Re: Sims 3 won't load worlds

Heya, @puzzlezaddict so I already had moved the folder out and tried that. It moved but the game wouldn't run. 
I did a dxdiag prior too. I do have one drive running and I am using it. Will this cause issues for it?

@HellzKillerRox  Please try pausing OneDrive syncing, which you can do by right-clicking the cloud icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.  OneDrive could easily cause this issue by locking up access to Documents and therefore the user folder.

If that doesn't help, please let me know what antivirus you use, or try disabling it, temporarily of course, to see whether it helps.  As long as you don't do anything else while testing, your computer should be safe.

@puzzlezaddict Paused the syncing, still coming up with the same issue. 
My antivirus is Norton

I honestly have no idea what is going on and its insane

@HellzKillerRox  Please disable Norton just long enough to test Sims 3.  Norton is usually fine but does occasionally act up.  If this helps, you can set an exception for TS3.exe; setting one for EADesktop.exe shouldn't be necessary, but it won't hurt.

If that doesn't help, please create a new admin Windows account and try playing there.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account.  You'll be able to launch the EA App and Sims 3 without reinstalling anything, but your saves and other user content won't be available.  Disable Norton when creating the account and testing the game as well, just to be thorough.

@puzzlezaddict I disabled Norton, didn't work. 
It wouldn't run at all on a second account, even EA wouldn't work. 
I feel like we are running out of ideas

@HellzKillerRox  Sorry for the late reply; I got pulled away from the computer early yesterday and didn't end up responding to everything like I'd planned.

I have two suggestions here, which you can do in either order.  One is to uninstall Sims 3 and the EA App with Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine), then restart and reinstall both.  In this case, I would disabling Norton before reinstalling the App, and not reenabling it until after you've tested Sims 3; and also using another new local admin account to reinstall, just to be thorough.  If you want to preserve your saves or other user data, rename the original Sims 3 folder you moved out of Documents > Electronic Arts so that Revo doesn't flag it for deletion.

The other suggestion is to do a repair install of Windows, because this could be a system issue and a repair install addresses a lot of problems at once without too much hassle.  Here's how to do it (option two):

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/repair-install-windows-11-with-an-in-place-upgrade.418/

This shouldn't delete your data, but if you get to step 14 and are NOT asked to keep personal files and apps, back out and start over.

You can do these in either order, although the repair install is a lot faster if you don't have extremely fast download speeds.

@puzzlezaddict Hey sorry for not getting back to you. Nothing has worked. I am officially giving up. But thank you so much for your help. Hopefully in the future I will get to play it again. Its getting way out of my skill range and not having any luck is a bummer. I may try again in a few months. But regardless thank you for all your help and guidance. It was super appreciated. 

@HellzKillerRox  I'll be here if and when you want to keep trying.  In that case, please include a fresh dxdiag when you reply.

@puzzlezaddict Heya, so I decided to run the sims 3 on my older PC and had no issues running it at all. So I believe there is something missing on my current PC to do with the games files which won't allow it to run. I don't believe the PC itself but something with the game

@HellzKillerRox  Would you be willing to revert this computer to Windows 10?  Its hardware is not officially compatible with Windows 11, and while I haven't seen many issues with PCs that are slightly too old for 11, your processor is six generations too old, which means its firmware and chipset drivers are too.  I can't tell you for sure that this is the problem, only that it's a reasonable suspect at this point.

If you don't want to try that, or want to put it off, try playing in a clean boot:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.

@puzzlezaddict if I go about resorting back to Windows 10 will I still be able to run any other game I have currently on my PC?

I'm only having issues with the sims 3 and nothing else.

The weird and annoying thing about this whole thing is that I have run the sims 3 on this pc before without any issues.

@HellzKillerRox  Any game that runs in Windows 11 would also run in 10.  You'd be erasing the C drive, so any games installed there would need to be reinstalled, and you'd need to use the standard "locate game" option for games installed elsewhere, or else tell the launcher to reinstall them to the same location so as to recreate the required registry entries.  So it would be some work, but not a permanent barrier to playing those games.

I can't tell you that running Windows 11 on unsupported hardware is in fact your issue.  And I can't tell you why it would only be a problem now, although 11 is changing here and there with new updates, and it's entirely possible something recent broke the previous reasonably-good compatibility with your system.  If you'd rather try a clean boot first, that's totally understandable.

Another way to hedge your bets, so to speak, would be to partition one of your drives and install Windows 10 there.  You'd then have a dual-boot system and be able to select which OS to use, and while you'd need to "reinstall" Sims 3 (to recreate the registry entries), you could skip that step with any game running fine in 11.  If it worked, you'd have a decision to make; if not, you'd have established that the OS is not in fact the problem here.

Hi, I'm having the same issue exactly like the OP. I reinstalled the game after 2 years and I can't open any world. There are some WORLD files missing in the folders too. The thing is that I have the game on Steam instead of the EA app.

I'd like to add that I didn't change anything about my PC since the last time I played the game except for a SSD in which I installed the game in. Do you know if this changes anything?

@madchester1945  Installing Sims 3 on an SSD should be better, not worse, and reinstalling the game shouldn't affect your user data.  Try instead installing the worlds into a clean user folder, one at a time.  Here's a more detailed explanation:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Store-Issues/Read-First-Sims-3-Store-guide/m-p/13479974#M1296

Hello, I have been trying to reinstall The Sims 3, and I am having the same problem. The strange thing is that the base game alone works fine, even with downloads that I have from the Store. However, as soon as I add any packs, then none of the worlds loads; instead there is a message saying something about a critical or fatal error loading the world, and it recommends I try again. I am trying to install it in my SSD.