When I got The Sims 4 three years ago, I had to uninstall The Sims 3 (I used disks to play) in order to play it. However, I still had the icons on my MacBook Pro. Last month, I had to get a new MacBook Pro since my old one was acting flaky and I want to play the Sims 3 on my new laptop, However, when the Apple Store transferred all my files to my new laptop, only The Sims 3 University icon made it to my new laptop I don't have a CD drive on my new MacBook Pro. I read in a Sims 4 Facebook group that if you send a picture of your game and packs to EA as proof of purchase, they will send you a downloadable version of them with a new activation code for free. Is this true?
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If none of this works, then your only other shot would be contacting EA customer support and providing photos of your discs, cases, inserts, etc. But that takes more effort and isn't guaranteed to work.
https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/
Once you've registered your codes, it's a good idea to do a clean uninstall of any files that were transferred to your new computer. If you don't remove them, those remnants could prevent you from launching the game going forward.
https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/
When you're ready to install, there are several steps you'll need to get TS3 running on your new mac. Bluebellflora has written a very helpful guide to installing TS3 on a mac, with descriptions of the various errors you'll need to handle:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/6984929#M13578
If you successfully launch the game only to run into a connection error, please see this post for the solution:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/Sims-3-quot-There-is-a-problem-connecting-to-the-server-quot/m-p/7113494#M14618
I know this is a lot; feel free to ask for help with any of it. Just describe which step isn't working or what you don't understand. It would also help to know the specs of your mac, as well as which packs you plan to install. Of course, you may decide to throw up your hands and Bootcamp your mac instead (as a few of us have), and we can help with that too.
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However, these models are all more expensive than their Windows counterparts with the same hardware. I would never discourage anyone who wants one from buying a Mac, but someone with budget constraints may need to consider the significant price difference. You could probably find a Windows desktop that would run the entire game for under $800 U.S. (prices will vary in other countries), and a laptop with sufficient specs might be $100 more.
None of this even takes into account that TS3 doesn't run nearly as well in Mac OS as it does in Windows. The game is a mess to get installed, but more relevantly, it can only use a maximum of 2 GB RAM before crashing, as opposed to ~3.7 GB in Windows. This is due to the way TS3 was ported into Mac OS, and the memory constraint can't be overcome. Some people can live with the RAM limit, but many of us have decided that the only way to play properly is to partition our hard drives and install Windows. (This is known as Bootcamping.) It's certainly doable, and the setup isn't all that hard to maintain. But if the point is to play TS3, it's just one more annoyance that's only necessary on a Mac.
If you'd like some help picking out a computer, list your budget and country, as well as any other features you'd like the computer to have (do you in fact want to buy a Mac, do you want a laptop or desktop, etc.) It might be better to post in the dedicated thread for new members, especially if you're not interested in a Mac anymore, but we'll find your post regardless.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/893122/thread-for-new-members-to-post-their-sims-3-game-issues#latest
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https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/
Then install the base game only from Origin, and run the Super Patch (digital download version) to manually patch the game to 1.67. The launcher doesn't do a good job of patching on its own.
https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/
When you install Late Night, you'll need to create an alias for it in Applications, since you probably won't get one automatically. (High-End Loft Stuff will be fine.) Creating an alias is easy enough:
https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-packs-not-showing-as-installed/