Mac version: Sims 3 launcher crashes

robinbear80​  Does the launcher crash when you remove or rename the Sims 3 user folder but before you've added back any of your old content?  Please test and let me know.

The launcher crashing when the Downloads tab is clicked is a known issue:

Launcher crashes when I open the downloads tab in Sims 3 | EA Forums - 12167613

There's no fix for it, and the only workaround to install Store content is the one you've found.

I'm not a huge fan of EA support, but for what it's worth, this is an OS issue, not anything on EA's end.  It would be unreasonable to expect the company to update Sims 3 just because Apple built in some new feature that doesn't play well with the game.  This would be different if Sims 3 were still in development, but the last content patch was in 2014, and since then we've only had a couple compatibility updates, one each for Windows and macOS.  Both of those were required to allow the game to start at all.

Hi. The launcher did crash when I removed the Sims 3 folder before adding any of my content. I've done that twice and then manually added back all my content using the download dashboard. 

On a hunch, I moved my Sims 3 folder and then uninstalled the game. ThenI reinstalled the game, again via the EA app. That fixed it momentarily, it didn't crash. As soon as I started adding files to the download folder, the launcher began to crash again.

Strangely enough, this time it is not creating a crash report. Previously it would trigger the Apple crash report every time it would crash,  but that isn't happening anymore.

I contacted EA support because sometimes when software doesn't work there's a library file that is causing the issue. If I could get the name of that library file, I could search it and delete it. 

robinbear80​  Does the launcher crash, now, only when you click the Downloads tab; or does it crash if you don't click Downloads or Uploads?  This is an important distinction because clicking the Downloads tab is known to cause crashes (with no error report), while the launcher itself should work normally.

Please also let me know whether you're using iCloud Drive, and if so, whether it's syncing the contents of Documents.  Open System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud Drive [options] and see whether Desktop & Documents is checked off.

So originally when I posed this, the crash reports were being generated when I pushed any button on the launcher including Play. The game would boot, but the Launcher would crash and a report would pop up in the background.  When I uninstalled and reinstalled the game, it changed. It only creates a crash report now from downloads. 

While I was individually reinstalling 1000 items from the Sims 3 store using the "downloads dashboard", I was able to get the launcher to open the downloads list, briefly. Launcher would open very slowly and load slowly in the background. And once, while the downloads dashboard was busy, I was able to click the launcher and get it to open. It ran for about 5 minutes before it crashed. It showed duplicates of every item that was being installed.

Prior to this, I did have iCloud updating my documents folder, I have since turned it off. It didn't usually cause issues with Sims 3 for me, only if I didn't log into the game for several months or more.

robinbear80​  Some of the issues with iCloud Drive are dependent on how much free storage you have on your computer, so the setup could be fine for a while and then cause problems down the road, or sneakily cause problems only when you've downloaded a large file (like a new OS installer) or temporarily allocated extra disk space (like the EA App does with Sims 4 updates), then disappear again.  So I wouldn't rule it out as a complicating factor.  But if you're not using it now, that's the end of that discussion.

I meant to answer your comment about library files before but got distracted.  The reason I don't think that's the issue is because the problem happens in a new user account, and there's only limited data in /Library (as opposed to ~Library), AND this started happening to everyone I could find to test as soon as they were on Sequoia 14.4.1.  Sure, that's not definitive, but it is highly suggestive.

I reported the issue when it showed up, but I doubt EA will be willing to put in the resources to fix it unless there's a larger overhaul of Sims 3 at some point down the road.

Anyway, let me know if you have any outstanding issues other than the launcher crashing.

Thanks. I had not had an issue with iCloud storage, and I have a lot of room in my iCloud storage, so it's not a problem. 

I did communicate again with EA's help because they asked if it was a widespread issue and I replied that it was and I linked to some of the original threads. Not sure if that was an automated response or if they really didn't know.  The specs for Sims 3 on the EA store page were not updated and do indicate that the game should run on Mac, however the game or the launcher- no longer runs appropriately. I was conversing with another Mac user on Reddit and we agreed that at this point, Mac users are probably the only ones actually paying for new copies of the game since that is the only way to obtain it on a Mac, the disc codes and used discs available in the community or online are for PC versions. You would think it would behoove EA to fix the software for Mac users, given that we are the only ones still paying for this 15 year old game at this point. But I digress.

robinbear80​  It's not about the amount of iCloud storage, rather the free storage on your computer.  The idea is that iCloud can try to free up local storage by pushing files to the cloud and removing the local copies.  There are also connection issues sometimes (independent of whether your internet is working overall) that can lock up the data being synced, even if that data is staying local as well.  The point is, iCloud Drive can't be ruled out as the source of errors unless the computer is offline.

As for DLC, it's not true that only Mac users are buying new content—I get new Windows users all the time.  More importantly, Mac users do NOT need to rebuy the content.  Owning the old version of the game means access to the 64-bit Mac version too.  The fact that some users are missing "entitlements," as they're called, for the 64-bit versions is an EA-side glitch, not by design.

I been having this issue for 8 months. I keep trying to signal EA about it and they don't wanna do shiii. I wish I could get every penny I spent over the years back!