DIY Troubleshooting Library Part One - How to Test Vanilla

Sometimes it is necessary to test the game without mods and without cc, to see if an error is caused by the contents of the mods folder or not. This is the most basic troubleshooting step and should be the very first thing to do when an unknown error occurs.

We call this "testing the game Vanilla".

1. Remove your mods and CC.

To test Vanilla you need to remove everything from your mods folder into a temporary folder OUTSIDE of your Sims 4 folders, for example on your desktop. Move all of your mods and all of your CC in there, your mods folder needs to be EMPTY.

If you are using the MCCC mod, you can leave this one in your mods folder for the purpose of notifying you of the error (the orange error notification box) and generating an error file.

2. REMEMBER TO DELETE THE LOCALTHUMBCACHE!

Navigate to your The Sims 4 folder and find the file "localthumbcache.package", then delete it. The localthumbcache is a cache file, it stores data and can sometimes cause errors, if you remove mods without deleting it. The game will create a new localthumbcache.package file when you run it again, so you need to repeat this every time you change something inside your mods folder.

3. Start the game, load up a household and test.

DO NOT SAVE WHILE TESTING! Or you will have bald and naked Sims, because all of your CC will be removed.

Alternatively you can test in a "save as" copy of your game, just to be sure you don't accidentally overwrite your save.

4. Does the error still happen? 

• If your answer is NO, it is most likely caused by a broken mod or CC, and you need to find it. For guidance on how to find the faulty file by doing a 50/50, please refer to Part Two of our DIY Troubleshooting Guides: "How to 50/50".

• If the answer is YES, this can have several causes, such as corrupted data still sticking to the mods folder, a corrupted save, or maybe a game bug. If your error still happens without mods, we recommend continuing by doing a Folder Refresh & Game Repair. For guidance on how to do this, please refer to Part Three of our DIY Troubleshooting Guides: "How to Folder Refresh & Game Repair".

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