The Sims 4 Laundry List for May 5th

Update releasing May 12th, 2026

Sul Sul, Simmers!

Over the years, The Sims 4 has grown with an incredible range of content and experiences – from new ways to create and customize, to deeper life stages and gameplay systems. Over the next few months, our focus is on making that content even better by delivering improvements to the gameplay that matters most to Simmers.

As part of that effort, today’s Laundry List details just some of the 150+ fixes and new features coming in our Base Game update on May 12, including improvements for some of your highest requested asks! This means new optimizations for Infants, Toddlers, Sleep, and general Sim autonomy, plus fixes for top voted community issues.  These areas of improvement have been directly informed by top EA Forums issues, with additional feedback collected from Discord and Reddit. 

We’re also increasing the frequency of automatically generated backup saves, adding a new Infant Playmat,  bringing a new layering feature in Create A Sim, and continuing to expand on the technical info we provide to Modders and CCers to support their work; look out for a lot more details in the Patch Notes on May 12!  

If you’re hungry for even more, we’ll be hosting a special Dev Q&A in our Sims Discord on May 5 at  2 pm PT and a Twitch Livestream on May 6 at 10 am PT, where we’ll be showcasing these updates in the game and answering questions live.

The fun doesn’t stop there… In the months ahead, we’ll continue shipping more fixes, delivering new free content, and rolling out collaborations and partnerships we can’t wait to share with you!

Ensuring you have a positive Sims experience is critical to us. If you’re experiencing crashes or other game-stopping issues, please read our post here, and thank you for your feedback as we continue to invest and improve The Sims 4.

Dag Dag, 

The Sims Team

Fixes for Most Voted Issues:

• “Black Photos”: Implemented 6 fixes addressing different causes of texture loss, along with additional QV testing on paintings and photos to catch previously unreported cases.
  • At the time of writing, all known “black photo” bugs have been resolved. We’ll continue to monitor and address any new reports.
• [EA Forums] Sims will no longer keep putting down Infants before picking them back up. 
• [EA Forums] Sims will no longer receive the “Secret Witness” Sentiment when a married or engaged Sim is witnessed WooHooing with their partner by another Sim.
• [EA Forums] “Can’t place item”:  Fixed in both new and old saves. 
• [EA Forums]  Sims could get stuck with Scandal; this is now fixed for new cases, and existing affected saves will have the lingering VFX cleared.

New! Base Layer Feature

We’re adding a new category to Create a Sim called Base Layers, which will let Simmers express themselves by broadening their fashion choices, providing covered options, and improving gender expression with the layerable binder. There will be 8 Base Layer options for Adults, 4 Base Layer options for Children, and 2 Base Layer options for Toddlers, all in a variety of colors! 

With 380+ new Base Layer variants (including all swatches) that can be layered, this gives players exponential new outfit combinations using any Top or Full Body CAS assets!

Infant and Toddler Improvements and Fixes

This update represents a significant investment into improving Infants and Toddlers, based on top EA Forums issues and additional feedback from Discord and Reddit. After extensive playtesting, we’re excited to share them with you!

New Infant Playmat: Sims prefer placing infants on playmats instead of the floor, making care feel more natural that all players can now enjoy

New toggle in the Options Menu to “Disable Caregiver Autonomy for Infants.” When enabled, all care is manual, though Sims will still socialize and you can use “Check Infant.” Neglect can lead to social services intervention.

• New Infant thought bubble for loud noises: Infants now react to loud noises with a buff and thought bubble, plus a one-time tutorial explaining why they wake, helping players address the cause instead of repeated pickups.
• Additional hovertip improvements, such as “Prefers Bottle Feeding” interactions to clarify that choosing a preference restricts autonomous feeding to that method only and Stand Up Milestone, where Infants needed specific nearby objects to pull themselves up [EA Forums]. 
• Infant tuning based on player feedback, such as;
  • Sims will now clean up diapers left on the floor after changing an Infant or Newborn, as long as a trash can is nearby. (Base Game)
  • Changing an Infant’s diaper at the Changing Table takes about a third less time than it used to. (Base Game)
  • The Infant Hunger Need will now decrease slightly more slowly. We received light feedback on this and we’re hoping this slight tweak will prove the right balance for player realism and fun. (Basegame)
  • Feeding an Infant will now take about fifteen minutes (Sim Time), which is half the time it previously took. (Base Game)
  • Infant care interactions (Give Bottle, Change Diaper, etc.) should now appear on the first Pie Menu when an Infant’s Needs are low for your ease of access.
  • Infant Milestones tied to Tummy Time now unlock twice as fast, addressing feedback that progression felt too slow – especially on shorter lifespans. With reasonable attention, most Milestones can now be achieved by around day 3. (Growing Together)
• 25+ bug fixes for top voted Infant and Toddler issues, including:
  • [EA Forums][EA Forums] [EA Forums] Frequent Infant pickups and put downs, caregiver conflicts, and Sims freezing during care were major frustrations. This update includes multiple interconnected fixes to address these issues, all available in the Base Game.
  • [EA Forums] Infant and Toddler Needs will no longer decrease when the Active Sim (and the player) is on another lot, away from them. We hope that this change will make caregiving for Infants and Toddlers more enjoyable. (Basegame)
  • [EA Forums] Toddler Sims will no longer be hungry but would remain idle, despite having food. (Basegame)
  • We received feedback that “reading to Toddlers” wasn’t working well, and we’ve addressed a few bugs related to this;
    • [EA Forums] Toddlers are now able to successfully run the “Ask to Read Book” interaction on a teen or older Sim.
    • The “Be Read to By” interaction on Toddler Books should now function when selected by an Infant. 
    • We fixed a code exception that could cause Sims to reset when an Adult Sim would click on a book and choose to “Read to Children.” (Basegame)
  • [EA Forums] Infants Milestones are no longer disappearing or being reset when that Infant’s Household is visited while playing another Household. This is fixed in old saves as well as new ones. (Growing Together)
  • [EA Forums] Infants are now able to act on their unlocked Milestone developmental progress when they are not at their Residential lot. This fix is retroactive in old saves where the bug had previously been occurring. (Growing Together)

Base Game: Autonomy & Sleeping Fixes

We didn’t stop with the Infants and Toddlers! Improving overall autonomy is a key player concern. Sims now dance far less (about once per day) and also no longer drink water autonomously, making behavior more predictable and less disruptive. Plus, additional bug fixes!

• [EA Forums] We fixed an issue that was causing NPCs to enter a house to drink water. Unfortunately, this fix was unable to be retroactive for saves in which this gameplay was already occurring.
• [EA Forums] Fixed an issue where Children could be taken away despite not being neglected. New checks ensure a Child must be actively failing (F) before this occurs. The fix is retroactive, but previously removed Children cannot be restored.
• [EA Forums] Sims with the Jealous trait will no longer get upset when their partner interacts with their own children Sims. 

Sleeping autonomy has been improved following community feedback, addressing a mix of bugs and quality of life issues to make sleep behavior more reliable.

Base Game

• [EA Forums] Sims woken by a nearby TV or radio will now turn the device off and return to sleep. This keeps the intended wakeup behavior while making the cause clearer and reducing repeated interruptions.

• [EA Forums] We’ve added a hovertip to the Nap interaction to clarify that this interaction is meant to be shorter with a boost to Energy (rather than an interaction that fills the Need fully). Sims should not stay in the nap interaction until their Energy is full, but we wanted to help clarify this expected behavior. 
• [EA Forums] Fixed an issue where exhausted Sims could get into bed but still collapse from fatigue. Sims who fall asleep in bed will now remain there instead of getting up and passing out.
• [EA Forums] There were callouts in the sleeping EA Forums thread where Sims weren’t sharing a bed with another Sim. We believe our other fixes have addressed this issue, though as a note, Sims will only sleep in the same bed when their relationship is high enough.

Lovestruck

• [EA Forums][EA Forums] There was an issue where Sims in a romantic relationship were getting out of bed when told to sleep simultaneously. We added an interaction called “Sleep and Cuddle” which will now allow this gameplay to function properly.
• [EA Forums] Canceling Cuddle on a sleeping Sim will no longer wake both Sims or interrupt their sleep. If the interaction is canceled after one Sim has joined another already in bed, both will remain in bed. Canceling Cuddle before either Sim is in bed will still result in both Sims getting up, as intended. 

Royalty & Legacy Fixes

Among other fixes, Royalty and Legacy is getting a polishing pass too! Alongside the two top Community Reported Issues addressed in the list above you can also expect fixes for issues relating to the “Poor Leadership” sentiment being added to the Dynasty Head, Offspring of pre-made Dynasties not being added to a Dynasty, and pre-patch babies being born as a secret. We also made various updates to the Grand Ball event not functioning properly. You can expect to read more about these and other fixes on May 12th in the full list of Patch Notes.

• [EA Forums] Sims will now arrive wearing the selected dress code to a Grand Ball event (in line with the functionality for Funerals). As a note: any remaining oddities are due to tagging and would need reported and fixed individually. We did a pass and felt that outfits looked good with all packs, while selecting more common combinations.
• [EA Forums] The Mask option is no longer disabled after entering Create a Sim to change the Host’s outfit for a Grand Ball event.
• We fixed the mask icon in the UI for hosting a Grand Ball event.

Base Game: General Fixes

Alongside major improvements to Infants, autonomy, and sleep, this update will address a wide range of highly voted community issues across the Base Game and packs. Key fixes include resolving inventory bugs with photos, improving Family Tree accuracy, progress against preventing incorrect relationship changes in Create A Sim, and reverting the default Gallery sorting back to “Newest”. 

Across packs and systems, we’ve fixed gameplay blockers, UI issues, and inconsistencies. Highlights include Gallery improvements like fewer upload timeouts and better sorting, fixes for disappearing animals and aging bugs, and improved event, trait, and interaction behavior. We’ve also made broad tagging, sorting, and visual updates in Create a Sim and Build Mode to improve organization and consistency.

The patch notes on May 12th will list these out individually, plus we’ll update the individual EA Forum threads too!

Updates on Top Community Issues

While shipping fixes for top issues, we also continue to investigate other top community reported issues:

• [EA Forums] We’re testing a future fix for Windows and Doors glitching into walls with certain Graphics Settings. 
• We’re actively investigating a few challenging, (likely) performance-related issues that are highly voted within the community;
  • Console crashing after update 2.13, Lag after 1 Hour of Gameplay,
  • Time Freezes while Environment still Moves.
• We’re continuing to investigate and ship fixes to reduce save file corruption. Following our March 10 update, Scratch files were moved from Documents to AppData for PC players to prevent conflicts with cloud backup services. Since rollout, we’ve seen improvements and are working to bring similar changes to Mac.
  • Some save corruption issues, such as failed lot placement, infinite loading, or white screens, may be linked to heavy use of placement cheats or very large saves exceeding system memory. We believe we’ve identified a fix for at least one case and are exploring solutions for others. 
  • In the meantime, Memory Boost can help in certain situations, and we’re working on clearer ways to surface what’s happening and how players can respond.
• [EA Forums] We continue to investigate the cause of “partnered Sims forming an unintended family relationship upon entering CAS” issue.  If testing goes well, a fix should be included in a future update.  
• [EA Forums] Began investigating Autonomous Insulting/Mean Interactions happening in player games after Patch 1.108.349. In recent player submitted saves,  this behavior looks to be As Designed,  caused by the Vicious Dynasty Ideal, but we’ll continue to investigate.

Layering Feature Dev Blog

Sul Sul!

Base Layers are a new asset sub-category within the accessories catalog of Create a Sim, coming with the base game update on May 12. They are a texture-only asset that appears beneath a Sim’s top or outfit. Here’s a quick guide to how it works:

To create a custom content base layer you will need:

• A copy of an existing base layer asset for the 3D scene set up
• A diffuse texture with an appropriate alpha channel with as many colour variations as you wish.
• A specular map (_s)
• A shadow map (_sh)

Getting Started
Any Base Layer top you create will appear directly onto the Sim without any geometry, mimicking a ‘skin-tight’ look. This is to preserve the look of the main top or outfit choice, whilst introducing layering options for the exposed areas. For this reason, Base Layer textures sit exactly over the Sim UV where you want to see them. In the example, the turtleneck sits directly onto the top of the Sim, with an alpha channel that functions as normal: showing the garment (white) and hiding the Sim (black).

Create the texture as normal, either by editing your copied file or making a new one yourself. You only need 2D image editing software, no 3D editing required. Once you have created your files, you are ready for implementation.

Sort it out!
The Base Layer will always appear below the top or outfit choice because of the sort order. Base Layers have a sort order of “10550”, and should be labeled “BaseLayer”. Using the wrong sort order will lead to the textures appearing incorrectly.

Finishing touches
Add the prototype and instances just as you would for any other garment.

The Base Layers feature introduces exciting new layering possibilities to The Sims 4 Base Game. Whilst CC creators have found their own ways to achieve layering in the past, we look forward to seeing how they are able to innovate with this new feature. Good luck and have fun!