Can't log in to the Launcher but can log in to The Sims website with same login info?

KathleenIsAwesome

Hey friends!

I have been having this issue for a couple of months and it seemed to happen out of the blue after taking a few months break from playing my Sims 3 game. I always open my game from the Launcher and log-in to the Launcher first, but for the past couple of months I can not log into it. It asks for my email address/password as normal, and when I type them in the same as they have ALWAYS been, the box disappears for maybe one second then pops back up as if I'm supposed to enter the info in again. It's not saying I have the wrong password or anything, just continually does this without logging me. I can still play the game, and I had hoped it had been a short-lived glitch, but here we are. I am annoyed.

I thought at first I had somehow forgotten my password/username but I tried on the Sims website and can still log in like normal. I am becoming frustrated because although I can export my creations to my computer, I cannot actually upload them to my Studio because you need to do that through the Launcher. It will export files to my Launcher but then when I click "Upload" it asks for my login info and the aforementioned problem happens again. I also am unable to download anything from the exchange into my game because of this.

I do not have a single modified download for my game, no custom content at all. I have not made any changes to my game for years. I've seen a couple forums on this that involved clearing cookies from Internet Explorer because that is the browser the Launcher uses for internet access, and I have not only done that but I've actually completely reset my Internet Explorer as well - with no change to the situation. I am at the point where I'm ready to reinstall my entire game - however I am reluctant to remove the game and reinstall on account of I can't backup any of my families or properties onto my profile since the Upload feature doesn't work unless I'm logged into the Launcher. It does save exported files on my computer though, so if I was to do a reinstall would those files remain on the computer and be available to me when it's all downloaded again? What if the launcher still doesn't work after the reinstall and I can't upload the export files I saved on my computer because it's all broken?

Please offer me any advice on fixing this problem or how I can protect the items on my game without being able to Upload them to my profile if it comes down to re-installing everything again. Thank you for the help!

TreyNutz

You might check your internet firewall and ensure that the Launcher application is allowed access to the internet. How to do that would depend on what internet firewall you have. I don't have any other suggestions - the main one would be to clear IE's cookies and caches but you've already tried that.

Well, actually, you could try clearing the Launcher caches if you haven't already. See this link for what files to delete. They will be regenerated the next time you play if the game or Launcher needs them:

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files

As for reinstalling:

You don't need to export or upload anything to preserve your existing saves. Just copy or move the Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder to the desktop before uninstalling. All your saves, exports, Store content, CASt presets, etc. are all in that folder (CC and mods too if you had any). You can just save the entire folder. That's what I've done in the past. Uninstalling the game won't remove the folder if it's in a different location (and may not remove it regardless).

Once you finish reinstalling the game, if you choose to go this route, you can delete any new Sims 3 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts and then move or copy back your old one. Then you should have all your old sims, saves, lots, etc as before.

In fact, you might try a "factory reset" which is just moving that folder then launching the game and letting the game generate a brand new one. For more info see this link: http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/06/tutorial-resetting-the-game-to-factory-settings-without-reinstalling.html This will be much easier than reinstalling, so it's probably worth it to try first. If a factory reset allows you to sign into the Launcher then instead of replacing the new Sims 3 folder with your old one, you'd just move over your downloads (if any) and reinstall those, your saves, Library files, SavedSims, etc. There are several sites (modthesims and NRaas) which list what all the folders contain, it's not too hard to figure out what to save.

One confession: I don't sign in to the Launcher at all. I'm not sure if it's working currently. People have been having intermittent problems over the past few months. You might want to wait for others to respond to confirm that logging in is actually working. I would try myself but I'm writing this as my game loads. :P

Lastly,

It does save exported files on my computer though, so if I was to do a reinstall would those files remain on the computer and be available to me when it's all downloaded again?

If you backed them up to another location (desktop, other folder, other drive, etc.) then yes, they would still be where you moved or copied them. To reinstall those files, just move to your Downloads folder and install via the Launcher. They are just sim3packs. There's no need to upload them for you to install them back into your game after a reinstall or factory reset. The only reason to upload to your Studio is to share with others. Your Studio is not a storage place and anything uploaded to the Exchange is at risk of culling after...2 weeks, I think.

soocoolsim

@KathleenIsAwesome , did you ever get this resolved? I'm having the same problem now too... never did before.

napoleonwrasse

Have you tried clearing Internet Explorers cache and cookies? Even if it is not your default browser and you don't use it the launcher uses it's resources. This is the most common fix for launcher problems related to logging in.

soocoolsim

Thanks very much @napoleonwrasse . That worked

napoleonwrasse

Oh good. I'm glad it's working again.

blair2396

I am having this problem as well. This happened to me a few weeks ago and I was able to fix it by clearing my cookies in Internet explorer, but I tried that again this time and it didn't work. I tried restarting my computer too and that did not help either.

napoleonwrasse

Did you when clearing IE uncheck the preserve cookies for favorites box?

You could also try deleting the missingdeps file your DCCache folder (Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DCCache). Sometimes that file gets corrupted and can cause issues with the launcher. It's safe to delete as it will regenerate itself.

Though usually it's the IE trick that fixes it or an issue on EA's server end.