Okay so getting back into it, the Software support step failed and I can't skip to the install without getting a 'we only support 64bit, you need a 64 bit' (which is what I have) I'm stuck.
@BluebellFlora And to answering your question, I had used Disk Utility and formatted with ExFat. I don't have a 'NTFS' option in fact the only 4 are: Macos Extended (journalized), Macos Extended (case-sensitive, journalized), MS-DOS (FAT32) and ExFAT. The description of 'Download Windows Support software' only says "If you create a Windows 10 or later version install disk from a USB drive, the support from a USB flash drive the support software is copied to it. Otherwise you need an external hard drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT)." So I don't know where that puts me at.
It may not be applicable anymore. When the Boot Camp partition started installing, Windows would come up with an error saying it had to reformat the partition to NTFS so you always just went ahead and did it. It probably doesn't apply anymore.
I don't really understand why you are formatting the disk in Disk Utility though when you should be using the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder?
Oh because after the second failed attempt to get it to download my flash drive was sudden 'unreadable' like it didn't show up in finder or in bootcamp and when I unplugged and replugged it in, if gave me the option to open it in Disk Utility where I could erase it and reformat it. Also I don't think ever bootcamp told me / gave the option to reformat. Every time I hit an error it would just stop the process altogether. (I mean it might already be included in the steps and I'm just not realizing it?)
Since I got a little bored I did try making a new Admin user on my Mac going back to puzzleaddict's solution
"If you think you may have a leftover hidden library file that you can't find, or something else that should have been deleted but wasn't, you can always install into a new admin user account. The library files are specific to one account."
I reinstalled Origin through that account (I also noticed apps seemed shared in the sense of that other apps were already accessible through the account, so if I did miss a file or something it probably would cross over accounts?) But puzzle was right about the Library seeming separate so i went through all the steps of just getting TS3 base game including superpatch and all.
The game still got stuck on black screen.
how do i even get blackscreen with just the base game seriously /facepalm
I feel like that should be impossible, this mystery problem going across accounts, but maybe at this point I will consider asking a family friend /professional's help. He prob can't help with the TS3 and Origin on my mac side but he did already tell me he knew a few ways to go about putting windows on without BootCamp too. Might not be a while since I have to work around their schedule but I'm hoping if it works I'll be able to post the steps herefor the rare chance some is having this problem, or just optional way to bootcamp I guess.
Despite brooding in TS4 over all the computer hundles I've been tripping over I was still stubborn about retrying the base game. Really living up to the definition of insanity over here because I had ideas I wanted to try and I can't get over them. I thought I trashed TS3 files completely and realized I still had the base game installed from whatever last attempt I'm sure that failed in blackscreen. I hit Play anyways, I'm wondering if I've been too impatient - just because it should take less than 20seconds doesn't mean it has to. Before with a ton of cc and depending how long my laptop had been on that day I remember waiting a lengthy 5-10 minutes sometimes before I heard the intro and put my phone down thinking 'finally'. I'm thinking I should just wait it out for a full hour to see if it's truly stuck.
Point being: this time after a few seconds it loads immediately. What had failed before, was now working. I hadn't done anything to the game since then and at best my only explanation is maybe restarting my laptop helped? but I did that before so it doesn't make sense unless maybe a full shutdown unplugged from power may have? I don't know.
>I reinstall everything to Ambitions and holy sim goodness, I swear this pack is the spoiled rotten, entitled child of TS3 because despite making alias and copying folders it's still giving me errors. I usually copy the entire folders but sometimes it or I, would paste a shortcut (with a little shortcut arrow icon to let me know it's one) and I know some solutions have said it's important to copy Amb//Ln/etc. ENTIRE folder but I not the other way around to copy the (non problematic) EPs entire folder. But I'm determined to figure it out since I only have a total of three EPs/pack to test with and its obvious they're all there.
>In Ambitions, I delete the shortcut EP/pack folders and replace them with the actually entire copy of the EP/paack folder and let it run.
>I get "Error: Game process cannot start"
but the game proceeds to start anyways - doesn't even get hung up on the intro and loads fine. I swear it like Ambitions rebels against itself "give them errors, wait start the game anyways that'll confuse them." Maybe me ignoring the game for several days finally made it needy and start to come around. (seriously I have no clue what or why it's changed) Last time I didn't make it past LN so it's not over for me till I get past that and even then I will dread each EP wondering why I chose to get them again.
>LN: Copy&paste the same (entire) folders from Ambitions to LN in case it too is a spoiled EK, copy the entire LN folder to the sims3 base games folders and finally make shortcut in the applications folder.
Open Launcher. LN isn't showing the launcher's bottom icon list. frick. Despite copying the files from Ambition fine, the TS3 base is a shortcut so delete and copy&paste that entire folder and hit Play again. That fixed it (I wished i could be surprised at this point im just going through the motions and waiting for disappointment).
Hit Play. A few seconds and it loads perfectly.
>Gen: Copy&paste the same (entire) folders from LN to Gen and that's it for that ep.
>Supernat: Trust no TS3 shortcut/alias, delete it and copy and paste the same (entire) folders from Gen to SN.
Open Launcher. For some reason LN is not showing up in the launcher. Well the previous fix has already been applied soooo ...what now? Go into TS3 base folders and just gonna delete the SN shortcut and replace it with the 'entire' folder on chance maybe this will fix some 'broken connection; or maybe 'update it'? Idk what technological nonsense is going on here. Close, reopen. Nope. Delete TS3 folder and replace it just to make sure - no change. Then I notice for some reason in finder, I have 'Sims3EP03' and 'Sims3EP04' as 'ejectable'. So I 'eject' Sims3EP03 which would be LN to see if maybe that kept it running in the background and unable to update files or something. No change. Well when in doubt, Shut down and restart.
Since LN is the problem I double it, and normally any EP that isn't the most recent will close itself and open the most recent EP - LN instead gives me the 'unknown error'. So I go into it's folder, Gen has made itself a shortcut, but we know not to trust that so to trash with that and copy and paste Gen and SN entire folders just so we can get pass that.
Doubleclick again and this time launcher open with LN - it doesn't close and open with SN and both Gen and SN are showing.
Still I close and open with Supernatural and it's launcher still shows LN missing. Ugh why. Hit Play anyways - intro loads and Bridgeport is there, so time to see if this is just a visual bug (I still have two more EPs to get to so this may not matter and I might be able to load with LN ep too). Bridgeport loads all seems well.
(I realized I skipped Pets &Seasons whoops)
>UL: Delete TS3 shortcut, copy and paste the same (entire) folders from SN to UL.
Open Launcher. Looks normal, Hit Play. Blackscreen for several minutes hmm. Got Ts3 folders, delete UL shortcut and replace it with entire folder. Blackscreen. Notice LN icon isn't there now - I'm sure it was. Course this is LN so copy UL folder and put into LN's folder - this shouldn't affect it and opening through UL doesn't look like it. Open with LN - despite having all it's icons it blackscreens too.
I want to try uninstall UL but last time I tried that it messed everything else up anyways so I thought everything would finally work but, to be continued yet again...
EDIT: Yeah manually uninstalling the one EP via BlueBellFlora's guide again hasn't worked out for me. Why does 1 EP always force me to remove everything? : (
EDIT Apr 17: Editing again because I don't want to spam this thread more than I have unless it's something substantial. After uninstalling everything twice and the base game failing to load, I ignore it for a few days. I accidently even left my laptop on since last night and now all day but saw the TS3 and clicked before thinking about restarting clean and - doesn't matter TS3 base suddenly starting working. I have no explanation for this malarkey. How 4 days of ignoring the game does anything is out of my understanding. I might just install all EPs and if the folders are all correct then mabe waiting a few days will somehow magically fix it. Idk. Maybe it's playing Sims 4 after wards and on Steam games cause that's the only thing I've done both times I ignored TS3 and the 'blackscreen' was magically fixed. I wish I was more computer savvy to offer and explanation.
AS promised I didn't want to make a post until I found a solution and well I found one but I can't explain it.
SOLUTION: If you restarted your mac, and your TS3 game get stuck on a black screen after the launcher and you meet these conditions:
YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY CC or STORE CONTENT installed,
Have already fixed your folders via Corey's guide, (as stated before me, these first two are often the causes of blackscreen freezes)
Don't believe it be a bad download/install,
And have Steam
THEN proceed with my found solution:
>Open Steam
>Run any game (in my case I specifically ran Binding of Issac or Don't Starve when testing this)
>Let it load and run the intro for a few seconds - I didn't even play the game the last time I checked this - just let it run for a few seconds and close it.
>Close Steam just so there's less programs running in the background.
>Open TS3 Launcher and hit 'Play'
For whatever dumb reason, if your game is like mine it will get past the blackscreen and run the intro/rest of the game after like 10 seconds.
I CAN'T EXPLAIN THIS. I don't know why this works and I hate not knowing because just whhyyyy? THere's no logic as too why this would work. To be clear - I know TS3 is available via Steam but mine is disks/registered with Origin. It is in no way connected to Steam but I've tested this. Ironically I guess restarting my laptop make it somehow incompatible with TS3 being able to run and just by opening Steam and running a game it corrects itself. Maybe even just opening Steam fixes it but I haven't tested it and will try it soon to try and pinpoint it.
Tagging the recent helpers @puzzlezaddict and @BluebellFlora just to make this weird but somehow working 'solution' known. I know this probably sound improbable or really unlikely but hey a fix is a fix and worth knowing. Maybe someone Mac or Steam savvy can come up with a theory as to why this works - I wish I could send my mac to someone who could figure it out but until then, hopefully this is my last post on this thread unless to reply to something, also assuming I don't have another problem and hope this random crazy fix can help someone else. It could just be running a program like Steam fixes whatever the mystery problem is but since Steam is widely popular (regardless or whether your have TS3 through Steam or not) then opening Steam just to run a game for a second and close it both isn't much of a hassle for the chance to fix your game. If you're determined enough nothing seems crazy, and it's not stupid if it works.
Thanks to the helpers, anyone who has read this and good luck future simmers!
I dont know if thisnwas listed before and i have a few mintues to try and type this up so here is another solution I found.
So long story short (feel free to skip) only after a few days of playing i fell asleep with the game open, and it happened to be on a huge world and making it worse I didnt even shut down and restart i switch to a household that was bigger than expected amd crashed my game. But thats not it, that alone didnt break my game I was also trying to install store content via the launcher but that was the one thing I never got `fixed`. After a dozen more tries to uninstall and install sometimes due to getting blackscreen and other times the launcher was still broken. I really wanted to figure out the launcher part - opening the Activity Monitor i coukd see the install pop up appear but it CPU would be stuck at using 2-7 percent at most. It dint make sense why it was stuck when the rest was jusy idle. I was noticing my Macbook was also supsiciouly slow even when doing things with just Finder and nothing else open. I knew my Mac previously was fine and its Specs seemed in line with working with TS3 and nothing else was working I considering types of `resetting my mac` solution and one worked perfectly.
ADDITIONAL BLACKSCREEN & BROKEN LAUNCHER SOULTION:
So assuming no other solution has worked for you up to this point and
If your game has crashed,
Launcher still broken despite clean install
And game still having a blackscreen or staying on it for like 20 mins before loading
Then try resetting your Mac's PRAM.
Sometimes if your Mac seems slow or acting wonky like struggling with one or few non-heavy programs open then this simple process of shutting down your mac and and immediately holding Command+Option+P+R may help. It effects thing resetting you mouse speed, clock/timezone, and much more a google search could explain better than I can and ending fixing my slow loading and launcher. Probably a much better solution than my previous 'Open Steam and a game to fix it' and hopefully this means i dont have to do anymore but I'll test and update this post later.
Thanks for reading and hoped this help.
EDIT: I opened my game to find the black screen issue again. I even tried my previous solutions of opening steam and shutting down and resetting the PRAM but nothing is working. I hate my problem keeps evolving every time I find a solution.
Well my game is broke, I didn't want to post here because I feel like I do that too much but I"ve gone through all the regular fixes and I"d still like to request an updated BootCamp guide if anyone has one or can help me since IRL I had a friend of my dad who said they could help (but it's been weeks so I won't get my hopes up for that.)
Sorry for all the posting, I really wanted to get my game running so I when I came back here I could focus more on the community side and participate a little more but time to once again uninstall and reinstall until I can get something to work (and i've been having a problem of not getting just the base game to get past the blackscreen). I'll edit/update this post if anything changes.
I don't know is this even the right place but i have A HUGE problem. And yes, i am using mac.
I had few days ago few ep and base game what was working just fine. Then i unistalled one of those ep and then nothing worked anymore. I have watched every video from youtube what could help with "unknown error" when i try to go the launcher or whatever it is called. I have tried unistall and install again 5 times and it doesn't work. HELP! I bought new ep and i rly wanna play it :(
Test to see whether the patched base game opens. If you get an unknown error, let me know. If you get the license server error, just ignore it, and go ahead and install your packs. If you get an unknown error after the packs are installed but not before, please list all the packs you've installed, and any you would like to install but haven't yet.
Comments
@BluebellFlora And to answering your question, I had used Disk Utility and formatted with ExFat. I don't have a 'NTFS' option in fact the only 4 are: Macos Extended (journalized), Macos Extended (case-sensitive, journalized), MS-DOS (FAT32) and ExFAT. The description of 'Download Windows Support software' only says "If you create a Windows 10 or later version install disk from a USB drive, the support from a USB flash drive the support software is copied to it. Otherwise you need an external hard drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT)." So I don't know where that puts me at.
Once again I'm stuck.
I don't really understand why you are formatting the disk in Disk Utility though when you should be using the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder?
Since I got a little bored I did try making a new Admin user on my Mac going back to puzzleaddict's solution
- "If you think you may have a leftover hidden library file that you can't find, or something else that should have been deleted but wasn't, you can always install into a new admin user account. The library files are specific to one account."
I reinstalled Origin through that account (I also noticed apps seemed shared in the sense of that other apps were already accessible through the account, so if I did miss a file or something it probably would cross over accounts?) But puzzle was right about the Library seeming separate so i went through all the steps of just getting TS3 base game including superpatch and all.The game still got stuck on black screen.
how do i even get blackscreen with just the base game seriously /facepalm
I feel like that should be impossible, this mystery problem going across accounts, but maybe at this point I will consider asking a family friend /professional's help. He prob can't help with the TS3 and Origin on my mac side but he did already tell me he knew a few ways to go about putting windows on without BootCamp too. Might not be a while since I have to work around their schedule but I'm hoping if it works I'll be able to post the steps herefor the rare chance some is having this problem, or just optional way to bootcamp I guess.
Despite brooding in TS4 over all the computer hundles I've been tripping over I was still stubborn about retrying the base game. Really living up to the definition of insanity over here because I had ideas I wanted to try and I can't get over them. I thought I trashed TS3 files completely and realized I still had the base game installed from whatever last attempt I'm sure that failed in blackscreen. I hit Play anyways, I'm wondering if I've been too impatient - just because it should take less than 20seconds doesn't mean it has to. Before with a ton of cc and depending how long my laptop had been on that day I remember waiting a lengthy 5-10 minutes sometimes before I heard the intro and put my phone down thinking 'finally'. I'm thinking I should just wait it out for a full hour to see if it's truly stuck.
Point being: this time after a few seconds it loads immediately. What had failed before, was now working. I hadn't done anything to the game since then and at best my only explanation is maybe restarting my laptop helped? but I did that before so it doesn't make sense unless maybe a full shutdown unplugged from power may have? I don't know.
>I reinstall everything to Ambitions and holy sim goodness, I swear this pack is the spoiled rotten, entitled child of TS3 because despite making alias and copying folders it's still giving me errors. I usually copy the entire folders but sometimes it or I, would paste a shortcut (with a little shortcut arrow icon to let me know it's one) and I know some solutions have said it's important to copy Amb//Ln/etc. ENTIRE folder but I not the other way around to copy the (non problematic) EPs entire folder. But I'm determined to figure it out since I only have a total of three EPs/pack to test with and its obvious they're all there.
>In Ambitions, I delete the shortcut EP/pack folders and replace them with the actually entire copy of the EP/paack folder and let it run.
>I get "Error: Game process cannot start"
but the game proceeds to start anyways - doesn't even get hung up on the intro and loads fine. I swear it like Ambitions rebels against itself "give them errors, wait start the game anyways that'll confuse them." Maybe me ignoring the game for several days finally made it needy and start to come around. (seriously I have no clue what or why it's changed) Last time I didn't make it past LN so it's not over for me till I get past that and even then I will dread each EP wondering why I chose to get them again.
>LN: Copy&paste the same (entire) folders from Ambitions to LN in case it too is a spoiled EK, copy the entire LN folder to the sims3 base games folders and finally make shortcut in the applications folder.
Open Launcher. LN isn't showing the launcher's bottom icon list. frick. Despite copying the files from Ambition fine, the TS3 base is a shortcut so delete and copy&paste that entire folder and hit Play again. That fixed it (I wished i could be surprised at this point im just going through the motions and waiting for disappointment).
Hit Play. A few seconds and it loads perfectly.
>Gen: Copy&paste the same (entire) folders from LN to Gen and that's it for that ep.
>Supernat: Trust no TS3 shortcut/alias, delete it and copy and paste the same (entire) folders from Gen to SN.
Open Launcher. For some reason LN is not showing up in the launcher. Well the previous fix has already been applied soooo ...what now? Go into TS3 base folders and just gonna delete the SN shortcut and replace it with the 'entire' folder on chance maybe this will fix some 'broken connection; or maybe 'update it'? Idk what technological nonsense is going on here. Close, reopen. Nope. Delete TS3 folder and replace it just to make sure - no change. Then I notice for some reason in finder, I have 'Sims3EP03' and 'Sims3EP04' as 'ejectable'. So I 'eject' Sims3EP03 which would be LN to see if maybe that kept it running in the background and unable to update files or something. No change. Well when in doubt, Shut down and restart.
Since LN is the problem I double it, and normally any EP that isn't the most recent will close itself and open the most recent EP - LN instead gives me the 'unknown error'. So I go into it's folder, Gen has made itself a shortcut, but we know not to trust that so to trash with that and copy and paste Gen and SN entire folders just so we can get pass that.
Doubleclick again and this time launcher open with LN - it doesn't close and open with SN and both Gen and SN are showing.
Still I close and open with Supernatural and it's launcher still shows LN missing. Ugh why. Hit Play anyways - intro loads and Bridgeport is there, so time to see if this is just a visual bug (I still have two more EPs to get to so this may not matter and I might be able to load with LN ep too). Bridgeport loads all seems well.
(I realized I skipped Pets &Seasons whoops)
>UL: Delete TS3 shortcut, copy and paste the same (entire) folders from SN to UL.
Open Launcher. Looks normal, Hit Play. Blackscreen for several minutes hmm. Got Ts3 folders, delete UL shortcut and replace it with entire folder. Blackscreen. Notice LN icon isn't there now - I'm sure it was. Course this is LN so copy UL folder and put into LN's folder - this shouldn't affect it and opening through UL doesn't look like it. Open with LN - despite having all it's icons it blackscreens too.
I want to try uninstall UL but last time I tried that it messed everything else up anyways so I thought everything would finally work but, to be continued yet again...
EDIT: Yeah manually uninstalling the one EP via BlueBellFlora's guide again hasn't worked out for me. Why does 1 EP always force me to remove everything? : (
EDIT Apr 17: Editing again because I don't want to spam this thread more than I have unless it's something substantial. After uninstalling everything twice and the base game failing to load, I ignore it for a few days. I accidently even left my laptop on since last night and now all day but saw the TS3 and clicked before thinking about restarting clean and - doesn't matter TS3 base suddenly starting working. I have no explanation for this malarkey. How 4 days of ignoring the game does anything is out of my understanding. I might just install all EPs and if the folders are all correct then mabe waiting a few days will somehow magically fix it. Idk. Maybe it's playing Sims 4 after wards and on Steam games cause that's the only thing I've done both times I ignored TS3 and the 'blackscreen' was magically fixed. I wish I was more computer savvy to offer and explanation.
SOLUTION: If you restarted your mac, and your TS3 game get stuck on a black screen after the launcher and you meet these conditions:
THEN proceed with my found solution:
>Open Steam
>Run any game (in my case I specifically ran Binding of Issac or Don't Starve when testing this)
>Let it load and run the intro for a few seconds - I didn't even play the game the last time I checked this - just let it run for a few seconds and close it.
>Close Steam just so there's less programs running in the background.
>Open TS3 Launcher and hit 'Play'
For whatever dumb reason, if your game is like mine it will get past the blackscreen and run the intro/rest of the game after like 10 seconds.
I CAN'T EXPLAIN THIS. I don't know why this works and I hate not knowing because just whhyyyy? THere's no logic as too why this would work. To be clear - I know TS3 is available via Steam but mine is disks/registered with Origin. It is in no way connected to Steam but I've tested this. Ironically I guess restarting my laptop make it somehow incompatible with TS3 being able to run and just by opening Steam and running a game it corrects itself. Maybe even just opening Steam fixes it but I haven't tested it and will try it soon to try and pinpoint it.
Tagging the recent helpers @puzzlezaddict and @BluebellFlora just to make this weird but somehow working 'solution' known. I know this probably sound improbable or really unlikely but hey a fix is a fix and worth knowing. Maybe someone Mac or Steam savvy can come up with a theory as to why this works - I wish I could send my mac to someone who could figure it out but until then, hopefully this is my last post on this thread unless to reply to something, also assuming I don't have another problem and hope this random crazy fix can help someone else. It could just be running a program like Steam fixes whatever the mystery problem is but since Steam is widely popular (regardless or whether your have TS3 through Steam or not) then opening Steam just to run a game for a second and close it both isn't much of a hassle for the chance to fix your game. If you're determined enough nothing seems crazy, and it's not stupid if it works.
Thanks to the helpers, anyone who has read this and good luck future simmers!
So long story short (feel free to skip) only after a few days of playing i fell asleep with the game open, and it happened to be on a huge world and making it worse I didnt even shut down and restart i switch to a household that was bigger than expected amd crashed my game. But thats not it, that alone didnt break my game I was also trying to install store content via the launcher but that was the one thing I never got `fixed`. After a dozen more tries to uninstall and install sometimes due to getting blackscreen and other times the launcher was still broken. I really wanted to figure out the launcher part - opening the Activity Monitor i coukd see the install pop up appear but it CPU would be stuck at using 2-7 percent at most. It dint make sense why it was stuck when the rest was jusy idle. I was noticing my Macbook was also supsiciouly slow even when doing things with just Finder and nothing else open. I knew my Mac previously was fine and its Specs seemed in line with working with TS3 and nothing else was working I considering types of `resetting my mac` solution and one worked perfectly.
ADDITIONAL BLACKSCREEN & BROKEN LAUNCHER SOULTION:
So assuming no other solution has worked for you up to this point and
If your game has crashed,
Launcher still broken despite clean install
And game still having a blackscreen or staying on it for like 20 mins before loading
Then try resetting your Mac's PRAM.
Sometimes if your Mac seems slow or acting wonky like struggling with one or few non-heavy programs open then this simple process of shutting down your mac and and immediately holding Command+Option+P+R may help. It effects thing resetting you mouse speed, clock/timezone, and much more a google search could explain better than I can and ending fixing my slow loading and launcher. Probably a much better solution than my previous 'Open Steam and a game to fix it' and hopefully this means i dont have to do anymore but I'll test and update this post later.
Thanks for reading and hoped this help.
EDIT: I opened my game to find the black screen issue again. I even tried my previous solutions of opening steam and shutting down and resetting the PRAM but nothing is working. I hate my problem keeps evolving every time I find a solution.
Sorry for all the posting, I really wanted to get my game running so I when I came back here I could focus more on the community side and participate a little more but time to once again uninstall and reinstall until I can get something to work (and i've been having a problem of not getting just the base game to get past the blackscreen). I'll edit/update this post if anything changes.
I had few days ago few ep and base game what was working just fine. Then i unistalled one of those ep and then nothing worked anymore. I have watched every video from youtube what could help with "unknown error" when i try to go the launcher or whatever it is called. I have tried unistall and install again 5 times and it doesn't work. HELP! I bought new ep and i rly wanna play it :(
https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/
Install the base game only, and run the Super Patch (digital download version):
https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/
Test to see whether the patched base game opens. If you get an unknown error, let me know. If you get the license server error, just ignore it, and go ahead and install your packs. If you get an unknown error after the packs are installed but not before, please list all the packs you've installed, and any you would like to install but haven't yet.