Re: [CURRENT ISSUE] The Sims 3 - Issues playing on newer (post 2013) Macs

@EA_Zoe

Amazing! Thank you so much.

For those of you using this update, please take a moment to provide feedback on this thread. It really helps others and EA. Thanks 🙂

This did not work! I downloaded origin in which I Tried to Update it through and it had no option too!

After "installing" the update My game glitches the gam itself takes longer to load. the UI is Fine in Live mode. But the Live mode is just not usable at all.

@AnthonySilvia99

- Did you download Origin through the Origin website or did you download it from the link @EA_Zoe provided?

- Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game since updating Origin?

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@EA_Zoe wrote:

Hi everyone,

We would like to invite players who are experiencing issues with running The Sims 3 on recent Mac models to download and install this version of Origin:

https://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/Origin-Client-Download/origin/forum/34349/Origin.dmg

This should help with compatibility and stability issues.

If you are still unable to launch or play the game after that, please come back to us.

have just done complete uninstall and reinstalled with this new origin installer. when i opened the launcher It asked me if i wanted to update and i clicked later, when i clicked play it crashed and gave the same error as last time, thaat the sims 3 unexpectedly quit. ( it may work if i restart now and update? ) 

I am on a Mac book pro retina 13" early 2015 model running yosemite, with the intel iris 6100 graphics card. I had the issue that the game would not run past the green start up icon and then if you quit it says the game is still open! 

I have been searching around, and  you can play if you partition your harddrive with bootcamp and run the game on windows. There is no other solution for this issue. 

@yummypasta12

You still need to be patched up to 1.67. When you uninstalled did you cleanly uninstall and go into the hidden folders to get rid of all residual files? Or did you just use the Uninstaller?

i just patched up to 1.67 and updated it all, and yes i followed your instructions on the sims forum and trashed all hidden files, the error still occurs  ☹️  @Bluebellflora

thats exactly what i did!! gah, i think i might bootcamp it, when i was younger every birthday i saved up to buy the expansions and i have all of the sims 3 ones! its so annoying i now cant use them  ☹️  and i know that works from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyM1xSi6u-k he bootcamped it and it works fine, and has all the same specs as me 🙂 @Bluebellflora 

@yummypasta12

Your Mac is one of the really problematic ones which I think is down to it's Broadwell processor. The 15" don't seem to suffer so much and they have Haswell processors. So whilst this issue is primarily about graphics cards, mainly Intel Iris and Intel HD 6xxx, the CPUs also seem to be an issue.

Boot Camping is always an option, the game does run so much better in Windows. Have you checked that your Intel graphics are supported? You don't want to go to all that trouble and then find it's still unplayable ☹️

Thank you so much! I patched up to 1.67 and it worked! Thank you!

Happy Simming,

Federuiz22

Yes so I downloaded the version of origin and now when i open Sims 3 it says the game is already running?

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@EA_Zoe wrote:

Hi everyone,

We would like to invite players who are experiencing issues with running The Sims 3 on recent Mac models to download and install this version of Origin:

https://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/Origin-Client-Download/origin/forum/34349/Origin.dmg

This should help with compatibility and stability issues.

If you are still unable to launch or play the game after that, please come back to us.

---

---

@EA_Zoe wrote:

Hi everyone,

We would like to invite players who are experiencing issues with running The Sims 3 on recent Mac models to download and install this version of Origin:

https://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/Origin-Client-Download/origin/forum/34349/Origin.dmg

This should help with compatibility and stability issues.

If you are still unable to launch or play the game after that, please come back to us.

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@Faithy9786

Thanks for the feedback. Have you tried editing the graphics card files as linked to in the opening post?

Hi Zoe

I have just tried to download that version of Origin onto my Macbook Air Early 2015 13inch and it struggles to load Origin. It bounces at the bottom of my screen in the dock but doesn't launch the application. 

@shannonlouise7  The version of Origin you're probably referencing is wildly out of date and won't run at all anymore.  Please follow these instructions for manually uninstalling Origin to clear out any related files you find:

https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-uninstall-origin-on-a-mac/

Then download a new version from here:

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/download

Let me know if it doesn't work.

I did, I installed the version that Zoe posted but nothing is happening when trying to launch Origin. 

@shannonlouise7  This is what I'm saying, the version you installed is likely completely out of date.  I didn't download it, but that post is four years old.

Ah okay, sorry yeah! I'll try that. 

I still can't get mine to work, I don't have any expansions installed and I'm using a 2011 macbook pro, it does have el capitan installed though. When I launch it it immediately shoots back a "unknown error occurred"

@toxicClowder  Please post the full specs of your Mac: everything under About This Mac except for the serial number.   Please also let me know whether you've ever had other packs installed on this computer.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much Puzzle. MacBook Pro (15in Late 2011), Processor - 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 4GB memory 1333 MHz DDR3, Macintosh HD Startup Disk, Graphics - Intel HD Graphics 3000  384 MB

I had installed other packs like years ago, but I have factory reset-ed the computer since. I did install Origin again and on that account I have Supernatural, Late Night, Ambitions, Generations, Pets, University Life and World Adventures but I haven't tried to reinstall those yet. I have all on disk still so I could install them by whatever way works best.

@toxicClowder  Please try bypassing the launcher:

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-how-to-bypass-the-launcher-on-a-mac/

Don't open Origin; just launch the game from its icon in Applicaitons.  If you get another unknown error, try again, except this time take your computer offline beforehand.

If that doesn't help either, please do a clean uninstall of the game:

https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/

and reinstall, again the base game only.  For my own curiosity, try launching it as is, without letting the game update.  Whether or not it works (let me know), run the Super Patch (digital download version), which you can find here:

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/

and try to play again.  If that doesn't help either, create a new admin user account on your Mac and try to play in that account.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you! I finally got the chance to try it and it worked! I uninstalled the game and after re-installing it I skip the update requests, works just fine not even crashing as much as I remember it used to! I might even try installing some of the other expansions I have! Thank you for all your help!

@toxicClowder  If you do install any packs, four of them (Ambitions, Late Night, Fast Lane, and Outdoor Living) need extra help to get installed properly.  For each one, you'd need to create an alias in Applications > The Sims 3, as described here:

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-packs-not-showing-as-installed/

as well as copy a folder from that pack to the folder for your newest pack by release date.  For example, if you install Into the Future, any other pack folders need to go into ITF's folder; the other packs aside from the four I listed transfer on their own.  The video in this post shows how to do it:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-3-Unknown-Error-in-El-Capitan-and-later-OS/m-p/5725514#M4852

You'll also want to run the Super Patch (digital download version) when you're done, and before as well if you install any packs newer than Seasons.

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/

(Origin downloads the patch level that was current when Seasons was released, so newer packs would need an updated version of the base game.)

If you'd like help with the process, just list the packs you plan to install so I can be more specific with the details of the process.

Hey @puzzlezaddict If you got any further advice for me I was kinda fooling around trying to instal a few more packs.

I installed Ambitions and Night Life before doing any reading (arrogance) and didn't realize they were the troublemakers. After a few days I started getting errors whenever I would try to load. 

I then tried to follow the first trick of moving the nightlife program files but realized the game disk was Nightlife so I tried installing generations since it came after and maybe would switch to being the primary disk because of that and added the files to it. It kept telling me it didn't recognize the game disk though. I went and uninstalled generations again.

After that I tried the super patch which I don't think did anything noticeable but I also haven't been using the origin plugin so I don't know if that's my problem.

I have everything on disks, I have Sims 3 main disk, Late Night, Ambitions, Supernatural, Generations, University, World adventures, and Pets. I don't really care about installing them all. I think I'd love to do Late Night, University, Ambitions and maybe generations or supernatural.