You can try going into map view and saving (I always use Save As) but that doesn't work often for me. Once I get EC12 I find it almost impossible to get rid of.
I've found when I start a new game I like my graphics turned up high. But I have so much in my game that my computer can't always handle it like that. The first warning I get is Error 12 on saving. This means too much memory is being used.
I find, the thing that works for me is to turn down the graphics. It takes me a while to find the spot that is best for each game and as the game progresses I may have to turn graphics down a bit more. I find the number of high detail lots is a good one to turn down to about 2 or 4.
I always save as and give it a new name.
If I have an Error 12 and really want to try to save there are a few things I try and they usually work for me but not always.
First thing I try is go to map view. This often works.
If map view fails Then try Edit Town view.
If Edit Town fails I send my active sim to some remote lot with nothing much on it and try to save. This often works.
If sending my Sim to an empty lot fails to save I have a think about it. I'm going to have to lose something. I either just quit and lose all progress OR I change to a small lot with a single sim in it. This means I lose opportunities my Sims have in the active household. So it depends on how important those opportunities are to me at the time.
I've discovered a few things since I've added lots of mods and cc to my game.
1. The more complicated the lot you are saving on the more likely you are to get Error 12.
2. I like to have 4 basements and have a big garden down in the bottom basement - to avoid error 12 I have to get out of the basement. I usually opt for map view to get as far away from my basement as possible.
3. The less complicated the active lot the less likely it is for Error 12 to occur. (the active lot here means the lot your active sim is currently on)
4. Sometimes Error 12 is just going to happen
To help me keep track of how my game is going relating to possibility of Error 12 I launch Windows Task Manager and go to the performance tab and click the Resource Monitor button.
This launches the Resource Monitor window. TS3W.exe file is usually at the top of the list of resource users. In the third column of numbers (headed: Commit (KB)) I watch the number displayed. As soon as that number goes over 3,200,000 I know my chance of Error 12 is getting high. I have found by going to map view this number will decrease. It will decrease if I take my sim to an empty lot. It will decrease if I go to Edit Town. It will decrease if I change to another active household with only 1 sim and almost nothing in the house.
If I can get that number down to 3,200,000 or below I have a good chance of saving without Error 12.
If I've already done this a few times though I'm going to get and Error 12 regardless of what I do. So after a few saves (maybe 3 or 5) I quit and sometimes even reboot my computer and then relaunch the game. This frees up lots of extra resources and I can play again without worrying about losing game play due to Error 12.
I used to have this all the time. The message means you have no available extra memory on your computer to save your game.
You need to free up memory in order for the game to save, as Sims 3 takes up a lot of free memory. I was advised to get rid any pics or music that I had on my computer that I did not use to free up memory, but I still needed more. Short of upgrading my computer or buying a new one, I bought a cheap memory clean program (on the Mac I bought Memory Clean from the App Store) and I have used it during my game to clean up free memory before I save. Caution though: don't use a program like this constantly (like every 1/2 hour like I did) because it will screw your game up (or any program for that sakes) if
Make sure when playing the Sims you have other memory hog programs (like an internet program such at Firefox or Safari or design programs like Photoshop) closed whilst you are playing, because this will help free up memory that you will need for the Sims.
You can also turn down your options (options or graphic settings) whilst in the Sims game from the options selection. I have turned down all my video settings (ie shadows and others) I cannot remember what else, but have turned them down to low or medium to increase the game's performance. Turn off options like memories, being able to buy things from the Sim's store while you are playing, and change the game to laptop mode it you are playing on a laptop settings if available. Basically you need more memory.
To recap, you need more memory in order to save. Check your memory before you save (via memory program is one suggestion), close all programs not in use; change your performance options in the game to low or medium, buy a memory clean program to help you free up some extra memory for the game. Other ideas like saving while saving in map mode are also good ideas.
I used to have this all the time. The message means you have no available extra memory on your computer to save your game.
You need to free up memory in order for the game to save, as Sims 3 takes up a lot of free memory. I was advised to get rid any pics or music that I had on my computer that I did not use to free up memory, but I still needed more. Short of upgrading my computer or buying a new one, I bought a cheap memory clean program (on the Mac I bought Memory Clean from the App Store) and I have used it during my game to clean up free memory before I save. Caution though: don't use a program like this constantly (like every 1/2 hour like I did) because it will screw your game up (or any program for that sakes) if
Make sure when playing the Sims you have other memory hog programs (like an internet program such at Firefox or Safari or design programs like Photoshop) closed whilst you are playing, because this will help free up memory that you will need for the Sims.
You can also turn down your options (options or graphic settings) whilst in the Sims game from the options selection. I have turned down all my video settings (ie shadows and others) I cannot remember what else, but have turned them down to low or medium to increase the game's performance. Turn off options like memories, being able to buy things from the Sim's store while you are playing, and change the game to laptop mode it you are playing on a laptop settings if available. Basically you need more memory.
To recap, you need more memory in order to save. Check your memory before you save (via memory program is one suggestion), close all programs not in use; change your performance options in the game to low or medium, buy a memory clean program to help you free up some extra memory for the game. Other ideas like saving while saving in map mode are also good ideas.
I hope this helps. Let me know if I does or not.
The game can only use a little under 4 GB on a windows computer. I think it is less on a Mac.
I have 16 GB of RAM on my computer and I get an Error 12 or Crash due to out of memory with more than 8 GB free RAM on my computer.
I get an Error 12 or Crash due to out of memory when the game hits approx 3.7 GB of used memory - even for a fleeting second - while saving and will crash (Sims 3 has stopped working message) if it uses more than about 3.7 GB of memory during game play.
The game does also use a lot of Virtual memory and that means you need to keep lots of free space on your hard drive.
EDIT: You will benefit by buying more RAM for your computer only if you have less than about 6 GB because your operating system will need to use some RAM. Closing background processes will also help if your computer has insufficient RAM. But just adding RAM will not necessarily fix the problem every time.
I avoided Error COde 12's by using the NRaas Mod version of story progression instead of running EA's bugfest version which used to cause EC12's a lot in my older games when I turned it on to find out what it did.
@nkthgrt - I'm sorry, but you are continuing to confuse available drive space with memory. Those are pretty common things to mix up, but provided one's hard drive is not dangerously close to being full (<10-15% free space, current versions of Windows also tend to need at least 30 GB of free space to maneuver properly depending on configuration) on either operating system, music and photo files or other applications not running and not associated with a program like TS3 will not impact the program's performance at all. Memory (RAM) is what is used by a program to store and manipulate data as the program runs in real-time. All of the sims games run almost entirely from RAM, exceptions being when they need to reach out to the hard drive for things like CAS and Build/Buy catalog building, loading up game Library files and Saved Sims, caching, and at least in the case of TS3, travel transitions to foreign worlds.
Error 12 can mean a computer doesn't have enough memory (RAM) or that the player is using all of it up running applications alongside of the game. But it can and often also means that the game has for one microsecond that might be impossible to see using a Task Manager or Activity Monitor attempted to reach for more RAM than it can use -- and that is 2 GB on the Mac version of the game, closer to 4 GB on the Windows version. From that point forward, the game will essentially lose its mind because the machine's memory registers (again, RAM) will be filled with nonsense and either the game will crash or saving becomes impossible because of Error 12. Often both, after a while. For an analogy, think of a simple 8- digit display calculator being used to do 12- or 16- digit math. Even if we find a way to suppress overflow errors, the digits you will see displayed on screen just won't make any sense.
Some players have tricks they use to recover from an Error 12 within the same game session, such as focusing the game camera on a boring patch of grass then retreating to Map View or moving some of the contents of their game folder around mid-session and trying again. In theory this can work sometimes if the game was just barely teetering on the edge of being unstable when they happened to try that first save. For many of us, these don't work over 95% of the time. For me, even in the rare instance when I can get a save produced that way, it often turns out to be impossible to load up so I don't even bother trying anymore once I see the first Error 12.
@igazor so far I've never had a problem loading a save if I can get it to save even after several unsuccessful attempts with Error 12.
But even if this were to happen to me I'd still probably try to rescue it if I could as I always still have the previous save to go back to.
Fortunately I tend to have a win most of the time but have got to the point were I'm pretty sure I'm about to have a fail and tend to quit the game and reload before continuing to play after I've done 3 or 4 saves thereby eliminating Error 12 most of the time.
For example, if I get an Error 12 and do manage to get it to save, I'll close the game (sometimes reboot the computer too) and then go back into the game after deleting caches and checking that my Current Game folder is empty. I think the game would possibly be corrupt if there is data still in the current game folder. And that is often left with junk in it after and Error 12.
@Karritz - If the Current Game folder still has junk left in it from a prior game session, the game is supposed to clear all of that out during its next startup procedure on it's own. I don't trust it though and also always clear that folder out after a crash or failure to be able to exit the game gracefully. Just seems like a best practice to use after a session terminates improperly.
Recovering from an Error 12 mid-session and actually being able to use the resulting save if you can get one is definitely a user by user type of thing as we do seem to have different experiences with those. One of the reasons I don't try very hard is that I typically have so many recent properly done saves to revert to that making the current one work is just not usually an efficient use of time unless I have accidentally gone far too long without saving. Or (sighs) somehow I gave a sim or a lot the "perfect" makeover, stand to lose all that work if I have to revert to a save from an hour or two ago, and think that I won't be able to re-create it well. All part of the charms and quirks of this game we all love so much.
@igazor I know the feeling about that perfect makeover - I tend to save during them too - but that is also the time an Error 12 is most likely to make an appearance.
I sometimes feel I save too often - but when I get an unexpected Error 12 I'm always grateful that I do.
EDIT: The ones I really dread is after making the perfect weird sim in CAS and it doesn't save to the library before the crash. Mostly it does though. I've only lost one if the past few months - when I was experimenting with the fawn skin from Moonskin93. I lost one of my early fawns.
Becareful with the solution 'save as'. I just lost my family because of this solution. I really hate it. Ive played this family since couple years. Now i need to make new one. Error code 12 is impossible to be solved, such a shame
Becareful with the solution 'save as'. I just lost my family because of this solution. I really hate it. Ive played this family since couple years. Now i need to make new one. Error code 12 is impossible to be solved, such a shame
The only problem I have ever had with SaveAs is using up so much disk space.
It creates a new save and you get to keep the old save so you always have something to go back to. It should ensure you don't lose you Sims once you've got at least a couple of versions of the save game.
Always give the save a different name when using SaveAs. That's the point of doing SaveAs. You won't get a backup file made automatically when using SaveAs but you shouldn't need one as the previous version is the backup.
Becareful with the solution 'save as'. I just lost my family because of this solution. I really hate it. Ive played this family since couple years. Now i need to make new one. Error code 12 is impossible to be solved, such a shame
If we use Save As consistently and keep changing the name of the saved file each time, such as by appending a number or the date on the end, then we have an entire range of prior saves/versions of that ongoing game to revert to should something go wrong. I keep a fair number of these extra saves on an external drive in addition to the ones in Saves and those that I have moved elsewhere on my regular drive, and get rid of the ones I don't really need after a while. There is no way to lose an entire ongoing game this way, just the progress on the current session since the last successful Save As, should an Error 12 strike mid-stream. Unless, I guess, my computer catches fire and takes the external drive down with it or someone breaks in and steals all of my computer equipment -- neither one is very likely, but I keep meaning to send a few extra saves up to the cloud for extra protection.
Once an Error 12 has actually happened, yes for many to most of us there is no way out of it. But again that only affects the current game session, not any previously made saves with different names or those stored elsewhere.
The best strategy, of course, is to understand why these are happening and reduce memory usage of the game (if possible, usually more so on Windows as the Mac version is so restrictive in that regard) to help prevent them.
Or (sighs) somehow I gave a sim or a lot the "perfect" makeover, stand to lose all that work if I have to revert to a save from an hour or two ago, and think that I won't be able to re-create it well
EDIT: The ones I really dread is after making the perfect weird sim in CAS and it doesn't save to the library before the crash.
Back in the day when my CC addiction ran amuk with no rhyme or reason and zero organization I CONSTANTLY feared CAS freezing or crashing or just lagging itself to death. It was so painfully laggy the only way I knew if it wasnt frozen was waiting for the sim to blink. Eventually I got in the habit of just half-pluming the sim in CAS and then really finishing them off in-game with MC after I've been able to create a save an ensure they exist :P
I love Save As. I used to be so scared of it, but once I started doing it in sims about 2-3 years back I have found I now use it in other programs like ms paint and photoshop as well and maybe using Save As is a "grown up" thing and I only use it now 'cause I'm older but man, HOW DID I LIVE BEFORE HAVING BACKUPS OF THINGS?!?!
BloomofSparks
Posts: 486 Member
Comments
http://www.ign.com/wikis/the-sims-3/Save_Errors_12_and_16
http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/FAQ-Save-Errors-Error-12-13-15-16/td-p/652
Also when it mentions about Save, instead try Save As. I do this periodically. I've only seen the Error 12 once in my whole time playing.
I find, the thing that works for me is to turn down the graphics. It takes me a while to find the spot that is best for each game and as the game progresses I may have to turn graphics down a bit more. I find the number of high detail lots is a good one to turn down to about 2 or 4.
I always save as and give it a new name.
If I have an Error 12 and really want to try to save there are a few things I try and they usually work for me but not always.
First thing I try is go to map view. This often works.
If map view fails Then try Edit Town view.
If Edit Town fails I send my active sim to some remote lot with nothing much on it and try to save. This often works.
If sending my Sim to an empty lot fails to save I have a think about it. I'm going to have to lose something. I either just quit and lose all progress OR I change to a small lot with a single sim in it. This means I lose opportunities my Sims have in the active household. So it depends on how important those opportunities are to me at the time.
I've discovered a few things since I've added lots of mods and cc to my game.
1. The more complicated the lot you are saving on the more likely you are to get Error 12.
2. I like to have 4 basements and have a big garden down in the bottom basement - to avoid error 12 I have to get out of the basement. I usually opt for map view to get as far away from my basement as possible.
3. The less complicated the active lot the less likely it is for Error 12 to occur. (the active lot here means the lot your active sim is currently on)
4. Sometimes Error 12 is just going to happen
To help me keep track of how my game is going relating to possibility of Error 12 I launch Windows Task Manager and go to the performance tab and click the Resource Monitor button.
This launches the Resource Monitor window. TS3W.exe file is usually at the top of the list of resource users. In the third column of numbers (headed: Commit (KB)) I watch the number displayed. As soon as that number goes over 3,200,000 I know my chance of Error 12 is getting high. I have found by going to map view this number will decrease. It will decrease if I take my sim to an empty lot. It will decrease if I go to Edit Town. It will decrease if I change to another active household with only 1 sim and almost nothing in the house.
If I can get that number down to 3,200,000 or below I have a good chance of saving without Error 12.
If I've already done this a few times though I'm going to get and Error 12 regardless of what I do. So after a few saves (maybe 3 or 5) I quit and sometimes even reboot my computer and then relaunch the game. This frees up lots of extra resources and I can play again without worrying about losing game play due to Error 12.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
You need to free up memory in order for the game to save, as Sims 3 takes up a lot of free memory. I was advised to get rid any pics or music that I had on my computer that I did not use to free up memory, but I still needed more. Short of upgrading my computer or buying a new one, I bought a cheap memory clean program (on the Mac I bought Memory Clean from the App Store) and I have used it during my game to clean up free memory before I save. Caution though: don't use a program like this constantly (like every 1/2 hour like I did) because it will screw your game up (or any program for that sakes) if
Make sure when playing the Sims you have other memory hog programs (like an internet program such at Firefox or Safari or design programs like Photoshop) closed whilst you are playing, because this will help free up memory that you will need for the Sims.
You can also turn down your options (options or graphic settings) whilst in the Sims game from the options selection. I have turned down all my video settings (ie shadows and others) I cannot remember what else, but have turned them down to low or medium to increase the game's performance. Turn off options like memories, being able to buy things from the Sim's store while you are playing, and change the game to laptop mode it you are playing on a laptop settings if available. Basically you need more memory.
To recap, you need more memory in order to save. Check your memory before you save (via memory program is one suggestion), close all programs not in use; change your performance options in the game to low or medium, buy a memory clean program to help you free up some extra memory for the game. Other ideas like saving while saving in map mode are also good ideas.
I hope this helps. Let me know if I does or not.
The game can only use a little under 4 GB on a windows computer. I think it is less on a Mac.
I have 16 GB of RAM on my computer and I get an Error 12 or Crash due to out of memory with more than 8 GB free RAM on my computer.
I get an Error 12 or Crash due to out of memory when the game hits approx 3.7 GB of used memory - even for a fleeting second - while saving and will crash (Sims 3 has stopped working message) if it uses more than about 3.7 GB of memory during game play.
The game does also use a lot of Virtual memory and that means you need to keep lots of free space on your hard drive.
EDIT: You will benefit by buying more RAM for your computer only if you have less than about 6 GB because your operating system will need to use some RAM. Closing background processes will also help if your computer has insufficient RAM. But just adding RAM will not necessarily fix the problem every time.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Error 12 can mean a computer doesn't have enough memory (RAM) or that the player is using all of it up running applications alongside of the game. But it can and often also means that the game has for one microsecond that might be impossible to see using a Task Manager or Activity Monitor attempted to reach for more RAM than it can use -- and that is 2 GB on the Mac version of the game, closer to 4 GB on the Windows version. From that point forward, the game will essentially lose its mind because the machine's memory registers (again, RAM) will be filled with nonsense and either the game will crash or saving becomes impossible because of Error 12. Often both, after a while. For an analogy, think of a simple 8- digit display calculator being used to do 12- or 16- digit math. Even if we find a way to suppress overflow errors, the digits you will see displayed on screen just won't make any sense.
Some players have tricks they use to recover from an Error 12 within the same game session, such as focusing the game camera on a boring patch of grass then retreating to Map View or moving some of the contents of their game folder around mid-session and trying again. In theory this can work sometimes if the game was just barely teetering on the edge of being unstable when they happened to try that first save. For many of us, these don't work over 95% of the time. For me, even in the rare instance when I can get a save produced that way, it often turns out to be impossible to load up so I don't even bother trying anymore once I see the first Error 12.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
But even if this were to happen to me I'd still probably try to rescue it if I could as I always still have the previous save to go back to.
Fortunately I tend to have a win most of the time but have got to the point were I'm pretty sure I'm about to have a fail and tend to quit the game and reload before continuing to play after I've done 3 or 4 saves thereby eliminating Error 12 most of the time.
For example, if I get an Error 12 and do manage to get it to save, I'll close the game (sometimes reboot the computer too) and then go back into the game after deleting caches and checking that my Current Game folder is empty. I think the game would possibly be corrupt if there is data still in the current game folder. And that is often left with junk in it after and Error 12.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Recovering from an Error 12 mid-session and actually being able to use the resulting save if you can get one is definitely a user by user type of thing as we do seem to have different experiences with those. One of the reasons I don't try very hard is that I typically have so many recent properly done saves to revert to that making the current one work is just not usually an efficient use of time unless I have accidentally gone far too long without saving. Or (sighs) somehow I gave a sim or a lot the "perfect" makeover, stand to lose all that work if I have to revert to a save from an hour or two ago, and think that I won't be able to re-create it well. All part of the charms and quirks of this game we all love so much.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
I sometimes feel I save too often - but when I get an unexpected Error 12 I'm always grateful that I do.
EDIT: The ones I really dread is after making the perfect weird sim in CAS and it doesn't save to the library before the crash. Mostly it does though. I've only lost one if the past few months - when I was experimenting with the fawn skin from Moonskin93. I lost one of my early fawns.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
The only problem I have ever had with SaveAs is using up so much disk space.
It creates a new save and you get to keep the old save so you always have something to go back to. It should ensure you don't lose you Sims once you've got at least a couple of versions of the save game.
Always give the save a different name when using SaveAs. That's the point of doing SaveAs. You won't get a backup file made automatically when using SaveAs but you shouldn't need one as the previous version is the backup.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Once an Error 12 has actually happened, yes for many to most of us there is no way out of it. But again that only affects the current game session, not any previously made saves with different names or those stored elsewhere.
The best strategy, of course, is to understand why these are happening and reduce memory usage of the game (if possible, usually more so on Windows as the Mac version is so restrictive in that regard) to help prevent them.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
Back in the day when my CC addiction ran amuk with no rhyme or reason and zero organization I CONSTANTLY feared CAS freezing or crashing or just lagging itself to death. It was so painfully laggy the only way I knew if it wasnt frozen was waiting for the sim to blink. Eventually I got in the habit of just half-pluming the sim in CAS and then really finishing them off in-game with MC after I've been able to create a save an ensure they exist :P
I love Save As. I used to be so scared of it, but once I started doing it in sims about 2-3 years back I have found I now use it in other programs like ms paint and photoshop as well