Over on Deaderpool’s Discord server, we often encounter people who have been playing and messing around with Mods for months (even years) and yet have never deleted or even heard of a localthumbcache before.
What is a localthumbcache?
The localthumbcache is a package file in your /Sims 4 folder. They’re automatically created by the game if one isn’t present.
It’s purpose is the same as any other cache; to be a section of memory in which a program can store information and data so that it can access it quickly.
The localthumbcache is important since it store information from the game and, more importantly regarding this article, mods and CC. If you’ve deleted a mod from your game and not deleted your localthumbcache, bits of information from the mod are still in your game and can continue causing trouble
Whenever you make a change to your Mods folder, you should remove your localthumbcache from your /Sims 4 folder. Some players choose to delete it everytime they close their game, others choose to only delete it when necessary. But either way, it should not stay in your /Sims 4 folder after you change your mods (and CC) around.
What should I do with it and the other caches?
You should periodically clear out your caches. These include:
1. The localthumbcache.package file
2. Everything INSIDE the cache folder (do NOT delete the folder itself)
3. Everything INSIDE the cachestr folder (again, do NOT delete the folder itself)
4. The onlinethumbnailcache folder (if it’s there, you might not have one)
You will find that clearing out your caches can end up solving the issues that you’ve been facing. Even if you’re not facing any issues at the moment, you might find clearing out your caches speeds up your game, esp if it’s been particularly laggy.
It is a good practice to get into if you clear out your caches every now and again. It can help prevent any gremlins appearing in your game and keep your from tearing the hair from your head when the gremlins do come out to play.
Is there anything good about the caches?
So, the caches seem annoying, don’t they? So, is there anything good about them?
Firstly, like all caches, they do actually help speed your game up. Massively. Without them, it would take a lot longer to load things like sim thumbnails in game, so you can thank them for that.
But the biggest thing I use my localthumbcaches for are sim thumbnails.
Sim Thumbnails? Tell me more…
You might notice that, when you open up relationship panels after deleting localthumbcaches or when a sim enters a mood they haven’t felt since deleting the file, that it takes a few moments for the thumbnail to load in. This is because the image is generated on the fly by the game (credit to Fogity for pointing this detail out to me). The game then saves this image in the localthumbcache, so it can get to it again a bit quicker next time.
One such example is that of my Ver, when he’s been feeling happy: (I managed to crowbar my Ver into a help article, I consider that something of a success).
If you use Sims 4 Studio, you can open the localthumbcache as you would any other package file in it. When you then open it, you can browse through the contents of your localthumbcache.
You can then find the emotional busts for each of your sims, as well as a couple of other types of image (I’ll let you find them out for yourself). SImply select the image you want to save, hit export, then save it.
The best part about these images is that they have no background and they’re a good size (the emotional busts especially) so easy to scale down, and up to a certain extent. I’ve got something of a collection myself, for my sims.
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Want to get to know Jam? Come to my Discord Server, House Jars, and have a chat.
Need assistance with your Sims 4 game? Deaderpool’s Discord has, along with myself, a large Support Team who are well adversed in game support. Ask us over there in #general_support and we’ll set your game right in no time.
Crinrict’s Blog (if you’re curious as to what each file means, in a little more detail than my quick over view, then you should check out this page)
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