Hi
If you are having problems playing/saving then your game is probably running out of free memory - this happens a lot on Mac because of the way Cider was used to make the game work on the operating system. See the tips for Mac simmers below.
If your game can't be persuaded to work properly even when following those tips, it could be that your many uninstallations/reinstallations have left the game folder in a muddle. You can do a quick fix by following the steps under the heading "primary things to try first" here: http://bluebellflora.com/how-to-play-the-sims-3-on-a-mac/
If that doesn't work then a clean uninstall may be advisable. Let me know if you need detailed instructions on this.
Good luck!
Caspin
Tips for Mac simmers
Unfortunately a lot of TS3 players encounter problems when playing the game on their Mac. These can include crashing and freezing. A lot of these issues can be avoided or at least improved by the following measures.
Firstly, manually reset your RAM while playing. See BluebellFlora's guide on how to do this: http://bluebellflora.com/the-sims-3-on-a-mac/resetting-ram-during-gameplay/
I restart my computer before I play TS3. Close down other things that are running in the background. The memory used as seen in Activity Monitor is at about 3GB after the restart. If I open the Launcher it goes up to around 11 GB (that's all I've done - just opened the Launcher!). At this point I reset the RAM. Then I hit play and get through the opening sequence. I then press cmd-return to put the game in windowed mode from time to time while playing (and always before saving or using CAS). That way I can keep an eye on the memory and reset RAM if necessary. Being in windowed mode also allows you to close the game using force quit if it freezes up - it's better to crash the game than your whole computer.
Second tip is to save frequently. I save at least once per sim day. Use the option to Save or Save As, rather than the combined Save and Quit.
Make sure you are patched up to date. The 1.63 patch included fixes for Mac simmers that did actually improve the stability of the game on our operating systems, so it is well worth updating to at least that level. The current patch is 1.67.
The game runs better if you switch off the memories system and disable the in-game Store and social features.
