Sims 3 crashing after Yosemite upgrade «12...Next Go

ccwgamergirl

Is anyone else experiencing crashing with the Sims 3 after upgrading to OS X Yosemite? This is my first time in the forums and I couldn't find a thread about it. If there is already one please point me in that direction. Hoping there is a fix for this since Sims 4 isn't available on MACs yet.

Thanks yall!

Tremayne4260

Nothing so far. It may be your resolution that is causing the problem. The game won't recognize anything other than the original resolution.

suepea

Tremayne4260 wrote: »

Nothing so far. It may be your resolution that is causing the problem. The game won't recognize anything other than the original resolution.

Have you upgraded to Yosemite, Tremayne? I have been holding off - what do you think?

Tremayne4260

I did upgrade to Yosemite and everything else is fine. Just can't change the resolution settings on Sims 3.

Tremayne4260

Figured it out! Control + return changes from windowed mode to full screen. Go to window mode, change your resolution and then return to full window mode.

Elf67

I am waiting awhile before upgrading to Yosemite. I've heard they are using the same font used in iOS 7 and iOS 8 that for me is basically illegible, even with visual accessibility options on. I am visually impaired, and I feel Apple since the new guy took over has gone backward in visual accessibility. I have difficulty reading this forum since they changed the font and I think the one Apple is using now is actually thinner!

ccwgamergirl

> @Tremayne4260 said:
> Figured it out! Control + return changes from windowed mode to full screen. Go to window mode, change your resolution and then return to full window mode.


THANKS!!! Going to give this a try!

ccwgamergirl

what should i changed my resolution to? it's on the default and the game still crashes...

Tremayne4260

I am able to change it back to what I always run the game at. Of course it depends on what size your monitor is.

PreciousLofton

To change resolution in Sims 3. Go to documents -> Electronic Arts -> The Sims 3 -> Options.ini . Open in a text document. Somewhere to the bottom of the text document once open you should find a resolution similar to "1078 768 0". Change it to Yosemite current resolution which I believe is "1280 800" Best for display.

Tremayne4260

Actually it is much easier than that. Trash your options.ini file (this is like doing the Vanilla reset. The file will regenerate). Start your game up. Once you get to the file where you choose which saved game you want to play, click on "Options" and then go to the screen where you can change your resolution. To actually change the resolution click on "Command + the Return" keys. This will put your game in windowed mode where you can then change and save your resolution. Your resolution is set and will be fine each time you open your game.

PhoenixLindsay

HELP!! I literally just bought a 15" Macbook Pro with Retina (in other words "fancy" and yes, expensive) yesterday. Tonight, I bought the Sims 3 Starter pack and a DVD writer. So this is the first game on my "virgin" Mac. I did this to avoid buying a download as I read all the horror stories in the reviews at Amazon. The first disc downloaded and installed fine but when I tried to actually create a Sim, it kept freezing on me. I tried three times and then thought it may've been the free "Date Night" code they gave me with the game so I didn't put my Sim in any of those clothes. I got farther that time but when I let my daughter create her Sim, it froze a 4th time. I'd already had to force shut down my computer and will probably have to again just to get out of this. Now I can't even open the DVD writer to get the disc out. This can't be real good for my brand new machine.
I am really technically challenged and tend to drift when people talk tech so any instructions given would be appreciated if kept at an almost child-like mentality. Thanks guys, for any help!

Ashpeef

To try and tackle your problem

• I'd start with downloading the cumulative update for the game. That one you'll find on the Mac Discussions page, third item from the top. It is called "Official EA Download Links for The Sims 3 *Cumulative* Manual Update" and contains all the updates (patches) from the first to the most recent, combined in one file. Read the post and pick the appropriate package for your version (America, Europe etcetera).
  Why use that one and not the "auto-update" from the launcher? The Sims is a big game and its patches are (very) big as well. The (by now quite old) Launcher doesn't handle such big chunks without problems as is was never build to do that!
• Once you've downloaded the Cumulative Update, find it in the Downloads folder on your Mac, double click it and you should get a file named "To-9355-1.67.2.02400#.app", where # is a number depending on which version you downloaded. Store this huge file at a save place on your Mac; that way, if something should go wrong, you don't have to download the whole thing again — a big time saver!
• Install just the base game and nothing else as of yet.
• Apply the Cumulative Update by double clicking To-9355-1.67.2.02400#.app and helping the program to find your game.
• Once the updater finishes its job, install any extra discs that came with your Sims 3 Starter Pack.

After these steps you should be fine, but if that's not the case:
Have a good look at the same Mac Discussions page. About half way down you'll find a thread called "A Mac User's Best Friend". That one contains a ton of good advise and problem shooting for almost all that could possibly go wrong with The Sims 3 on the Mac. At the start of that thread there are pointers to specific help items that are both thorough and (maybe not "child-like", but) done in a very step-by-step way.

(Edited to add some info on the bewildering need to pick the right region version.)

BluebellFlora

PhoenixLindsay wrote: »

HELP!! I literally just bought a 15" Macbook Pro with Retina (in other words "fancy" and yes, expensive) yesterday. Tonight, I bought the Sims 3 Starter pack and a DVD writer. So this is the first game on my "virgin" Mac. I did this to avoid buying a download as I read all the horror stories in the reviews at Amazon. The first disc downloaded and installed fine but when I tried to actually create a Sim, it kept freezing on me. I tried three times and then thought it may've been the free "Date Night" code they gave me with the game so I didn't put my Sim in any of those clothes. I got farther that time but when I let my daughter create her Sim, it froze a 4th time. I'd already had to force shut down my computer and will probably have to again just to get out of this. Now I can't even open the DVD writer to get the disc out. This can't be real good for my brand new machine. <br />
I am really technically challenged and tend to drift when people talk tech so any instructions given would be appreciated if kept at an almost child-like mentality. Thanks guys, for any help!

Which 15" MBP? Because if it is the entry level one you will have this problem:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/735231

And you will always have memory issues, like every single Mac user does. Follow Ashpeef's advice and read the help threads, paying particular attention to resetting/purging RAM.

And plenty of us play the game perfectly well using the digital download

You can eject the disc from the SuperDrive by turning off your Mac then click and keep your finger pressed down on the Trackpad as you start your Mac back up. Keep it held down until the disc ejects then you can let go.

Elf67

If you are talking about the disc being stuck in DVD rom drive, most of them have a manual eject option. Check the manual that came with it-in most cases, there is a small hole that you use a paper clip to insert into which should open the drawer.

Tremayne4260

You can also drag the disk image into the Trash folder (the picture of the game disk). That will eject the disk as well.

ccwgamergirl

changing the resolution didn't help. strangely i added some custom content and that prolonged the time between in game crashing...best i can do for now i guess...

BluebellFlora

@ccwgamergirl

- What Mac do you have?
- Did playing in Windowed mode make a difference?
- What happens when you move out your Sims 3 folder and let the game regenerate a new one? How long can you play for?
- Are you purging/resetting RAM frequently?

ezuhbolla

After installing new custom content, my game would crash before the EA logo would come bouncing in.
I had to get down to the nitty gritty and I found it was ONE batch of custom content pack that I installed which just wasn't cooperating... (maybe it was outdated and incompatible with Yosemite, I will never know)
Fortunately I tediously color-code (with the nifty color tags) all my batches of custom content so it was easy for me to figure out which batch was faulty.

Tremayne4260

Yup. Do the same thing. The Store content is fine. It's the 3rd party stuff I'm having to look at.

chloeinpink

My game won't load at all with this new update. At first it did, that's how I download all my store content. But ever since I actually hit 'play', it crashed and restarted my computer, and now I can't get into it. I click it, but it fails to open.

I have a 13-inch MacBook 2008. Old and frail, but The Sims 3 worked quite fine before the Yosemite upgrade, and that was with CC installed (I only have store content).

Mods I have downloaded: No Intro, Careers (Homemaker, Self-Employed), DebugEnabler, ErrorTrap, GoHere, MasterController, Overwatch, Register, Relativity, Shooless, Story Progression, Traveler, WooHooer

Tremayne4260

It might be some of the CC that is causing the problem. I am having to very slowly reinstall all my non-Store CC and see if something is causing the problem.

Silvermoon93

Since I upgraded to yosemite on my late 2013 MBP w/ retina, i5/8gb/512gb, my game stopped opening altogether... Had the latest patch and it worked perfectly fine before upgrading, so it shouldn't be update related.... No change in custom content, but I tried disabling it just in case with no change.

When I hit the "play" button it would make the startup noise, but then freeze. The plumbob would appear in my dock as though it were open, but it showed as unresponsive. My resolution would also immediately snap to the size I had the window set before updating, causing the dock and menu bar on the top to all disappear. I could only exit this by holding the power button on my mac for a hard shut down >.>

I also have my mac bootcamped but was silly and assumed 60 gb would be large enough so installing it there without redoing the entire windows partition was impossible.

I read some folks were having luck with totally uninstalling and re-installing so I am trying that, but of course I have ridiculously slow internet so I have been waiting about 30 hours for it to download all the expansions from Origin. Now when I open the launcher it shows there's an update (before the launcher can even appear) and it freezes immediately when I click the 'yes' button and has to be force-quit.

I am now waiting for the super patch to download, and hope that that will fix everything...........

I've scanned the mac guidelines, but haven't found anyone referring to the exact problem I'm facing. Are there any other recommendations in case the super patch doesn't work?

Tremayne4260

I found that I had to reinstall all my Store CC and then slowly add back my CC from other sites. I added a few bits back at a time and everything works fine. If you use any mods (Like NRAAS Overwatch for example) you should check those sites to see if they have updated them. If they have download them and reinstall them. I reinstalled my mods a few at a time as well. Something in one of the mods could be causing a conflict with the updates in Yosemite, but reinstalling just the mods and CC seems to have sorted it all out.

Silvermoon93

> @Tremayne4260 said:
> I found that I had to reinstall all my Store CC and then slowly add back my CC from other sites. I added a few bits back at a time and everything works fine. If you use any mods (Like NRAAS Overwatch for example) you should check those sites to see if they have updated them. If they have download them and reinstall them. I reinstalled my mods a few at a time as well. Something in one of the mods could be causing a conflict with the updates in Yosemite, but reinstalling just the mods and CC seems to have sorted it all out.

I don't have any mods or CC going at all atm..... did a totally fresh install and just went ahead and deleted my save files too since I wasn't attached to any of them in my memory.

And now it is saying the superpatch will not work for my version, even though I downloaded the newest one for the mac? Blugh.

It seems like every time I actually have a day off and decide to play, I have to spend the entire day fixing it and end up not being able to. :/

BluebellFlora

Did you install the right super patch - disc (region specific) or digital?

There are updated graphics drivers in Yosemite but that shouldn't cause a problem. You have Intel Iris graphics I think though? They are an issue.

Don't forget, an OS upgrade is a major install and can sometimes cause issues with preference files. You could try reinstalling Yosemite again, over the top of your installation.