Sims 3 save greyed out

[Matty_Dis_Lee]

Hi!, I have this problem: i had the sims 3 for a while now the thing is that i had to uninstall it because it was giving me some issues,after the reinstall went swiftly my old save (where most of the important stuff is) is greyed out! The weird thing is that when i roll the arrow over it it says that it requires a later version of the game, i tried everything from installing it from origin to applying the superpatch to re-installing even downgrading it but NOTHING seems to work, please if anyone could help it would be really appreciated, thanks!

Btw i have: late night,ambitions,seasons,university life and the 70s stuff pack

[puzzlezaddict]

@Matty_Dis_Lee  I take it you're not missing any packs that you used to own?  Because if so, it would make sense that the save couldn't load.  Any save that takes place in a world that comes with a missing pack would be inaccessible, as would a save with certain features no longer available, for example a household with a pet if the Pets EP isn't installed and loading.

Just to be thorough, please remove your entire Sims 3 game folder from Documents\Electronic Arts; you can put it on your desktop.  If you now have an Origin install, open Origin, right-click on the Sims 3 icon, and select Repair.  Then launch the game and make sure all of your packs are loading.  It's not enough to check them off; you need to load Build/Buy or Create a Sim and confirm that content from each pack is present.

If this is the case, you can quit and copy your Saves folder from the old game folder to the new one that will have spawned in Documents\EA.  Reload and see whether you can load the save.  If you can't, is it possible that the save takes place in a world you don't currently have installed?  No matter what kind of install you have (disc, Origin, Steam), you'd still need to install store worlds via the Sims 3 Store site, and of course custom worlds need to be installed separately as well.

If this doesn't apply, you can try loading the backup save instead.  Inside Saves, you'll see a folder with your save name, and another folder with the same name plus a .backup extension.  So if your save is called SunsetValley, the main save's folder would be SunsetValley.sims3, and the backup would be SunsetValley,sims3.backup.  Delete the .backup extension and rename the save (e.g. SunsetValley1.sims3), and it will show in the Main Menu.  Hopefully this one will load.

[Matty_Dis_Lee]

Well, i tried everything and still didn't work, even the backup save was greyed out with the same "needs a later version of the game". Now that you mentioned about packs that i used to own i remember having in my old steam account (wich sadly got hacked) the same expansions and stuff pack that i own now plus the diesel stuff pack, but if i remember correctly i did uninstall it because i really didn't like it, do you think that's the issue? I mean I'm sure that i used it and then uninstalled it but maybe that's missing? Thanks for the help!

[puzzlezaddict]

@Matty_Dis_Lee  It's highly unlikely that a missing stuff pack would cause this issue—the included objects should just be replaced or removed.  If you're sure this save doesn't take place in a world that you don't currently have installed, then the remaining options are that the save itself is corrupted, or that your install is.

Given how many different approaches you tried to get the game running, it's entirely possible that you broke your install.  Patching to Origin/1.69 shouldn't be an issue, but running the Super Patch on an Origin install is, if it even runs; and so is trying to downpatch from 1.69 to 1.67.

To be thorough, or if you've noticed any other signs of trouble, you may want to uninstall, clean your computer's registry (you could use a free tool like Piriform's CCleaner), and reinstall either entirely via disc or through Origin.  The Super Patch should be run on any disc install that doesn't involve Origin, but an Origin-only install will already come fully patched.  Either way, if your save still doesn't load, it's probably not recoverable, unfortunately.

(If you did want to skip the full uninstall and reinstall, you could upload your save and PM me the link.  I have a couple of very much intact installs in which I could try to open the save.  But that's entirely up to you.)

[Matty_Dis_Lee]

@puzzlezaddict I just got home and I'm doing the uninstall, if you don't mind, can you tell me how to upload a save? So if the worst happens i can send you the save for you to test it out, I'm new to the forums so I'm not very familiar with how things work. Thanks!

[puzzlezaddict]

@Matty_Dis_Lee  To share a save, right-click on the folder for that save and select Compress, which will generate a .zip file (a .rar or .7z file would also be fine).  Then upload it to a free filesharing site—google drive, Mediafire, that kind of thing—and send me the link.  You can PM it to me if you don't want to post it here; otherwise, I'll let you know when I have it so you can take it down if you want.

[Matty_Dis_Lee]

@puzzlezaddict Well i tried again with the reinstall but to no avail, so i'm sending you the link to the save so you can test it. Thanks for the help.