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jbd00's avatar
jbd00
6 years ago
Solved

Can't run The Sims 3 on macOS Catalina

It is with a heavy heart I tell Sims 3 is not supported on macOS 10.15. I have, with @Bluebellflora 's help managed to keep the game running all up to High Sierra, but this update appears to have bee...
mac
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 years ago

    @jbd00  Yes, we know Catalina doesn't run 32-bit apps.  We've been expecting this development for over a year; in fact, it was originally rumored that Mojave would drop 32-bit support, but that was pushed back one OS.  I'm sorry you didn't know before updating, but that's why it's important to read carefully before installing a beta version of anything, especially an operating system.

    If you have access to another Mac that hasn't been upgraded, you can use it to install Mojave on an external hard drive or USB and play the game that way.

    https://bluebellflora.com/running-32-bit-apps-after-macos-mojave/

    Or you could do what I did last year and Bootcamp your Mac.  It's not all that complicated, and all your Origin games will run just fine in Windows 10.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago

@kingcharlie2005  You can't run Sims 3 in Catalina at all.  If you want to play the game, you have two options.  The first is to install Mojave on an external hard drive.  You'd need temporary access to a Mac running Mojave to do this; maybe you can borrow one from a friend.  Bluebellflora wrote a guide for the process here:

https://bluebellflora.com/running-32-bit-apps-after-macos-mojave/

You could also install a virtual machine on your Mac, as described in the above article.  Or you could partition your hard drive and install Windows on one side of it.  This is known as Bootcamping, and it's surprisingly easy on newer Macs.  Sims 3 runs better in Windows than it ever did in macOS, and some of us (myself included) have set up our Macs this way just to play the game properly.  The way it works is that you restart your computer and choose to boot into Windows, and then everything works like it would on a PC.  If you'd like more information on this, let me know.

All of the above applies to Sims 3, not Sims 4.  The reason that Sims 4 currently doesn't run on Catalina is that the ActivationUI is still 32-bit, even though the game is 64-bit.  EA will sort this out sooner or later, hopefully by the time Catalina is released to the general public, and when it's fixed, Sims 4 will be playable again.

Seh_Strom's avatar
Seh_Strom
5 years ago

LMAO I almost threw my MacBook at a wall five minutes ago because i just updated to Catalina this afternoon, tried to play Sims and now I read this....if only EA developers were as easily scared by words as my boyfriend was minutes ago. Gonna go mourn my dysfunctional families and lavish houses now...

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