Sims with .Sims3Pack for Sims 3 won't install

[DearestRabbit]

That kind of says it all there. I have dozens of CC installed, but this is the first time I found pre-made sims I could download. I got them from The Exchange, and none of them work. The files came as .Sims3Pack , and the downlods page marks them as Sims and installable, but simply won't. 

These are some things I have already done, to no avail:

1. Changed file names to have acceptable characters
2. Downloaded Modthesims custom framework and attemtpted to install that way 

3. Attempted to update, but I have the latest version

4. Verified game files

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@DearestRabbit  A few possibilities come to mind immediately.  One is that the sims you've downloaded aren't compatible with the latest patch (which you have), or perhaps the packs, or at least the downloads, are corrupt.  Another is that you have a corrupt .dbc file in DCCache—these are bundles of custom content, and a corrupt one may "refuse" to allow more content to be installed into it.  Or perhaps the sims use content from expansion or stuff packs you don't have installed.  Normally, the missing items would simply be replaced, but in practice it doesn't always work.  Another potential issue is that you tried to install a bunch of packs at once.  The launcher doesn't handle a lot of data very well, so it's best to install only a few items at a time.

At any rate, the easiest thing to do now is to pull your entire TS3 folder out of Documents and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game again, a clean folder will spawn with no content (no need to go past the launcher).  Go into the Downloads folder inside your old game folder and move just one Sims3Pack into your new folder, and attempt to install it.  If it works, launch the game and make sure it's there.  Then you can install a few more packs, test, install a few more, etc.

Once you've installed the new sims, you can transfer the corresponding files into your existing game folder.  The new .dbc bundle will need to be renamed so it's numbered one higher than the previous highest—if your old game folder has dcdb0.dbc through dcdb4.dbc, the new one should be dcdb5.dbc.  (You can ignore the .ebc files—they contain bundled store content.)  Make sure to also transfer the files you find in Library and SavedSims; they correspond to households and sims saved to the Create a Sim bin, respectively.

When you've moved everything you want into your existing game folder, you can delete the new folder you spawned and put the old one back inside Documents\EA.  Be sure to delete the five cache files inside (CASPartCache, compositorCache, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, and socialCache) before loading your game again.

Any Sims3Pack you can't install into a clean game folder is corrupt or otherwise unusable.  You can download a fresh copy and try again, if you want, but a lot of Exchange content is problematic.  Unless you want to learn how to extract .package files from Sims3Packs, which is itself no guarantee that the sims will work, it's best to find something else to download instead.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@DearestRabbit  A few possibilities come to mind immediately.  One is that the sims you've downloaded aren't compatible with the latest patch (which you have), or perhaps the packs, or at least the downloads, are corrupt.  Another is that you have a corrupt .dbc file in DCCache—these are bundles of custom content, and a corrupt one may "refuse" to allow more content to be installed into it.  Or perhaps the sims use content from expansion or stuff packs you don't have installed.  Normally, the missing items would simply be replaced, but in practice it doesn't always work.  Another potential issue is that you tried to install a bunch of packs at once.  The launcher doesn't handle a lot of data very well, so it's best to install only a few items at a time.

At any rate, the easiest thing to do now is to pull your entire TS3 folder out of Documents and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game again, a clean folder will spawn with no content (no need to go past the launcher).  Go into the Downloads folder inside your old game folder and move just one Sims3Pack into your new folder, and attempt to install it.  If it works, launch the game and make sure it's there.  Then you can install a few more packs, test, install a few more, etc.

Once you've installed the new sims, you can transfer the corresponding files into your existing game folder.  The new .dbc bundle will need to be renamed so it's numbered one higher than the previous highest—if your old game folder has dcdb0.dbc through dcdb4.dbc, the new one should be dcdb5.dbc.  (You can ignore the .ebc files—they contain bundled store content.)  Make sure to also transfer the files you find in Library and SavedSims; they correspond to households and sims saved to the Create a Sim bin, respectively.

When you've moved everything you want into your existing game folder, you can delete the new folder you spawned and put the old one back inside Documents\EA.  Be sure to delete the five cache files inside (CASPartCache, compositorCache, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, and socialCache) before loading your game again.

Any Sims3Pack you can't install into a clean game folder is corrupt or otherwise unusable.  You can download a fresh copy and try again, if you want, but a lot of Exchange content is problematic.  Unless you want to learn how to extract .package files from Sims3Packs, which is itself no guarantee that the sims will work, it's best to find something else to download instead.