Residential Rentals Are Causing Sims 4 Save Game Corruption

[JDLgnd]

To everyone playing The Sims 4 For Rent Expansion!
Players are losing years of game progress due to a recent Sims 4 Save Game corruption issue. Which seems to be getting amplified with the Residential Rentals Feature from The Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack.

https://simscommunity.info/2025/02/13/sims-4-save-game-corruption-issue/

Troubleshooting
The issue is really hard to pinpoint but there are a few things that can accelerated the issue.

This issue is not mod caused but it can be influenced by mods and cheats, especially if you create lots of Residential Rental units in your save game.

Save Game Size. The issue usually typically happens on larger save games. There are a few factors that contribute to save game size that you can keep an eye on

Lots of huge houses with lots of objects: Try to keep those down. Consider using empty houses for set decoration if you don’t play certain lots but want houses to make it look nicer

Photos Sims take ingame. Try to only keep the photos you really like and that contribute to your gameplay. Delete everything else. Photos take up a lot of space in the save.

Lots of Sims. The game creates Sims at abundance. Delete the ones you don’t use from time to time.

Usually there’s nothing you can do once it starts happening.

[James3157]

At least it is not basegame related, but it does need to be fixed.

[Xautos]

I haven't had much issue with residential rentals on my long running save, and i run mods. i use rentals on worlds that don't have a lot of space for sims and can in effect generate new space on one lot. just yesterday i completed a residential rental in Magnolia Promenade to go with the The Roadstead turned into a big gym and spa. i wanna turn Paddywacks and JF&S lots into a library and something else, maybe a pool or a bar? anyway, i can use the one neighbourhood to full effect and give it proper value.

i always delete nobody sims out of my saves and with a no townie spawn mod and allowing played households to take NPC jobs. I only have to deal with my own sim count which is around 550 now.

my laptop can't deal with the strain much past 500 sims anyway and some neighbourhoods i've reduced to the bare minimum with objects to achieve a playable state. It's not my first rodeo with these types of issues.

[Xeriath]

Just adding, this bug was already there without DLC For Rent. For Rent only makes it a lot easier to trigger it.

I also use residential rentals with my long running save, and besides the clutter issue my game works fine. I got this issue with another save, which never had rental lots but used many gallery lots/households. This was 2018 with a vanilla save. I could never trigger that again but I stopped using the gallery and my buildings use a lot less clutter.

I guess the core problem is in the deeper code, and because of that it makes it harder for EA to reproduce it and to fix it. This would be too the reason why a modder can’t fix it (I hope I am wrong with this)

[Nijo]

Does anyone know what is considered a large file size for a save? Mine is currently 38MB

[Xeriath]

Originally posted by Nijo:

Does anyone know what is considered a large file size for a save? Mine is currently 38MB

100MB+ but in the older reports there are people which got this issue with 75MB+. It seems too rather connected with how many households/lots you have in your game (lots which are not empty!). This would explain why people can trigger this issue so easily with For Rent because each apartment counts as a lot and apartments normally never empty.

[Horns Ablaze]

One of my save games has over 200 sims on rental lots (most are 6 houses per lot) and after like, 10 years in game, haven't noticed any issues with it. The save file is at 92MB. Havent played it since December but eh, nothing surprises me anymore with this game.

The only main weird things I recall, is that sometimes I am playing a household and paying the bills from another, dumb stuff like that.

[Xautos]

four years and a bit with my current save, at 84mb, i have a number residential rental lots.