Re: How to restore Sims 3 previous save with no "Saves" folder on MAC?

@pinknails122  Cloud saving isn't supported for Sims 3: your saves aren't stored on EA servers no matter what settings you have.

I understand you're reluctant to use Terminal, but it's the fastest way to find the files you're looking for; Spotlight may not find them at all.  The components of the command I wrote are as follows:

find :  intructs Terminal to find

/ : search the entire hard drive

-type d : only look for entries that are "type directory," i.e. folders

-name "Saves" : find only entries named "Saves"

2>/dev/null : send all errors to the void—Terminal can't search certain protected locations, and this prevents it from listing an error for each one

I ran this command myself before posting, as I always do (it's the easiest way to check for errors in the syntax), and it reported on my main Saves folder and two other backups I have on my hard drive.  I can post the results if you like.  But really, I don't know of an efficient way to figure this out without Terminal, and I don't want to just tell you to start opening random folders and looking for saves.

So I got a bunch of "Permission denied", some "Operation not permitted" and 4 lines regarding Sims: 

1. This was like ~150 lines from the bottom:

System/Volumes/Data/Users/USERNAME/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves

2.This was the 7th to last line: 

/Users/USERNAME/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves

3.This was the 3rd to last line:

/System/Volumes/Data/Users/USERNAME/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves

4. This was the 2nd to last line: 

/Users/USERNAME/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves

When I tried to find lines 2/4, there was no "documents" after clicking my username folder. 

@pinknails122  Are the two usernames in the Terminal output both the same as the one you use?  Terminal is only supposed to output one line for each entry it finds, so if it's reporting two separate Saves folders in what appears to be the exact same file path, something is definitely strange.

it's also strange that you wouldn't see a Documents folder, and I'm not sure why it wouldn't be present.  Do you have iCloud enabled, and if so, is it set to move the contents of Documents to cloud storage?  What about Google Drive: do you have it set to sync Documents or any other content?

I only have one username and account with my Mac/Apple. Maybe it looked in the same folders twice? I don't know if that is possible. I found another EA folder under my iCloud drive! It has all the folders, yay!! But its still weird because I used the search bar for anything related to EA, Sims, etc and it only found one set of EA files without the "Saves" folder.

Now, that I see "Saves" and all the game files are there, what do I do? 

@pinknails122  Normally, it would be as simple as moving or copying the saves to the local version of Documents.  But since that folder isn't showing up for you, you'll need to take a few more steps.

First, copy the Sims 3 folder that has your saves in it to another location that is not your desktop.  I dump things in Downloads sometimes, since Downloads doesn't get synced, but it would be safer to use an external drive or USB stick.  It's also a good idea to zip the folder before transferring to external storage.

Next, disable the iCloud syncing of Documents and Desktop, as described in this article:

https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/

Then open Macintosh HD > Users > your username and look for a Documents folder.  If it's not there, disable iCloud Drive entirely, restart your computer, and look again.  If it's still not there, let me know.

Otherwise, you can move the Sims 3 content to this version of Documents, although you may find that some files are already there.  If you see your saves, you can try loading them or their backups before copying over any files, and only use the ones you found in iCloud if the ones on your hard drive don't load.

Okay so I got everything set. Which set of files do I delete/copy/rename? I want to play the game before I saved and remove the file that I saved because it crashes. 

@pinknails122  For whatever your save name is, you'll see a folder with that name and another with the same name plus a .backup extension.  For example, if your save is SunsetValley, you'll see a SunsetValley.sims3 folder and a SunsetValley.sims3.backup folder.  The first is from the last time you saved; the second is from the second-to-last time.  If you rename that folder and delete the .backup extension (e.g. SunsetValley1.sims3), you'll be able to load it from the Main Menu.

If you happen to have multiple save folders with the same name, check their modified dates: right-click and select Get Info and look at the "Modified" entry.  You should be able to tell which one is the newest and put that aside, then test the older one(s) individually if necessary.  As long as you don't have two folders with exactly the same name, they can all be in the same Saves folder.

So, I did all that and loaded the game and now I have no games available to open. Its as if its a new install and I'm starting from scratch! Ugh.

I have the files under save though so why is this happening? Why can't I ever play Sims w/o having issues left and right? Lol. 

@pinknails122  It sounds like your saves are now not in the location the game is reading.  Maybe you moved them from the correct location to a different one?  You can try putting them back where you found them; you'll know at the Main Menu whether they're loading.

I had to have moved them to a correct location bc I moved the files in the only set that had "Saves" as one of the folders to my downloads area (temporarily). So all the correct files are the ones I transferred to the downloads area to free up iCloud. The other "EA" file set had only 5-6 folders and were all empty before I moved anything so it must of been some glitch or remnants of a previous installation that I did almost 2 weeks ago since I was having trouble with a different issue. Maybe I forgot to delete all EA/Sim/Origin related things before reinstalling everything. I don't know but I feel like I did everything correctly. 

@pinknails122  There are a few ways you could go about this.  The most straightforward one I can think of is to create a new save and see where it lands.  Call it testsave , exactly that, and quit the game.  Restart your computer, launch Sims 3 again, and see whether you can load that save.  If you can't, then the issue is likely iCloud moving files to cloud storage, and you need to disable that:

https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/

If the save is available, that's great: you just need to put the other saves where this one is.  Run Terminal find command to find its location:

find / -name "testsave" 2>/dev/null

Terminal is case sensitive and will also only search for something with the exact string in quotes, so if you name your test save something else, change the command accordingly.  The point is, wherever this save is, your other saves need to go there too.

Because I lost my other games I just created a new game, family, house, etc and it seems to run fine. I still can't load Twinbrook as it freezes while it loads, that's a huge bummer. That was a separate issue I had before this current issue took place though.

@pinknails122  I'm not sure what's going on with Twinbrook.  If you're loading it with the Pets expansion present, some error in calculating pet routing might explain the issue, although that's just a guess based on how pets and houses with foundations don't always get along.  You could also try deleting and reinstalling Pets: open either Applications > The Sims 3 Packs or Users > your username > Applications > The Sims 3 Packs, move the EP05 folder to the desktop, and you'll be able to redownload the pack.