@mayi0715 That's not the Electronic Arts folder you want; it's for the game's program files. Try searching in Terminal instead. Open Applications > Utilities, launch Terminal, and enter this:
find / -type d -name "*Electronic Arts*" 2>/dev/null
The command will take a while to run (let it go to completion), but in the end you'll get a long list of folders with the words "Electronic Arts" in the name. Please post the full file path of any that are specifically in Documents, as in, the file path contains Documents\Electronic Arts. You can write [username] instead of your username, but otherwise keep the file path intact.
Okay I really don't know if I did what you said correctly, but here's what the Terminal spit out:
/Users/User/Documents/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Ambitions.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Pets.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Pets.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Documents/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Island Paradise.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Island Paradise.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Documents/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 World Adventures.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Late Night.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/AddOns/The Sims 3 Generations.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
/Applications/The Sims 3.localized/The Sims3.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts
I find it confusing that it says Electronic Arts after Documents because its definitely not there...
@mayi0715 Terminal is saying there's a Sims 3 folder in the Documents directory of the user just labeled User. Are you in that user account, or in a different one? Have you enabled sharing so that files get moved around between users or to the Shared folder?
You also somehow have a couple of Documents folders within the game's package contents, which is strange. You could go in and root out those folders manually—Terminal lists where to find them—but those are definitely not the folders where you'd need to add content. (If you do want to go looking, you nee to right-click and select Show Package Contents on any entry listed as [something].localized or .app.)
There's only one User account. I just changed the name to 'user' in the paragraph I posted. Otherwise everything is intact. So here's what else I did. I typed "documents" in the search bar of the Finder and it popped up like 50 random "documents" folders that I didn't know existed. I really don't understand why it seems like 90% of the folders in Macs are hidden folders... Anyway, one of these random Documents folders has a symbol in it, and when I clicked on it, voila, there was the Electronic Arts folder. I checked it and it has my currently saved games which I created after this whole mess started, so I figure that is the right EA folder. So I then copied and pasted it in the "Documents" section that appears in the left hand side of the Finder. So I guess that's cool. Buuuut, I still can't install any new content through the launcher. What did I do wrong?
Thank you for your help, by the way. I really appreciate it!
@mayi0715 What happens when you try to install content through the launcher? If you put a Sims3Pack in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Downloads, it should show up in the launcher's Downloads tab, from where you can install it. Edit: Sorry, I didn't see your other post until just now, and I didn't realize you were the same person. (I'm not great with usernames.) Please try the clean folder as described below.
A lot of applications store data in a Documents folder several subfolders deep in the user's Library folder. These folders are hidden by default so people don't go around deleting data that the apps need to run properly. It's normal, and it's not unusual either—Windows also has hidden files and folders, although you can set File Explorer to show them if you want.
At any rate, now that you've found the correct Documents folder, if you can't add any content to the Sims 3 folder inside, please move that folder to your desktop, open the launcher to create a clean folder, and see if you can install into that folder. You can add your existing content back later, once the new content is in place.
I'm also merging your two threads, so everything is in once place.
