Sims 4 CC Hair Not Showing Up? Here's How to Fix It

First Check: Is Custom Content Actually Enabled?

This sounds obvious, but it's the cause of the problem more often than you'd expect — especially after a game update. EA patches occasionally reset game settings, including the CC toggle, without warning.

Go to the main menu of The Sims 4 (don't load a save yet). Click the three dots menu in the top right corner, then Game Options, then the Other tab. You should see "Enable Custom Content and Mods" with a checkbox next to it. If it's unchecked, check it. Also check "Script Mods Allowed" while you're there — you'll want it for gameplay mods later even if hair CC doesn't technically need it.

After enabling, you'll need to restart the game. Once you're back at the main menu, you should see a notification that custom content was detected. If you see that notification, your CC is loading. If you don't see it, the issue is something else — keep reading.

Second Check: File Depth in the Mods Folder

This is the most common technical cause of CC not loading. The Sims 4 reads .package files from the Mods folder and exactly one subfolder level below it — no deeper. Files nested more than one level down are silently ignored. No error. No warning. They just don't load.

Here's what works and what doesn't:

• Works: Mods/YourHairFile.package
• Works: Mods/Hair/YourHairFile.package
• Does NOT work: Mods/Hair/Curly/YourHairFile.package
• Does NOT work: Mods/CC/Hair/Creator/YourHairFile.package

Check your Mods folder structure. If you've organized things into nested subfolders, move the .package files up to a shallower level. This alone fixes the problem for a significant number of Simmers who have been puzzling over missing CC.

Third Check: Clear the Thumbnail Cache

The game maintains a cache file called localthumbcache.package that stores thumbnail images for every object in the game, including CC. If this cache is stale — if it was built before you added your new CC — the game may load the CC correctly but not generate proper thumbnails for it, causing it to either show as gray squares or not appear in search results properly.

Navigate to your Sims 4 root folder (same folder that contains your Mods folder — typically Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4). Find localthumbcache.package and delete it. It will regenerate automatically the next time you launch. Relaunch the game, wait for it to fully load, and check CAS again.

Fourth Check: Is the File Actually a .package File?

Sometimes what looks like a ready-to-use file is actually still an archive. A file named HairPack.package.zip is still a zip file — you need to extract it to get the actual .package file inside. Check your downloaded files in File Explorer with file extensions visible (View → Show → File name extensions on Windows). Make sure what you moved to the Mods folder ends in .package and not .zip, .rar, or .7z.

Fifth Check: Corrupted Download

Occasionally a download completes but the file is corrupted — incomplete, truncated, or damaged during transfer. A corrupted .package file usually doesn't cause crashes; it just silently fails to load. Symptoms: the file is in the right place at the right depth, CC is enabled, cache is cleared, but the hair still doesn't appear.

The fix is straightforward: delete the file and re-download from the original source. If you're downloading from The Sims Resource, try using their direct download rather than any mirror link. If the corruption happens repeatedly from the same source, try a different browser or temporarily disable any download managers that might be interfering with the file transfer.

Sixth Check: Did a Game Update Break the CC?

EA patches The Sims 4 regularly, and patches occasionally break CC. This is more common with script mods than with hair CC (which is mesh and texture data rather than executable code), but it does happen — particularly when EA makes significant changes to the CAS system or to the way custom item thumbnails are generated.

If your CC was working before a recent game update and has now stopped appearing, check the creator's page. Active creators typically post compatibility updates after major patches. If the creator isn't active and the CC broke in a patch, you may need to find an alternative. The Sims 4 community also maintains post-patch broken mod lists (Carl's Sims Guide is a reliable source for these) that track which CC and mods need updates.

Seventh Check: Conflicting Package Files

Rarely, two CC packages will conflict with each other in a way that causes one or both to not load. This is uncommon with hair CC specifically (it's more common with gameplay mods that modify the same game system), but it can happen when two hair files both try to replace the same slot or override the same base game asset.

If you've ruled out all the above causes, try the 50/50 method: move half your Mods folder contents into a temporary folder outside the game directory. Launch and check if the problem persists. If the hair now shows up, the conflict is in the half you removed. If it still doesn't show, the issue is in the half still in Mods. Keep halving until you isolate the problem file. Remove or update it.

Checking the Notifications Menu in CAS

One more thing worth knowing: The Sims 4 has a CC notification icon in CAS (a small icon that looks like a wrench or gear depending on your game version) that shows which CC is applied to a specific Sim. If you're looking for a specific hair and can't find it through browsing, this menu can sometimes surface CC items that aren't appearing in the main catalog view due to filter settings. Make sure no active filters in CAS are hiding items — the style, color, and pack filter settings can narrow results in ways that exclude CC if set incorrectly.