I'm Missing Sims 3 Content
I've been playing The Sims 3 (TS3) for over a year now, and have been enjoying it. About a couple months ago, I opened my game and saw a message (image attached). After seeing the message, I went to ...
Forum Discussion
@CariY2206 Please try doing a clean uninstall of Sims 3 and reinstall it. Before doing anything else, make copies of your packs' folders in case you need them later. They'll be in one of these locations by default:
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3
C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3
Each installed pack has its own folder: Late Night is EP03, High-End Loft Stuff is SP01, and Supernatural is EP07. You can right-click the folders and Copy, then right-click your desktop and select Paste.
Here's how to clean-uninstall:
- Put aside your Sims 3 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts and rename it to something that doesn't include the words "Sims 3."
- Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here.
- Launch Revo, select Sims 3 from the list, and click Uninstall.
- Cancel the system restore point; you don't need it.
- Once the game is uninstalled, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan.
- Review the list, in case there's something you want to save; otherwise, click Select All, and then Delete.
- Close Revo, and restart your computer.
Uninstall the EA App as well:
- Launch Revo, select the App, and click Uninstall.
- Cancel the system restore point.
- The EA App may open a window. Click Uninstall, then in the Revo window, click Moderate under Scanning modes, and click Scan.
- Revo will present a list of registry entries. Click Select All, then Delete: you don't need or want to preserve these entries.
- For the leftover files and folders, click Select All, review the list and deselect anything you'd like to keep (this is unlikely, but it's worth checking), click Delete, and you're done.
- Close Revo, and restart your computer.
Install the EA App, then Sims 3. If your packs download properly, as in, the App confirms they're downloaded, you can delete the packs' folders you saved to your desktop. If the packs get stuck preparing, or you get an error, close the EA App, kill the EABackgroundService in the Task Manager, move the packs' folders to the correct install location, open the App again, and tell it to install your packs. This time, the App should confirm the data already present and finish the install process.
@puzzlezaddict Ok, great! Thank you so much!!! 😊
Out of curiosity, when scanning the applications using Revo Uninstaller, are you suggesting there could be something that automatically installed itself into my EA app (like a bug or something) that is prohibiting its proper usage? If so, what's the difference between it and computer security software?
@CariY2206 I'm not suggesting that any other data downloaded alongside the EA App or Sims 3. It's more that the data that is supposed to be present—registry entries and other hidden files—may have been corrupted or removed or not created properly. It's difficult to prove and also more time-consuming.
Revo has nothing to do with protection against malware. It's a tool to remove all files associated with a given application. When you uninstall an app through Windows or a game launcher, often only the application itself is removed, not the rest of the data. So if you currrently have broken Sims 3 registry entries, you'll still have those broken entries after uninstalling through the EA App. Revo finds those entries and deletes them too, allowing you to start fresh after the reinstall.
@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for clarifying that for me!
I went through the steps you left for me, but I'm still experiencing the same problem as before. For clarity, should the packs be installed under the following by default:
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3
Or should they be installed in another folder within The Sims 3 folder? This is the exact location of the pack folders before and after I followed the Revo Uninstaller steps.
@CariY2206 That location is fine, and wherever you install Sims 3, your packs should be in the same folder. I'm not sure what's going on here, and I'll flag this thread to someone from EA to take another look in case it might require a conversation with support. There are some issues that can't be solved on the user side, and they're not always easy to identify.
However, it'll take a couple days to get a response since people are off work for the weekend. In the interim, I would suggest another clean install, except with three extra steps:
- Create a new admin Windows account which you'll use to reinstall the game. Make the account local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account.
- Create a new folder on the root level of the drive of your choice, for example C:\Games is fine, but not C:\Program Files\Games. This is where you'll install Sims 3 this time.
- If you use a third-party antivirus, disable it before reinstalling, and don't reenable it until after you've tested Sims 3 once. As long as you're not doing anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe.
The idea here is to be as thorough as possible. Even if these above steps aren't all necessary, doing them together means you've addressed everything on your end.
If you happen to have access to another computer running Windows where you could test-install Sims 3, I'd suggest that too, in addition to or instead of the above. If your packs show up properly on that computer, the problem is something on your current system. If not, it's likely an account issue. The other computer doesn't need to be powerful enough to run Sims 3—just open the launcher to see whether your packs are present, and you'll have your answer.
