a backup anyway!). This keeps your save cleaner and prevents sluggish performance.
3️⃣ Be Mindful of Lot Placement
Some worlds are known for stuck items, exclamation mark errors, or disappearing lots—especially San Myshuno, Oasis Springs, Willow Creek, and Evergreen Harbor. If you're having issues, avoid placing residential-Rental lots there.
However, I’ve found Del Sol Valley, Ciudad Enamorada, Tomarang, and Ravenwood to be much more stable for residential and rental lots!
4️⃣ Don’t Go Overboard with Mansions
Large homes with tons of clutter and objects can bog down your game. If you don’t love playing super-rich Sims in mansions, consider using large lot spaces (50x40 and up) for community lots instead of oversized residential builds. It helps keep your save lean and functional.
5️⃣ Stop Hoarding Photos
Sims’ in-game photographs and screenshots take up a surprising amount of space. Keep only 10-20 photos per household and delete the rest. Also, regularly empty the "Screenshots" folder in your Sims 4 directory to avoid unnecessary bloating.
6️⃣ Keep Your World Clean
While your Sims sleep, take a quick scan of the neighborhood and delete random objects left lying around (plates, trash, random items). This helps prevent save file bloat and keeps the world from lagging.
7️⃣ Purge Unnecessary NPCs
Check Manage Households and delete unneeded NPCs. The game constantly generates new townies, and over time, they clog up your save. You don’t have to delete all of them, but clearing out a chunk can help performance.
Bottom Line
When your save file becomes bloated with unnecessary things, it becomes unstable! That means it will start to break down and cause issues—just like the errors many players are experiencing right now.
Keeping your save clean and optimized is the best way to prevent crashes, long load times, and corruption before they happen.
😕Is my game completely error-free? Nope. Right now, I’m dealing with rain and snow falling inside my Sims’ apartments and houses (because of course, EA). And I still get the occasional MCCC Last Exception (but they’re minor).
However, I’m NOT experiencing the major game-breaking errors that are all over YouTube. A few months ago, my save was nearly unplayable, but these changes made a huge difference.
I hope this helps! If you have any other tips that have worked for you, feel free to share.
Happy Simming! 🏡✨
This is such good advice and after losing a save to corruption not once but twice, let me tell you, these tips are good. Especially the one about in-game photos—they are massive and take up a ton of space and can corrupt your game and tray file so easily. Even though it's annoying as hell, I actually just do cc recolors for my family photos now. It ensures I always have them.
Ugh, if you need me, I'm currently doing a massive backup and some save file spring cleaning 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Such great advice. Also I have had to use Repair Game to fix some issues I have been having. Luckily it worked for me but I honestly wouldn't rely on it.
