Sims 4 freezes after a few minutes of playing. [ Edited ]

[da-oman971]

Hello

For a few months now I havent been able to play the sims 4 because it just keeps freezing. After about 5 minutes in the game, my sins will just stand still on the task they were doing and I cant switch to another sim. Occasionally I can click on objects and options will appear but still nothing happens. I am also able to click save but it never does actually save. Im not able to close the game either unless I force my laptop to restart. I have no mods or CC in my game. I have also unistalled and reinstalled the sims and all expansions but still no luck. It only started happening after the platforms update came out. Any help would be appreciated 

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@da-oman971  The MCCC options is only relevant after the excess Father Winters have spawned, which shouldn't happen anymore.  So playing through Winterfest now should be safe, regardless of how strange Father Winter looks.  Still, if you want to be extra cautious, use "save as" to rename the save you're playing, which will leave the backup you recovered intact should you need to revert to it later.

If you play a while today and the save still runs well tomorrow, I think you don't have anything else to worry about, at least not as far as this issue is concerned.

[puzzlezaddict]

@da-oman971  How large is this save file?  Go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves and have a look; you can sort by modified date to find the newer ones.  And did your sims celebrate Winterfest around when this problem started happening?  After the first November patch, there was an issue with Father Winter not spawning, and although it was fixed in the first December patch, affected saves weren't repaired.  The telltale sign is save bloat, as in, the file for the current save is much larger than its backups or other saves.

If your save is normal-sized, please start a new save and let me know how the game runs, for comparison.

[da-oman971]

@puzzlezaddict  That would make sense. The day my game is frozen on is new years eve. Just can't get past it. Ive looked at the save and the size is 67.2KB were as my other save file is just 7KB. I didnt think to check before but my other save files work but this specific one doesn't

[puzzlezaddict]

@da-oman971  There are a couple approaches you can try.  One is to revert to a previous version of the save, if you have one that's unaffected (you can tell by the file size) and you don't mind losing some progress.  Use the manual method here:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/#wiederherstellen

The other is to use MCCC to delete all homeless sims, which will include all of the extra Father Winters that were spawned and are bogging down your game.  You can find instructions here, under "Mods that help with the issue."

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2020/11/father-winter-doesnt-appear-at-winterfest-endless-generation-...

[da-oman971]

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much! I found a precious version. Of the save that was 10KB, much less than the 60KB. I noticed just now though, that a strange looking father winter came to the door and then just disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Do you think that will be a problem, or should I try the MCCC option as well? 

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@da-oman971  The MCCC options is only relevant after the excess Father Winters have spawned, which shouldn't happen anymore.  So playing through Winterfest now should be safe, regardless of how strange Father Winter looks.  Still, if you want to be extra cautious, use "save as" to rename the save you're playing, which will leave the backup you recovered intact should you need to revert to it later.

If you play a while today and the save still runs well tomorrow, I think you don't have anything else to worry about, at least not as far as this issue is concerned.

[da-oman971]

@puzzlezaddict Its all working perfectly now. Thank you so much for your help!