Strange duplicate files in Sims 3 folder

[HummingBird_005]

So i have discovered something in my Sims 3 folder that i find strange, every cache file and almost every document file has a duplicate now, but the duplicates are all named -DESKTOP-NMGDSKG, for example, two of my files reads: compositorCache-DESKTOP-NMGDSKG and the other reads DeviceConfig-DESKTOP-NMGDSKG

I have no idea if i can delete those files or they are harming my game in any way, i don't know when exactly they showed up either, i just noticed them while i was cleaning out my cache one day
Does anyone know why they exist and if it's safe to delete them?

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@HummingBird_005  The files at the bottom are the game's crash logs, but they're not particularly useful and can be deleted.  You don't need to use a 4 GB patch: the game has been Large Address Aware since 2010 or so.

For the crashing, please move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you open the launcher, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to this folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play for a bit.  Let me know either way.

If the game crashes while you're playing the new save, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[puzzlezaddict]

@HummingBird_005  The two files you listed are safe to delete, both the duplicates and the originals if you want.  The compositorCache file should be deleted regularly anyway, and deviceconfig is just output, a report on how the game reads your hardware.  Both will regenerate the next time you launch the game.

If you'd like to make sure none of the other duplicates are important, you can post a screenshot or two of the contents of your Sims 3 user data folder, and I'll take a look.

I don't know where these files came from, but do you happen to have OneDrive enabled and syncing the contents of Documents with cloud storage?  That would be one way to get duplicates, although this isn't how it usually looks when OneDrive is syncing content.  But if there are two computers with Sims 3 installed that are using the same OneDrive account, a folder from each could be uploaded to the same OneDrive folder, and then the second copy of each file might be renamed to reflect where it came from originally.

[HummingBird_005]

I have deleted all the DESKTOP files and the cache files now, but now i have a bunch of other files at the bottom of it that all say the same thing, i screenshot it so i can post it here. I opened some of them up and they are identical to each other.

And now i've run into a different problem, i open up my game to my recent save and the game just closes down, not imedietly, but after like a minute or so it just shuts down, no error message or anything. I read up on it and have tried the 4GB patch, and it's not working. I don't know what's going on with my game, it worked just fine this morning.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@HummingBird_005  The files at the bottom are the game's crash logs, but they're not particularly useful and can be deleted.  You don't need to use a 4 GB patch: the game has been Large Address Aware since 2010 or so.

For the crashing, please move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you open the launcher, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to this folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play for a bit.  Let me know either way.

If the game crashes while you're playing the new save, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[HummingBird_005]

I did exactly as you told me and moved my original Sims 3 folder to the desktop and started up the game. I've been playing for a while now and everything is working perfectly with no crashes or lagg, so maybe i had a corrupted save file?
Should i try to put the original folder back now?
I also forgot to mention that i did have the Onedrive on for a while but i finally managed to inactivate it yesterday, so it shouldn't interfere with my game.

[puzzlezaddict]

@HummingBird_005  The fact that the game is running well now with the new user data folder in place means there may be some corrupt or nonworking files in the old folder.  It could also be that OneDrive was interfering in real time, but I don't know when you disabled it.  At any rate, the next move is not to put the old folder back but to start transferring files to the new folder and testing.  If the game stops working, you'll know that whatever you moved over, or at least one of the files, is a problem, and you can split that batch and test until you find the culprit.

Personally, I'd test mods first, if you have them, then custom content, then other non-save content, and leave the saves for last, when you've established that the rest of the content is working.  Be sure to delete the five cache files in the Sims 3 folder any time you add (or remove) content from that folder.  For reference:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

Many files are extraneous and will be recreated as needed, so you won't need to move over the old copies.  For a complete list of everything in your user data folder, along with explanations of what you might want to preserve, please see this post:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html

[HummingBird_005]

Yes, it must be some file that got corrupt or possibly missing, because i compared the old folder to the new one and found that the old one was missing a file that came with the new one. So i will indeed not put back the old one instead transfer things like you've suggested. It's really great to know that in the core my game is not broken and neither is something in my computer. The Onedrive seems to have disturbed it, because at one point old things i removed started crawling back into my regular folder, so i had wound up with two Sims 3 folders, and the Onedrive tried to sync them so they would be the same again, it made my entire computer go nuts.
I'll go ahead and try the mods first, i mostly use CAS mods and a few objects. Other than that i have some custom content that i have downloaded from the store and some simpacks from a mod site. Do i need to go find them and re-download them btw?

I will proceed exactly as you've suggested there, it feels like the best way to transfer things and test out if something is broken there.
I'll go ahead and remove the cache files as well.

I haven't said it until now, but thank you so much for taking the time to help me and guide me through the process of fixing my game, i appriciate it super much.

[puzzlezaddict]

@HummingBird_005  Yes, OneDrive can really mess things up for Sims 3, and really any game that stores significant data within the Documents directory.  Unless people have another reason to use it, disabling it is usually the best option.

I wouldn't think you'd need to redownload your mods or custom content.  The files could have been corrupted, which is why you test first, but if they work in the new folder, they don't need to be replaced.  For Sims3packs, even if you needed to reinstall them, you could probably find the original downloads in Downloads inside the old Sims 3 folder; those could be copied to Downloads in the new folder and installed through the launcher.  But don't do this if you're transferring the .dbc (custom content) and .ebc (store content) files from DCCache, or you'll get duplicates.  And when your Sims3Pack content is installed, you can remove the packs from Downloads and store them elsewhere.  (It's better to keep them as backups in case you ever need to reinstall.)

I'm glad I could help, and of course if you have another issue, or just more questions, please keep coming back.

[HummingBird_005]

I tried now with my regular mods installed, and it worked fine, but when i added my simpacks it shut down again after like 1 minute. So it could probably be one of them, i'm not too sure how to discover which one, should i uninstall half and see how it runs?
I also put in the installed worlds i had before, not sure if they can disturb the game while i'm not in one of them.

[HummingBird_005]

@puzzlezaddict Strike the former thing, i just took out the installed worlds and kept all the simpacks (except some duplicates and some weird ones i removed), and now the game is back to normal again, i even moved towns with current save.