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  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    sfpsvv wrote: »
    Hi there,

    Thanks for having so many posts with suggestions to solve problems!

    I've sadly encountered one myself with the sims 3 pets (no issues previously to this expansion). It came up with the disc authorisation failure and after reading the post on this by BlueBellFlora I tried moving my the sims 3 folder from the directory to desktop and restarting the mac. Unfortunately now the game doesn't get past the blue screen after the launcher... are there any other alternative solutions other then going via origins? Or do I have to uninstall everything and install again? I also don't want to skip the launcher unless that's the only option available. Please let me know.

    Any help is appreciated! Thanks!!!

    The only fix for the disc authorisation error is to install through Origin. Uninstall Pets manually then download and install it via Origin.

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  • soffeloffesoffeloffe Posts: 5 New Member
    Hi, I'm having trouble with The Sims 3 on my mac, but I can't find a solution to the problem in the forums. Because I'm new to the forum I can't post a new thread, so I'm wondering what I can do to get help? I know I should stick to the threads topic, but I need help :( I think I might need to fix something as I've got a Macbook Pro from early 2015, but I don't know what to do or what to (potentially) install. I'm more than happy to post my Mac's description and elaborate more on the problem, but I don't want to take up too much place here :) Thanks in advance.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited October 2017
    soffeloffe wrote: »
    Hi, I'm having trouble with The Sims 3 on my mac, but I can't find a solution to the problem in the forums. Because I'm new to the forum I can't post a new thread, so I'm wondering what I can do to get help? I know I should stick to the threads topic, but I need help :( I think I might need to fix something as I've got a Macbook Pro from early 2015, but I don't know what to do or what to (potentially) install. I'm more than happy to post my Mac's description and elaborate more on the problem, but I don't want to take up too much place here :) Thanks in advance.
    Many of the known install issues are covered on the pages linked to on the first post on the first page of this thread.

    But go ahead and describe the issue you are facing if that's not enough, don't forget to include more info about your Mac such as which 2015 model (from About This Mac on the Apple Menu) and which version of OS X you are running. Chances are someone will be able to help or suggest an alternative.
    Post edited by igazor on
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  • soffeloffesoffeloffe Posts: 5 New Member
    MacBook Pro (Retina 13-tommers, første del av 2015(first part of 2015))
    2,7 GHz Intel Core i5
    8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
    Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB
    OS X Yosemite 10.10.5

    I recently downloaded The Sims 3 to my Mac, and I'm able to click "play" in Origin, but whenever I do, the launcher opens, and when I press the play button I get what I believe is the startup screen, and then it just stops. I can navigate between the download, upload and the other pages. I can't close the sims window without forcing it to quit though the apple menu. I can't uninstall it, the whole thing just freezes, and I can't really do anything at all... As I've understood it I'm not able to play TS3 at all with my current mac, is this correct?
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    soffeloffe wrote: »
    MacBook Pro (Retina 13-tommers, første del av 2015(first part of 2015))
    2,7 GHz Intel Core i5
    8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
    Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB
    OS X Yosemite 10.10.5

    I recently downloaded The Sims 3 to my Mac, and I'm able to click "play" in Origin, but whenever I do, the launcher opens, and when I press the play button I get what I believe is the startup screen, and then it just stops. I can navigate between the download, upload and the other pages. I can't close the sims window without forcing it to quit though the apple menu. I can't uninstall it, the whole thing just freezes, and I can't really do anything at all... As I've understood it I'm not able to play TS3 at all with my current mac, is this correct?

    First of all, forget Origin. You do not need it to play the game. Just launch the game by double clicking on the Sims 3 app in your Applications folder - Applications > The Sims 3 > The Sims 3.

    Secondly yes, your Mac is not compatible with the game because it has unsupported Intel graphics. If you want to try and get it working you must edit the graphics files. Instructions here. There's no guarantee it will work but the fact that you are still running Yosemite is in your favour :)
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  • soffeloffesoffeloffe Posts: 5 New Member
    @BluebellFlora said:
    > First of all, forget Origin. You do not need it to play the game. Just launch the game by double clicking on the Sims 3 app in your Applications folder - Applications > The Sims 3 > The Sims 3.
    >
    > Secondly yes, your Mac is not compatible with the game because it has unsupported Intel graphics. If you want to try and get it working you must edit the graphics files. Instructions here. There's no guarantee it will work but the fact that you are still running Yosemite is in your favour :)

    Tried starting it from applications, and when I pressed play I got a message saying that the game couldn't start when it was running, what ever that means...
    I forgot to mention that every time I've tried to launch the game through origin I'm told that something is downloading and that it might affect the game, but I have no ongoing downloads.

    Thanks for answers though :)
  • soffeloffesoffeloffe Posts: 5 New Member
    By the way, when I select TS3 in applications it doesn't have the logo, only a folder with the name written underneath. I don't know if it matters, but TS4 has the logo shown.
  • soffeloffesoffeloffe Posts: 5 New Member
    Okay, so I've tried your tutorial Bluebellflora, but it still doesn't work. But thanks for good help :)
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    soffeloffe wrote: »
    By the way, when I select TS3 in applications it doesn't have the logo, only a folder with the name written underneath. I don't know if it matters, but TS4 has the logo shown.

    Yes, the game is in the Sims 3 folder in your Applications folder :)

    It doesn't always work unfortunately, no idea why not. The error telling you the game is still running is also part of the same problem.

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  • CourtnieCullenCourtnieCullen Posts: 33 Member
    I cannot download anything from The Sims 3 store to my Mac. It keeps giving me an error message that says "There was an error downloading content {0}" Is there anyway to fix this?
  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    You'll need to download the content as an external file and unzip it with a program like Unstuffit or something similar. All Sims 3 store files should end in ".package". Next you'll need to manually add them to your Download folder found in your Sims 3 folder (Documents > Electronic Arts > Sims 3). Only click on one at a time as the Launcher isn't made to handle a huge amount of data. Next move them to a folder on your Desktop that you create to save them for future installations.
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    I'm posting this comment here because this thread is the most wonderful and comprensive set of troubleshooting instructions I could have asked for. And I'm a lifeling mac user, so this is not the first (or tenth) deep dive into the forums. Thank you to BlueBellFlora, Tremayne4260, and all of you who put in so much work to make my gaming experience possible again.

    There is one small problem that I never saw addressed, although the solution is probably obvious to people who are more computer literate than I. When I bought a new macbook pro a couple of days ago, seemingly every step of installing the Sims caused an issue. Most were solved by BBF's many troubleshooting guides, but I was still unable to download any content from the Sims store. Whenever I pressed the download button, I got the window screengrabbed in her "downloading store content" guide and intended to follow the instructions not to touch anything. Firefox opened another tab, as described, but another window asked me to choose an app to launch. Selecting the default "The Sims 3," with no icon to its left, gave me the "unknown error occured" message whether the launcher was open or not. (I never had any actual game running.) Waiting for ten minutes did nothing. Manually choosing the sims3 app with plumbob icon from my applications folder gave me the same error. However, selecting the sims3Ambitions icon (the one which launches my game) worked fine, and everything proceeded smoothly from there.

    I know that this is probably simple, but I wanted to point it out for anyone who is stuck like I was. I wish EA actually cared about fixing its bugs. but that would cost money that they then couldn't pay themselves. Of course, BlueBellFlora is probably smarter than their entire debugging team put together. Thanks again.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    I'm posting this comment here because this thread is the most wonderful and comprensive set of troubleshooting instructions I could have asked for. And I'm a lifeling mac user, so this is not the first (or tenth) deep dive into the forums. Thank you to BlueBellFlora, Tremayne4260, and all of you who put in so much work to make my gaming experience possible again.

    There is one small problem that I never saw addressed, although the solution is probably obvious to people who are more computer literate than I. When I bought a new macbook pro a couple of days ago, seemingly every step of installing the Sims caused an issue. Most were solved by BBF's many troubleshooting guides, but I was still unable to download any content from the Sims store. Whenever I pressed the download button, I got the window screengrabbed in her "downloading store content" guide and intended to follow the instructions not to touch anything. Firefox opened another tab, as described, but another window asked me to choose an app to launch. Selecting the default "The Sims 3," with no icon to its left, gave me the "unknown error occured" message whether the launcher was open or not. (I never had any actual game running.) Waiting for ten minutes did nothing. Manually choosing the sims3 app with plumbob icon from my applications folder gave me the same error. However, selecting the sims3Ambitions icon (the one which launches my game) worked fine, and everything proceeded smoothly from there.

    I know that this is probably simple, but I wanted to point it out for anyone who is stuck like I was. I wish EA actually cared about fixing its bugs. but that would cost money that they then couldn't pay themselves. Of course, BlueBellFlora is probably smarter than their entire debugging team put together. Thanks again.

    Ha ha, I don't think I am but thank you for all your kind words. It's nice to know that some good comes from our years of collating/dissecting/testing/posting/ranting :)

    That's really useful to know that choosing Ambitions worked, especially as that is one of the problematic packs. Did you have to copy files and folders around to fix the Unknown Error issue before downloading store stuff?
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  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    > @BluebellFlora said:

    > That's really useful to know that choosing Ambitions worked, especially as that is one of the problematic packs. Did you have to copy files and folders around to fix the Unknown Error issue before downloading store stuff?

    I had to use your "Sim 3 Packs not showing as installed" workaround after I downloaded Ambitions, and that let me play indefinitely (no mods or other EPs involved). I also received the message that something was still downloading when I initially tried to install using the Sims 3 base game icon on Origin; I think someone mentioned that problem on this forum. The message didn't appear when I clicked on the Ambitions logo, though (the same one I used to download). This happened before I went anywhere near the store.

    When I tried to fix the store downloading problem, I first found instructions to go to my library/preferences and delete "The Sims 3 Preferences folder, com.transgaming.... files (these files begin with this name type), ipatcher files, Cider Preferences folder"... which made no difference. Of course, I hadn't tried to manually select Ambitions. I also couldn't find any files with Cider in the name, which is a bit strange.

    Also, the files I deleted are back, and I just confirmed that I can still download off of the Sims 3 store by selecting Ambitions.

    I'm glad you're still around on the forums. Not only for gamers with limited abilities like me, but because you deserve to know your hard work is still helping other people, even so long after the game's release. The Sims 3 is one of my favorite games, and I'm thrilled to be able to go back to it after an extended break.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @puzzlezaddict - I'm going to step in here with something a bit off-topic, please excuse the interruption. But don't pay any attention to @BluebellFlora's modesty. We all love her and her brilliant undying devotion to helping players get through the special challenges this game presents as well as her comprehensive WAY beyond the call of duty documentation of everything over the years. Even if many of us abandoned TS3 for Mac in disgust years ago in favor of a Bootcamp-based "Let's just run this thing on Windows" solution. :)
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  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    Yes, we are still here and I still play on the Mac side. @igazor is my hero too. :)
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    > @igazor said:
    > @puzzlezaddict - I'm going to step in here with something a bit off-topic, please excuse the interruption. But don't pay any attention to @BluebellFlora's modesty. We all love her and her brilliant undying devotion to helping players get through the special challenges this game presents as well as her comprehensive WAY beyond the call of duty documentation of everything over the years. Even if many of us abandoned TS3 for Mac in disgust years ago in favor of a Bootcamp-based "Let's just run this thing on Windows" solution. :)

    Oh I know how lucky we are to have someone around who has the talent to help AND cares enough to do so much. I've had plenty of mac-related problems over the years, and too often there's nothing and no one who can help, which is why I wanted to say thank you to @BlueBellFlora and @Tremayne4260. And you too? If you're all over nraas, then you've made it much more enjoyable for me to keep playing. I tend to want to build big families and get the kids married and with a child or two of their own before they move out. The games also last a lot longer than they used to. Funny thing, someone had to come in and clean up all of the accumulated errors that ended up borking every single save file before I could enjoy what I'd built.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    edited December 2017
    It is quite a nerdy hobby but I enjoy the challenge and helping people. @igazor is a rare breed - super knowledgable about macOS and Windows. I have to use a PC at work now, if you ever watched me use it you'd think I'd never used a computer before! The first computer I ever used was a Mac back in 1988/89..... (god I'm old). One of my Macs is boot camped but as I'm not using CAW anymore, and Sims4Studio has almost caught up with the PC version, it's fairly obsolete.

    @puzzlezaddict thanks for the feedback with Ambitions and store stuff :)

    Such a thread full of love <3
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited December 2017
    I don't know half of what you guys are talking about. They just let me hang out here and at NRaas cuz that's where the cool kids are. They gave me a "job" over there when it became obvious years ago that I wasn't going to go away and would keep trying to help players anyway. ;)

    And I suspect that I am older than all of you put together (does the math real quick...okay, maybe not but something like that). It's simming that helps keep us feeling young. @BluebellFlora - that was around the year I got my first 'puter also, but alas it was an XT, or maybe it was an AT, IBM compatible. I can try to find it if anyone really wants it now, might be just a tad on the light side for simming though DOS itself was a pretty good game to play. Macs and I didn't really bond with each other until a few years later, and I still have my first one right here though for sentimental reasons I'm not really willing to part with it as easily.
    Post edited by igazor on
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  • oopsdaiesoopsdaies Posts: 37 Member
    Hello! I was wondering if my MacBook - which has Get to Work, Get Together, and Parenthood - could also run City Living, Outdoor Retreat, and Vampires.

    Here are the specs:

    MacBook Pro, 13-inch, Mid 2012

    Processor: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7

    Memory: 8 GB

    Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
  • oopsdaiesoopsdaies Posts: 37 Member
    ^version 10.12.6
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @oopsdaies - I'm going to guess probably not, as you don't have a dedicated graphics card. But you might want to wait for a more definite answer on the TS4 boards where you already posted this question.

    FYI, it's poor form and probably against the rules to post the same question on three different message boards. This one is for TS3, not TS4. A moderator might step in and later combine your posts for you.
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  • oopsdaiesoopsdaies Posts: 37 Member
    @igazor oh thanks
  • sburns834sburns834 Posts: 1 New Member
    Hi guys I'm wondering would sims 1 PC cd work on a 2009 MacBook??
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    sburns834 wrote: »
    Hi guys I'm wondering would sims 1 PC cd work on a 2009 MacBook??

    No.

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