HELP SIMS UNKOWN MESSAGE DISASTER [ Edited ]

[scarletwood]

I am in an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE!. Before I have tried  the youtube video by a person named Corey for late night and it worked so when I finally got ambitions I tried to install it and it did the same thing as late night, showing unknown error. so I followed his steps to the exact and it continued to say unknown error . I did the whole show package contents -------- until you copy the ambitions folder and place it into island paradise, and although it worked for late night it didn't for ambitions.So I went on a bit of a stress folder drop as you could say, as I started dropping the copied ambitions folder into every expansion pack folder which was probably extremely stupid of me and I realised that wouldn't work so I looked up how to uninstall an expansion on a Mac and it told me to delete all the files, (as the uninstaller doesn’t even show the expansions). so once I deleted any trace I could see of ambitions I tried to start the game and again unknown error occurred. so I was like I swear to god. I then re installed through origin the ambitions expansion to then uninstall it again (If I sound like an idiot I apologise, as I am not very good with computers). so I looked for the ambitions expansion that I had supposedly installed and there was nothing in any folder whatsoever of the sims 3,And it still won’t let me open my game,I had, previous to re installation, moved all the folders to the trash and literally burnt them off my computer I think,. . I am livid as I don’t want to lose any of my worlds and I want to play the sims. I have a stupid Mac (I’m sorry I’m very angry) that for so long has performed as well as it can, it has done well for 2017 Mac playing the sims 3 until now and I am terrified I will never be able to play again! ahhh and all my lovely families are on their and I’m just so scared to lose my people and the game. please please please someone help. I don't know what to do I am literally in tears bc I love my families so much and have been playing therefor like 2 years and I have spent SOOOO much money on all these expansions and now I feel as though I have lost the game forever. Tempted to call EA balling my eyes out and hopefully get them to fix my game because I am literally so upset and I have tried literally everything. I don't want to do anything that will get rid of m y families please please help.I am in love with this game and I honestly can't bear to see it broken I have tried everything and I am no computer genius at all.

[puzzlezaddict]

@scarletwood  Your thread was moved to the dedicated Sims/mac forum, so sorry that no one responded sooner.  Since you could play on your computer before, you should be able to play now.  There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to get past the unknown errors, as long as you're careful when applying the fixes.

Normally, I'd tell you to uninstall the whole game and start from scratch, but it's worth trying a quick fix first.  You are correct that after installing Ambitions, you need to copy its files into the folder for your newest pack by the date EA released it.  (So that's Island Paradise, unless you have also installed Movie Stuff and/or Into the Future.)  But you also need to create an alias for Ambitions in Applications, alongside the alias for the base game.  Here's how to do it:

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-packs-not-showing-as-installed/

If you still can't launch the game, you'll need to move on to a clean uninstall.  First though, go into Documents\Electronic Arts and drag your Sims 3 folder to your desktop.  You can rename it Sims 3-old or something, so you know what it's for.  This holds your existing saves, as well as any other content you've downloaded or created yourself.  Then follow Bluebellflora's instructions to uninstall everything:

https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/

Next, install the base game only and run the Super Patch (digital download version) to patch the game to 1.67.  The launcher doesn't do a good job of this on its own, and running the Super Patch won't hurt.

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/

Now you can start installing your packs.  Four of them—aside from Ambitions and Late Night, the others are Fast Lane and Outdoor Living—won't install properly, so you'll need to apply two workarounds.  The first is creating an alias for each one, as described in the first link.  The second is corey's workaround that you already found; it's embedded in this post, in case you didn't save the link:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-3-Unknown-Error-in-El-Capitan-Sierra-High/...

If any of this doesn't go as planned, just let me know where the process isn't working.  Please also list the specs of your mac, as described in the following post, as well as all of the packs you own.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/475...

[jcalc]

Hey so I had literally the exact same problem as you. I tried everything to fix it but I'm pretty sure what the issue is (and this is what I gathered from talking to dozens of tech support people at EA). Essentially, Mac's graphics system doesn't fully support Sims 3 expansion packs. Ambitions, Late Night, Fast Lane Stuff, and Outdoor Living tend to create the "unknown error occurred." For me, after trying to figure this stuff out since February, I trashed my transgaming files, and the Sims 3 folder in applications as well as in Documents>Electronic Arts. After that, I went on Origin and redownloaded the base game and one by one tried installing the expansion packs. As I said, those 4 games have some sort of issue with Mac so I just installed the other expansion and stuff packs. Unfortunately, there isn't really a solution that fixes the problem of those packs not working so you either have to just be okay with not having those packs anymore or play on a windows pc. It's super annoying I know. I spent so much time on this I literally cried over it cause it was so frustrating. Currently, I'm redownloading all the expansion packs that seem to work, then after each one, I test the launcher and see if it works and if it does, that's a sign that the game's gonna function. And I know that some save files don't work because you're missing an expansion pack but again, there's not really a solution as those packs tend to cause problems for everyone. I really hoped this helped cause I would've wanted to read something like this a couple of months ago lol. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@jcalc  There are two separate issues here.  The first is that no new graphics cards are supported—that's new since 2013, when Sims 3 development ended.  Some cards will still run the game fine, but others won't, including most of the integrated cards seen in Macs produced since then.  The solution is to manually add the card to the game's database, which works most of the time, but not always.

You likely don't have this issue.  Your base game launched, so as long as you've patched the game, you're fine on this front.

The other issue is that in recent versions of macOS, as in, the operating system (not the graphics card or other hardware), the four packs you mentioned don't install properly.  This is regardless of the graphics card or any other component of the Mac into which the packs are being installed.  The solution is to manually correct the install errors.  The methods are very reliable—almost everyone whose base game works can get the packs to work as well.

The first step is to create an alias for each of Ambitions, Late Night, Fast Lane, and Outdoor Living:

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-packs-not-showing-as-installed/

The second step is to copy a folder for each of those four packs that you have installed into your newest pack by release date.  (So if you have Into the Future, that's where the folders go.)  This video explains how to do it:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-3-Unknown-Error-in-El-Capitan-and-...

I've done this a number of times, and so has the author of the guides.  It works.

As for whether the game runs better in Windows, yes it does.  That's been true since 2010, when the Windows version was made Large Address Aware, allowing it to use ~3.5 GB memory instead of the hard 2 GB cap in macOS.  This has nothing to do with the graphics card of the computer how certain packs are installed.