Sims 4 April 16 patch warns mod users to back up saves first

The safest move on patch day is not to click update first. EA’s April 16 The Sims 4 patch pushed the Marketplace to PlayStation and Xbox, shifted Pack Select into the Marketplace’s My Collection area, and added better Gallery discovery filters, but the bigger warning for modded games is simple: update too fast and a save, UI, or core gameplay setup can unravel in minutes.

The patch landed after EA’s March 17 update had already added the Marketplace to PC and Mac, paired it with more than 60 quality-of-life fixes, and adjusted Sim autonomy in live mode, including socializing with strangers, excessive flirting, and obsessively using certain objects. That matters because the April 16 rollout is not just a storefront change. It affects how players manage content, how Sims behave, and how mod conflicts surface the moment a new build replaces an old one.

Backup files before anything else. Move the Mods folder and the Saves folder out of the Sims 4 directory and onto the desktop before updating. That is the quickest way to protect long-running households and keep a corrupted patch from turning into a full cleanup job. If the goal is to stay on an older version until creators catch up, go offline in the EA App and open the launcher properly, since a desktop shortcut can force online mode and trigger the update anyway.

Crinrict’s Sims 4 Help Blog said mods are automatically disabled after the patch, and SimsVIP’s April 16 broken and updated mod tracker told players to re-enable Mods and Script Mods after each update, delete localthumbcache, and test one mod at a time. That advice matters because patch day produces false alarms as often as real breakage. Some mods fail outright, some are only paused by version checks, and some need nothing more than a quick re-save or batch fix.

The Marketplace rollout raises the stakes for console players as well. EA Help says the in-game store sells Kits, Maker Packs, Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs, and that it requires an online connection while offline play still works outside Marketplace features. EA says Maker Packs range from three to fifty items, and accepted Makers can publish through The Sims Maker Program. Crinrict also notes storage limits of 16GB for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and up to 50GB for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Cloud, a reminder that this patch is about file management as much as gameplay.