Why did all of my store content suddenly uninstall?

KatNip · November 2018

Plain as the title, all of my store content uninstalled and won't install again, saying that: "Installation Failed: Please make sure your game has the latest software updates and try again."

My game is at the most recent update and is on a high end gaming laptop. Another thing it's done today was load up with all of my settings completely back to default and all of my graphics settings on the lowest thing.

puzzlezaddict · November 2018

When you loaded your game and saw that your settings had returned to their defaults, did your saves show in the Main Menu? If not, your game folder may have been uploaded to OneDrive, where TS3 wouldn't have been able to find it. It would have then spawned a new one (with default settings), and if you're not on patch 1.69, you wouldn't have the store content patches either. If your old folder is in OneDrive, you can just pull it out and put it back in Documents\EA; be sure to get rid of the mostly empty new game folder first.

If your existing game folder is still in place and being properly read (i.e. your saves show up), you may have a corrupt file in that folder that's preventing you from installing or using your store content. Given that none of your store content is showing up, you may need to download and install it again. Pull your existing TS3 folder out of Documents and onto your desktop, and launch the game again to generate a clean folder. If you're on patch 1.67, make sure to add the store content patches back in; on patch 1.69, this isn't necessary.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16341942/#Comment_16341942

Download just one item and try to install it. If it works, you can download and install the rest, but be sure to do so in batches of no more than a half dozen items at a time. The launcher can't handle much more data than that. Worlds need to be handled separately, not in a batch with anything else.

Edit to add: The other reason your settings would have reverted to defaults is that your graphics drivers updated. (Settings being reset is a pretty common side effect.) If this was part of a system update, it's possible that your antivirus/firewall updated as well and is messing with your ability to download and/or install store content. These tools are more likely to prevent you from running the game than adding store stuff, but you could always try adding an exception for the Sims 3 store to see if that helps.

Auroraskies · November 2018

@puzzlezaddict Hello! I do not have the problem the OP have, but wonder about these content patches after having read the provided link.

I am on 1.67 (Steam), and my ContentPatch folder is empty. I recently did a 'factory reset' but saved the old Sims 3 folder elsewhere, and the folder is empty there too. I installed Sims 3 on this particular desktop first time this July.
After having pulled out the Sims 3 folder I downloaded the store items and worlds again. It worked after some different tries, (the solution being to log into my sims store account through the website and download from there, not being able to log into the launcher) and the store items and worlds show up in the Downloads folder, InstalledWorlds and in the game, and some of them have been played with successfully (in the meaning of: I have not tested all).

I only recognize the 'random selection of clothes' problem in patch v 2.2 (my sim sometimes chooses self-employed work outfit after a shower), but were under the impression that updates were automatic on Steam if checked. I do not remember having to ever make a choice on this on my older computer, but that could have other explanations, my memory being mostly write-only.

Why do I need to download the store patches myself?

puzzlezaddict · November 2018

@Auroraskies When I installed TS3 on my new mac not quite a year ago, I didn't get the store content patches either; it used to happen through the launcher when the game detected their absence. It's since become clear that EA is no longer offering them for download to players on patch 1.67, whether the game is installed via disc, Steam, or Origin/mac.

Steam doesn't handle store content, and I don't think it touches anything in the TS3 game folder anyway, so I wouldn't expect it to prompt you to download the patches or even be able to alert you that they were missing.

The patches are only necessary to make certain store items work properly, so if you don't own any of those items, you might not notice a difference. And as you read, some of the issues the patches fixed are annoying rather than item-breaking. I've been meaning to do some testing with and without the store patches in place, but I don't own that much content, and the process would be a bit time-consuming. Or maybe it's just that I'm lazy; that's always a possibility.

Anyway, you could download the patches and yank them again if you wanted—they're removable just like anything else in your game folder.

Auroraskies · November 2018

@puzzlezaddict I think I am on my way to 'own the store' as the saying here goes, so will download them from the link provided inside yours.

And thank you, also for bringing it up in the first place, I had no idea that this was yet another thing to consider.

Karritz · November 2018

About the Store Patches @Auroraskies and @Puzzleaddict the store patches always downloaded automatically until they (EA) did an upgrade to Origin (or the 1.69 patch of the game - not sure which). Since then people on the patch that ties the game to Origin don't need the store patch so they simply stopped it from downloading.

I am on patch 1.67 and have successfully played the game with and without the store patches. But I have them backed up and I think I have them in my game at the moment. I'm not sure if they are required for 1.67 version now or not. If you're having problems without them then use them otherwise don't worry about them. - so I just checked - I have several Sims 3 folders because I make videos and have different versions of my mods folder in different Sims 3 folders. Of the first 3 Sims 3 folders I looked into the first 2 have the Content Patch folder empty and the third has the files in it. I don't notice any difference in the game regardless of if I've got it in or not. I don't use Steam. My install is all disk and I have the original version of the Base Game from 2009. And I don't have Origin installed on this PC.

Auroraskies · November 2018

Thank you for that addition @Karritz. I will follow the consequential advise of this conversation and keep both the downloaded patches and the patches' description in back-up, in case I need an explanation and solution to any problems further on.

Karritz · November 2018

Just one more tiny bit of advice - don't be tempted to uninstall and reinstall the game itself. Almost ALL issues are caused by corruptions in the User Data - found in The Sims 3 folder of MyDocuments.

If it's an issue with store content it could be a good idea to

1. Rename the existing Sims 3 folder
2. launch the game (this will create a new empty Sims 3 folder)
3. close the game
4. install store content a bit at a time -

There are many methods for installing store content my personally preferred method is to sort it on order of size and install biggest files first and always try to keep amount installed below 200 MB at a time. Some of the files will be bigger than this so they go in one at a time and first. The exception to this rule is the list of items that @ciane has made to be installed first or they won't show up in the game. See the Store General Discussions for more on this.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/866577/how-to-install-store-items#latest

She has a method of installing all store items that I've tried several times but have so far always, without exception, come to grief. The method described is to prevent any accidental double installations of content. I find, in the end, when I try to do it that way I always end up with total confusion the further I get into the install and end up knowingly double or triple or quadruple installing significant amounts of store content.

You choose how you want to do it.

A few pointers to the way that works for me is - have 3 folders.
Folder 1 holds ALL store content you want to install
Folder 2 is the Downloads folder where you actually install from using the launcher
Folder 3 holds ALL store content after it has been installed

The reason I do this is if you try to install all (or most) of the store content you reach a point where the launcher refuses to install any more if all of the content is stored in the Downloads folder.

So I found I move only the files I am about to install across to the Downloads folder and then once they are installed I move them to the Installed folder.

Going from Biggest to Smallest helps in two ways - you are less likely to install duplicates if you are aware of what you are installing. For example if installing compilations you don't want to also install the individual sets that come with them or the individual items in the compilation. All of this sorting out should take place as you place the files into the 'To Install' folder. Once you've got it set up, and have found all of the individual items Ciane has marked as needing to be installed first or they won't show up at all, then you start installing - first the items that must go first to get them to show up, then work your way down the list from biggest to smallest.

Hopefully this is of some assistance.

I have a small white dog jumping on me at the moment - she wants to go for a walk. I better go do that now.

Good luck.

EDIT: Just one more thing - you can install any sims or lots you have in your library in the broken Sims 3 folder. The process is.

1. Launch the game (in the old broken Sims 3 folder)
2. Go to Edit Town
3. Choose each Sim or lot you want to keep in turn
4. Click the Share button on each one

When you've 'shared' them all, go to the Exports folder that's in the Sims 3 folder and take all of the Sims3Pack files you just created.

But beware - some of them may be corrupt so do a backup of your newly made clean sims 3 folder before installing your Sims3Pack files from the items you just shared.

Auroraskies · November 2018

I hope this will be as helpful to the OP as to me @Karritz , that was very kind. I am absolutely guilty of installing things twice, and I am 'missing' store items, I think the need to read some threads in the store section just arose. And here I thought it was enough going through Bugs and Issues, Technical problems and the Newcomer thread.

That was cute, about your dog, and I still remember Mickey and the Pavlov's Phone Peal

Karritz · November 2018

@Auroraskies Mickey is still very aware of his phone alarm. It was MIA jumping on me today though. Mickey was sitting relatively quietly trying to stare me into taking them out. We did it and they did a lot of sniffing. Mia is significantly smaller than Mickey but she knows how to bounce quite high.

Good luck with getting your store content organised.

ciane · November 2018

Hm, so sorry to here that my detailed instructions are probably too detailed to help out many simmers; but you do have the main points figured out @Karritz; and that appears to work well enough.

I thought that when EA created that latest store patch, they tied the newer store downloads to it. Store content pre-latest patch would still download and install as normal. If no change was made to the game set-up (discs or digital download-wise and OS), then store content saved earlier to a safe location would reinstall okay. However a change in the install of the game would affect previously archived store content saved for reinstalling later. So, if a player switched over to steam or all discs to play on 1.67 and tried to reinstall from a saved/archived folder, chances are good that the install fails. I'm not a coder, but I look at it as a check of the system to safeguard against pirating. If something significant changed, then the content might not belong to that installer; thus, failure results. Redownloading from the store, with the latest store patch, verifies that the user is legit and that the content does belong to that user; so then the reinstall works as intended. However once the store content is installed, you might not need to the store patch. I often create a new sims 3 folder and just copy over my dcCache and installedWorlds folders along with presets, the ccmerged file, and any library files I might want. I don't always copy over the contentPatch folder, and as you've said, I believe the game sees and displays the store content. However, I'll usually add that patch folder back in when I later can't find something I'm looking for.

Karritz · November 2018

@ciane my problems arise when I've almost got everything installed and have installed things as compilations. Eventually there is a point where bits and pieces are not yet installed or I install a compilation then discover I've already installed another larger compilation that includes some of the same items. And I need items that are in the compilation but have already installed other items that are in it. So I think about it for a while and then I just install it anyway because it'll probably take a lot longer to go and find all the separate items that came with it that I still don't have installed. Or I'd have to go and log into my purchase history, or the store, and download it all again.

Then I have a lot of stuff left over and by then I'm so over the whole process I just install whatever I have left. Then I load a game and get missing objects warnings. Obviously I missed installing something, so then I install a few random things a few times until the missing objects warnings go away. Generally this is because I've been trying to install from a list.

Last year I spent about 2 weeks working on developing a spreadsheet that lists everything and where it is found in compilations or sets etc. And I have columns to record the name of the .Sims3Pack file and the name of the item in the store/launcher. But after about 2 weeks I got tired of that too so it isn't complete.

Sometimes I use the Downloads Dashboard to try to identify things I haven't yet installed but it tends to take a long time to load and often reports things as being not installed when they are, in fact, installed and able to be located in the buy catalog.

I have a lot of store content. I bought everything I could find that was able to be purchased and got all of the free content I could find too. So I have a lot of store content - I started collecting it in June 2009.

I find the way I've always done the installs tends to eliminate the frustration. I put them all into a folder, sort by size and remove known or easy to identify duplicates. I will always still have a few duplicates but nothing like what I get when trying to jump all over the place to work out what has to be installed from a long complicated list.

However, I do find the short list of items to be installed first very useful. I still have problems with getting that chair to install though. The one from the set that is broken if you install the set before installing the chair alone. I've tried installing the entire set as single items after installing the chair, and installing the entire set after installing the chair. I have had it work a few times buy mostly not. EA fixed the chair but didn't put the fixed chair into the set.

Another thing. I noticed a discussion on the Featured Items folder. I delete that folder from my Sims 3 folders and replace it with a .txt file named FeaturedItems.txt then I remove the .txt ending from it and all is good. The game can't add a second thing with the same name in that folder. I have noticed occasionally it takes a while to install some items but at other times it is faster. So I'm not planning to return to having the featured items folder again. I have so many different Sims 3 folders set up for various games that it would completely fill my SSD drive with all the copies of Featured Items folder I'd end up with.

ciane · November 2018

@Karritz - I have another file on simshare besides the reinstall file that shows file size and how I installed them.

It was the one I started with that shows what sets are included in each compilation or combo. I have everything color coded. Red means it is a duplicate, so don't install it (unless you don't own the other part that it's included in). Anyway, that spreadsheet is here:
https://simfileshare.net/download/181787/

Auroraskies · November 2018

@puzzlezaddict Just for reference, I checked my mentioned self-employed author work outfit when in game, and it is a 'default one', and I guess therefore belonging to Ambitions EP (it looked silly enough to be something I would pick out). So my problem, not being one, is in any case not connected to store items and patches. Sorry for not doing it before posting, I guess my curiousity got the better of me.

Reading through your threads with links now @ciane , I want to thank you for putting it together.

Karritz · November 2018

@ciane thank you. Got it. I'll give it a go next time I need to install it all again. It's been about a year since last time I did it. I've got about 6 or more different Sims 3 folders now because I have so much CC installed and I am making videos and have different Sims 3 folders with different CC in them for different videos. Before the release of Sims 4 I didn't have CC in my game but I try to avoid installing any - I convert whatever I can to .package files and put them into my mods folder.

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Why did all of my store content suddenly uninstall?

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