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)
There is always only one spotlight file inside the cachestr folder. The spotlight file is also safe to delete.
There are some tips here that can help reduce the lag etc.
Tips For Lag etc
I have no clue what it means tho, can someone help me?
In the cachestr folder the spotlight file can be safely deleted as a new one is generated the next time you play.
Also not unusual for the cache folder to be empty either.
The main file to delete often is the localthumbcache.package file. Deleting this helps to keep glitches out of your game.
Kind regards, Fia
User Files explained
Can you helpx ?
Here's a link to 'My Sims Won't Die' Bug Report that has some suggestions to help on about page 3 of the bug report.
ok so i posted my issue on EA Answers HQ and someone told me to to exactly this, only they said: "delete any folder with 'cache' in it". so i did just that. deleted the folders. now my game won't open. what do i do? can i just restore the folders from my recycle bin, or will that not work now?
i have repaired the game twice with origins. waited until everything was finished repairing before trying to launch. checked the files and those folders did not reinstall. the guy that told me to do this said that the game will recreate the folders.
Oh dear, yes I'd drag the folder back out of your bin and try that. but you also can do a re-install which will not effect your game saves. How-To Uninstall/Reinstall TS4
I just followed these instructions and found my game could not reload and an icon came up telling me that data was missing. Fortunately i was able to go to recycle bin and restore it, but had I not been I would have lost a lot of information, lots and families i haf spent ages working on and playing. I doubt I made a mistake as i followed them as listed.....needless to say I wont be trying this again! Please Carl can you try to make sure that instructions carry no risk of this kind of thing happening......i was relieved they were still in the bin, as there was a moment of fright were i did think I had lost all of it!
Sorry you had issues, the info is correct though. If you were missing sims and lots etc that means you deleted the wrong folder as absolutely nothing inside of the 'Tray" folder should be deleted as that is your in-game library.
An easy shortcut is just to delete the localthumbcache.package file after you play each day.
What about cleaning out the tray? It seems like a bunch of unneccessary stuff by name but i dont want to risk messing up the game bc i dont know what any of thid stuff means. Thx
Oh my gosh! NO! Do NOT remove the Tray Folder, that is your in-game library with all your lots, houses, venues and sims/households you have created in-game and saved or downloaded and saved.
I downloaded the sorcerer mod for my sims. It is a script mod. After I applied it to the game, it refuses to let me into my world. (it DID download properly, I saw the "suspicious clay" in build mode). It lets me into the game, but when I actually try to PLAY it kicks my out of sims completely, and back to my home screen. Does anybody know a solution?
doing that broke my game. I'm installing the sims again... D:
Sorry to hear that but you must have done it incorrectly. I clear caches after every time I play but it is important to not delete the wrong folders or files.