Sims 3 crashing every 30 secs on Mac

[jealth16]

After playing the Sims 3 via my disk for about 5 years with no trouble, I have now switched to Origin play because my disk didn't verify anymore. First digital play, the game crashes every 30 seconds - it's infuriating!

I'm using a MacBook Pro, and from other posts I can see lots of people with Macs have had this issue but seemingly not quite this often in gameplay... Is there anything I can do to stop the game from crashing all the time?

[Bluebellflora]

@jealth16

It happens more frequently for most, i.e. they can' even get the game to load so count yourself lucky. Are you getting any error messages? What Mac do you have? What version of macOS are you running? Have you run the digital download patch since switching to Origin?

[jealth16]

Yes, I realise there's the fact that Sims isn't really made for Mac, it's just annoying that it worked perfectly well in disk form...

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011). I'm also aware that it's a fairly old laptop.

Running on OSX El Capitan Version 10.11.5.

I get no messages, it just freezes with me being unable to do anything for at least a minute. I have run the super-patch (https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-3/the-sims-3-super-patcher/#mac) which is meant to improve it, but it's got worse (now freezing every 20 seconds, if not 15 - i've timed it - and then freezing for at least 1 minute).

[Bluebellflora]

@jealth16

El Capitan will be the issue as the game is not supported in that version of macOS.

Maybe your settings are too high? Go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 and drag the Options.ini file to the Trash. You should also be frequently purging RAM during gameplay.