I've run into a frustrating situation... a neighborhood that was playing fine a couple days ago suddenly crashes, after the re-introduction of some CC (that a vague memory tells me I've had trouble with before). If the game crashes before the neighborhood even loads (and by neighborhood, I mean ANY of my neighborhoods), there's no threat to the neighborhood itself, correct? All I really have to do is filter those new CC items, until I find the one that's causing the problem, and I should be good to go. It's only a handful of new items that I've acquired, and up until that point I had no problems.

I should also trash some cache files, correct? Accessories and groups? Or some other ones as well? Or is that not even strictly necessary? If I recall correctly, trashing the neighborhood manager is only done if I've had to back up the hoods from a previous save. But I don't think the problem exists in a specific hood or lot, if the game crashes before I even get there. Does that all make sense, or is my anxiety clouding my thinking here?

Yes, if the lot worked fine before, but starts crashing after you add some CC, chances are there's some item that conflicts with something on that lot, or generally with your game (for instance an EP compatibility issue, a repo'd item, or a GUID conflict. Recolors with excessively long internal name strings can also cause trouble, but can be a bit harder to track down).

Sounds like you're already on the right track here - Find and remove the CC, delete the cache files you mentioned**, and hopefully your game will be fixed.

**the two others are Bodyshop/Homecrafter related, so they usually don't show up unless you've used those programs - but you can delete those too. Cigen is the only useful one, for somewhat faster thumbnail loading in Bodyshop + one of Pick'n'mix's programs that reads thumbnails off of this file.

Tip for the future - put new CC and mods in a separate folder named something like "TEST". It really does help with finding problem content, especially the items that almost immediately cause issues.

I have my CC arranged according to when it was added to the DL folder, so I can always find the latest items. But that's a good suggestion. I think I've sorted this one out; I just wanted to confirm that the neighborhood wouldn't have been corrupted by whatever was crashing the game, as it wouldn't load and therefore couldn't be saved. Thanks - it's always reassuring to get your advice when things go haywire.

I mean, the neighborhood is saved right when it loads, yes. If you do a lot of swapping CC in and out and loading the neighborhood, some CC objects might go missing from it if you took them out during that process, but that's not corruption, you can just replace the objects afterwards.

Depending on the type of object and what makes it misbehave, the game can crash at startup, when loading a neighborhood, when loading a lot, when loading that category of buy/build, or when clicking/placing/using the object.

I've had the same item crash at accessing the buy/build category, and when loading a lot that had the item present.

For what makes it crash when loading a neighborhood - it's possible the item is visible from NH view or conflicts with an item that's visible from NH view. You likely won't have a clue what causes the crash until you find the item, and even then it's not always possible to figure it out.


(Arranging CC by date of addition can be useful to some degree, but it can eventually get difficult to find spesific items, especially some months/years down the line when you have no clue what's under which date. My CC used to be sorted partly by date of addition and partly by creator/site/set, and after a while I barely had any idea where anything was, since everything was mixed. Now I have main categories such as buy/build/mods/CAS - I still sort by creator/site/set/type inside the folders, but with a max of 1-3 folder layers. I also use a "TEST" folder for stuff I'm still checking out, and once I'm reasonably sure that CC is fine, I put it where it belongs. Now I can keep track of what I have, and it's easier to pinpoint possible issues since I don't need to test irrelevant categories).

There is a Mac file limit as well, have you edited yours? It's been a while but I believe that if you exceed the file limit, different from what Windows users call the object limit, it crashes the game. Some of that cc could very likely be from EPs you don't have, as many creators now just assume everyone has the UC and forgets Mac players don't have that.

^ Absolutely. The Mac version is a lot more sensitive to CC because of the file limit

CC/mods made for EPs you don't have can potentially crash the game, or cause other issues. Downloaded lots that have been made with a pack you don't have can crash the game.


Not sure, but it's possible merging files could help with the file limit - for instance merging sets of recolors together. Unfortunately I think you need either SimPE or LD's merging program to do this (no idea if LD's program is Mac compatible, but linking just in case)
https://keoni-chan.tumblr.com/post/...cc-a-mini-guide (Keoni's SimPE tutorial)
https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post...our-sims-2-mods (LD's merger)

Did you backup the neighbourhood before adding potentially problematic CC? This is why I have a test neighbourhood.

Some neighborhoods stall out for a while during the load screen, and then eventually crash the game without fully loading; others just sit there frozen halfway through the loading process, and never get there, and I have to force-quit. BUT some neighborhoods load just fine, so it can't be the file limit, I shouldn't think. I did edit it quite a while ago: set it insanely high, where I was pretty sure I would never reach it. Whatever problems I'm experiencing - and again, only with certain hoods - it's not that one. More likely that I've modified (inadvertently with CC) an object that is visible in hood view... or something else. I'm usually fairly nerdy about only downloading stuff that I can actually use.

At this point I'm almost ready to completely trash the neighborhoods that will no longer load, and just rebuild them from the ground up. I've been pretty lazy of late about backing up neighborhoods, so it's totally my own fault that things are going bonkers. Then again, it's happening in neighborhoods I haven't even looked at in quite a while. If I was going to delete them, I wonder if that's best done from the in-game main menu, or by just deleting the folders from my Sims folder? I still have folders belonging to hoods that no longer exist. Is it safe to trash those, at least?

Have you put in the two new fixes by Will Nixon? Pink soup and windows file limit.

There's no issue with file limits on Windows. Are you referring to the fix for catalog items? That doesn't have anything to do with the number of files.

They're talking about the GUID limit.

Well I don't have Windows, so I'm not sure that's going to be the answer for me. I think it may be time to do a binary sift of my cc... maybe not the CAS stuff, as that wouldn't cause crashes during a neighborhood load, right? I avoid big changes to my CAS cc if at all possible, as it causes my "clothing catalog" to slow down to a maddening crawl.

But first I need to sort all my newer stuff out, so I can tell what's what. Wish me luck; looks like my evening's entertainment is all planned out.

I should have said that I have my NEWEST CC arranged according to when it was added to the DL folder, so I can always find the latest items. Older, "more established" items are in one of four folders: BUY (green), BUILD (orange), BODYSHOP (purple), and BEHAV (gray). BEHAV contains any mods that don't go in one of the other categories, including careers. But I've been lazy on several fronts lately, and sorting cc is one of them. It's fine, it's overdue.

That problem also has nothing to do with the number of GUIDs. The person who fixed it gave an explanation of what was happening.

This won't work on Mac's.



Semantics, let's not debate what it technically fixes since the majority of sims players will not and do not understand.

Did you add in any lots? Lots made with newer EPs will stall the hood loading screen and cause a crash as well.

Calling it a GUID limit also impedes understanding, since that's not what it was. "The problem that was previously thought to be caused by a GUID limit" would be clear as would be something like "the recently fixed problem with catalog items". Just saying "GUID limit" leaves open the possibility that some real GUID limit issue has been discovered since this other issue was fixed.