sims 3 crashes at loading screen [ Edited ]

[mandee_mack]

HELP!!! i dont have any mods for the sims. I was trying to download items from the exchange store and ever since then it wont load! It will get to the screen where my family is loading in, but the bar never fills and the game kicks me back out to the sims 3 launcher. my sims 4 game works PERFECTLY fine. i use mods for my sims 4, but none for sims 3. ive deleted the cache, uninstalled and reinstalled, i dont know what else to do

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@mandee_mack  When you uninstalled and reinstalled, did you also start with a new Sims 3 user data folder?  If not, or if you added anything to it afterwards, please move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add back any files; just see whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.  If you can, please save, quit, and try to reload the save.  Let me know whether it works.

If the game still crashes, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@mandee_mack  When you uninstalled and reinstalled, did you also start with a new Sims 3 user data folder?  If not, or if you added anything to it afterwards, please move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add back any files; just see whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.  If you can, please save, quit, and try to reload the save.  Let me know whether it works.

If the game still crashes, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

[mandee_mack]

omg i love you!!!!!! you have restored my faith in the sims 3 lol. thank you so much it works perfectly!

[mandee_mack]

okay im back. the same issue happened again :-( i dont want to have to keep restarting from scratch. is there any way i can still access the old save data and put it back into the game after i move the folder out?

[puzzlezaddict]

@mandee_mack  Yes, you can copy the folder for a particular save into the new user data folder.  Each save has its own folder in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves, and they're labeled by the name you use for that save.  There's also a second copy with a .backup extension, which contains the files from the second-to-last time you saved.  If you ever need to restore a backup, you can delete the .backup extension and change the name (so you don't have two folders with the same name in the same location), and it will be available to load from the Main Menu.

It sounds like you might be downloading bad custom content from the Exchange.  This is common—some bad cc sticks to uploads, and many creators don't know, or didn't know at the time, that they had any in their own folders.  If you're interested in downloading a lot of content, you may want to check it out in a clean folder first.  You can install it, check it out in-game, and make sure the launcher is still working.  Definitely scroll through the launcher's Installed Content tab looking for any items you didn't mean to download: you might see something that doesn't belong, or the launcher might crash.  Either way, you'll know not to install that particular content into your main user data folder.

It's pretty easy, once you get the hang of it, to move your main Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts (or rename it temporarily), open the launcher to spawn a clean folder, download a couple items you'd like to use, install them and test, then trash the new folder and put the old one back when you're satisfied.  It's also a lot easier than starting from scratch with your custom content every time.

[Gengyen]

@puzzlezaddict HOW COW IT WORKED!! thank you so much

[sammycorn1234]

@puzzlezaddict Hi! I know it's been almost three years since you replied to the question, but I need some more help please. I did what you said and the game still crashes. Can you help please?

[sammycorn1234]

Okay, it works but it keeps closing and I have to reenter like three times just to get to the main menu. Know how to help?

[puzzlezaddict]

@sammycorn1234  Are you specifically playing in a clean Sims 3 folder, or have you added any content to that folder?  When you say the game closes, do you mean it actually crashes, or is it just minimizing and you need to bring up the game window again?

[sammycorn1234]

At first, I added nothing, but then I added the no-intro mod and nothing happened. For your second question, it just minimizes and I have to re-open window.