[CURRENT ISSUE]Sims 3 'Unknown Error' in El Capitan/Sierra/High Sierra

[Pynkvortex]

Hi! I followed the instructions in the video, and it worked for ambitions. The deal is that I have 3 other expansions to download, seasons, island paradise and university life. I was able to launch the sims with just seasons, ambitions and island paradise, but when i downloaded university life, the pop up box appeared saying unknown error occured. I have deleted and reinstalled all packs and the base game, I have been in contact with ea support and they provided with nothing. 

I've had no problem before with the same computer and same expansions, it started after I deleted everything on my mac and redownloaded everything, things started acting up.

I have a macbook pro 13 inches, mid 2012. 2,5 GHz Intel Core i5, and macOS high sierra version 10.13.6

[puzzlezaddict]

@Pynkvortex  I'm not sure the order in which you tried all this, but whenever you uninstall packs in mac OS, you'll need to do a clean uninstall before proceeding.  If you haven't yet done so, now's a good time.

https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/

Since Island Paradise is newer than University Life, you shouldn't have needed to repeat the unknown error fix after installing UL.  But it may be worth checking to see whether UL's install somehow went wrong in the same way Ambitions would have.  Make sure that you have an alias for UL in your Applications folder (where you would have made one for Ambitions), and check to see whether the UL files made it into the folder for IP, where you had to copy the files for Ambitions (as in the video instructions).  Neither of these steps is supposed to be necessary, but with TS3, almost anything is possible.

[Pynkvortex]

I followed the steps and uninstalled all the Sims games cleanly. I also checked to see if university life had the same issue as ambitions before I launched the game. And unlike the case with ambition I saw the file in the right place.

Thank you for your reply though!

[puzzlezaddict]

@Pynkvortex  If the game installed correctly but won't launch, it may be that your computer is too underpowered to run all of the packs you have installed.  All recent versions of mac OS are very good at shutting down processes that stress out the hardware too much, quitting or even refusing to launch an app that puts excessive demands on the system.

There are a couple more things you can try, though.  First, pull your entire TS3 game folder out of Documents and onto your desktop.  If you can launch the game again, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  This isn't usually a helpful troubleshooting step for the unknown error, but it's easy enough to try.  (If you can play in the clean folder, you can move your saves and other content into it from your old folder.)

The other step, which does sometimes help, is to bypass the launcher entirely.  The launcher takes up significant resources on its own, so maybe keeping it out of the picture will make a difference.

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-how-to-bypass-the-launcher-on-a-mac/

Also, when you're trying to launch the game, either do so right after rebooting your computer, or purge RAM first.

https://bluebellflora.com/resetting-ram-during-gameplay/

[Pynkvortex]

At the moment I have ambitions and island paradise installed and the error still occures. I followed your steps and nothing happened, although I might've done something wrong. I too suspect it has something to do with the laptop, but I'm planning on buying a new windows within the month, so I'll hang on for now. Thank you so much for your support! I really appreciate it 

[puzzlezaddict]

@Pynkvortex  I'm sorry you haven't been able to get TS4 working on your mac.  But if you're buying a new computer soon, maybe it's for the best—the game will never run as well in mac OS as in Windows.  There are a number of issues I won't go into, some of which you've already encountered, but the bottom line is that many players, myself included, have given up and Bootcamped our macs in order to play the way we want.

When you're ready to install TS3 in Windows 10, feel free to ask for advice in the dedicated TS3 section.  There are still some issues you'll need to address (fewer than with macs, though), including limiting your in-game frame rates.  In case you're curious, here's a description of the recommended specs for a laptop to run the game and all its packs with high graphics settings.  A desktop would be fine with an i5 processor and an Nvidia 950 or 1050 GPU, but the other specs are equally relevant.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16712247/#Comment_16712247

[Pynkvortex]

I was thinking of buying a laptop with i3 core with 2.2 ghz but with max speed 3.4 ghz, is that enough? I understand that the sims franchise is a game with special requirements, is a laptop with “Intel® UHD Graphics 620” enough?

[puzzlezaddict]

@Pynkvortex  No, that's not nearly enough to run TS3, at least not well, and certainly not the most demanding packs (Pets, Seasons, then IP and ITF).  People with better specs than that have struggled to play the way they want, especially with such a weak integrated graphics card.  TS3 is older and doesn't require the very best hardware, but it does have real demands and can be quite unforgiving to a system that doesn't meet them.

I'm not an expert on shopping for computers, but if you post on the Sims forums, you'll get some better and more specific advice.  Just list your budget and country, as well as anything else you'd want this computer to do (like if you need it to be a laptop or you want to play other games on it).  There's a thread specifically for new members to ask about tech issues, as they can't start their own discussions:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/893122/thread-for-new-members-to-post-their-sims-3-game-...

[Stinalina]

Thank you so much Corey_0414!

Ever since My iMac died and got my new MacBook I haven't been able to figure out how to make Ambitions/ late night / outdoor living / Fast lane work.
I found your directions @Bluebellflora's site (thank you too! I tried to leave a comment on your site, but couldn't...(?))
The two of you really helped me and now I have all my EP/SP's installed and can play them all again! Amazing!
Stinalina

[Mellybu]

Hi,

I have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro9,2, running Sierra. 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB graphics. 

I have base game, world adventures, and pets which worked fine. I had University life downloaded from origin which worked well until I uninstalled and origin will now not let me redownload.

I had same issues with Ambitions & Late Night. 

Following ‘corey_0414’ instructions fixed the ‘unknown error’ issues, and I can now load game launcher. How ever I am now stuck on blue plumbob load screen.  I’ve read through the threads and Bluebellflora has said to others that the same model I have should be supported and there are no workaround instructions to change the .sgr graphics files. 

Not it sure where to go from here! Any help would be appreciated