GUIDE: How to find the broken mod/package file that prevents you from launching to the game within your mods folder (Patreon)

Hi everyone!

Every now and then, some mods can get broken with some of the patches or they can get outdated. They can be clashing with some existing package files. What might be the core of the issue? What package file is causing this?

And often people get too anxious about this issue while it's actually quite simple to solve. Here's how to find the broken file.

STEP 1 : Create a fresh mods folder

Go to your Mods directory, which is located in:

"My Computer > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4"

In this location (If you didn't change the directory), you'll see your Mods folder. Change it's name to a single M letter.  And then create a new folder in this directory, name it Mods. It should look like this:

Congrats on this! Now, in the same directory, find the localthumbcache.package. It's not in your mods folder. It's in the same directory where your mods folder is. Find it, delete it. It does wonders!

STEP 2 : Try to launch to game

You'll see that you're launching game rapidly! This is a good sign because we know that the issue is not corrupted game files. It's just a broken mod package which makes things ten times easier to fix.

If you successfully launched, now you can exit the game and start to fixing process.

STEP 3 : Finding the broken mod with the ancient and the mighty " O, Glorious 50/50 " method

Go to your main mods folder, which we named it M letter just a couple seconds ago. See, it takes only seconds to proceed to the 3rd step already! Trust the process, it's really simple and quick. ♥

Find all of your script files. Because most of the time, it's one of the outdated or broken script files that giving you the hussle.

What are script mods? UI cheats, wickedwhims, basemental, the mod that allows you to have 564651 households all at once, game altering mods etc. all are script mods. You should know what mods you are using. Find all of them one by one. Cut them and paste them into your EMPTY and fresh Mods folder. You know, the one we just created. Not to the M. To the Mods one. After putting every single script mods into your new Mods folder, try to launch to the game.

IF YOU FAILED TO LAUNCH: Well, we found the problem! One of the script mods is broken and you need to find which one is the broken mod. Take out them one by one and after each "taking out", try to launch to the game until you can. Let's say you have 5 script mods. Put 1 out of the new Mods folder and try to launch. You failed? Put one more out. You succeeded? Now you know which script mod is broken.

IF YOU SUCCEEDED TO LAUNCH: Well, now we know your script mods not giving you the issue. It's time to search a bit deeper. Don't worry. It's way easier than you think it is. Now it's time for step 4.

STEP 4 : It's time to find the little annoying dumdum!

1) Take out all the script mods you just placed inside of your newly, freshly created Mods folder. Put them into somewhere else, somewhere not related to your Sims game.

2) Go to your M folder, which is your main mods folder. Let's say there is 10000 files in it. Select half of it, which is 5000. Put them into your newly created Mods folder. Try to launch to game.

IF YOU FAILED: It means you are in luck because it will take you shorter than you think. Who would have thought that they'd be happy to fail to launch to game, right? Proceed to sub-step 3.

IF YOU SUCCEEDED: The 5000 package files you just put into your new Mods folder seems to be fine. You remember that you also created a new folder for the script mods earlier? You can put these 5000 fine package files into that safe folder. Now, your newly created Mods folder should be empty again. Now, proceed to sub-step 4.

3) (Read this step if you failed to launch to game after step 2) Since we are now looking for a group of mods which is, one of them causing us issue and preventing the launch, now we'll create a new folder outside of our Sims game; the one like we created to put our safe script mods. We are looking at a 5000 package files. Select 2500 of them, cut them and paste them into the newest folder we created. Try to launch to game.

IF YOU FAILED TO LAUNCH: Now you need to keep repeating these steps until you find the broken mod package. Create another new folder, put half of the mods, try to launch, rinse and repeat. This is the reason why this method is called 50/50. At the end, you will find that one broken mod.

IF YOU SUCCEEDED TO LAUNCH: A couple seconds ago, you split your 5000 mods into two and put 2500 of them into a safe folder. Turns out, one of them actually wasn't safe after all! Now, create another new folder, put 2500 of the mods packages which were in your Mods folder a moment ago. Now your Mods folder is empty again. The 2500 mods we thought they were safe, put them to empty Mods folder now. And try to launch to the game. You will fail, obviously. Now you need to keep repeating these steps until you find the broken mod package. Create another new folder, put half of the mods, try to launch, rinse and repeat. This is the reason why this method is called 50/50. At the end, you will find that one broken mod.

4) (Read this step if you succeeded to launch to game after step 2) Since the 5000 of the package files were safe, you can put them into the new folder outside of our Sims game; the one like we created to put our safe script mods. We are looking at the remaining 5000 package files. Select 2500 of them, cut them and paste them into the newest, empty Mods folder we created. Try to launch to game. You will fail, obviously. Now you need to keep repeating these steps until you find the broken mod package. Create another new folder, put half of the mods, try to launch, rinse and repeat. This is the reason why this method is called 50/50. At the end, you will find that one broken mod.

If you need further assistance, let me know so i can try to help you out :) ♥