So i had a glitch that happened in my sims 3 game where i put up pictures of my sim and his girlfriend but the picture didn't show up. Just the frame itself, i tried to fix the graphics and it didn't help fix the glitch. I also tried to run without cc but it didn't help as well. But now i really wanna get my custom content back. How do i run the game with cc once again?
@KitCattDG - I am by no means a member of the Grammar Police myself but, very sorry this is the Tech Discussions board. If you expect some tech assistance here, I am afraid you have to make yourself understood a bit better. Complete sentences and paragraphs if you could please.
The issue seems to be that your game is crashing as you are building a new house? Not any of that difficult to read backstory, that's really kind of off-topic here.
If you would like an assessment of how well your system can be expected to perform with the heavier hitting EPs like ITF, or if something needs to be adjusted, we need to know about the system you are running the game on. A dxdiag report would give us a place to start. You could paste it into responses here by section, as it will be far too long to fit into one post, or use pastebin.com (the free version is fine, no need to create an account) and provide a broken up link for us to follow. https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information
So i had a glitch that happened in my sims 3 game where i put up pictures of my sim and his girlfriend but the picture didn't show up. Just the frame itself, i tried to fix the graphics and it didn't help fix the glitch. I also tried to run without cc but it didn't help as well. But now i really wanna get my custom content back. How do i run the game with cc once again?
There seem to be two different questions here.
-- Why are pictures on the wall blanking out? That's difficult to say, are we talking about photos from a camera or paintings? Do you ever use cleanup routines like SaveCleaner on your saved game files or do anything with the TravelDB file? Those can have the effect of blanking out such pictures.
-- The other question seems to be how do you get your CC back. Are we talking about sims3pack CC that was installed by way of the Launcher (how did you remove it or did you just use the no content checkbox on the Launcher?) or package based files that were installed in Mods\Packages (just put it back and clear your cache files, in that case).
> @igazor said: > TheWhoopyPanda wrote: » > > So i had a glitch that happened in my sims 3 game where i put up pictures of my sim and his girlfriend but the picture didn't show up. Just the frame itself, i tried to fix the graphics and it didn't help fix the glitch. I also tried to run without cc but it didn't help as well. But now i really wanna get my custom content back. How do i run the game with cc once again? > > > > There seem to be two different questions here. > > -- Why are pictures on the wall blanking out? That's difficult to say, are we talking about photos from a camera or paintings? Do you ever use cleanup routines like SaveCleaner on your saved game files or do anything with the TravelDB file? Those can have the effect of blanking out such pictures. > > -- The other question seems to be how do you get your CC back. Are we talking about sims3pack CC that was installed by way of the Launcher (how did you remove it or did you just use the no content checkbox on the Launcher?) or package based files that were installed in Mods\Packages (just put it back and clear your cache files, in that case).
The pictures were taken by my sim's camera and the greeting card pictures were taken during the summer and the spring festival. And i don't use SaveCleaner or anything like that. I checked the run without cc checkbox and i've tried to reinstall my cc but they still didn't show up. But i'll try that, thanks anyway. :)
Everytime i open the sims 3 game launcher and go to installed content and scroll down a bit. This message always pops up.
Exception raised
Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000014 at address 0x1029760b.
Do you wish to debug it ? Yes / No
I use Mac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 how do i prevent this from happening?
Ah, didn't realize you were on the Mac version of the game. The Windows version of the Launcher is delicate enough already, the Mac version even more so.
If you have a Mods folder, pull it out to the Desktop while trying to work with Launcher installed content (and of course put it back later). The Mods framework has been known to interfere with Launcher installs, even though it shouldn't.
The crashing though suggests that you have installed some kind of content already that is just bad or corrupt and the Launcher is choking on it when it comes along for display in the scrolled lists. You may need to pull all of your dbc files out of DCCache (this would be installed custom content), or ebc files (this would be installed EA Store content), or both, and reinstall the content. But test after every few custom items otherwise you would just be reinstalling the "bad" one at some point. This kind of thing is always tricky to work through. If the "bad" item is coming from a downloaded sim, lot, household, or other type of sims3pack from the Exchange or from other unknown developers, then it's just going to keep coming back until that sim, lot, or whatever, is removed as well.
Or in the more extreme case, you may need to pull out your entire TS3 user game folder from Documents thus forcing the game to spawn a new one in its place and begin rebuilding your content collection on the new game folder hopefully without the problem items. Your existing saves can be copied over after the content is redone if the new folder turns out to be more stable.
After clearing my caches, i bought and downloaded some store content without knowing that my installed contents and downloads are all gone, i thought nothing of it at first since i thought that it must've meant that i removed my cc and everything (By everything, i meant the things that i downloaded from websites for the sims 3 not my sims) And after i downloaded the store content that i bought. I played the game and after the game loaded and went to the main menu my sims that i made were gone. I thought that maybe they'll show up at the move in household when i press play after i logged in to my sims 3 account. After the game loaded, the usual place where my sims would be were gone. Instead, it showed the town of Sunset Valley (which was the town i chose because i had also realized that the worlds that i downloaded were gone as well besides Moonlight Falls) It gave me two options, to create a household or move in a household. I clicked on move in a household which i thought where my sims would be but i didn't see them. I only saw the pre-made sims when i was hoping to see my sims. How do i retrieve my old sims back?
@TheWhoopyPanda - This is without having pulled out or renamed the TS3 user game folder in Documents?
In that folder, there will be a file called DeviceConfig.log (it may show as just DeviceConfig). Without opening it, right-click and do Get Info. Does its modification date/time match the last time you started up the game? If you aren't sure, launch the game and file modification date/time should change to current instantly. If it's some time in the past, that means you have a second unwanted TS3 user game folder that is live and the game is reading that one, not the expected one.
Finding such a second game folder on a Mac can be tricky. They can end up buried deep in Applications. The path to find them starts with Applications > (maybe EA Games) > The Sims 3 > (then right-click to show package contents, it's an OS X thing) > Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive > Program Files > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > ...and then kind of look around. There could be some variations on the path and locations of an unwanted game folder. Spotlight usually won't find them if they are buried in OS X package contents.
@igazor After i clicked "Get Info" it showed the time i created (meaning the time i opened the game) was 4:22 PM, i still had my old sims then, i exited the game to clear my caches (my game got glitchy when it was still running without cc) to uninstall my custom content and clear my caches. Then under it showed the time i created, it showed the last time it was modified. (The last time i opened the game) which was 4:35 AM, by then, i had installed my store content and my sims were gone.
Also, for the finding a second game folder part, i did what you said, i clicked on all my expansion packs after i checked on the base game. (The Sims 3 Late Night, The Sims 3 University Life, The Sims 3 Seasons, The Sims 3 Generations and Supernatural) but i didn't see anything weird.
@TheWhoopyPanda - I'm very sorry then, I do not understand what you are seeing or why it is happening. You made it sound like your saved games were just...gone and all you could do was startup new ones from the game selector screen. Which led me to believe that you weren't loading from the expected user game folders where all the saves would be but rather from another one. It's possible that I am just not "getting" what the issue was and sent you in the wrong direction, again sorry.
Let's page a Sims for Mac expert in here and see if she can spot what's happened.
@BluebellFlora Yeah, i have it in my Favorites on Finder if that counts.
All Mac users running Sierra or later have iCloud Drive showing in Finder unless they manually removed it. Please can you check what is showing in System Preferences > iCloud? Is iCloud Drive ticked? If so is it storing your Documents folder in the cloud?
@BluebellFlora When i checked system preferences it showed iCloud, but since i don't have an apple ID (I forgot my password and deleted the email for it without remembering about my iCloud account) it gave me the option to create an Apple ID so i did. After a few tries, it had an error, so no, it's not storing my documents folder in the cloud.
My wife died, she was a beast of a worker, never tired or hungry. I bring her back through science, ghost fiance, now she's always running low on all needs. I bought her iron bladder, so that helps a little. Can I do anything to restore her virility and keep her a ghost?
So in order to recover my missing saved game, i followed these steps.
First, backup your saved games: Open Finder, then go to your Documents folder, then Electronic Arts, and then The Sims 3. In your The Sims 3 folder, click on the Saves folder while you press and hold down Command/Apple and C to copy. Then click on your Desktop (or wherever you’d like to keep your backups) and press Command/Apple and V to paste. Rename this copied-and-pasted folder "Sims 3 Backup Saves" or something similar to distinguish it from the original. After creating your backup copy, return to The Sims 3 folder, and open the Saves folder. You will see two files in this folder, one with the file extension .sims3, and one with the file extension .sims3.backup. The first is the one your game is currently loading; the second is the prior saved game. Drag the .sims3 file to your Desktop (or any other location you wish to use) for safe keeping. Once the .sims3.backup file is the only file you see in the Saves folder, rename it to change the extension to .sims3 instead. Then the game will know this is the file you want it to load.
I did all these but i still didn't get my saved game back. Did i do something wrong?
@BluebellFlora When i checked system preferences it showed iCloud, but since i don't have an apple ID (I forgot my password and deleted the email for it without remembering about my iCloud account) it gave me the option to create an Apple ID so i did. After a few tries, it had an error, so no, it's not storing my documents folder in the cloud.
Ok, that's good. Can you create a new user account on your Mac and see if you have better luck playing in that account? Unfortunately the Electronic Arts folder is hidden from any kind of search on your Mac so it is not possible to look for a save game file, unless it is anywhere else but the EA folder!
What a great Idea, funnel the people that need help into a thread no one reads. *negative moodlet* Anyways... I'm looking for a deal where if you have sims 3 and get sims 4 you get some exclusive content, I seen it the other day now it's no where to be found. Two, On my sims 3 account I click "Games>Base games>Sims 3" And it takes me to downloadable content for sims 4, woohoo me.
What a great Idea, funnel the people that need help into a thread no one reads. *negative moodlet* Anyways... I'm looking for a deal where if you have sims 3 and get sims 4 you get some exclusive content, I seen it the other day now it's no where to be found. Two, On my sims 3 account I click "Games>Base games>Sims 3" And it takes me to downloadable content for sims 4, woohoo me.
Hi there. Afraid I have to push back a little on "no one reads." The idea for this thread and its counterpart on the TS4 section of the forum came from dedicated players who like to help out others, and in reaction to the imposed limitations on New Members' posting rights. It's pretty rare for a question to never be addressed.
Your prior ghost question here was probably not answered yet because none of us actually know the answer and it's really more of a gameplay question than a tech issue. I am sorry if this setup does not meet your expectations. What would you suggest we (as players and mere members here, not part of the management of the forums) do instead? You don't have to bend over backwards to be grateful to the tech responders on this forum, but you may find that some respond better to kindness than we do to expressions of annoyance.
The post from a (former) Sim Guru about the TS4 bonus content for purchasers of TS3 is stickied near the top of the TS3 General Discusssion board, but for me its link just goes to a generic TS4 page now. It's possible that the offer has since expired after having run for over three years. You may want to reach out to Customer Support if you are interested in it to see if it's still valid or if a sympathetic support agent can still make it happen for you. Customer Support can be reached through the HELP menu at the bottom of these forums, when displayed in a full-sized browser window.
On your TS3 path taking you to TS4 content, is this through the Origin client? Not all of us here have or use Origin so it may be difficult to follow along with what you are doing. Are you trying to purchase TS3 packs or just take stock of what Origin says you already have? And does the origin.com website take you down a better path?
Edit: Okay, I think I see what you mean now. If you go to the TS3 website where the TS3 Store is and click on Games as you described, yes you get taken to a generic TS4 page or, as is the case with the expansions, to an Error 404. That's because we used to be able to buy the game and its packs directly through the TS3 Store. It's all done through Origin and authorized re-sellers now. The TS3 Store only "sells" TS3 Store content for purchasable store points, not the game and the packs.
Okay, here's the deal. I've played over 2000 hours of Sims 3 over the course of the last year. I have all of the expansions and most of the worlds. I've had no issues playing the game. Last month, I bought the digital download of Dragon Valley from EA on Amazon. When I tried to play the game after downloading it, my game crashed. It crashes every single time. I've uninstalled all of my CC (all of it was from EA), I've repaired the game, I've uninstalled and reinstalled my game and origin DOZENS of times now, I've updated my graphics and sound cards, I've done every single thing EA help has suggested...NONE of it works and they've literally given up on me and told me to post here. I'm angry. Sims 3 is my coping mechanism with my anxiety and now I haven't had it for almost a month. Any suggestions I might not have tried? Oh, I also tried clean boot, didn't work. Super patcher had an error message and wouldn't run.
Okay, here's the deal. I've played over 2000 hours of Sims 3 over the course of the last year. I have all of the expansions and most of the worlds. I've had no issues playing the game. Last month, I bought the digital download of Dragon Valley from EA on Amazon. When I tried to play the game after downloading it, my game crashed. It crashes every single time. I've uninstalled all of my CC (all of it was from EA), I've repaired the game, I've uninstalled and reinstalled my game and origin DOZENS of times now, I've updated my graphics and sound cards, I've done every single thing EA help has suggested...NONE of it works and they've literally given up on me and told me to post here. I'm angry. Sims 3 is my coping mechanism with my anxiety and now I haven't had it for almost a month. Any suggestions I might not have tried? Oh, I also tried clean boot, didn't work. Super patcher had an error message and wouldn't run.
Hi there. Let's see what we can do here. We don't really know all of things Customer Support has had you try, so bear with it please if some of this is redundant. Let's set aside Dragon Valley for the moment if we could and concentrate on getting your game working again. You mentioned CC, but that means custom content. CC doesn't come from EA, it comes from other players who have designed it either through The Exchange or from other websites that host such content. EA makes store content, not CC. Let's set that aside for the moment too, if we could.
1 - Are you running a PC or a Mac?
2 - What is your source for the original game and its EP/SPs? Are these all retail disc installs, Origin digital, a mixture, through Steam, or was the game originally obtained from someplace else (where)?
3 - If this is an Origin-controlled install on Windows (not Mac), the game would be on Patch 1.69. The SuperPatcher would not be relevant as that is only for 1.67 and it cannot be used to "downpatch." It also should never be used on Steam installs, in case that's relevant.
4 - I'm seeing uninstalls and reinstalls mentioned, but did you use a tool such as the free version of Piriform's CCleaner to clean the Registry in between (again relevant only for Windows, there is a different method to use for Macs)? Remnants of prior installs will otherwise get in the way of the reinstalls working.
5 - Much of this uninstalling and reinstalling would still leave the TS3 user game folder in Documents in place, this is the one that holds your added content, installed worlds, mods (if any), and saved games. The folder itself can easily become damaged through these processes. The way to get a clean game folder is to pull it out for safekeeping to the Desktop thus making the game form a new one upon its next attempted launch. Has this been part of your procedure throughout these reinstallls?
> @igazor said: > virgo_witch wrote: » > > Okay, here's the deal. I've played over 2000 hours of Sims 3 over the course of the last year. I have all of the expansions and most of the worlds. I've had no issues playing the game. Last month, I bought the digital download of Dragon Valley from EA on Amazon. When I tried to play the game after downloading it, my game crashed. It crashes every single time. I've uninstalled all of my CC (all of it was from EA), I've repaired the game, I've uninstalled and reinstalled my game and origin DOZENS of times now, I've updated my graphics and sound cards, I've done every single thing EA help has suggested...NONE of it works and they've literally given up on me and told me to post here. I'm angry. Sims 3 is my coping mechanism with my anxiety and now I haven't had it for almost a month. Any suggestions I might not have tried? Oh, I also tried clean boot, didn't work. Super patcher had an error message and wouldn't run. > > > > Hi there. Let's see what we can do here. We don't really know all of things Customer Support has had you try, so bear with it please if some of this is redundant. Let's set aside Dragon Valley for the moment if we could and concentrate on getting your game working again. You mentioned CC, but that means custom content. CC doesn't come from EA, it comes from other players who have designed it either through The Exchange or from other websites that host such content. EA makes store content, not CC. Let's set that aside for the moment too, if we could. > > 1 - Are you running a PC or a Mac? > > 2 - What is your source for the original game and its EP/SPs? Are these all retail disc installs, Origin digital, a mixture, through Steam, or was the game originally obtained from someplace else (where)? > > 3 - If this is an Origin-controlled install on Windows (not Mac), the game would be on Patch 1.69. The SuperPatcher would not be relevant as that is only for 1.67 and it cannot be used to "downpatch." It also should never be used on Steam installs, in case that's relevant. > > 4 - I'm seeing uninstalls and reinstalls mentioned, but did you use a tool such as the free version of Piriform's CCleaner to clean the Registry in between (again relevant only for Windows, there is a different method to use for Macs)? Remnants of prior installs will otherwise get in the way of the reinstalls working. > > 5 - Much of this uninstalling and reinstalling would still leave the TS3 user game folder in Documents in place, this is the one that holds your added content, installed worlds, mods (if any), and saved games. The folder itself can easily become damaged through these processes. The way to get a clean game folder is to pull it out for safekeeping to the Desktop thus making the game form a new one upon its next attempted launch. Has this been part of your procedure throughout these reinstallls?
1- PC
2- Mix of discs/downloads, all from Amazon.
3- I've definitely updated my game (as of yesterday)
4- I did download and run CCleaner
5- I'm not sure I understand this part, but I have done a hard delete of origin and the game. I've gone in and edited the registry myself (with assistance from tech support)
2 - The first goal here is to get the base game installed and see if it works. Is the base game on disc or can you install it by way of Origin?
3 - Updated your game...there hasn't been a gamefile changing patch for TS3 in four years now so I'm not really sure what this means. What patch level are you trying to be on, 1.67 or 1.69? They are both current. Origin will put you on 1.69 with no choices given, if you are using Origin to install the base game or any one of the EP/SPs.
5 - I was referring to the user game folder, the one in Documents. Not the game program.
Let's do this another way. The way I would approach this next would be to create a new Windows user login and try to install the base game (only) from scratch on that. Can you do that and get the game launched and running? If not, then there isn't any point in continuing until we find out why.
I've tried running the base game only...it crashed with the error message being the same as always. When I reinstalled Origin after the hard delete, it wanted me to update Sims 3? So I did. It was quick and through Origin itself. For some reason, I can't find Sims 3 via my Documents folder. It's never been there. When I played Sims 2 on my previous laptop, it was, but not on this one. Maybe it's because I'm on Windows 10? I will try creating a new user login. Thank you! :)
@virgo_witch - Just to clarify something here. The game has two pieces to it. The program installs include the base game and the EP/SPs. All of that takes place in Program Files (x86). So do the Origin bits. Generally, during more routine operations, the player wouldn't ever really interact with those files and once patched up, they don't really change.
The other piece is the user reachable TS3 game folder in Documents. This is where added store content, installed EA Store worlds, custom content, saved sims, saved households and lots from the Edit Town bins (these are Library files), saved sims from CAS and the saved games are. There has to be a user game folder (someplace), it's what the Launcher reaches for. One thing that can go wrong with Win 10 installs is that the game tries to spawn and use the user game folder in a Documents subfolder on OneDrive, but it most certainly does not belong in there nor does it belong syncing up to the cloud. If you have no typical use for OneDrive, it should be deactivated/uninstalled from the system tray. This could be partially what was confusing things up through now, or it could have been a few things going wrong at once (fingers crossed).
But regardless, the user game folder does not show up until the game is successfully launched one time. It's not part of the install process, it's the initial launch that does it.
Comments
The issue seems to be that your game is crashing as you are building a new house? Not any of that difficult to read backstory, that's really kind of off-topic here.
If you would like an assessment of how well your system can be expected to perform with the heavier hitting EPs like ITF, or if something needs to be adjusted, we need to know about the system you are running the game on. A dxdiag report would give us a place to start. You could paste it into responses here by section, as it will be far too long to fit into one post, or use pastebin.com (the free version is fine, no need to create an account) and provide a broken up link for us to follow.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information
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-- Why are pictures on the wall blanking out? That's difficult to say, are we talking about photos from a camera or paintings? Do you ever use cleanup routines like SaveCleaner on your saved game files or do anything with the TravelDB file? Those can have the effect of blanking out such pictures.
-- The other question seems to be how do you get your CC back. Are we talking about sims3pack CC that was installed by way of the Launcher (how did you remove it or did you just use the no content checkbox on the Launcher?) or package based files that were installed in Mods\Packages (just put it back and clear your cache files, in that case).
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> TheWhoopyPanda wrote: »
>
> So i had a glitch that happened in my sims 3 game where i put up pictures of my sim and his girlfriend but the picture didn't show up. Just the frame itself, i tried to fix the graphics and it didn't help fix the glitch. I also tried to run without cc but it didn't help as well. But now i really wanna get my custom content back. How do i run the game with cc once again?
>
>
>
> There seem to be two different questions here.
>
> -- Why are pictures on the wall blanking out? That's difficult to say, are we talking about photos from a camera or paintings? Do you ever use cleanup routines like SaveCleaner on your saved game files or do anything with the TravelDB file? Those can have the effect of blanking out such pictures.
>
> -- The other question seems to be how do you get your CC back. Are we talking about sims3pack CC that was installed by way of the Launcher (how did you remove it or did you just use the no content checkbox on the Launcher?) or package based files that were installed in Mods\Packages (just put it back and clear your cache files, in that case).
The pictures were taken by my sim's camera and the greeting card pictures were taken during the summer and the spring festival. And i don't use SaveCleaner or anything like that. I checked the run without cc checkbox and i've tried to reinstall my cc but they still didn't show up. But i'll try that, thanks anyway. :)
Everytime i open the sims 3 game launcher and go to installed content and scroll down a bit. This message always pops up.
Exception raised
Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000014 at address 0x1029760b.
Do you wish to debug it ? Yes / No
I use Mac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 how do i prevent this from happening?
If you have a Mods folder, pull it out to the Desktop while trying to work with Launcher installed content (and of course put it back later). The Mods framework has been known to interfere with Launcher installs, even though it shouldn't.
The crashing though suggests that you have installed some kind of content already that is just bad or corrupt and the Launcher is choking on it when it comes along for display in the scrolled lists. You may need to pull all of your dbc files out of DCCache (this would be installed custom content), or ebc files (this would be installed EA Store content), or both, and reinstall the content. But test after every few custom items otherwise you would just be reinstalling the "bad" one at some point. This kind of thing is always tricky to work through. If the "bad" item is coming from a downloaded sim, lot, household, or other type of sims3pack from the Exchange or from other unknown developers, then it's just going to keep coming back until that sim, lot, or whatever, is removed as well.
Or in the more extreme case, you may need to pull out your entire TS3 user game folder from Documents thus forcing the game to spawn a new one in its place and begin rebuilding your content collection on the new game folder hopefully without the problem items. Your existing saves can be copied over after the content is redone if the new folder turns out to be more stable.
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In that folder, there will be a file called DeviceConfig.log (it may show as just DeviceConfig). Without opening it, right-click and do Get Info. Does its modification date/time match the last time you started up the game? If you aren't sure, launch the game and file modification date/time should change to current instantly. If it's some time in the past, that means you have a second unwanted TS3 user game folder that is live and the game is reading that one, not the expected one.
Finding such a second game folder on a Mac can be tricky. They can end up buried deep in Applications. The path to find them starts with Applications > (maybe EA Games) > The Sims 3 > (then right-click to show package contents, it's an OS X thing) > Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive > Program Files > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > ...and then kind of look around. There could be some variations on the path and locations of an unwanted game folder. Spotlight usually won't find them if they are buried in OS X package contents.
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Also, for the finding a second game folder part, i did what you said, i clicked on all my expansion packs after i checked on the base game. (The Sims 3 Late Night, The Sims 3 University Life, The Sims 3 Seasons, The Sims 3 Generations and Supernatural) but i didn't see anything weird.
Let's page a Sims for Mac expert in here and see if she can spot what's happened.
@BluebellFlora
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All Mac users running Sierra or later have iCloud Drive showing in Finder unless they manually removed it. Please can you check what is showing in System Preferences > iCloud? Is iCloud Drive ticked? If so is it storing your Documents folder in the cloud?
First, backup your saved games:
Open Finder, then go to your Documents folder, then Electronic Arts, and then The Sims 3.
In your The Sims 3 folder, click on the Saves folder while you press and hold down Command/Apple and C to copy. Then click on your Desktop (or wherever you’d like to keep your backups) and press Command/Apple and V to paste.
Rename this copied-and-pasted folder "Sims 3 Backup Saves" or something similar to distinguish it from the original.
After creating your backup copy, return to The Sims 3 folder, and open the Saves folder.
You will see two files in this folder, one with the file extension .sims3, and one with the file extension .sims3.backup. The first is the one your game is currently loading; the second is the prior saved game.
Drag the .sims3 file to your Desktop (or any other location you wish to use) for safe keeping.
Once the .sims3.backup file is the only file you see in the Saves folder, rename it to change the extension to .sims3 instead. Then the game will know this is the file you want it to load.
I did all these but i still didn't get my saved game back. Did i do something wrong?
Ok, that's good. Can you create a new user account on your Mac and see if you have better luck playing in that account? Unfortunately the Electronic Arts folder is hidden from any kind of search on your Mac so it is not possible to look for a save game file, unless it is anywhere else but the EA folder!
Your prior ghost question here was probably not answered yet because none of us actually know the answer and it's really more of a gameplay question than a tech issue. I am sorry if this setup does not meet your expectations. What would you suggest we (as players and mere members here, not part of the management of the forums) do instead? You don't have to bend over backwards to be grateful to the tech responders on this forum, but you may find that some respond better to kindness than we do to expressions of annoyance.
The post from a (former) Sim Guru about the TS4 bonus content for purchasers of TS3 is stickied near the top of the TS3 General Discusssion board, but for me its link just goes to a generic TS4 page now. It's possible that the offer has since expired after having run for over three years. You may want to reach out to Customer Support if you are interested in it to see if it's still valid or if a sympathetic support agent can still make it happen for you. Customer Support can be reached through the HELP menu at the bottom of these forums, when displayed in a full-sized browser window.
On your TS3 path taking you to TS4 content, is this through the Origin client? Not all of us here have or use Origin so it may be difficult to follow along with what you are doing. Are you trying to purchase TS3 packs or just take stock of what Origin says you already have? And does the origin.com website take you down a better path?
Edit: Okay, I think I see what you mean now. If you go to the TS3 website where the TS3 Store is and click on Games as you described, yes you get taken to a generic TS4 page or, as is the case with the expansions, to an Error 404. That's because we used to be able to buy the game and its packs directly through the TS3 Store. It's all done through Origin and authorized re-sellers now. The TS3 Store only "sells" TS3 Store content for purchasable store points, not the game and the packs.
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1 - Are you running a PC or a Mac?
2 - What is your source for the original game and its EP/SPs? Are these all retail disc installs, Origin digital, a mixture, through Steam, or was the game originally obtained from someplace else (where)?
3 - If this is an Origin-controlled install on Windows (not Mac), the game would be on Patch 1.69. The SuperPatcher would not be relevant as that is only for 1.67 and it cannot be used to "downpatch." It also should never be used on Steam installs, in case that's relevant.
4 - I'm seeing uninstalls and reinstalls mentioned, but did you use a tool such as the free version of Piriform's CCleaner to clean the Registry in between (again relevant only for Windows, there is a different method to use for Macs)? Remnants of prior installs will otherwise get in the way of the reinstalls working.
5 - Much of this uninstalling and reinstalling would still leave the TS3 user game folder in Documents in place, this is the one that holds your added content, installed worlds, mods (if any), and saved games. The folder itself can easily become damaged through these processes. The way to get a clean game folder is to pull it out for safekeeping to the Desktop thus making the game form a new one upon its next attempted launch. Has this been part of your procedure throughout these reinstallls?
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> virgo_witch wrote: »
>
> Okay, here's the deal. I've played over 2000 hours of Sims 3 over the course of the last year. I have all of the expansions and most of the worlds. I've had no issues playing the game. Last month, I bought the digital download of Dragon Valley from EA on Amazon. When I tried to play the game after downloading it, my game crashed. It crashes every single time. I've uninstalled all of my CC (all of it was from EA), I've repaired the game, I've uninstalled and reinstalled my game and origin DOZENS of times now, I've updated my graphics and sound cards, I've done every single thing EA help has suggested...NONE of it works and they've literally given up on me and told me to post here. I'm angry. Sims 3 is my coping mechanism with my anxiety and now I haven't had it for almost a month. Any suggestions I might not have tried? Oh, I also tried clean boot, didn't work. Super patcher had an error message and wouldn't run.
>
>
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> Hi there. Let's see what we can do here. We don't really know all of things Customer Support has had you try, so bear with it please if some of this is redundant. Let's set aside Dragon Valley for the moment if we could and concentrate on getting your game working again. You mentioned CC, but that means custom content. CC doesn't come from EA, it comes from other players who have designed it either through The Exchange or from other websites that host such content. EA makes store content, not CC. Let's set that aside for the moment too, if we could.
>
> 1 - Are you running a PC or a Mac?
>
> 2 - What is your source for the original game and its EP/SPs? Are these all retail disc installs, Origin digital, a mixture, through Steam, or was the game originally obtained from someplace else (where)?
>
> 3 - If this is an Origin-controlled install on Windows (not Mac), the game would be on Patch 1.69. The SuperPatcher would not be relevant as that is only for 1.67 and it cannot be used to "downpatch." It also should never be used on Steam installs, in case that's relevant.
>
> 4 - I'm seeing uninstalls and reinstalls mentioned, but did you use a tool such as the free version of Piriform's CCleaner to clean the Registry in between (again relevant only for Windows, there is a different method to use for Macs)? Remnants of prior installs will otherwise get in the way of the reinstalls working.
>
> 5 - Much of this uninstalling and reinstalling would still leave the TS3 user game folder in Documents in place, this is the one that holds your added content, installed worlds, mods (if any), and saved games. The folder itself can easily become damaged through these processes. The way to get a clean game folder is to pull it out for safekeeping to the Desktop thus making the game form a new one upon its next attempted launch. Has this been part of your procedure throughout these reinstallls?
1- PC
2- Mix of discs/downloads, all from Amazon.
3- I've definitely updated my game (as of yesterday)
4- I did download and run CCleaner
5- I'm not sure I understand this part, but I have done a hard delete of origin and the game. I've gone in and edited the registry myself (with assistance from tech support)
3 - Updated your game...there hasn't been a gamefile changing patch for TS3 in four years now so I'm not really sure what this means. What patch level are you trying to be on, 1.67 or 1.69? They are both current. Origin will put you on 1.69 with no choices given, if you are using Origin to install the base game or any one of the EP/SPs.
5 - I was referring to the user game folder, the one in Documents. Not the game program.
Let's do this another way. The way I would approach this next would be to create a new Windows user login and try to install the base game (only) from scratch on that. Can you do that and get the game launched and running? If not, then there isn't any point in continuing until we find out why.
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The other piece is the user reachable TS3 game folder in Documents. This is where added store content, installed EA Store worlds, custom content, saved sims, saved households and lots from the Edit Town bins (these are Library files), saved sims from CAS and the saved games are. There has to be a user game folder (someplace), it's what the Launcher reaches for. One thing that can go wrong with Win 10 installs is that the game tries to spawn and use the user game folder in a Documents subfolder on OneDrive, but it most certainly does not belong in there nor does it belong syncing up to the cloud. If you have no typical use for OneDrive, it should be deactivated/uninstalled from the system tray. This could be partially what was confusing things up through now, or it could have been a few things going wrong at once (fingers crossed).
But regardless, the user game folder does not show up until the game is successfully launched one time. It's not part of the install process, it's the initial launch that does it.
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