Published on April 9, 2020
Updated on October 22, 2022

The Sims 4 - How To Install Custom Content / Mods - Guide & Tips

About TS4

Release Date
Sep 2, 2014
Developer
Electronic Arts
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Country of Origin
United States
Franchise
The Simsâ„¢

A couple of hundred hours of playing Sims 4 and you have almost been through everything. After playing with all the expansions and stuff packs, all the families you created, by this point, they must have been through deaths and births, parties and funerals, and all sorts of sim-ish things that can happen in the game.

Cosmetics will slowly start to get dull and the gameplay needs a bit of “spice” after a while. At this point, at this very crucial moment that you might question yourself if there’s anything else fun left in the game, is where the desire to fill your game with custom content and mods starts to intensify!

The world of mods and custom content is absolutely infinite, as the fanbase of The Sims 4 is huge, constantly growing, and dedicated for years. Thousands of creators have uploaded amazing addons and gameplay features. Name the most niche thing you can imagine – I doubt that you will not find it.

If you are new to the world of custom content, you might take some time to figure out how things work, and that’s why this guide was made. I will narrow every step you will have to go through to successfully download any custom content or mod, and I will address common issues that beginners might face!

Table of Contents

1. Finding Custom Content & Mods for The Sims 4

The first step is to browse the world of custom content and mods, and thankfully there are many well-established and safe websites to download content from, still, most of them lead to the two most major Sims websites, TSR & Mod The Sims. In these websites, you will also find the profiles of the creators themselves! It would be wise to make an account and follow them so you can keep track of their new creations!

The Sims Resource

TSR is the oldest, largest, and most trustworthy website you can download custom content from! It started back in August of 1999, as the very first The Sims fansite, and it keeps growing every day! TSR has mostly custom cosmetics and in-game custom items, and it’s supported by the best CC creators! You can also find mods, but the majority of the content revolves around clothing, make-up, hairstyles, etc.

You can download everything for free! All you have to do is to just turn off your Adblock for an optimal experience (and as the least support you can show to the owners and creators), and download everything individually, not more than one of them at the same time. Every download takes 10 seconds. You can eliminate the waiting time and downloading them one-by-one, by becoming a VIP member.

As a VIP member, you can add multiple CC in a basket and download them all together, with no waiting time! I personally choose the VIP membership, which costs 4$ per month. I find it a very fair deal, especially for the ones that just now start to download their first CC, as it’s gonna be really tough to wait for hundreds of them for so long!

Mod The Sims

If The Sims Resource provides everything that revolves around cosmetics, Mod The Sims is the house of all the must-have mods!

Everything ranging from UI cheats to height sliders, you can definitely find it there, and easily install it in your game! You can also find furniture, wallpapers, clothing, and other stuff of course, but everyone is known for something, and Mod The Sims, is known for mods!

After you choose your mod, you can download it by going in the “Files” tab, and select the most recent and updated version of your desired mod! In some cases, you might need to download multiple files, so always visit and read well the instructions in the “Description” tab.

Feel free to visit the website’s forums, as you can find interesting guides, conversations between fans and many gameplay challenges, that will give you awesome ideas to spice up the RPG part of the gameplay!

Pinterest / Tumblr

Pinterest and Tumblr is the place where you can find your favorite creators profiles where you can follow their progress on new CC, updates on older ones and more!

Many creators provide their content only through their social media, and these two are the most popular social media among the Sims content creators!

It is very easy to create a profile on both of these platforms, so I strongly suggest to go for it if you want to be on top of all the news, updates, and “underground” creations.

2. Download 7Zip or WinRar

Some of the CC and mods you will try to download might be in the form of a zip, a file that contains many other compressed files. To extract the compressed contents, you will have to install WinRar or 7Zip.

After you download the zip to the proper folder, right-click on the file and select the “Extract Here” option. After the proper extraction of the file, you can safely delete the zip file, which will now be empty and not useful.

Keep in mind that some mods and CC’s don’t work well with either 7Zip or WinRar. A safe choice is to download both programs and use accordingly.

3. How to Install Custom Content & Mods in The Sims 4

Once you start downloading, you will need to place the files on the proper folder. The path you have to follow is: This PC>Documents>Electronic Arts>Mods. In the “Mods” folder, feel free to create new folders to divide your CC and mods into categories, so you can easily spot them if you need them removed or updated.

Common Issues

The road to successfully download CC and mods is not covered in rose pedals. For a beginner, it will be kind of hard to figure out why a hairstyle is broken or why a mod causes issues in the game, or even not working properly itself.

Broken files mostly can be caused because of a missing update, or because of copyright issues, as some items are recolored/retextured and reuploaded. If you download a rework of an item, you will need the original creation to get the reworked item to work properly. These creations usually include the information of the original creations in their description section, so always check for it!

The same thing can happen with mods. Always check the details of a mod before you download it, as it might not work by itself and it may need another mod to work with. Download the latest versions of every mode, and stay informed about their updates. If a mod you use is not updated it might cause problems in-game, such as disconnects, frozen Sims, etc.

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Cthylla, The Great Old One

Heavily devoted to FPS games, but I still enjoy a well-written story game or survival games that include crafting. I really enjoy gaming with friends, but my friends usually play other kinds of games, so I'm mostly a solo-queue player and totally used to it.

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