@daydreamqt Please post the full specs of your Mac, as described here:
Please also let me know whether there's a pattern to the crashing, for example if you or your sims do anything specific. And let me know whether you use mods and custom content as well. It's fine if you do, but the content does need to be taken into account.
Operating System (Version): Version 10.15.7
Mac model: MacBook Pro 13 inch 2019
Processor: 1.7 GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7
Memory (RAM): 8GB 2133 MHz
Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 1536 MB
Are you running any antivirus?: No
What Expansion and Stuff Packs do you have installed?: Base game, Generations, Late Night, Pets, Seasons, University Life, High End Loft Stuff
Do you use CC/Mods? If so, have you tried removing them and seeing if that fixes your problem?: No I don't use CC/Mods
I made 1 sim and a cat, and then I was taken to the map view where you can choose what home you want to live in. Previewing a house makes the game freeze for a moment and the rainbow wheel to show up, and then it loads and works fine. Exiting the house preview makes it do the same thing, and then after a few seconds it works fine. The first time around I had my sim buy the house and when the lot loaded up with my sims there I went to build/buy mode and was rearranging the furniture. I used the moveobjects cheat just so things would look a little nicer, and then it just crashed. The second time I got a bit farther. I was able to just buy the house and use moveobjects, etc. Then, I had the cat stay at the house while my sim went to the library. Fast forwarding time on the 3rd speed makes my game freeze, and after a minute or so it works fine (I kept pressing pause and hitting the normal speed while it was frozen). I tried it a second time and tried only doing the 2x speed and the same thing happened. And after a minute of normalcy it just crashed again... I'm not sure whats going on, but honestly both times I feel like I was able to play for about the same amount of time before the crashing...
@daydreamqt As a test, could you try doing the same thing except without a cat in the household? Pets have always been demanding to render, and it would be useful to know whether the pet is the issue in this case or it's something else.
Okay, I just ran a test. I made only 1 sim, no pets. After making the sim and going to the map view where you can pick a house to move into, everything was smooth. Short loading time for the lot preview, both entering and exiting it. I picked a house and decided to not move any furniture. I just had my sim go to the library and get started on a skill. Fast forwarding time at first was smooth, and then it froze my game again. So after it was done freezing and the rainbow wheel went away, I just kept it at the normal speed. I wanted her to go to the park, so I went to the map view and when I clicked on the lot, it froze again and the rainbow wheel appeared. It was like that for a while and then it loaded the lot. I had her "go here" (just some random area on the lot) and I followed her to the lot. However, when she stepped onto the lot it hadn't fully loaded in yet, and then my game froze again. I just saved and quit after that. It froze three times in less than ten minutes... again, I thought the 64bit was supposed to push the computer and make it less buggy ☹️ ...
@daydreamqt This was just a compatibility update: something to make the game run in operating systems that don't support 32-bit apps. The game is supposed to be as buggy as it ever was, although your issues are beyond the normal problems in either version of the game.
Please post a screenshot of your in-game settings. When in-game, click cmd-enter to switch to windowed mode. Click the three dots in the lower left corner of the game window, select Options, and take a screenshot of the settings in the first tab. To take a screenshot, click cmd-shift-4 and drag your cursor over the section of screen you want to capture. The screenshot will land on your desktop, and you can embed it within or attach it to a post.
Ah okay, that makes sense. Anyway, I attached the screenshot. For whatever reason, the game forces my whole screen into a 4:3 aspect ratio and changing the settings just makes all the UI super tiny in-game and doesn't actually change the ratio of the screen... That's something that is inconvenient but manageable. The freezing every few minutes is my main issue ☹️ But anyway, those were the default settings. I didn't change them except for the "Enable Animation Smoothing" (when I played the game I enabled it).
@daydreamqt For the screen resolution, try deleting options.ini (in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3) and letting the game spawn a new one. Switch to windowed mode (cmd-enter) and apply the change, then switch to another resolution.
When you change any settings other than those two, be sure to do so at the Main Menu and then quit the game before loading a save.
As a test, please change all your settings to low and see whether the same issues occur. I'm not saying you need to play on low settings going forward, but I am wondering whether a particular setting is a problem.
Thank you for the tip about the screen resolution! It looks a lot better now lol. Anyway, I made all the settings to the very lowest. I think that's what the issue was! I was able to have time fast forward with no problems and have my sim travel from one lot to another with no freezing. What should I do so that I don't have to play with all the graphics at the lowest setting though?
@daydreamqt The fast-forwarding may be an issue going forward—it's often a problem even in Windows on computers that can otherwise handle all packs on ultra settings. For the other issue, try raising one or two settings at a time and see how it goes. Your graphics chip is above the minimum requirement for this new version of Sims 3, but not by a large margin, so performance may always be less than ideal.
I'd be interested to know whether certain settings, and certain levels within those settings, tend to cause more issues than others, so please let me know what you find. The point is though to figure out how you can play with good enough graphics and no crashes, so if you find some combination that works for you, stick with it.
I am having the same crashing issue- by the way you fixed my issue with the game not launching, so thank you! I switched all my settings to low as well as it was freezing a ton, but now a new problem; the crashing. No particular time or order either, sometimes soon sometimes later. I have been saving intermittently.
I am having this same issue. I can play for about 30 minutes directly after starting up my computer, but then it crashes. Each subsequent time I start up the game, the play time gets shorter and shorter before it crashes. That's my only issue- crash after crash. Everything works fine for me, my launcher, all my cc show up, and the game it's super slow or laggy. I believe I'm already playing in windowed mode bc my game doesn't take up my whole screen. I don't have all the packs either or any mods, but I do have cc. But I also don't believe that's the problem bc people using only the base game have experienced crashing. Could this be memory issues? I really need help bc I have missed this game so much. I haven't played it in 4 years bc of all the issues ☹️
@smallfry0270 and @Akosantwi79 Please attach your deviceconfig.log, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. You'll neeed to manually open the folders; the file won't show up in a search. You can delete your user and computer names, about 25 lines down, but there's nothing else in that file that can identify you.
Please also try playing in Sunset Valley rather than another world—SV is among the most stable of worlds and is a good baseline for judging performance. And try playing with no pets in the household, if you haven't already.
@Akosantwi79 When you're playing in fullscreen mode but the in-game resolution doesn't match the native resolution of your screen, you'll sometimes get black bars on either side of the game window, as opposed to the window stretching unnaturally to fill the screen. This is still fullscreen mode. To switch to windowed mode, hit cmd-enter at the Main Menu, or edit options.ini (in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3) to set fullscreen to 0.
@puzzlezaddict Here is the info. Also, are the graphics stats okay to run the game on my computer?
@Vibama I'm sorry to hear that. I don't think 8 GB RAM is the issue itself; it may be that overloaded saves don't run well, or the game doesn't run well when other apps are open in the background and using a lot of memory. But based on how much RAM a new save uses for me, I wouldn't expect memory to be the limiting factor alone. Restarting your computer before playing would help free up as much memory as possible, if you wanted to test, and you could see the system and game RAM use in real time in the Activity Monitor.
The missing open water options is a known issue that affects everyone, as far as I can tell. It has its own thread:
But if you're not interested in trying anymore, I understand.
@Akosantwi79 Your hardware is actually below the minimum requirement for the 64-bit version of Sims 3. That doesn't mean you necessarily can't play, just that performance may not be great, especially if you play with Pets (might not work at all) or Seasons (you might see crashes during inclement weather). It can help to play in windowed mode and on low settings.
@amycoLLiNs4518 For the Finalizing issue, try repairing the game in Origin: open your game library, right-click on the Sims 3 icon, and select Repair. If that doesn't help, run the Origin reset tool for macOS:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/how-to-reset-origin-on-mac/
and repair again. If that doesn't help either, then hopefully a future Origin update will fix this—it may be related to the issue of packs being grayed out at the bottom of the launcher, which will need an Origin update to fix. We hope that will happen soon; it's already fixed in the "technical preview" (beta version).
Hello!
I am having this same exact issue as everyone explains. My game crashes and closes every 30 mins. The last 3 times I tried to play and my game closes out on me. Yesterday, evening as I was playing. I notice every time I fast forward the game would freeze and the rainbow wheel appeared.
@biancaadav Does it help to play in windowed mode? If that alone doesn't make a difference, try lowering all the graphics settings as well. If the game is then stable, you can try raising one setting at a time to see whether any of them cause crashes.
Fast forward has always been a little dicey in Sims 3, especially on low-end hardware. It's unfortunately not likely to change, although it's possible lowering one setting or another will help.
Thank you for responding. How do I play in windowed mode? I'll try that and will give you an update
Damn I'm also experiencing these crashes.
I'm playing in fulscreen mode but I'm not planning on playing in windowed mode or lowering graphics settings since they're already quite low. I thought this game was supposed to work as before and I don't think that it's my job to fix it. I hope they'll patch it sooner than later. I'll attach the macOS crash log if it happens again.
EDIT: I attached the crash report.
Ok I will try that! I did play last night with my expansion packs on low settings and windowed mode and it worked perfect as well, I’m gonna play around with it to see when the freezing and the lagging starts.
@biancaadav You can switch between fullscreen and windowed modes by clicking cmd-enter either at the Main Menu or once your save is loaded. If that doesn't work for some reason, as it doesn't for a few people, go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, open options.ini, cmd-F to search for fullscreen, and set it to 0.
@Sebosze Please try playing in a clean user folder. Move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you open the launcher, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Don't add anything to it yet; just see whether you get the same error. Let me know either way.
If you do get another error, please post the same crash log. I'd also like to see a deviceconfig, which will be in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. Your user and computer names are about 25 lines down, so feel free to delete those, but there's no other personal information in the file.
Here's the DeviceConfig.log:
@Sebosze Are you still getting crashes even in the clean folder? Does it help to play in windowed mode? Please also play with nothing else running on your computer other than Origin, immediately after restarting.
