Sims 3 Uninstallation Issues

[Ko0me]

Hi, so, I was looking around but I couldn't find a post with my exact problem. 
I had the Origin Access membership for a while and with it came some extra Sims 3 packs (even though I already had some of the ones that was included in it) and recently I let the membership expire. Well, I lost the sims 3 packs which were given to me because of that; but today I wanted to uninstall the Sims 3 altogether since I'm running low on space and I never play it. 

I tried to uninstall it through origin but the Sims 3 box art is greyed out with the note of 'your Origin Access Membership has expired' and I can't do anything other than look at the file properties. So, instead I went to try and uninstall it through "Uninstall a program" on my PC and that also didn't work because it would always open up the Sims 3 launcher which *wouldn't* open because for some reason it doesn't think I actually have the game since Origin has basically blocked me from it thanks to my expired membership (I originally installed my Sims 3 through disks so I really don't know why Origin even needed to be a part of it). 

I went through the entire process of manually uninstalling Sims 3 with the tutorial I found at https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-3/manually-uninstalling-the-sims-3/ and restarted my computer and yet there hasn't been even the faintest drop in my space and all the games are still technically sitting in my 'Apps & Features' despite them not even being able to be found within my computer. 

So, now I'm stuck and I really don't know how to fix this issue. If there is anyone who has been through this or has some sort of idea of what I can do to help me fix this, I'd be very grateful.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Ko0me  The registry entries do in fact contain the product keys for your packs, and if you haven't deleted those entries (or you do a system restore), you can find them easily enough:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/09/how-to-find-your-serial-number.html

As long as your packs are registered in Origin though, you should be okay, whether or not Origin thinks you also need to buy Access again to play the game.  The only other reason you'd need the keys is if you plan on reinstalling using your disks some day and have lost the case inserts that had the keys printed on the back.

I don't know what's on your hard drive, but yes, it sounds like deleting the files in the Electronic Arts folder (we're talking about the one in program files, not in Documents, right?) should remove almost all the data taking up space on your hard drive.  This doesn't touch the registry, but the stranded entries don't matter unless you later reinstall the game.

For Revo, I've only tried uninstalling Sims 3 with it once, and that was almost a year ago.  But these are the notes I took at the time:

• launch Revo
• highlight a pack on the list
• click Uninstall up top
• after uninstall, select Moderate under scanning modes, and Scan button
• when it says found leftover registry entries, click select all, then delete
• click next
• when it says found leftover files and folders, select all, then delete

Sorry they're not super detailed, but I was just messing around a bit to see whether it would work well enough to recommend.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Ko0me  When you say you used the manual uninstall process in the link, did you delete the Sims 3 folders from wherever the game was installed?  If you dragged them to the recycle bin, you'd have needed to empty it when you were done.  The free storage on your hard drive should have gone down then, by anywhere from 6 to ~30 GB, depending on how many packs you had installed.  Please double-check though to make sure there's nothing left of Sims 4 in program files.

When installing via disc without Origin involvement, the game files generally land in Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts, rather than \Origin Games, so you may have missed some files, or possibly a lot of them, if you only looked in one of these folders.  The registry entries are also different depending on the type of install, and the guide you found may not accurately list the Origin-related registry entries, although I think the disc ones are correct.  And as long as there are registry entries or other pointers present, you may still see the game listed in Apps & Features.

At any rate, a quick way to fix this would be to use Revo Uninstaller to remove everything Sims 3-related it can find.  (The free version of Revo works fine.)  Piriform's CCleaner is another helpful tool; its free version is fine too, although last I heard, it had been temporarily blocked by Windows.  One or the other of these tools should be able to find all the leftover data and remove it though.

The Origin Access issue with an expired subscription is not uncommon, and it's easy to fix.  If you want to play again at some point, contact EA customer support and ask that the Access version be removed from your account so it no longer blocks you from using the version you own outright.  This is simple for a support rep to do.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

[Ko0me]

@puzzlezaddict 

Ah! Thanks to you I realized I probably was in the wrong spot. I found the Electronic Arts folder and all the Sims 3 related folders are still there! So, would deleting these folders help to properly uninstall everything? I was thinking of doing a system restore to yesterday to try and get my registry numbers (? I'm not sure if they're called this haha, but the codes for the games) back and try to do a clean uninstall one more time but I was holding off in case anyone answered this post. 

I did download Revo Uninstaller earlier for this issue but so far I haven't exactly found the way to properly uninstall it so I haven't messed with it much. Also I did empty my recycle bin after I did all of that and nothing really changed with my free space, that's how I knew that something wasn't right.

Thank you for your help and advice!  

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Ko0me  The registry entries do in fact contain the product keys for your packs, and if you haven't deleted those entries (or you do a system restore), you can find them easily enough:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/09/how-to-find-your-serial-number.html

As long as your packs are registered in Origin though, you should be okay, whether or not Origin thinks you also need to buy Access again to play the game.  The only other reason you'd need the keys is if you plan on reinstalling using your disks some day and have lost the case inserts that had the keys printed on the back.

I don't know what's on your hard drive, but yes, it sounds like deleting the files in the Electronic Arts folder (we're talking about the one in program files, not in Documents, right?) should remove almost all the data taking up space on your hard drive.  This doesn't touch the registry, but the stranded entries don't matter unless you later reinstall the game.

For Revo, I've only tried uninstalling Sims 3 with it once, and that was almost a year ago.  But these are the notes I took at the time:

• launch Revo
• highlight a pack on the list
• click Uninstall up top
• after uninstall, select Moderate under scanning modes, and Scan button
• when it says found leftover registry entries, click select all, then delete
• click next
• when it says found leftover files and folders, select all, then delete

Sorry they're not super detailed, but I was just messing around a bit to see whether it would work well enough to recommend.

[Ko0me]

@puzzlezaddict
The files I found were located in the program files, I went ahead and deleted them and I got around the amount of free space back that I figured I would!

The game's names (BG and EPs+GPs) are still stuck in my Apps & Features for some reason, though they don't actually seem to be on my computer anymore so, since this helped clear some space up I figure I can ignore it for now.

Thank you so much for your help!