Hi Simmers!
Welcome to the Laundry List, where we share the fixes and features we’re working on for our July 21 Base Game update. This month we’re introducing a new AutoSave to The Sims 4, and rolling out Memory Boost to Mac and console players to improve overall performance for more Simmers, plus continuing to fix the top-reported issues from players via EA Forums.
Join us on July 14 for a special Dev Q&A in The Sims Discord, where members of the development team will talk through these updates, and answer questions live.
The Sims Team
From big life moments to everyday chaos, every Sim story deserves to be saved. With the July 21 update, we're introducing AutoSave and Save Reminders to help protect your progress while you play.
Whether you're spending hours in Build Mode or guiding your Sims through their next adventure, these new features make it easier to keep your stories safe so you can focus on what comes next.
AutoSave works quietly in the background, automatically creating save points at key moments while you play. You can customize when AutoSave happens in Game Save Settings, with options like saving after traveling between lots, after a period of playtime, or at important gameplay milestones. If you'd rather stay in control, Save Reminders like the friendly (or slightly grumpy) gnome notification below can prompt you to create a manual save at the frequency you choose. Together, these features help reduce the risk of lost progress while giving you the flexibility to save the way you want.
Whether you're playing with a bustling household, building your dream home, or returning to a save that's been with you for years, smoother gameplay means more time enjoying your stories. That's why we're introducing Memory Boost in the July 21 update across all platforms.
Memory Boost improves how The Sims 4 manages memory while you play, helping deliver a smoother experience with reduced lag, improved frame rates and responsiveness, shorter loading times, and a lower risk of memory-related crashes.
Players may notice the biggest improvements during longer play sessions, in large households, on highly decorated lots, and in older save files. While Memory Boost isn't a dedicated save repair feature, it can also improve save stability and help reduce some memory-related save issues.
Want to learn more? Read our deep dive on Memory Boost.
This month, much of our effort went into delivering new features like Memory Boost, Auto Save, and the Save Reminder system, which meant we tackled fewer individual bug fixes than usual - but these improvements build an important foundation for what's ahead. We'll have more to share as we get closer to September, and in the meantime, here's what we've addressed in the July 21 update:
Last patch, we added new Festival Notification toggles in the Options menu. In this patch, we’ve added a new toggle for Nordhaven Hobby Meetups.
[EA Forums] We’ve resolved an issue where parts of a roof, or entire roof sections, could disappear when viewing upper floors in Build Mode. Roof pieces should now remain visible and render correctly regardless of the selected floor level.
[EA Forums] We tested reports of corrupted lots appearing in saves with many Residential Rentals. With Memory Boost now available and enabled for all players, we can no longer reproduce this issue in any of the affected saves we collected.
Over the past six months, our Quality of Life team has remained focused on delivering improvements driven by community feedback while continuing to strengthen the overall health of The Sims 4. Across multiple game updates, we've addressed many of the community's most-voted issues - from gameplay systems and Sim behaviors to UI, routing, Build/Buy, and Create a Sim fixes - alongside hundreds of additional bug fixes and quality improvements. We've also made meaningful investments in the game's long-term stability and performance, including reducing simulation lag, improving save stability for larger and more complex saves, and introducing features like Memory Boost, AutoSave, and Save Reminders to make everyday gameplay smoother, more reliable, and more resilient.
Our work doesn't stop here. The next major Quality of Life update, coming in September, is focused on improving general Sim autonomy - making Sims behave more intelligently, consistently, and responsively across everyday gameplay. It's another step in our ongoing commitment to making The Sims 4 feel smoother, more reliable, and more enjoyable every time you play. We'll have more to share about the September update as we get closer to release.
For all the latest news, follow Sims Direct on X and join our Discord community - we’ll share updates as they’re available.
Thank you for your patience and for all the helpful reports. Please keep posting any issues you encounter on The Sims 4 EA Forums. We’ll keep checking in, and together we’ll make this game the best it can be.