Disabling Seasions But Keeping its Stuff - Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Improving Sims 4: The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Clearing your cache can prevent gameplay issues and help when the Sims 4 game won't start.
Sometimes things go wrong with a cache file, particularly after a new patch is released for The Sims 4. Cleaning up the cache files can improve performance and allow the game to start when it will not otherwise work. It's a good idea to do this once in a while in order to ensure stability, because while the Sims 4 is a rather stable game, things sometimes go wrong and many issues we can't identify. Deleting cache files is one way to fix a lot of problems.
The Sims 4's game cache is located at Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/ on both PC and Mac.
1. Delete the localthumbscache.package file in this directory. This helps to "fix" some gameplay bugs.
2. Go inside the cache folder and delete all files that end in .cache, but do not delete the actual directory.
The .jpg files as well as the .dat that you find in the cache folder are safe to delete. These come from viewing households/lots from the gallery. If you play with the Online Access Feature turned off, or play offline, you may not have anything in this folder.
3. Go back, then to the cachestr folder. Delete all files here, but again do not delete the actual directory.
* It's okay to delete the spotlight.package file.
4. The onlinethumbnailcache folder is safe to delete IF it is present.
If you play in offline mode, you may not see this folder. However, if you forget to turn off Wifi before starting the game, you will see the folder. Same if you have the Online Access Feature turned off or play offline.
If you have an older Sims 4 folder that still has the cachewebkit file and lotcachedata folder you can delete them. They're no longer needed.
If It Still Won't Work Check Crinrict's Blog for info on Clearing Origin Cache and follow her instructions carefully.
When deleting game cache files don't quite help the game start correctly or you need help managing your save games (backup/restore), try these troubleshooting steps located on our Forum.
Using Task Manager to Exit the Game and Origin When They won't Close
Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys all together to start the Task Manager. Look under the Processes tab and look for a process called TS4.exe, right-click on it and select End Task. Do the same for Origin. Look for a Process called Origin, right-click it and select End Task. Then close out of Task Manager. -- This will ensure that both the game and Origin aren't running. Now see if you can patch and/or run the game?
Sometimes gameplay bugs can be fixed by repairing the game. Open up Origin, Click on the Game Library tab then Right-click Sims 4 > Repair Game.
I hope this helps you get the game started. If you had a problem and found the solution, share it with others in our comments below. We cannot offer technical help in the comments here but you can Visit our Technical Help Board on the Forum in order to view more helpful documents or submit your own question. We have kind, helpful folks who can probably assist you or point you toward answers. Registration on our Forum is instant and does not require email validation.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.
This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Other Guides to Discover University:
New Lot Traits: Study Spot and University Student Hang Out
New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
More videos coming soon!
Disclaimer This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The Sims and The Sims 4 Logo are trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved. All original Guides on this site © Carl's Guides
Comments (70)
http://sims4.crinrict.com/en/2014/09/user-files-explained/
I would hazard to guess anything in the game install folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4 (64-bit-Windows)
C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 4 (32-bit-Windows)
Are files that should not be deleted at all. As it may end up messing up the game. It would need to be reinstalled. Origin may try to actually install what was deleted as well.
Lotcacheddata? That's the only cache folder I have except cachestr.
If you are having game problems posting on the technical board would be a good idea.
Technical Help on the Forum
Technical Help - Forum
C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4
2. Right-Click on your Saves folder and copy it to the external hard drive.
3. Do the same with your Tray folder, if you want to save your household and lot files.
Sims 4 User Files ExplainedWe also have some tips that may help with your game freezing and crashing. See links below:Intermittent Lagging/FreezingGeneral Crashing Issues
what I did do though, is I cut/pasted the whole "electronic arts" folder from my Local Drive to my Harddrive, where I have the sims 4 on, and where I actually thought I had all my Sims 4 files on.
Anyway now when I go on the Sims 4 my saved games are completely gone, i can't even open them
In-game. I'm super sad cause I made so much progress.
I went in and did the whole 'saves' file deleting the ".ver0" file and it still didn't help. Probably my game just lost the link to the saves because I moved them from my local drive to my harddrive.... But how do I get my saved games back in-game?? Heeelp...
Btw thank you for a generally very helpful guide!
So I cut/pasted the same electronic arts folder back to where it was before. It seems like everything is back to how it was before. (PHEW!) But is there a trick to moving ALL my sims 4 data to my harddrive, without the game getting confused and losing the link to the data? I've told Origin to place all the data in my harddrive folder, but it seems like I have to do more than that. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance. X
I always clear it after the size is larger than 6MB
is this ok?
if too often clearing the cache will impact the game btw?
But I delete the ones see and I have onlinethumbnailcache folder but there nothing in it I just left it. I think most of the files clear because I repair the game on 9/21/2016/. (if I got the wrong idea, I am not really a pc freak for games. I love gaming but I am scared to go into the folder and files. )
Ok and I am guessing cachewebkit is remove awhile ago as well??? (Because I didn't see it.)
The cachewebkit file and lotcachedata folder are safe to delete and no longer there by default, so if you do not have them in your present folder then that is just fine.
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=21519.msg387147#msg387147If the missing lots are in your current game, you can save them to your library/gallery for safe keeping. Though if your Tray folder is empty there isn't anyway to get the files back.
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=21519.msg387147#msg387147If the missing lots are in your current game, you can save them to your library/gallery for safe keeping. Though if your Tray folder is empty there isn't anyway to get the files back.
I hav been having trouble with Sims 4 for while. I have a Mac and i can't find any answers for my problems on Mac. A few weeks ago, my game wouldn't update, it kept trying and stopping on 13% then pausing itself. The only way i could get origin to close was to restart my entire computer. Eventually it managed to sort itself out and over night the update was magically done! Since that i have bought the New City Life expansion pack and it won't let me download the expansion pack. It gets to 13% and then nothing. I have tried deleting all the Cache files, but i can't find the origin files that the guy is talking about in the link to a different site! Any help will be appreciated! I really don't want to have to uninstall origin because i will be frightened that i will never be able to get any of the games to download again :( Thanks
Katy
The other folders (cache and cachestr) have a job to do so you can delete the contents but not the folder. If you follow the steps 1-4 in Carl's guide above then you will be fine.