Re: Deleted EA folder, now I can't install any new custom content through launcher?!

Sigh. I tried downloading it using Firefox and with the launcher already opened, but it still does the same: 

It opens up that new Sims 3 icon, but that's it. No installation pop up comes up. This is so annoying. I really wanted to play Sunlit Tides...

What do you mean a clean folder and how exactly do I create it or move stuff to it? As of right now, the only way I can even install CC is by moving the files to the downloads folder of the EA folder in the weird documents thing. I tried moving the EA folder to my normal "documents" and then moving the files there, but all it did was create a new EA file in the weird documents folder... I don't know if I make sense... 

So in purple is the original Documents folder that has always been in my Mac, where the original EA folder was before I deleted it. The one in red is the weird one which I found hidden. 

@mayi0715  It's very strange to me what's going on with your system.  On mine, I've never messed with the Documents setup, and my Documents folder, with the Electronic Arts folder inside, is in the sidebar with the icon in red next to it.  Unless you have some odd settings on your computer, that's where I would expect Sims 3 to look for its user data folder.

To clarify whether files are being moved or copied back and forth due to some system setting, please open the launcher again and close it.  Then go into each Documents folder, look for an Electronic Arts folder with a Sims 3 folder inside, and sort the contents of the Sims 3 folder by date modified.  (Click on the header.)  In the folder that the game is using, you'll see that a couple of files will have a timestamp from when you opened the launcher a minute ago.  For example:

Let me know which Sims 3 folder was updated, or if both were.

I don't know if this information is going to help or not, but what the OP is experiencing with the TS3 user game folder having been spawned deep within transgaming instead of the usual place in Documents where we normally see it, and the Launcher continuing to look for it there after it has been removed, used to be common on Mac installs a very long time ago on older operating systems. I think the issue may pre-date Origin for Mac and it may at one time have been related to the game's installer not having sufficient rights to the user's Documents folder, so it fell back to a place it did have rights to manage.

Unless someone else with a better memory than mine knows of a shortcut, and I hate to say this because it's not usually the recommended course of action, the OP may need to uninstall TS3 entirely (the manual way), clean up Library file leftovers, and re-install from scratch (again) in order to fix this. And of course test the new install as soon as practical to make sure the issue of strangely located user game folders spawning in the wrong place does not return on its own.

@igazor  Interesting, I don't remember that at all, but then I certainly wasn't poking around package contents back then.  I actually just checked my own macOS install, and I do have one Documents folder alongside the Program Files folder, in the contents of the Generations .app.  That's my newest currently installed pack, at least in this environment.  Inside Documents is an Electronic Arts folder, then The Sims 3, then an empty Screenshots folder and nothing else.  My game works fine, and the few screenshots I've taken have landed in their usual place.

I notice now that the OP's two extraneous Documents folders are inside the package contents of the two newest packs, although there isn't one in Generations.  Perhaps the newest pack by release date gets one of these Screenshots folders, in its pretend directory?  And maybe that only happens with packs released after a certain point?  Now I want to experiment a bit... but probably not tonight.

@mayi0715  If you can remember, I'd love to know what order you installed your packs in this time, or at least how many of your installed packs were at some point the newest you had installed.  (For example, if you installed Ambitions last, it would never have been your newest pack; Island Paradise is your newest one now.)  If you're not sure though, don't worry about it; this is just for my own curiosity, and I can certainly play around with it myself at some point.

Hello guys. To give you an update. I got so frustrated yesterday that I deleted and uninstalled everything. I had done that before but it hadn't worked because I hadn't found the EA folder. Now that I know where it was I deleted it too. And all the transgaming files and all that. Anyway, I reinstalled the base game, played it for a bit and saved, and went to check if there was any new EA file in the normal Documents folder. There wasn't. But to my surprise, I was able to double click on files to get them to install through the launcher. I then went to the Store and it downloaded and installed Sunlit Tides like normal. I was thrilled, and I installed the rest of my expansion packs. I played and it worked fine. But then when I went to try to install other CC or store content again, I was back to the same problem. It seems the stupid launcher doesn't like my expansion packs. I checked again and the EA folder was once again created in the weird hidden Documents folder.

I'm wondering if the problems with the launcher and the expansion packs has something to do with these steps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Jy5yrjuuc. See, after installing the expansion packs, I get the "unknown error occurred" message when I tried to open the launcher again. So I follow the steps in the above video to fix it. I've done it multiple times already since I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything like five times now. 

Any other ideas guys? 

Thank you for helping me. 

@mayi0715  That video is, well, not accurate.  It's not necessarily harmful on its own, it's just far more work than you need to do.  The folders the video shows how to copy only need to be in your newest pack by release date, so Island Paradise in your case.  The other copies of those folders you created are extraneous.  I only have copies in my newest pack by release date, and I can still open the launcher fine by double-clicking on the icon for the newest pack, or the base game icon, or most of the other icons.  (There's an issue with a couple that I haven't bothered to fix, but it's not important.)

The other consideration is that you're copying around so much data, the game can take up several times the storage it requires.  About 7 minutes in, the narrator says "Now I can't tell you where those files are supposed to go, whether it's supposed to go into the [location 1] or [location 2].  I don't know.  I'm just covering my bases by putting them all into the same place."  The files need to go in one place, just one, not all of them.  That one place is the one described in corey_0414's original video.  The entire game should take about 30 GB, and of course a lot less if you don't have all the expansions.

None of this should have anything to do with the launcher not installing content though.  The fact that it worked when you only had the base game installed, but not the packs, suggests that your browser might be calling the wrong pack when it tries to open the launcher (even if the launcher is already open).  I said this a couple comments ago:

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It's also better to use Firefox than Safari or Chrome, which seem to not work as well with the store, at least at times. And make sure when Firefox asks you which app to use to "open" the download, you're selecting the Sims 3 app, the one with the green plumbob next to it.

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Did this ever make a difference?  When I click Download on an item, I do briefly see the base game icon in the Dock, but then it disappears again, while the pack icon stays.  And to clarify, when I click Download, Firefox shows me this:

and I choose the base game icon that's highlighted.  If you don't see that pop-up, then perhaps you at some point clicked the box to "remember my choice" after selecting the icon for one of the packs.  You can reset that option—how to do it will depend on the browser—or you could try a different browser where you haven't made the selection.

I did notice that the launcher only worked until after I pasted the folders into Island Paradise. If gotta do that again I will just skip pasting the files anywhere else...

Yeah no, I've tried that with Firefox, both before and after unistalling and reinstalling. Here's what it shows:

If I don't have the launcher open, all it does is open the launcher. If I already have the launcher open, it opens up an extra Sims 3 icon besides it, but that's it.

@mayi0715  In that screen, click Choose, open Applications > The Sims 3, and choose the base game icon.  This should actually be a separate entry than the one you're seeing.

@mayi0715  Try in a new admin user account on your Mac.  You won't need to install the game again, just open the launcher from Applications, sign into the store site, and try to download something.

By the way, you won't have access to your previous user data in the new account, but that's fixable in a few different ways.