Hi since I built my new pc in December I have not been able to get the Sims 3 to work. I am getting the "a serious error has occurred while loading world" error when trying to start a new game or load an existing one and it won't let me play at all. I have tried turning off firewall, pausing syncing on one drive, taking ownership of documents on command prompt. Nothing has worked. The only thing that "worked" for a few days was creating a local windows account on my pc but it was taking up alot of storage and was creating issues with shared files and applications between accounts and I had to delete it and scrub it from my registry and file system completely to fix the issue. I don't want a local account. I want one account on my pc with my microsoft account attached to it. I don't want to have to deal with a second account and all the issues and confusion with it just to play one game that should work on my main account. Every other sims game works on my main account. This includes The Sims and The Sims 2. I do not mean the re-releases, I mean I got the original games working on my PC with workarounds and hacks and mods. It is just The Sims 3 that refuses to work. The only time i got to play it was for a few days with the local account that I don't want to have to re-create. Now you might wonder why I haven't just managed the backup settings for onedrive for the sims 3 or the documents folder but I have indeed tried that, and every time I try to go into onedrive and change settings to not backup documents folder it doesn't even give me the option, it looks like I might have to uninstall icloud or something but it looks like the folder isnt even backing up anyway so how could that fix anything? Gaining the ability to toggle something off that isnt even on.. how could that fix the issue? I have added a photo below of exactly what I encounter when attempting this, as you can see it won't even let me click on any files and according to them, DOCUMENTS ISN'T EVEN BACKED UP AS IS. This doesn't even make sense as onedrive is clearly the culprit seeing as making a local account "fixed" it. Also, according to command prompt, the directory for my documents folder does NOT include Onedrive in the path, which baffles me further as how is onedrive even the problem then. At a loss at what to do. Im afraid to do anything too drastic and irreversible that could cause other issues and/or not even work at the end of the day. Please help me.
neoromanempire The "serious error" is typically permissions- or access-related, at least these days, but borked permissions or denied access can happen for a variety of reasons. OneDrive is simply the most common offender. The concept is reinforced in your case by the fact that the local account worked even if OneDrive isn't your specific culprit.
As for why this can happen when all other games that access Documents are fine, I can't be sure. But I do know that Sims 3 generates a LOT more temp data than the other Sims games, and much of that is generated as the game starts to load a save.
For the issue at hand, do you have anything else backing up Documents (iCloud or whatever), and does pausing that syncing help? I realize you might not want to do this long-term, but it would at least be helpful to know whether it made a difference.
Separately, I can suggest an experiment to you, if you're interested. Create a symbolic link for the Sims 3 user folder pointing it elsewhere on your drive, and specifically NOT in Documents or any folder you want syncing or that a syncing service might try to reach, and not in Program Files since it's somewhat protected by default. You can just create a new folder on C called whatever you want, and put the Sims 3 folder inside that. This guide was written for Sims 4 and an external drive, but it applies here too:
If you want to try this but need more specific help, please list the new folder, and let me know if your Documents directory is not in the default C:\Users\your username location, according to Command Prompt. I take it you found the relevant command already.
I created the symbolic link and the link worked but it didn't change anything, I still get the error message trying to load a game.
neoromanempire Is your Documents directory in C:\Users\your username\Documents or somewhere else, and do you use another syncing service?
Yes it is in there and I have icloud but it doesn't sync anything on my pc except photos.
neoromanempire Are there any special characters in the name you use for your Windows account? This isn't a typical problem with Sims 3, but it could in theory have some effect, and this would also explain why the new account worked.
If you're willing, you could also try moving the location of Documents elsewhere, to see whether the problem is that folder. You could also reverse it after the fact if you didn't want to keep it where it was, whether moving it worked or not. As in, this can be considered an experiment and possibly a workaround, or not, depending on your preference (and whether it helps of course).
The normal way to move Documents is this (option one):
You can also force a new location with a registry edit:
the new location just copied all the folders into a new folder and it kept the originals in my documents folder. I dont even think they're using the new ones.
neoromanempire What is the new location though, according to the registry; and does it get around the problem to have Documents in a different location? It doesn't matter whether anything is copied around; the point is what Windows thinks it should use to store Documents-related data, and therefore what Sims 3 is supposed to use as well.
I'm not sure how to check that, what should I do? I made a new folder in :C drive and changed the documents location to that but it changed nothing except copying the folders to there and it seems to still be using the originals in the documents directory.
neoromanempire Two things:
You changed the value in the registry, so you can check the registry again to see whether that value stuck, and if so, let me know what it is.
You can rename any "The Sims 3" folder on your computer that has a DeviceConfig file inside, to anything you want, then open the Sims 3 launcher and see where the new Sims 3 folder gets created.
I already undid moving the documents. So I should do it again and then check the Registry? How do I check the registry exactly?
neoromanempire This guide I linked earlier:
lists how to change the location of Documents by editing the registry. I was suggesting that you simply view the Personal value, which is the value for Documents, within the registry, instead of changing it, and then let me know what you see. The way to view it is exactly the same as described; you just don't edit it while you're there.
We're back to the previous question though: does it help to change the location of Documents to something other than the default? If yes, what is the location of Documents that works?
Okay here is my regsitry right now. The way i changed the location of documents directory was the way that didn't involve this and then I undid it as it didn't even seem like it did anything and The Sims 3 didn't work. So now I should try the way that involves editing this directly? Or should i retry the less invasive way and then check the registry here again?
neoromanempire Test the game and make sure it still doesn't work properly now. If it doesn't, use the non-invasive way to change the location of Documents, restart your computer, view the registry again (like this) to make sure the change took hold, and try again to play. The point is not so much how you change the location as the fact that viewing the registry is probably the most reliable way to check your work.
Okay I changed the location of documents but the registry still looks the same. And it still won't let me play. What now?
neoromanempire What location did you use, and did you restart your computer? If so, and the registry still shows the same value for Personal, change that value to the new location of Documents, restart again, and try to play.
I used my :C drive. Its just on my c drive now as a folder.
Yes i did restart, and the registry still looks the same as it did before. What should i change it to? Is the location i picked acceptable?
neoromanempire I'm not sure why the registry didn't update, but there's no reason this shouldn't work as a location for Documents. It may not be the best idea if other people use your computer, since this folder would be accessible to them, but if you're the only user, that's not a concern.
If you still can't play, change the registry value for Personal to C:\Documents, restart again, and test the game again. And make sure the registry value didn't revert somehow after you restart.
I changed the registry value for personal to C:/Documents, restarted and checked that it didn't revert, and it STILL didn't work. I still got the message "a serious error has occured"
This is my registry now. Any idea what the issue still could be?
neoromanempire If you're still seeing this issue, no matter where you put the Documents folder, AND the game still works in a new Windows account, then no, I don't know what the problem is. I mean, it would be pretty clear in this case that the problem is some other setting with your main account, but beyond that, I couldn't really say where the issue might be.
Given everything you've tried, I really think the best thing would be to play in the other Windows account. If you don't want to manage two accounts, you could move your other data to that account too and use only that. I would also suggest setting up whatever syncing services you decide to use first, and anything else that touches the Documents folder, to make sure nothing breaks again before you go to the trouble of moving over any data.
So my registry is correct now and it should be working?
