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IamJazzyD's avatar
IamJazzyD
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago

OneDrive Syncing with Sims 3 Serious Issue

Hello Simmers!

I'm having a glorious fight with OneDrive and would really appreciate some help.

I am a big Sims 3 and Sims 4 player. I currently have no save data for either game - I accidentally deleted during some previous attempts to fix this problem. But, I don't get attached to saves, so I'm not bothered. I am playing through the EA App on a laptop, on Windows 11. I have many expansions and packs, but no mods - never had mods.

I have OneDrive on my laptop, and due to work want to keep my files on it. I've read so many forums with the solution being to uninstall OneDrive. Even if this is temporary, I am very reluctant to do, since I have a delicate OneDrive set up with other devices and document access.

I've had this problem before - maybe a year ago - where I kept getting Error 16 and 'Serious error' on Sims 3 every time loading or saving. I have no clue how I fixed it. I recently had an issue with OneDrive refusing to sync, with the error that I had a folder named 'Electronic Arts' both on my laptop and in OneDrive, and I had to delete/rename one. After a mad deleting spree this error has gone. I might have caused this problem with my original fix?

However, now, after this spree, I'm back to Error 16 and 'Serious Error' all the time on Sims 3. I've done some light Sims 4 testing, and it doesn't seem to be having any issues. My problem is only with Sims 3.

I've probably spent about 4 hours troubleshooting the common/simple solutions on the forums already. I've tried repairing Sims 3 through the EA app, uninstalling and reinstalling Sims 3, installing no expansions, pausing OneDrive syncing, making the 'Electronic Arts' folder within documents on OneDrive 'always available on this device', and renaming 'The Sims 3' to 'The Sims 3 Old'. So far, nothing has been a successful fix. (I am closing the game/launcher in between each attempt.)

The best I can get is with OneDrive sync paused. Then I launch the game. From the game launcher it lets me make a new world. I save this as 'test world'. I close the game and launcher. I reopen the launcher and game, and can load 'test world'. 

However, it breaks quickly. I close the game and launcher, and unpause OneDrive sync. Once it has finished syncing, I then pause sync again. I reopen Sims 3. I cannot load 'test world' or start a new game (I get Serious Error'). 

Are there any solutions that I haven't tried that don't involve uninstalling OneDrive in any way? I am extremely reluctant to mess with it.

Many thanks in advance.

P.S. Apologies for the wall of text, I wanted to give as much context as possible.

corrupted save
never cc or mods
pc
technical issues

2 Replies

  • IamJazzyD's avatar
    IamJazzyD
    Seasoned Newcomer
    1 day ago

    Hi! puzzlezaddict​ 

    Thanks for your response. I've read about the second admin account, but you're correct in that I'm not sure it's quite the right workaround for my system.

    I've had a go at the following tests:

    1. I paused syncing. I opened the launcher and the game. Created a new household and saved as 'first test'. I was able to save it again, no problem. I could quit to the launcher and reopen 'first test'. I could save 'first test'. Then I shut the game and the launcher. I renamed the folder to 'The Sims 3 Old'. I paused syncing. I opened the launcher and spawned the new folder 'The Sims 3'. I cut and paste the entire 'Saves' folder into 'The Sims 3'. I opened the game. I was able to load 'first test'! However when I then tried to save 'first test', I got error code 16.
    2. I deleted both 'The Sims 3' and 'The Sims 3 Old' from my documents. I cut and paste just 'Saves' folder into 'Downloads'. I resumed syncing. Once it had finished I paused syncing, and pasted 'Saves' back into 'The Sims 3'. I opened the launcher and the game. I got a Serious Error when I tried to load 'second test', and a Serious Error when I tried to start a new game.
    3. I deleted 'The Sims 3' from my documents. I paused syncing. I opened the launcher and the game. Created a new household and saved as 'third test'. I shut the game and the launcher. I cut and paste the entire 'The Sims 3' folder into 'Downloads'. I resumed syncing. Once it had finished I paused syncing, and pasted 'The Sims 3' back into 'Electronic Arts'. I opened the launcher and the game. I was able to reload 'third test' and save it, no errors. I was able to start a new game.

    While the third test has given me a functional workaround (I really appreciate that suggestion, thank you) it was a little clunky, and I'm keen to see if there's anything else that works better. If you have the time, I'm interested in having a go at the symbolic link.

    If relevant at all, my OneDrive has 800GB available and my C: drive has 83GB available.

    Thanks again!

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    1 day ago

    IamJazzyD​  Depending on how you use your computer, the easiest workaround may be to create a second admin Windows account and play there.  Don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address (you can keep saying you don't have that info until you get some security questions instead), and OneDrive won't be able to hook into that account.

    That however assumes you wouldn't need access to your other data while playing Sims 3, and that you wouldn't have any reason to play while working with your other data.  Files can of course be passed between accounts, but that might not be enough to make your setup work.

    If you do want to keep using your main account for Sims 3, for work reasons or otherwise, a symbolic link redirecting the Sims 3 folder elsewhere might work.  I haven't tested whether it fixes the OneDrive-related serious error issue because I use OneDrive as little as possible, but it's easy enough to try.  Let me know if you're interested and need help setting it up.

    The other question is whether it would work to pause syncing, remove the Sims 3 folder, open the launcher to spawn a new folder, and move the Saves subfolder to the new Sims 3 folder.  The idea is, once you've created a save but can't reopen it, even with syncing paused, maybe you could load that save in a new folder.  Saved households and builds can also be copied over; they're in Library.

    Finally, I'm curious as to whether it helps to remove the Sims 3 folder before you resume syncing, then only put it back when you've paused syncing again.  OneDrive also syncs the Desktop folder, unless you've blocked that, so you'd want to put the folder elsewhere.  Downloads is a good candidate since it has no extra protections (unlike Program Files), is easily accessible, and doesn't get synced.

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