Problem with saves

james64468

Starting off with patch 1.69. I have two saved files. First one is .sims3 and the second one is .sims3.backup. Is that normal for that patch?

igazor

Yes, but it has nothing to do with patch levels. It's always been that way.

If you perform a regular Save or do a Save As but do not change the name of the file being saved, the game takes your existing (older) save and makes it a .backup file for you after getting rid of the prior backup. The game can't read the .backup saves on startup unless you rename them to something else and change the ending to .sims3. They are there in case something goes wrong and you need to revert play to the most recent save before the current one.

Many of us find that relying on that at most one auto-generated backup save is just not enough for games we really care about and manage our own saves by always doing a Save As and changing the name slightly each time such as by adding a number or the date to the end. That way we have four, six, ten, however many we want copies of our game going backwards in time to revert to should something horrible happen. Eventually we can cycle through the previously used numbers/names again or just delete the oldest ones.

For those using Mods, NRaas Saver will remind you when it's "time" to save (how often in either sim or real time is based on your preferences) and will suggest the next number in sequence for each game, how many in the sequence again according to preferences. I believe that Awesome offers a similar function except that Awesome actually performs the save for you at appointed times which can, for some, be too intrusive to their gameplay than just a gentle reminder.

james64468

@igazor I wouldn't expect a backup on second save. So then my sims 3 is working properly.

Witneus

Hi there,

I have a weird problem with my saves and I saw this topic so I was hoping you could help: I cannot play my saved games anymore, and any new games I save ARE INVISIBLE !

I tried using the back-up file, but my game isn't recognizing anything; no downloads, no saved sims, no saved games... But all the files are still there! (C:/documents/electronic arts/sims 3)
I can only play new games I create, but I can't find their saved location anywhere on my computer! I've tried searching my whole computer for .sims files and the names of my neighborhoods, but it can't find anything!

Could someone please help me?

igazor

@Witneus - The TS3 forum is all that large and busy these days, so chances are the same people are going to see duplicate posts. Your question is already being discussed over here:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15651460/#Comment_15651460