Sims 4 initially ran very well for me, while Sims 3 under the burden of the files from most of the expansions and quite a lot of mods and self-made content had developed the play/pause/play/pause problem. In Sims 3 this was usually because I did not have a big enough package (file). Bad puns aside, my computer is good, but the disk access speed is its slowest link. I had to regularly use a tool to combine package files to just minimize that Sims 3 stutter. Yes, but this is Sims 4.
When my Sims 4 got developed the same issue, I also saw some bugs (disappearing Sims) and had created, downloaded and edited a fair number of Sims and lots. I'm not sure it has any relation to the onset of disappearing Sims, but I've one suspicion. Messing with my In ../Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Tray folder did help. Your "Tray" folder is you local gallery "My Library" on your disk. I learned the following:
- if you delete files from the /Tray folder, you are deleting things from your library
- if they are in your "Shared Items", there is a second copy on EA's servers
- files to items are not 1 to 1, one lot or household creates multiple files, the only way to see what is by timestamp
- deleting then restoring a file set deleted and restored "My Library" items
- fewer files in the /Tray folder did help my stuttering
- if you delete items from Gallery-> "My Library" the game removes these files from the harddrive
- if you delete items from Gallery-> "My Library" and you shared it, there is still a copy in your online profile
- you can merge sims into edit mode and plop into lots from your online profile, your online items or favorited online items
(I suspect)
- randomly generated townies use Sims/info from Sims in this folder
- copies of played families here may be related to disappearing Sims *
So, unlike a cache file, you really don't want to delete these. You may even want to back it up. But at the same time, if your disk is slow and you are getting stuttering, you want this folder as empty as possible. So, this is what I'm doing:
- do one pass where you save EVERYTHING to online and delete the "/Tray", then redownload only Sims for random population
- keep all played families in your online profile, but delete them from "My Library" as soon as you share them *
- keep all copies of edited lots in your online profile and delete the local "My Library" copy when done editing
- merge into CAS and lots directly from online *
- if you have downloaded a lot of single Sim households, merge them into bigger ones if you want them as random Sims
- merge in from Favorites both Sims and lots whenever possible
That has let me limit my /Tray folder "My Library" content to only Sims for random population and only temporarily saving edited households or lots (upload and delete local "My Library" copy in CAS/lot editor before resuming play mode*).
* I suspect (based on when it started and comments on EA bug threads) that disappearing Sims may be related to a random generated Sim conflicting with an existing Sim. It happened when I had saved sims in "My Library" and it happened to them. This may be a wrong assumption. But things marked with an asterisk may help with the disappearing Sim problem as well as disk-based performance, if this assumption is related to the bug.
