I'm Logged Out and My Settings Are Reset

[AllyyC]

Basically, every time I don't launch Sims 3 for a period of time (this last time only being a couple days to a week), I have to log back into the store account or whatever it's called. I thought that was it but then I launched my game today and all my settings are ack to default. I noticed this happens every single time I don't play for a while, why is this happening and how do I fix it so I don't have to reconfigure every single thing ever other week.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@AllyyC  No.  First of all, options.ini is a file, not a folder.  I realize this may sound like I'm nitpicking, but it's important to distinguish between the two when describing how to manipulate data.

To the point itself, you save a copy of your current options.ini, and when the file is reset (which you'll notice when your settings return to defaults), you're taking a line from the NEW options.ini and using it to overwrite the same line in the OLD options.ini, the copy you made earlier.  Then you're trashing the new file and putting the old copy in its place.

The specific line is the one that lists lastdevice as I mentioned before.  That's the information that needs to match, or else the game resets the options.ini file.

[puzzlezaddict]

@AllyyC  Your in-game options will reset every time your graphics driver updates.  There's a string in options.ini, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, that lists the driver version, and when the listed version doesn't match what the game detects, the entire file is reset.  The way around this is to save a copy of options.ini and edit it to add the correct string, then replace the new, reset file with the edited old one.  This is the string you're looking for:

lastdevice = [set of numbers]

All you need to do, when you see the options reset, is find that string in the new options.ini and paste it into your older copy, then trash the new copy and restore the old one.

As for needing to sign into the store account again, this might have to do with clearing temp files, or it might just be an EA-enabled timeout of login credentials.  I wouldn't worry about it.

[AllyyC]

Thank you so so much for the reply! So I found the options folder but beyond that, I get a bit lost. So I save my current options folder (with all my updated options) and then when it resets, i copy and paste all of that into the new default options folder?

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@AllyyC  No.  First of all, options.ini is a file, not a folder.  I realize this may sound like I'm nitpicking, but it's important to distinguish between the two when describing how to manipulate data.

To the point itself, you save a copy of your current options.ini, and when the file is reset (which you'll notice when your settings return to defaults), you're taking a line from the NEW options.ini and using it to overwrite the same line in the OLD options.ini, the copy you made earlier.  Then you're trashing the new file and putting the old copy in its place.

The specific line is the one that lists lastdevice as I mentioned before.  That's the information that needs to match, or else the game resets the options.ini file.

[AllyyC]

Oh,y mad, I did mean file and not folder. But I understand now, thank you so much!