Where did University Go?? «12...Next Go

Carpbeat24

Hi Simmers,

I decided last night that I wanted to play Sims 3 again. I created a sim all perfect for University -- but when I tried to enroll her, the option was nowhere to be found -- turns out Origin doesn't recognize that I actually paid for this pack when it originally came out... Now it's trying to make me pay for it again??? This isn't right.

Anyone else have this problem? All other packs are available in the expansions Sims 3 menu but University just disappeared... please help

Carpbeat24

UPDATE: In To The Future also is no longer showing up as owned, even though I definitely purchased it when it first came out... is there a contact number or email to call for help with this? I'm not going to pay for something I've already paid for before. >:(

CravenLestat

Go to your browse games should show all owned games.If not sign out close it out then relaunch your Origin

See should have the purchased tag

Carpbeat24

Thanks -- took your advice but still nothing...

Although, when I select to purchase the expansion again, I get this screen...

GraceyManor

I just went and checked mine.
Into the Future seems to have uninstalled itself.
So has my university pack.

It may be an issue with origin.My launcher shows my games installed, but my origin says they're not.

puzzlezaddict

As simple as it sounds, sometimes the only step necessary is to restart your computer a couple of times. If that doesn't help, though, you can try clearing Origin's cache, or even uninstalling and reinstalling Origin itself, which wouldn't affect your installed games.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

It's also possible that the packs have been removed from your account. This could be a mistake, but if you originally purchased them from an unauthorized third-party seller, you might have received bad codes. For a year and a half, EA has been systematically deactivating packs tied to codes that were originally stolen or otherwise fraudulently obtained, even though the affected players usually had no idea that there was anything wrong with their purchases.

The only way to find out if this is what happened to your content is to contact EA customer support. Someone on that end can look at your account, and hopefully fix any errors that may exist. It would be helpful if you had any proof of purchase (receipt; photos of discs, cases, inserts; etc.) on hand for the chat.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

The message you're seeing about already owning one item is a known bug. If you can still purchase the content you want (and you can't get it back from EA support), you should be fine to purchase it "again." Alternately, some players unable to buy items they don't own have had success purchasing the pack(s) from an approved third-party seller. For example, Amazon Direct (not Marketplace) sells codes as well as physical copies of TS3. Here's a list of approved vendors:

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/where-to-buy-ea-games-v2/

Carpbeat24

Springfairy556 wrote: »

I just went and checked mine.
Into the Future seems to have uninstalled itself.
So has my university pack.

Ah. jeez... But are they still showing up in your expansions folder on the Sims 3 menu? Mine aren't even available...

Carpbeat24

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

As simple as it sounds, sometimes the only step necessary is to restart your computer a couple of times. If that doesn't help, though, you can try clearing Origin's cache, or even uninstalling and reinstalling Origin itself, which wouldn't affect your installed games.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

It's also possible that the packs have been removed from your account. This could be a mistake, but if you originally purchased them from an unauthorized third-party seller, you might have received bad codes. For a year and a half, EA has been systematically deactivating packs tied to codes that were originally stolen or otherwise fraudulently obtained, even though the affected players usually had no idea that there was anything wrong with their purchases.

The only way to find out if this is what happened to your content is to contact EA customer support. Someone on that end can look at your account, and hopefully fix any errors that may exist. It would be helpful if you had any proof of purchase (receipt; photos of discs, cases, inserts; etc.) on hand for the chat.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

The message you're seeing about already owning one item is a known bug. If you can still purchase the content you want (and you can't get it back from EA support), you should be fine to purchase it "again." Alternately, some players unable to buy items they don't own have had success purchasing the pack(s) from an approved third-party seller. For example, Amazon Direct (not Marketplace) sells codes as well as physical copies of TS3. Here's a list of approved vendors:

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/where-to-buy-ea-games-v2/

Currently live chatting with EA. They are asking for codes and proof of purchase... but since everything switched to digital/ origin, I had no need to keep the physical boxes with the codes...

This is lame. Maybe I can try uninstalling and reinstalling origin? I'm at a loss...

GraceyManor

s33man wrote: »

Springfairy556 wrote: »

I just went and checked mine.
Into the Future seems to have uninstalled itself.
So has my university pack.

Ah. jeez... But are they still showing up in your expansions folder on the Sims 3 menu? Mine aren't even available...

They are they just say "Download" instead of "Installed" but clicking download does nothing.My pets says the same thing.
Edit: I don't have copies of my codes anymore either, I bought the base game back in 2009.Who keeps codes for that long?

JoAnne65

I did (still have all the disks plus codes) but this is quite disgraceful, if the error is clearly something on their part (it is when more people are experiencing it). If you can show them the screenshot where is says you 'already have 1 game in this order' that should be enough.

puzzlezaddict

@s33man and @Springfairy556 If the games are still installed on your computer, or on an old computer, you can find the codes in your registry. Crinrict wrote a helpful guide:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/09/how-to-find-your-serial-number.html

If anyone's on a mac, here's Bluebellflora's version:

https://bluebellflora.com/finding-your-serial-key-using-terminal/

@Springfairy556 If clearing Origin's cache and uninstalling and reinstalling it don't help, you could try uninstalling the affected packs and redownloading them. You'd need to clean the registry after uninstalling, either manually or with a tool like Piriform's CCleaner (free).

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-3/manually-uninstalling-the-sims-3/

Carpbeat24

Well live chat was absolutely NO help. They kept saying they needed codes to proceed. I DON'T have the codes anymore -- ever since EA decided to make everything digital... wth. Classic EA -- trying to make me purchase something I've already purchased before...

This infuriates me.

Carpbeat24

JoAnne65 wrote: »

I did (still have all the disks plus codes) but this is quite disgraceful, if the error is clearly something on their part (it is when more people are experiencing it). If you can show them the screenshot where is says you 'already have 1 game in this order' that should be enough.

I sent that exact image to the person on live chat. Nothing...

Carpbeat24

Would it help if I uninstalled my Sims 3 game and reinstalled? I'm kinda at a loss at what to do.

Carpbeat24

Maybe this is a sign that I need a life... ha.

puzzlezaddict

Okay, just to clarify:

There is a known bug with Origin where it doesn't let you buy a pack, saying "you already have all the games in this order." There is currently no fix. If anyone wants to report this on AHQ, it would be very helpful if you could click Me Too on the initial post and post with your own information in this thread:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/You-already-have-all-the-games-in-this-order/m-p/7106888#M232528

Some players have been able to get around this by either buying when they "already have one game in this order" (the purchase goes through) or buying a code from an authorized third-party seller.

There is a separate bug where clicking the download button in Origin doesn't do anything. This can usually be fixed in Windows by clearing Origin's cache or uninstalling and reinstalling Origin. If the pack is already installed but doesn't show, it might be necessary (in this case) to uninstall the pack, clean the registry, and reinstall.

EA deactivating codes is yet another distinct issue, one that is "solved" by contacting customer support, getting the pack removed from your account, and rebuying it from Origin or another authorized seller.

@s33man Did you see my post about finding your codes? It might have gotten lost in all the noise.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16836971/#Comment_16836971

JoAnne65

This is really lame, I am so sorry for you...

SemaviLady

I'm curious, are your games listed on TheSims3.com homepage at your ingame wall? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my sig below and click on MY PAGE, a link in blue)

I've run into several simmers that have all games listed as purchased on their walls, but when they got switched to Origin, they ended up either getting a CHAT support that recognized their purchases were valid and corrected Origin for them OR connected with CS chat that said NO and closed their case. The second one happened to me til I got it fixed.

I actually bought all of my EPs, SPs and add on worlds many years ago. But one time when I logged into Origin, I found that one of my expansions was missing. I play all disk copies now, but was highly irritated about Origin related record keeping. I found the emails that notified me when I bought expansions from Origin. I contacted Customer support, and gave the invoice number of the missing expansion that Origin claimed. The first CS person was completely unhelpful and said no such record of invoice number exists. BUT... on that same invoice I also bought other Expansions and stuff packs and they were not removed. Why were they missing that invoice number? Why weren't the other purchases from the same emailed invoice number also removed if the invoice number was missing?

I got back onto CS Chat (do not rely on the email version). This second time in chat, I actually had contact with a TS3 player, EA employee who looked at my wall and my purchase records (I had purchased many SimPoint bundles when I was gifting people and looking for deals on the DD spreadsheet). This support person said it's quite obvious I paid for all, and got my Origin record fixed so I owned the missing Expansion again on Origin.

This told me a few things. The record keeping and invoice number issues are real and some simmers are getting RIPPED off. I still have the copy of the chat. The CS person in the second conversation did not reply to my questioning of why other purchases on the invoice number were not removed if the invoice number was gone. I kid you not. I was really ticked off about this since I have simmer friends that are still missing packs that they purchased when the games were still less than two years old. Nevertheless, I was so thankful that the second chat restored the game to Origin records.

Be persistent and polite. Talk to different CS people. You might run into someone who will recognize that there is indeed a record keeping problem at EA/Origin's end. My EA account used to list all my purchases pretty clearly but when EA/Origin became a thing, my EA records got vague and several years of purchases are no longer listed on my EA Account.


>>>Edited to add: EA account Purchase History Link

>>>Purchase History on the Store site

GraceyManor

The games seem to actually be installed, as they show up in-game.Just origin says they are not.So for now, I'm ignoring origin, as all my games seem to be installed, origin just doesn't show it.And I don't wanna mess up my game saves.

SemaviLady

@Springfairy556 - The worry here is that your computer could go kaput or you might need a new motherboard which will change everything about your computer configuration. So when you go to download your games again, you're going to face problems because of EA/Origin's glitchy record keeping. I wouldn't let it ride. Ensure that the Store site with your wall has all your expansions still properly recorded.

GraceyManor

SemaviLady wrote: »

@Springfairy556 - The worry here is that your computer could go kaput or you might need a new motherboard which will change everything about your computer configuration. So when you go to download your games again, you're going to face problems because of EA/Origin's glitchy record keeping. I wouldn't let it ride. Ensure that the Store site with your wall has all your expansions still properly recorded.

Everything checks out okay on my store wall.The ones that don't show, I don't own.
And everything is running in-game.Looks good on that side.Just origin isn't recognizing it.

SemaviLady

Having all the expansions verified on your wall is a great thing. But as I have built and repaired computers for a hobby and also know others that have done the same, I don't put that much trust into any computer even if it's pretty new. I've seen new machines fail for different reasons. CPU thermal paste might not have been applied correctly or a screw might be loose and the motherboard could get fried.

Hoping for the best. Good luck and Happy Simming

Carpbeat24

Hmmph. Well I do appreciate everyone's input. I've tried looking through my emails and can't find a confirmation code so IDK. I promise that I've purchased these games before -- I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone here.

I wonder if this has to do with switching computers...

EricasFreePlay

Ok looks like I have been affected too. I had all the games on disk when they first came out. I just went to my Sims 3 account page and (after a bit of searching for it) found the page that lists all the games I own and registered. It looks like I only have the following now:

EPs:

Seasons
Island Paradise
Into The Future

I only apparently bought the following Worlds:

Hidden Springs
Riverview (downloaded for free when I first got the game)

Everything else is GONE and I know for a fact I had the whole collection. Looks like I will be going on a shopping spree over the course of next year.

Carpbeat24

EricasFreePlay wrote: »

Ok looks like I have been affected too. I had all the games on disk when they first came out. I just went to my Sims 3 account page and (after a bit of searching for it) found the page that lists all the games I own and registered. It looks like I only have the following now:

EPs:

Seasons
Island Paradise
Into The Future

I only apparently bought the following Worlds:

Hidden Springs
Riverview (downloaded for free when I first got the game)

Everything else is GONE and I know for a fact I had the whole collection. Looks like I will be going on a shopping spree over the course of next year.

It's ridiculous that we have to purchase these games again. This is technically like stealing our property, holding it captive until we pay again. May be a bit dramatic but this isn't cool, man... I'm not a Rockefeller. I am not just going to throw money around. And I shouldn't have to!

I know 100% I had these packs in my possession. I played many games involving these expansions. And for them to just up and disappears is ridiculous.

Enough.

EricasFreePlay

They are gone from the registered games section of The Sims 3 site, NOT Origin. I know I haven't purchased them through Origin. I may or may not re-register them on The Sims 3.com