Forum Discussion
irisgaljack Okay, so it's only the main save that won't load? If so, try a backup of this save. Even if you never made one, the game keeps the files from the second-to-last time you saved. Open Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves, and you'll see a folder with your save name and another with the same name and a .backup extension. Rename the backup and remove the .backup extension, so the folder name ends in .sims3. This save will now be available to load at the Main Menu.
If it loads and you can play it at all, I would keep a spare copy of this backup in case you need it later.
Separately, when working on a significant or time-consuming build, I would recommend doing so in a new save, either in the same world you're using or in a builders' world if you want to install one. You can save your completed build to the in-game bin and place it in the save where you want to use it. You can also save partial builds to continue working on later.
Part of why building in a new save is helpful is that a new save will load much more quickly, and a builders' world is extremely quick because there are no sims there. Build/Buy is more demanding in some ways than Live mode, and you'll notice the game start to lag heavily at times, in particular if you've been in BB for a while or have been using Create a Style. The only way to fix this is to quit and reload, which you might need to do several times before you complete your build.
The other reason is since BB is so demanding, and in different ways than live mode, a long build session in an existing save (where you have sims you've progressed as well as other data) can overwhelm the game engine, dragging down performance and possibly even corrupting the save if some data gets lost or mangled. So rather than risk damaging your main save, you can build elsewhere, then just plop down the completed build when you're ready to play with it.
- irisgaljack1 month agoSeasoned Newcomer
yes iv tried the back up yes i have a copy of both saved and renamed so i can use them to test and no neither of them work