Forum Discussion

YOLANDAKER's avatar
YOLANDAKER
13 years ago
Solved

a serious error occurred while loading (name). we strongly recommend restarting the application.

so every time i try to get into sims in the last few days this mesage keeps coming up. it gets as far as the town background and the box with my sims and the game tips and after about 5 minutes of wa...
pc
technical issues
  • Gardia's avatar
    Gardia
    13 years ago

    It only does that with that household right? If you choose another household or create a new one, it should load without any issues. Since you want to play with the current household and not another one, I suggest you go to your saves folder on your Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 3 , see if you have a file in your saves folder that has the exact same name as the game you're currently playing but ending in .backup  If you do, then copy the files in that folder and replace them with the ones on the folder that has the name of the game that you're playing but ending in .sims3  After you do this, the game should load normally. 

Gardia's avatar
Gardia
Seasoned Ace
13 years ago

It only does that with that household right? If you choose another household or create a new one, it should load without any issues. Since you want to play with the current household and not another one, I suggest you go to your saves folder on your Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 3 , see if you have a file in your saves folder that has the exact same name as the game you're currently playing but ending in .backup  If you do, then copy the files in that folder and replace them with the ones on the folder that has the name of the game that you're playing but ending in .sims3  After you do this, the game should load normally. 

  • YOLANDAKER's avatar
    YOLANDAKER
    13 years ago

    YES, THIS SOLVED IT. THANKYOU SO MUCH!!!!!

    • Gardia's avatar
      Gardia
      Seasoned Ace
      13 years ago

      I'm glad it helped. Happy simming 🙂

  • kate_willms204's avatar
    kate_willms204
    7 years ago

    I have tried deleting the backup folder's files and pasting the regular .sims3 files, into the backup one, but that didn't work. is that what you meant? or the other way around? (pasting the backup files into the regular .sims3 folder)

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      7 years ago

      @kate_willms204  Neither of these is the solution the responder was describing.  The idea is to move your save out of your game folder and rename the backup so that it gets recognized byt the game.  So if your save is named, say, "SunsetValley.sims3," your backup would be "SunsetValley.sims3.backup."  If you delete the .backup extension and rename the folder, so maybe "SunsetValley1.sims3," the game can recognize it and offer it as an option at the Main Menu.  (None of the files within each save folder is supposed to be moved or modified in any way.)  This is how you can sometimes recover a save game that has been corrupted—the hope is that the backup is still intact and playable.

      The other common cause for the serious error message is having your game folder open in File Explorer when you try to launch the game.  Please make sure that this is not what's happening.

  • laikpoppy's avatar
    laikpoppy
    7 years ago

    Mine is doing this whenever i create a new save what do i do then, i have been looking for 3 hours now please help. I also dont have any saves so if that gives you anything to work with 

  • jaygrl1020's avatar
    jaygrl1020
    5 years ago

    This only made my problem worse. I still can't access my family. 

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      5 years ago

      @jaygrl1020  Please describe your issue in more detail.  If you mean that moving your Sims 3 folder to your desktop means you can't access your save, then yes, that's what it's supposed to do, move your existing user data out of the way so you can test with a clean folder.  It's a diagnostic measure and a first step to a potential fix, not a solution in itself.

  • NGJB1's avatar
    NGJB1
    4 years ago

    This didn’t work for when what it did do is erase everything I worked for! I’m not experienced it comes to files and what no but you had exact directions that I followed, copied the back up and all it did was erase my game!

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      4 years ago

      @NGJB1  What exactly did you do?  As long as you didn't delete any files—overwrite them or put them in the recycle bin and empty it—you should be able to recover your save data.  If you let me know what you've done, I can try to help you reverse it.

      Please also let me know what the issue was in the first place.

      • NGJB1's avatar
        NGJB1
        4 years ago

        No I absolutely erased some files lol. I copied my backup over the original game and erased the backup. Then it was gone idk. I had progressed very far so I was a little upset. What happened was I was playing and for some reason my sims were no longer able to interact with anything like the beds or restrooms, they just walked around trying to talk to each other and it wouldn’t allow, so like a dummy I saved and quit thinking maybe since I had been playing for a very long time it needed a break. So when I logged out and then logged back in I wasn’t able to. So everything is gone now…. I mean everything all other games as well it made me start new like I just bought the game.

  • 31bbcaa132159a70's avatar
    31bbcaa132159a70
    Newcomer
    2 months ago

    I got a new laptop. Downloaded the EA App & Sims

    All my previous saves are wiped - which sucks but I'm fine to start fresh.

    I go to start the game and none of the worlds will load. I get the error message w/ everything. Please helppppppppppppppp

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