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omgyamisocringe's avatar
omgyamisocringe
Rising Veteran
5 years ago
Solved

Common Problem for "Expansion Pack Data". [SOLVED]

I've recently had an error with a custom town for two of my sim families, I've saved a copy of my entire sims 3 folder and made duplicates for my tests and corrupted saves to post onto desktop, but a...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    5 years ago

    @omgyamisocringe  I realize that you may have done some of the suggestions below already, but please try them in order, one at a time, just to be totally thorough.  Sometimes combining steps or adding or removing the wrong content at the wrong time can have unforseen side effects.

    Please also try all of this while your computer is offline.  If you play through Origin, you can sign in and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before launching the game.

    Please start over with a completely clean Sims 3 user folder.  Move the one currently in Documents\Electronic Arts to your desktop, open the launcher to spawn a clean folder, download and install a new copy of the custom world your save takes place in, and see whether it loads properly.  While you're at it, make sure all your installed expansion and stuff packs are loading too; the easiest way is to go into Buy mode and check the pack filters.

    If all your content is in place, move a copy of your corrupt save into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves.  (You may need to create the Saves folder, but create it rather than copying it over.)  Don't add any other content, at least not yet.  Delete the five cache files in your user folder:

    • CASPartCache.package
    • compositorCache.package
    • scriptCache.package
    • simCompositorCache.package
    • socialCache.package

    Let me know whether the save loads.  If it does, great; if it doesn't, please post the exact error message you get.

    If the save does not load, delete the cache files again, as well as anything in the CurrentGame folder.  Load a new save in the same custom world, save your progress, and quit.  Then go into the Saves folder, remove the .nhd file from the new save, and copy over the .nhd file from the old save.  Don't move over anything else.  Again, see whether it will load.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago

@omgyamisocringe  Is it the copying over of the .nhd file that worked?  It helps, when it does, because it replaces the other files, which may be corrupt, with fresh copies.  There can also be something wrong with the Saves folder or the folder for the individual save file; this method addresses all these possibilities at once.  Since the .nhd file contains your actual save data, at least for the world it covers, you don't lose much by generating new copies of everything else.

The other suggestions were about being extremely thorough and not having you waste your time trying each individual troubleshooting step separately.  They're all helpful in a small number of cases, and they don't hurt; given how much you'd tried already, I figured it would be simpler to cover all your bases.

From here, the first thing to do is to make a copy of the Sims 3 folder currently in Documents\Electronic Arts.  You know that its content works, and if you have another issue you can't fix after adding content, you'll be able to restore this folder instead of starting from scratch.

Now you can start adding back your old content, but please keep testing to make sure your save still loads.  Delete the five cache files each time you add or remove any content.  In case you're not sure which files and folders you might want to keep, here's a description of everything in the user folder:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html

In your position, every time the game worked after adding more content, I'd save a copy of the Sims 3 folder, at least for now.  That way, if you're halfway through adding your files back, the game stops working, and removing the newest files somehow doesn't help, you can restore the next-newest version of the user folder without losing as much progress.  But I like to be cautious like that.  And of course when you're satisfied that everything is working as intended, you can delete whatever backups you've made, although it's still good to keep one.

omgyamisocringe's avatar
omgyamisocringe
Rising Veteran
5 years ago

@puzzlezaddictI think it was a little of everything. I think the "going offline" part helped the most, followed by clearing the caches after installing content for each time I checked.

Um, so far things are going well.

Luckily, nothing bad has happened.
So, thank you! 😊

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