The sims 3 Troobleshooting: Save games
Added 12 november 2012.
I just wanted to write a really useful article, so I thought this theme would be nice to choose, so I had done this, and I am publishing it now here.
So there I will talk about Sims 3 save games and particularly about some problems with them and their possibly resolutions - lost or corrupted save game and the ways to repair this.
This article may or not be fullfilled with a time. It's almost extended and treats all the most common issues related of this theme.
So there I will talk about Sims 3 save games and particularly about some problems with them and their possibly resolutions - lost or corrupted save game and the ways to repair this.
This article may or not be fullfilled with a time. It's almost extended and treats all the most common issues related of this theme.
Here are the save games definition, location, common problems and their resolutions.
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About Sims 3 Save games:
The Sims 3 saved games is a game parties saves by a player containing his current parties main household, and the version of the current town, with all that player's modifications, sims and lots with it. Then all these saves are shown in a list of your main game menu. They are all contained in the folder: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves. Although, a save game looks like a folder (subfolder) called YourSaveGameName.sims3 with a name that you have given to your save then ".sim3" extension like addition at the end of that name means that this type of folder is recognized by your game as a save. Don't remove it. Otherwise your save will not show up in your game any more! (to fix this just modify again your save name, by adding .sims3 at the end it's name). In the Saves folder you will also find this type of subfolder: YourSaveGameName.sims3.backup, that's a backup of some of your save games (If you save is, by example, called SunsetValley.sims3, it will have the name: SunsetValley.sims3.backup), it is not, ever, the backup of a recent version your of save, but from any previous. But, it is a thing that is, however, can be used to restore your save game from it, if you have a save of a same game party that seems to be lost or corrupted, although with loosing some of your new progress that wasn't backed up.
Kinds of problem that may occur with the Sims 3 save games:
In order to keep safe your not corrupted save games and avoid to lose them, just copy all your save game that are working well on a safe location in your computer, not inside your Sims 3 folder, but in elsewhere other location. Once, your save files in the Sims 3 folder get corrupted, just delete your broken savegame, then replace it with your good savegame, so then your replaced save will load normally in your game.
One particular save game problem, that may also occur:
This problem may occur to you, if you Saves folder is surpopulated with a save games. It means, if that some of your old save games not show up any more in your game main menu, also all of new saves will no ever show up in your game menu, then you can't use anymore a Save as option for your current game, because that new save wouldn't then show up in your game menu, also if you start to play with a new town, then save your progress, that save wouldn't ever show up in your game. If you experience this, you may have such a problem. It occurs because The Sims 3 game can handle only a limited number of your saves to show them in your main menu. Then, when some of the saves that are in excess, they aren't recognized by your game, and it may also mean that they become corrupted. To avoid this, just create a folder (in any other location that The Sims 3 folder), then cut your useless or old saves (that you don't think to play again with, but don't however want to lose them), removing them from a Saves folder, and paste them to that new folder to keep them safe. To play again with, just copy your needed save again in your Saves folder.
The ways to resolve your other most common save game problem:
The Sims 3 game periodically makes backup of your saves, that doesn't means that it will save your most recent progression, but one of the previous versions of your save, that was done sooner, but you are however interested to recover your lost saved town, regardless of loosing some of your new progression proceed like this (the way to recover may depend of your current game patch version) :
If any of these recovering methods can't help, your problematic save may be irreversibly corrupted or these methods aren't matching your problem, just try to search the net to finding some other method to solve your problem.
**Thanks to all the sources where I found some useful information before I have elaborated this article.
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About Sims 3 Save games:
The Sims 3 saved games is a game parties saves by a player containing his current parties main household, and the version of the current town, with all that player's modifications, sims and lots with it. Then all these saves are shown in a list of your main game menu. They are all contained in the folder: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves. Although, a save game looks like a folder (subfolder) called YourSaveGameName.sims3 with a name that you have given to your save then ".sim3" extension like addition at the end of that name means that this type of folder is recognized by your game as a save. Don't remove it. Otherwise your save will not show up in your game any more! (to fix this just modify again your save name, by adding .sims3 at the end it's name). In the Saves folder you will also find this type of subfolder: YourSaveGameName.sims3.backup, that's a backup of some of your save games (If you save is, by example, called SunsetValley.sims3, it will have the name: SunsetValley.sims3.backup), it is not, ever, the backup of a recent version your of save, but from any previous. But, it is a thing that is, however, can be used to restore your save game from it, if you have a save of a same game party that seems to be lost or corrupted, although with loosing some of your new progress that wasn't backed up.
Kinds of problem that may occur with the Sims 3 save games:
- You can't find your saved town in the Main Menu.
- The Main Menu just shows a picture of a bunch of figures made of strange dotted lines instead of the sims of your household for that save.
- Your game crashes while loading a specific town, and after you have tried everything with, you have just the same result.
- You got an error message, such as error 12, 13 or 16, when you was saving your town; that save file is now surely corrupted and then you can't load it in your game.
- You get an error: "A serious error has occurred while trying to load YourSaveGameName.sims3", what means that save is certainly broken.
- You get an error: "Cannot load this save game. It may have been saved with expansion pack data that is no longer present on this system.", for that type of corrupted save, you will only see a grayed/disabled family, when trying to subsequently reload your save game. This problem may happen after successfully loading a new custom World and saving your game from it and then trying to reload it, while this World remains installed in your game. But then, if you have uninstalled such a World from your game, it means that your save game isn't corrupted, but is just disabled by your game, as it can't load the absent required World for this. To fix this problem, just install again the required World, and that save game will show up normally, not grayed, and then will be playable again.
- Your save game is totally begone and you can't find it, ever as a corrupted file in your saves folder. If, otherwise, it has however existed on your computer, and then it seems to be disappeared from it, try to restore it from your computer system backup, in the way as you could restore any other files on your computer system. (This may also work for some of your corrupted saves; it works in case when your save files wasn't corrupted at their creation time, so were shown up correctly in your game menu, but then get corrupted or dissapeared subitely from your game menu. That may occur to your previous save games, even when you use the Save as option with a new name for your newly saves (*see tips).)
- Your save game won't load at all, while checking that save size (the total size of your subfolder, by example, SunsetValley.sims3) it is anormally small, as 8KO or 100KO. A normal sims save game, must have not less than 3MO of size, by example, 12MO is a normal value. Any kind of these small size saves are irremediably lost, as they wasn't saved properly and there isn't enough data to recover such a corrupted save.
In order to keep safe your not corrupted save games and avoid to lose them, just copy all your save game that are working well on a safe location in your computer, not inside your Sims 3 folder, but in elsewhere other location. Once, your save files in the Sims 3 folder get corrupted, just delete your broken savegame, then replace it with your good savegame, so then your replaced save will load normally in your game.
One particular save game problem, that may also occur:
This problem may occur to you, if you Saves folder is surpopulated with a save games. It means, if that some of your old save games not show up any more in your game main menu, also all of new saves will no ever show up in your game menu, then you can't use anymore a Save as option for your current game, because that new save wouldn't then show up in your game menu, also if you start to play with a new town, then save your progress, that save wouldn't ever show up in your game. If you experience this, you may have such a problem. It occurs because The Sims 3 game can handle only a limited number of your saves to show them in your main menu. Then, when some of the saves that are in excess, they aren't recognized by your game, and it may also mean that they become corrupted. To avoid this, just create a folder (in any other location that The Sims 3 folder), then cut your useless or old saves (that you don't think to play again with, but don't however want to lose them), removing them from a Saves folder, and paste them to that new folder to keep them safe. To play again with, just copy your needed save again in your Saves folder.
The ways to resolve your other most common save game problem:
The Sims 3 game periodically makes backup of your saves, that doesn't means that it will save your most recent progression, but one of the previous versions of your save, that was done sooner, but you are however interested to recover your lost saved town, regardless of loosing some of your new progression proceed like this (the way to recover may depend of your current game patch version) :
- To restore a save in a version 1.7 or later game, you need to follow these steps:
- Open your saves folder: My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves.
- Find the folders relating to the save game you want to restore (there will be two if a backup was created), that will have the name that you had given to your save, the first, corrupted folder will have (YourSaveName).sims 3 extension at the end of its name and the backup folder : (YourSaveName).backup instead of *.sims3. For example, if the save being restored is called Sunset Valley, there will be two folders called Sunset Valley.sims3, and Sunset Valley.sims3.backup.
- Rename your corrupted (YourSaveName).sims3 folder to (YourSaveName).sims3.lost or just move it to any folder other than your Sims 3 folder.
- Rename the (YourSaveName).sims3.backup folder to (YourSaveName).sims3. Normally, you won't get an error like as this "A file with the name you specified already exists.", if, however, you have it, look for a file called (YourSaveName).sims3 - this is your unuseful old file, redo the step 3 with it. Then, you should then be able to rename your *.backup folder properly.
- If you have your save created with a version 1.6 or below of the Sims 3, do this:
- Open your saves folder: My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves.
- Find the files relating to the save game you want to restore (there will be two if a backup was created), that will have the name that you had given to your save, the first, corrupted file will have (YourSaveName).sims 3 extension at the end of its name and the backup file : (YourSaveName).backup instead of *.sims3. For example, if the save being restored is called Sunset Valley, there will be two files called Sunset Valley.sims3, and Sunset Valley.sims3.backup.
- Rename your corrupted (YourSaveName).sims3 file to (YourSaveName).sims3.lost or just move it to any folder other than your Sims 3 folder.
- Rename the (YourSaveName).sims3.backup file to (YourSaveName).sims3.
- Use the legacy file (Pre-1.7/EP saves)
- Open your saves folder: My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves.
- Find the folders relating to the save game you want to restore (there will be two if a backup was created), that will have the name that you had given to your save, the first, corrupted folder will have (YourSaveName).sims 3 extension at the end of its name and the backup folder : (YourSaveName).backup folder. There will be also a legacy file, if the save being restored is called Sunset Valley, there will be two folders called Sunset Valley.sims3, and Sunset Valley.sims3.backup and a file called Sunset Valley.sims3.legacy. (Backup the folder called (YourSaveName).sims3 to a safe location, in case if that the method won't work for you)
- Rename your corrupted (YourSaveName).sims3 folder to (YourSaveName).sims3.lost or just move it to any folder other than your Sims 3 folder.
- Rename the (YourSaveName).sims3.backup folder to (YourSaveName).sims3.backup.lost.
- Rename the (YourSaveName).sims3.legacy file to (YourSaveName).sims3. Normally, you won't get an error like as this "A file with the name you specified already exists.", if, however, you have it, look for a file called (YourSaveName).sims3 - this is your unuseful old file, redo the step 3 with it. Then, you should then be able to rename your *.backup folder properly.
- An error that may come from a corrupted meta file for you problematic save.
- Open your saves folder: My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves.
- Find your working old save game folder or your new Repair(YourSaveName).sims3 folder, that you will use to fix the corrupted save. Then, open it - you will see the file called Meta.data located in it, copy it.
- Now open the folder corresponding to the folder of your corrupted saved game, you will see your old corrupted Meta.file present in it.
- Paste a copy of a not corrupted Meta.data file that you got from your working save, overwriting an old corrupted Meta.data file with this new good one.
If any of these recovering methods can't help, your problematic save may be irreversibly corrupted or these methods aren't matching your problem, just try to search the net to finding some other method to solve your problem.
**Thanks to all the sources where I found some useful information before I have elaborated this article.
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This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved
