A PSA 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 Residental Rentals Feature from The Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack.

The corruption issue essentially acts like a virus. You won’t know that your Save Game is corrupted until it’s too late to make any changes or backups. The issue keeps persisting with the latest January 28th Sims 4 Patch, across PC, Mac and Console platforms.
Table of Contents
February 20th Update – Official Sims Direct Statement
The Sims Direct Team issued an official statement regarding the Sims 4 Residental Rentals issue in the For Rent Expansion Pack. Clarifying that they’re actively working on the solution.

We’re aware of issues impacting For Rent and save files, and are investigating this further. Please continue to share details through the EA Forums thread, and upload any impacted save files to assist our investigation.

The Sims 4 Save Game Corruption and Lots Disappearing
Creator @cyberthreed brought to attention an issue they’ve stumbled upon. The latest trend of Sims 4 Save Game corruption glitches caused them to lose over 6 months of saved game progress. They also brought up an EA Forum Thread that was posted two months ago, where several Sims 4 Players started reporting weird glitches they’ve encountered.
I lost my 2 year, 48 gen save when residential rentals were introduced. Yes, I have backups but had already progressed several gens and thought starting over was ok. Didn’t know it could happen again!
EmilyBlueJaye on X
Forum expert crinrict brought together a useful list of all the Bug Symptoms that lead up to the recent Sims 4 Save Game corruption, including these official Bug threads:
List of Different Bug Reports
- Default Lots Showing in Surrounding World (54)
- [NEEDS SAVES] Houses/Lots disappear/Error 800 or 801 (314)
- [NEEDS SAVES] Orange/Green Exclamation signs over lots / Houses disappear (246)
- [FR] Corrupted lot/Houses disappear
- Map doesn’t update changes to lots/ Can’t change lot type (7)
- Lots randomly revert back to defaults (20)

The full thread in EA Forums contains multiple reports from players who lost their progress due to the latest corruption issue.
Player Experiences
This is such a devastating bug. I lost a seven-year save and rebuilt it only for it to happen again immediately in a new save. I really hope EA takes it seriously and fixes it quickly.
EJ_Flambert on EA Forums
In my case, I’m not getting infinite loading screens. The lots do load. But just the lot I loaded. Everything else is just EA builds or in the case of Newcrest, completely empty. Like the previous comment said this is a MASSIVE bug that I don’t feel like EA is taking seriously. The game is unplayable but they’re releasing more DLC. Player experience is always a second thought. EA claims to be keeping the Sims 4 alive so players don’t have to start over again, but this is literally a save breaking bug where the only solution that’s being given is to start over or not use content that we paid for.
nyssasims
This is also happening to me in Willow Creek. Lots in the same neighborhood as a rental lot vanish when you go in live mode. They appear fine in Map view, but empty lots in live and build mode. When I try to go edit the rental lot to remove it it gives me Error 800 or endless loading screen.
NessieAlways on EA Forums
100% I lost my oldest neighborhood. I am really excited about the new pack but I really don’t want to get it if it is going to keep destroying my game. the update they did a week ago complete destroyed my legacy lots, and I know no one is going to fix this. It is fully on the gamer to figure out how to code the game and find work around for a game they paid for. I want to play but I am too afraid I will spread it to another world. It is like a nuke went off in Willow Creek so I am trying to move my families to other worlds but what do I do when it moves to another. So frustrating I just want to play the game I paid for.
LadyRyzoka
This is getting worse for me and is happening on pretty fresh saves of only 68 mBs. It’s gotten to the point where in some of my saves, the played household lot is bulldozed every single time I boot in, with no items in the household inventory (all items in the fridge and bookcase are also gone when replacing the lot). All of my save files are impacted to some degree, making the majority of them completely unplayable, or close to it. This is a massive bug and I won’t be spending money on a single S4 product until it’s fixed.
undiluted on EA Forums
Current State and Solutions
At the moment, the entire forum thread has been marked as “Under Investigation”. Meaning that EA and Maxis are currently collecting Bug Reports and Game Files. You can contribute your experience to the bug reports listed above!
However, if you want to avoid The Sims 4 Save Game corruption issue altogether and save your long progress, it’s best to avoid playing For Rent. Until at least we get a statement on when to expect a Hotfix Update.

Crinrict put together a Troubleshooting list, explaining some of the causes behind this 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.
The Sims Direct Communications haven’t made any official statements as of yet regarding this issue. Considering that The Sims 4 Save Game corruption thread on EA Forums is “Under Investigation”, we’re hopeful to get an official announcement soon from Maxis.
Stay tuned on Sims Community for the latest Sims 4 Updates and Reports on this issue.






















































































































































































































