Bug when travelling to France

@Elizoid  Is iCloud Drive enabled on your Mac, and if so, is it syncing Desktop & Documents?  To find out, open System Preferences > Apple ID, and you'll see iCloud Drive on the list.  If the box is checked, click Options, then let me know whether Documents is being synced.  Further, please also list the free and total storage you see there.  Please also list the free and total storage available on your Mac, under About This Mac > Storage.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting you enable iCloud Drive or buy more storage, only that iCloud could be a source of error depending on your settings.

Please also let me know whether you use a third-party antivirus or a cleaner app, and if so, whether the problem still occurs when the software is disabled.

Finally, please send your sims to China or Egypt and see whether you can load the new world.  You don't need to save your progress; this is just for testing.

Hello, thank you for your response.

No iCloud Drive is not checked on the list. My documents are not sync with iCloud. I actually downloaded the game on an external hard drive but download Origin application directly on my Mac because of insufficient storage. I have joined a screenshot of my available storage. Yes I have an antivirus but the issue is still happening when it is disabled and for wherever I am trying to go (France, China or Egypt).

The game might be too old and the development part not updated ...

@Elizoid  When sims travel in Sims 3, the game creates an .nhd file for the world they're traveling to, which gets added CurrentGame and eventually to the folder for that particular save.  These .nhd files are large, usually 25-30 MB initially and possibly more, so creating them can be a problem.  That can be due to low storage locally or in the cloud, an overactive antivirus, or other system problems.

To be clear, this is not a game issue.  Traveling in Sims 3 works for most people who try it, in fact I see far more posts about trouble with the process of returning home rather than the initial transition.  This is probably an issue with your computer, perhaps your antivirus blocking the creation of the new .nhd file.  So please test with the antivirus disabled, temporarily of course, and let me know whether it helps.

If not, please start a different save and send the sims traveling.  You can use one of the premade households if you don't feel like making your own, but please do not reuse your existing sims, at least not for the purposes of this test.

As I said previously, I have tried to send my sims traveling when disabling my antivirus but it still didn't work.

I also re download the game but this time on my computer and not on an external hard drive. I have tried sending the sims traveling from this new version on my computer and without disabling the antivirus and I did work. I think it is a problem of the saving place of the file. My origin app was on my laptop while the Sims 3 game was saved on my external hard ware. But now, both of them are saved on my laptop --> applications. The thing is now I no longer have space on my computer aha. Do you have a suggestion to place The sims 3 on my external hard drive with all the functionalities of the game ?

@Elizoid  There's no reason having Sims 3 installed externally should block the travel transition by itself.  But it's possible the drive is too slow or even defective in some way.  Could you test with an external SSD instead?  I'm not suggesting you buy one, just borrow one if possible.  The SSD should use USB-C to take advantage of its faster speeds, even if USB-A 3.0 should be fine in theory.

The save data, including .nhd files, is stored exclusively on the internal drive, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, unless you created a symbolic link to store that externally too.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't done this; it's pretty much impossible to do by accident.

It seems that the file Electronic arts is not being downloaded on my external hard drive whereas it is when I download the game on my computer directly. My hard drive is the Seagate Slim + USB 3.0. I have read that It should work on this external hard drive model.

When I download the game, I only have 1 file on the external hard drive : The Sims 3 packs --> __Installer and EP01 files.

When I opened the game for the first time after downloaded it again on the external hard drive, it created The sims 3 pack a second time which is weird because it already created the file during the download. So I end up now with 2 files named The sims 3 pack on the external hard drive.

One way to avoid this problem could be to download the entire game on the laptop and transfer it to the external hard drive like she is showing in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP4yTEIyyBk. But I am still not sure if the issue is the hard drive that is too slow or the stored place inappropriate on the hard drive.

@Elizoid  The Sims 3 user folder is always in Documents > Electronic Arts regardless of where you've installed the game, unless you create a symbolic link to store it elsewhere.  But that's independent of the game data, as in, what Origin installs.

Wherever you install Sims 3, so the external in this case, you should see a Sims 3.app and a "The Sims 3 Packs" folder, the latter with one subfolder for each installed pack.  It'll look like this:

If the .app isn't there (that would be the one with the plumbob icon), it's somewhere else on your computer.  It has to be, since otherwise the game wouldn't run.

What I suspect, if the .app isn't on your external, is that Origin is confused as to where to install the packs, or the game is confused as to where to read the pack data, resulting in this issue with traveling.  So please look for the .app in Applications and Users > your username > Applications.  If you find it, trash it and the Packs folder, run the Origin reset tool:

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/how-to-reset-origin-on-mac/

Restart your computer, and set the Origin install location to a newly-made folder on your external, NOT directly on the external.  Call the folde whatever you want as long as it's not "The Sims 3."  Then download the game and make sure the .app and Packs folder are in the correct place this time.  If so, test the travel transition again, in a new save, without making any other changes.

That also means removing the symbolic link, at least for now.  Let's get the game working properly and then revisit that.

One note:  Please check the format of your external drive.  If it's exFAT, format it to APFS or MacOS Extended (Journaled) instead.  While exFAT doesn't appear to cause problems with Sims 3 .package files, unlike their Sims 4 equivalent, you'll have better flexibility with one of the latter formats.  Formatting the drive will erase it, so retrieve any data you need to preserve first.  Or if that's not possible, you can partition the drive and format the new partition instead, leaving the other data intact.

I changed the external hard drive for a SSD one. I formatted it for the right one you suggested me to do. I re downloaded everything and adjusted the download location of the game.

Every time I launch the game, it creates a file "Electronic arts" in my documents on my Mac and not on the external hard drive. I also have to mention that this file is not created on my external drive when the game is downloaded. I think this causes the problem. But I couldn't find a way to fix it.

I've joined screenshots of the files and game locations. If I put the "cache" file at the "Legacy game installers" from Origin into the file "Eliz" on the external hard drive, the game just doesn't launch and the "Electronic arts" file still show up on my documents in my computer even though everything is located on the external hard drive. 

@Elizoid  Again, the Sims 3 user folder is always in Documents > Electronic Arts unless you use a symbolic link to move it.  This is by design and has nothing to do with the issue at hand.  Please just let this go for now.  Please also do not move around any other files or folders.

Since you've installed Sims 3 on the external SSD, please confirm that both the Sims 3.app and the "The Sims 3 Packs" folder are present there, with the Packs folder having one subfolder per pack you've installed.  If that's the case, start a new save and have the sims attempt to travel.  You can use a premade household if you want; it doesn't matter.

I put back the Electronic arts file on my documents on my laptop. 

I know have the 2 folders on the external hard drive (the app and The sims 3 packs). I do have 2 subfolders in The sims 3 packs folder.(screenshot attached)

I deleted the cache file that was on Eliz folder.

still not working