Can't save my game anymore (error 12) «12...Next Go

Naia

So this problem started yesterday when out of sudden I can't save my Sims game anymore cause of error 12.I literally tried everything I found on the internet how to fix that error 12 code but nothing helped ( I tried deleting .bad save folder it didn't help,I tried to "save as" my game renaming town name it didn't help also,I tried to completely delete CurrentGame.sims folder it didn't help because every time I save in my "Save" folder appears .bad folder and in CurrentGame.sims every time appears _0x00000000ExportDB.package while saving game file (which has to be empty I believe) and deleting it all over again doesn't work because now every time I save, .bad folder in "Saves" appears again and again,even saving as doesn't help..)

I also have read that this error 12 usually appears when there isnt enough of memory but I usually have 40-50% RAM memory free while saving and on my hard disk 59GB free) So I'm really out of ideas now how to fix it without starting a new game

igazor

Error 12 doesn't mean your computer has run out of usable memory. It means the game has, or at least thinks it has which amounts to the same thing. TS3 is a 32-bit program and, as such, can only utilize 4GB of RAM (practically speaking, 3.7 GB). If you are playing on Mac OS X, it can only utilize 2GB because of the way EA arranged its emulation. The important thing to note in Task Manager (or Activity Monitor on a Mac) is how much memory the game is using, not how much is used/free overall.

And it can be a challenge to troubleshoot. First step, do you get an Error 12 when starting a fresh game, just as a test or only with one ongoing game in paticular?

Naia

> @igazor said:
> Error 12 doesn't mean your computer has run out of usable memory. It means the game has, or at least thinks it has which amounts to the same thing. TS3 is a 32-bit program and, as such, can only utilize 4GB of RAM (practically speaking, 3.7 GB). If you are playing on Mac OS X, it can only utilize 2GB because of the way EA arranged its emulation. The important thing to note in Task Manager (or Activity Monitor on a Mac) is how much memory the game is using, not how much is used/free overall.
>
> And it can be a challenge to troubleshoot. First step, do you get an Error 12 when starting a fresh game, just as a test or only with one ongoing game in paticular?

I'm, using Windows 7 and it's happens only with with one ongoing game in particular.

P.S sadly I can't upload images here yet because I would like to show some screenshots of my problem.

Naia

I think I almost figured out my problem: I tried to override my earlier saved game and I got an error that location isn't available then my windows explorer crashed and had to restart it.
But what could cause this problem, and how to fix it? Because even after Windows explorer crash Error 12 still appearing with same .bad folder...

Naia

> @Naia said:
> I think I almost figured out my problem: I tried to override my earlier saved game and I got an error that location isn't available then my windows explorer crashed and had to restart it.
> But what could cause this problem, and how to fix it? Because even after Windows explorer crash Error 12 still appearing with same .bad folder...

Edit: I think I solved it out: I think that my Sims 3 folder got somehow messed and while I tried to save it it couldn't find location and that's why I got error 12 but I tried deleting whole electronic arts folder in my documents after copying it to my desktop after staring a game a new electronic arts folder was created and there I placed my downloaded Custom content and saved files and voila after starting the game again I got my saved game but I'm not sure if it won't mess again and if everything will work fine again because I never deleted stuff on my electronic arts folder so I'm not sure how it got messed..

P.S it definitely wasn't RAM issue because before saving I just had 30% of RAM free

So I hope that this thread will be useful for somebody. :)

igazor

I'm glad you got this fixed and can now save/play on. But for the next time something like this happens, or for others reading this thread, I'd like to illustrate what I was talking about above.



As you can see, I'm using 46% of my RAM. Since I have 8 GB total, there's plenty left to spare at the moment. The game is running and is currently using 1.975 (so almost 2) GB of RAM. For the saved game I am playing, the amount of CC I have, etc., that is perfectly normal. But if that usage were to start spiking up above 3.5 GB or so, although I'd still have plenty of RAM on my computer left to spare, the game would still be dangerously close to the limit it can use under any conditions. If the usage were to go over around 3.7 GB, a crash to desktop would be more likely.

Trying to do a Save or Save As at that point could very likely throw it over the limit of what it can use and give me Error 12s. The save process itself spikes the RAM usage up and down a bit, so that's why the game can feel playable but still be impossible to save at such a point.

In your case, it sounds like the game was trying to use even more RAM to negotiate what you found out was a messed up Sims 3 folder and that's why you could save other test games but not the larger one you were really interested in. Again, it's not the total RAM available that's the main issue here, but rather what the game program can actually utilize before strange things start to happen.

TadOlson

There are things you can do like disabling automatic memories in the game options menu to reduce the risk of this happening again and use save as and make a few save slots for each game and alternate between each slot during you play session and do save as and later select quit and quit without saving since you already saved it.

Naia

> @igazor said:
> I'm glad you got this fixed and can now save/play on. But for the next time something like this happens, or for others reading this thread, I'd like to illustrate what I was talking about above.
>
>
>
> As you can see, I'm using 46% of my RAM. Since I have 8 GB total, there's plenty left to spare at the moment. The game is running and is currently using 1.975 (so almost 2) GB of RAM. For the saved game I am playing, the amount of CC I have, etc., that is perfectly normal. But if that usage were to start spiking up above 3.5 GB or so, although I'd still have plenty of RAM on my computer left to spare, the game would still be dangerously close to the limit it can use under any conditions. If the usage were to go over around 3.7 GB, a crash to desktop would be more likely.
>
> Trying to do a Save or Save As at that point could very likely throw it over the limit of what it can use and give me Error 12s. The save process itself spikes the RAM usage up and down a bit, so that's why the game can feel playable but still be impossible to save at such a point.
>
> In your case, it sounds like the game was trying to use even more RAM to negotiate what you found out was a messed up Sims 3 folder and that's why you could save other test games but not the larger one you were really interested in. Again, it's not the total RAM available that's the main issue here, but rather what the game program can actually utilize before strange things start to happen.

Thank you for exploration it made my problem much clearer. :)

JPUPPY

I may have an answer that isn't too technical. I used to get it all the time. What I would do was if it gave me that error after saving, I would click on the building icon to go into city view, then save it and it would save it every time. I don't know why, but it would. I'm sure the real answer is in the above comments, but if you're looking for a quick fix, then I you should try that. I've bought new parts for my computer so it doesn't do that error anymore, but when it did, I used this solution. :)

igazor

JPUPPY wrote: »

I may have an answer that isn't too technical. I used to get it all the time. What I would do was if it gave me that error after saving, I would click on the building icon to go into city view, then save it and it would save it every time. I don't know why, but it would. I'm sure the real answer is in the above comments, but if you're looking for a quick fix, then I you should try that. I've bought new parts for my computer so it doesn't do that error anymore, but when it did, I used this solution.

There actually is a reason why this works for some players, some of the time. If your game was just barely dancing on the edge of not being able to access enough RAM to negotiate a Save or a Save As and Error 12s on you, then retreating to Map View or even focusing on a particularly boring patch of grass with nothing else around on screen might then result in a successful save. Or it might result in a save that looks successful but refuses to load up next time. Some players can recover from an Error 12 around 5% of the time that way. Others never, and still others get much better results for some unknown reason. On the rare occasion I get an Error 12 myself, I seem to be in the 5% crowd.

It is unfortunately impossible to determine just how close or how far over the edge a game is on system resource usage at any given time as much more than just regular RAM as seen in Task Manager is in play -- unless the game crashes and you get a crash log, but of course it's too late to do anything by then.

TadOlson

I used to have crashes and got Error 12 a few times like that time when EA's SP glitched and deleted a family I was playing and when I had a faulty copy of World Adventures.It also happened twice when I had Supernatural installed from the defective disk and once when my computer's fan was dying which was the most recent.I haven't had this since then and I've turned of automatic memories to make sure it won't happen.

philkewley

> @igazor said:
> JPUPPY wrote: »
>
> I may have an answer that isn't too technical. I used to get it all the time. What I would do was if it gave me that error after saving, I would click on the building icon to go into city view, then save it and it would save it every time. I don't know why, but it would. I'm sure the real answer is in the above comments, but if you're looking for a quick fix, then I you should try that. I've bought new parts for my computer so it doesn't do that error anymore, but when it did, I used this solution. :)
>
>
>
> There actually is a reason why this works for some players, some of the time. If your game was just barely dancing on the edge of not being able to access enough RAM to negotiate a Save or a Save As and Error 12s on you, then retreating to Map View or even focusing on a particularly boring patch of grass with nothing else around on screen might then result in a successful save. Or it might result in a save that looks successful but refuses to load up next time. Some players can recover from an Error 12 around 5% of the time that way. Others never, and still others get much better results for some unknown reason. On the rare occasion I get an Error 12 myself, I seem to be in the 5% crowd. :)
>
> It is unfortunately impossible to determine just how close or how far over the edge a game is on system resource usage at any given time as much more than just regular RAM as seen in Task Manager is in play -- unless the game crashes and you get a crash log, but of course it's too late to do anything by then.

I occasionally get the error when saving a huge custom world, it's no big deal because I save so often anyway, but it is irritating. I have 8gb installed and there's space for more - would extra ram make a difference?

igazor

philkewley wrote: »

I occasionally get the error when saving a huge custom world, it's no big deal because I save so often anyway, but it is irritating. I have 8gb installed and there's space for more - would extra ram make a difference?

Probably not, unless you are running memory hungry applications and the game at the same time. I saw a great improvement when upgrading from 4GB to 8GB, but any more than that isn't going to help. Again, TS3 is a 32-bit program and as such can only utilize 4GB of RAM itself (practically speaking, ~3.7GB). If it can get that much away from Windows and whatever else might be running, that's still the limit it can use.

Ziggygirl

Thank you so much for this explanation! I have upgraded my computer to increase everything including a new video card, after almost $4K on a new computer and still having this error message when saving. When my memory gets to 40% I have to exit out and save or I lose any play time. I have NRAAS installed, so I'm going to try and disable memory's on my simmies and hope that helps too! Again though, THANK YOU for finally helping me understand this issue. :)

igazor

Ziggygirl wrote: »

Thank you so much for this explanation! I have upgraded my computer to increase everything including a new video card, after almost $4K on a new computer and still having this error message when saving. When my memory gets to 40% I have to exit out and save or I lose any play time. I have NRAAS installed, so I'm going to try and disable memory's on my simmies and hope that helps too! Again though, THANK YOU for finally helping me understand this issue.

Wow, this is an old thread but you're welcome. There are more tips available to help smooth out game play, some mod related and other not, on our site here:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Tips+For+Better+Game+Performance

In addition to disabling sim's memories and keeping NRaas Overwatch and ErrorTrap in play, disallowing the hidden object "game" during startup from Game Options and playing offline can help save a lot of RAM usage, as mentioned somewhere on that page. An occasional MasterController reset of the entire world every so often (most worlds for me, every 8 sim weeks or so) can help a lot as well. So can dialing back StoryProgression's overall speed to one of the two slower ones, if you use that mod.

Charlottesmom

JPUPPY wrote: »

I may have an answer that isn't too technical. I used to get it all the time. What I would do was if it gave me that error after saving, I would click on the building icon to go into city view, then save it and it would save it every time. I don't know why, but it would. I'm sure the real answer is in the above comments, but if you're looking for a quick fix, then I you should try that. I've bought new parts for my computer so it doesn't do that error anymore, but when it did, I used this solution.

I also have a quickie solution that always works for me, delete every save you have except one or two you can't live without. Got into your library and clear out any families, Sims, empty houses or community objects (buildings) that you don't need then try saving. It always works, if not you can try deleting the cachebackup file. I *knock on wood* have not had to do anything more complicated than that for error 12.

igazor

Charlottesmom wrote: »

I also have a quickie solution that always works for me, delete every save you have except one or two you can't live without. Got into your library and clear out any families, Sims, empty houses or community objects (buildings) that you don't need then try saving. It always works, if not you can try deleting the cachebackup file. I *knock on wood* have not had to do anything more complicated than that for error 12.

It's not necessary to restrict yourself to one or two saves, but they don't need to be cluttering up Saves in your game folder either, which you are right does add a small amount of RAM to what the game must use to traverse that folder. I keep many older and extra saves I want to hold onto for various reasons but don't really need to see as choices on the saved game selection screen every time elsewhere, some in a folder away from the game folder and some on an external drive, and just move a copy in should I ever want to load one of those up.

Karritz

Another thing about having too many saves in the Saves folder. You will eventually get to a point where the saves don't all show as games available to be played. If that happens I move most of my saves that I don't want to play right then to an external saves folder - it's my resource for when i want to find something like a born in game sim or a build I suddenly decide I want to include in a current game.

king_of_simcity7

A few years back I was at my wits end with this but actually moving saves out of the save folder did help as well. I have a back up folder for all Sims stuff, all saves, pictures, mods ect. You can only play one save at a time so keeping on one save in the folder at one time makes sense.

Other things I have noticed that bring on a Save Error is moving Sims between lots, changing the number of Sims per househouse or moving Sims into a world or lots.

If I plan to do this, I start the game fresh, move Sims around and exit and save and then re start again later, all Sims have been saved so no more work needs to be done.

This is a large world I am talking about though, my save file size is 173.024 KB the last time I checked with 470 Sims according to the demographics I exported in Master Controller, a very large save while the average world file, any Base game, EP or Store world shouldn't have any issues what so ever, unless you are playing on a 10 year old lap top of course

Karritz

Another way I've found that often works to rescue a save is to take a sim to a smaller lot, or even activate a small lot that has only 1 or 2 sims on it if you're getting Error 12 while trying to save a lot with more on it.

Turning down game options also reduces the size of the save file.

sired

if you want a more technical explanation, if you have win 7, open calculator and then view->programmer, set the setting (left of the buttons) to hex and enter FFFFFFFF you will see 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 crawl across the little display. if you count the ones (starting from 1 when you count) you will find there are 32 of them. if you then switch from hex to dec you get 4294967295. using wolfram alpha and entering '4294967295 bytes' (without the ') gets you the following result - [4.295 GB (gigabytes)]. that's basically the maximum a 32 bit process can address in ram.

duhboy2u2

igazor wrote: »

I'm glad you got this fixed and can now save/play on. But for the next time something like this happens, or for others reading this thread, I'd like to illustrate what I was talking about above.



As you can see, I'm using 46% of my RAM. Since I have 8 GB total, there's plenty left to spare at the moment. The game is running and is currently using 1.975 (so almost 2) GB of RAM. For the saved game I am playing, the amount of CC I have, etc., that is perfectly normal. But if that usage were to start spiking up above 3.5 GB or so, although I'd still have plenty of RAM on my computer left to spare, the game would still be dangerously close to the limit it can use under any conditions. If the usage were to go over around 3.7 GB, a crash to desktop would be more likely.

Trying to do a Save or Save As at that point could very likely throw it over the limit of what it can use and give me Error 12s. The save process itself spikes the RAM usage up and down a bit, so that's why the game can feel playable but still be impossible to save at such a point.

In your case, it sounds like the game was trying to use even more RAM to negotiate what you found out was a messed up Sims 3 folder and that's why you could save other test games but not the larger one you were really interested in. Again, it's not the total RAM available that's the main issue here, but rather what the game program can actually utilize before strange things start to happen.

Now that they (The Original Poster) is able to save, could this problem be avoided by using a new save file? Instead of an overwrite? Or doe that not change anything? Maybe I don't understand and its not the age of the save file but the size?

I hope it helps the OP, but I'm being selfish in my question. I've never had this issue but I've had a devil of a time lately with hardware issues (old video card that is on its way out and it'll be a while before I can replace it) so I want to try to avoid this issue in the future seeing as my game won't currently support mods at all with my pc issues.

Karritz

I've found the amount of RAM being used by the game is also dependent on the settings in options, the number of Sims living in the active lot and the complexity of the lot.

I've often been able to save as (a new file name) after getting an error 12 by changing the active household to another simple household with only 1 or 2 sims and a basic house. This doesn't always work but I have found that for me it usually does.

Luis_Carlos

I hate that error, that is the reason I don't play sims 3 anymore. I have remember to habe readen some advices to try avoid it, like the names of save games.

KairiAngel13

Hello Everyone :)

I had the same exact problem and I have found a solution. Unfortunately, you will have to do this every time you go to play the Sims 3 and it must be done BEFORE YOU OPEN THE GAME LAUNCHER.

1. Go to My Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3

2. In the MAIN Sims 3 Folder, Delete all CACHE files. They will look like blank slips of paper.
- CASPartCache.package
- compositorCache.package
- scriptCache.package
- simCompositorCache.package
- socialCache.package

3. Then, go to the folder labeled "DCCache"
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the file and delete the slip of paper labeled "missingdeps.idx" (Fun Fact: Deleting this also helps when your Sims 3 Launcher continues to crash, IF you're having that problem)

4. Go back to the Sims 3 Folder and go to the folder labeled "DC Backup" and delete EVERYTHING in the folder. It will not affect your game in any way. It just gets rid of excess files and can even speed your game up (at least it does for me).

5. Finally, go back to the Sims 3 Folder and open the folder labeled "Saves"
- Find the save file that matches the town that you cannot save. For example, I play with a custom version of Pleasantview, so there would be a folder marked for Pleasantview.
- You will notice that there is an original file for the town and a file that is labeled as a backup. If you received the Error Code 12 message, there will be a folder that has the town name followed by the word "bad."
- Delete the bad file then exit out of the documents tab.

This should resolve the code error message. Unfortunately, you will have to start your game in its previous place from before you tried to save. So even though it's a hassle, be sure that you save your game every 10-15 minutes if you're super cautious; or if you play for an extensive time like me, save every two to three sims days.

I hope this helped all of you. I can't exactly fix the Error 12, since I am not entirely sure what it is; but I do know how to solve the issue long enough for you to continue playing. Just be sure to save and delete all of these excess files.

-KairiAngel13 ;)

Karritz

@KairiAngel13

Error 12 happens when the game tries to use more than 4GB of RAM while saving.

The way to stop it from happening is to save often, preferable with different name each save so you have a save to go back to in case of corruption.

The active lot affects the amount of memory used, as does the graphics settings in game options.

Often, going into edit town will let you save a game if you get Error 12 while attempting to save.