So that option you can turn on/off in the settings that is supposed to fill empty houses in your town with families... Does it actually work for people? Because I always have mine turned on because I'd like the empty houses in my town to have sims living in them without me having to do it myself but... It doesn't do anything.

Sorry I cant give you the exact answer but I can say MC Command Center by deaderpool is super effective in these cases with various settings for that down to the percentage of gender/age/occult you want to fill the lots with and also gives you notification of who is moving in or out. https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/

The option always worked for me, to the point where I thought that one of my families was premade and it took me weeks to realize that they weren't, by seeing let's play and whatnot and seeing that their lot was originally empty. I also discovered they had one of the most stupid family combo possible: single mom with kid and teen AND another random adult single woman living with them, with absolutely no relationships nor family ties with any of them. Oddly enough it turned out to be one of the most interesting 'families'.

It has never worked for me either. I have noticed it and thought i must look into it, but frankly sims 4 is a very poor game i don't bother with it. sad

Mine worked. but it would only be 2 houses sometimes 3 if it was a large neiborhood.. i had tons of trouble with MCC in the past.. well while updating m game i moved my mods to desktop, not realizing when i removed MCC a yr ago, i left it in the mods foler, on the desktop.. so wen i moved the new one with my mods i use there. tey combined... wile i moved it back and loaded the game.. MCC was there, and witin one few minute session testing te options an seeing if it crashed (it didnt!) so i went to the worlds menu, and my neiborhood was filled.. basiclaly, if i had a new family i created for a reason (I have Motorcyvle clubs, 4 diff "Gangs" and 3 sepearte organized crime familys, all with ttheir own drug dealers, and sims who enjoy killing, as well as complex relationsips between each including alliances, or at war) i had to move em into an empty lot and build a house, or evict another family.. so it went from barely working, to working to well... now i have weird a** looking single families all over! ive spent way to muc time with fixing/removing them.. i noticed it also made me lag like crazy! not worth it.. p.s. i had to go get the newest mcc an now i cant visit any home i wasnt invited to, and the locks no longer work (except te locked doors i had already set before accidently reinstalling mccc) so keep in mind, becareful what u wish for! u may end up with giant boobed townys with green eyebrows and purple hair everywhere!!!

No sims 3 was a poor game!!! sims 4 just needed a lil extra work.. when i first got it there was no pool tool!!! it took a cpl weeks to add it.. and im stil waitng for a pool table damnt!!! but ya.. thats pretty harsh for someone who "Doesnt bother with sims 4"

I was having trouble filling empty lots but seem to have found an answer, for me anyway. I decided to make a trailer park in the desert area and copied Zest's caravan, unfurnished onto a larger one and a small one of my own on a 20x15. I then furnished them with cheap furniture, making them well under 20,000 simoleons each. These I copied to all the remaining lots. I meant to put my own Sims in them later and went on to play in another World for the rest of the evening. When I went back to start filling the World up I found several lots already occupied with single Sims or couples. I think the Sims have to be able to afford them.

This is on a new gaming laptop and a recommended limit of 200 Sims though. It might be due to the game limits (as in Sims 1 & 2) when Sims appeared according to your PC's power range.

Worked for me. I moved my family out of a house and the game automatically moved in another townie family in there.

Mine usually did not work also.

Mine works - I have ticked the setting in Game Options, and it takes a few played rounds to see it happen, but my sims are slowly moved in. I have MCCC so I've asked it to also give me moving notifications so I know where all my townies are. I've also downloaded a bunch of apartment buildings from the gallery that I'm using to give my hoods more space. I can move in several single townies and just lock doors. It makes it easier to house single sims that way and then let families have houses where necessary instead of having HUGE single family homes take up all the space. I still have empty lots too (I just replaced some mansions) and the great thing about it is that your game will randomly move a sim in (so you don't have to cheat them money to buy the whole apartment.) After that, I can move in other sims, change the name on the building to the building's name instead of the first sim in, and then play it with 8 sims living happily. It's great.