Okay I dont know how this worked but I reinstalled the game data and I also did the synchronizing trophies through PSN (not game but through my PSN account) and now the game works again. I dont know which one worked but the game is working at least for now....... I did not reinstall the patch nor the DLC just the game data, and did the trophies update through PSN and the game is working at least for now......... It got to the Synchronizing Trophies 100% in the game and I was holding my f******* breath and then it went..... so I would try both. My PS3 is an old PS3 fat model in fact its the first ones they made, if that helps any.....
So, I finally figured out how to solve this, at least in my case. Scroll to the end to see that, or read on through the process.
Tried deleting and reinstalling game, no effect. Tried deleting/redownloading patches/DLC, no effect. Filed an official EA Support request (the team there was great, by the way); they offered various suggestions, including copying save files to a USB flash drive (FYI, the controller ports on the front of the PS3 work for plugging in USB drives), deleting them one by one off the PS3 hard drive and trying again: no effect. Tried the support recommendation of restoring factory settings: no effect. Tried support recommendation of a full factory reset: no effect. Called support again. They recommended trying another game, which worked. They didn't have anything else to try, and referred me over to warranty for a replacement, but a comment they made about scratches made me think...
Solution: there was nothing visibly scratched on my disc, but I decided to try cleaning it anyway. Cleaned with CD cleaning fluid and a soft cloth. Presto: it worked!
So, that may be well worth a try for anyone else having the sychronizing bug. It seems in some cases at least, it can be a hardware issue rather than a software one.
(Also, if you've copied save files to a USB and then recopied them to PS3, make sure to sign in to PSN before trying to load one, or it will give you a "you are not the owner of this save file" error. Fortunately recognized the issue there and managed to quit and sign in before it overwrote my files. All saves are present and working fine, and my issues are fixed. Hope this is helpful for others!)
Thanks for the tip! Tried rebuilding the database, but that didn't help. Cleaning the disc however did :-)
