The Sims 4: For Rent was released in December 2023, and since then it’s had the habit of occasionally wreaking havoc on save files and lots. As described by EA themselves, saves start to “disintegrate themselves”: error codes appear, it stops loading properly, and entire lots or households get deleted. When this starts, there’s no way of stopping it – so far.
However, the end may be in sight. On April 1st, The Sims Direct Communications X (nee Twitter) account shared that they’re continuing to look into the problem and work on a solution. But, to do so, they need more information from you.
The types of bugs associated with For Rent
EA outlined eight specific circumstances on their forums that they want to hear about your experiences with:
- Blank or white screens when loading into worlds with Residential Rental lots.
- Corrupted save files with a lot of Residential Rentals.
- Load Error 800 and 801 codes.
- Erroneously empty or default neighbouring lots instead of the correct ones.
- Corrupted gallery lots with broken objects leading to endless loading screens or crashes.
- Endless loading or freezing when placing multiple gallery lots.
- Floating furniture or buildings disappearing when placed, leaving behind furnishings.
- Disappearing lots or buildings, or map issues including mismatched world overviews and lots and exclamation points over buildings.
Each type of issue has its own thread on the EA Forums where you can provide some context about your experience. Make sure you head to each individual thread as the main post isn’t monitored by Maxis, so you won’t get any help there.
Problems to look out for
The post also outlines a couple of things to keep an eye on to try and avoid corrupted saves. They suggest keeping an eye on your save file size, as larger files might run into more problems.
In-game photos, large and heavily decorated lots, and lots of Sims can all increase the size of save files. They also mention that although mods won’t cause the problem, they might play a small role in causing bugs to happen. Sadly, if the corruption has already started then changing these things is unlikely to fix it.
Corrupted saves and the Sims community
Corrupted saves are a long-running problem and one that doesn’t have a clear or immediate fix. In 2024, YouTuber James Turner noted the issue on his community page as he ran into a number of bugs throughout his Rags to Riches series highlighting the pack.
Simmers on social media have called for For Rent to be delisted, or at least for EA to stop advertising the DLC, until the corruption problem is patched. Specifically, creators like SimmerErin are concerned by the inclusion of For Rent in EA’s Spring Sale. Hopefully, though, a patch could be on the horizon if Maxis and EA get the information they need. In the meantime, make sure you’re backing up your save files regularly if you play on PC or Mac.
