@luckypalmer Try disabling Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.
If that doesn't help, try playing while your computer is offline. Sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or unplug the ethernet cable before opening the launcher.
The game is working perfectly fine now thank you so much!! Hope this thread can help anyone with the same problem 🙂)
@luckypalmer I'm glad to here it. Was it enough to simply disable Origin in-game, or did you need to play with Origin offline, or with your computer offline as well? You're not the only person to report this issue, so I'm curious.
@steingab000 Try setting the game to launch in windowed mode. Go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, open the file labeled options.ini, cmd-F to search for fullscreen, and set it to 0.
If that doesn't help, please let me know what operating system you have.
@puzzlezaddict Hello, I downloaded the game and it let me play for a week or so before it started to shut down. Every time I open up the game it lets me click which family I want to play with and loads up that game too, however, it only works for less than a minute before it stops responding and I can't close the game unless I force quit. I don't know what to do to fix it and I'm not very tech savvy. Any help would be appreciated.
@Luisxxluisxx Does this happen with a new save as well? Please start one for comparison and let me know.
@Luisxxluisxx There are any number of reasons a save might stop working, but having too many sims is unlikely to cause a problem alone. What usually happens in that case is the game starts to bog down, loading or running more slowly, but still generally works. I'd think a glitch, maybe something happening in-game right at that time, would be more probable.
Another common issue on certain Macs is playing with a pet. Do you have Pets installed, and if so, does your active household include a pet?
@Luisxxluisxx If you want to try to rescue this save, let me know. There are mod-related ways to do it, and a couple of non-mod-related approaches. You could also try saving the household to the in-game library; if it works, you could place them in a new save. Be sure to quit to desktop after leaving one save and before starting another one though—doing otherwise is an easy way to corrupt your saves.
@Kamara6612 What happens when you do play in fullscreen? Please describe how the game works or doesn't work for you, and list the packs you currently have installed and the world(s) in which you're playing.
Please also attach your deviceconfig.log to a post; it's in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. (You'll need 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.
@puzzlezaddict It brings me into either a zoomed-in version of my home screen or a black screen with a white box in the middle that says Sims 3 at the top. Both requiring me to force quit my game. I have not yet been able to play my game at all since the installation of 64-Bit so I don't know how the game functions yet.
Expansion Packs: Generations, Into the future, Late Night, Pets, Supernatural, World Adventures,
Stuff Packs: High-End Loft Stuff
@Kamara6612 Just checking, but when you open options.ini, are you using TextEdit, and when you save the change, does the file still have the .ini extension? If the file has a different extension, the game won't be able to read it, but another file with the name "options" would block the creation of a new options.ini in the same location.
Otherwise, try disabling Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.
If that doesn't help, try editing options.ini to set a different resolution. Search the file for resolution, and you should see something like this:
resolution = 1024 768 0
Try 2048x1152 and 2304x1296, both in fullscreen and windowed mode.
Hello, thank you for checking in! I am using TextEdit and when I save the changes it does still say .ini. I tried disabling Origin in-game to no avail. I just changed the resolution for both windowed and fullscreen with the same results as in the photo attached. If you can not figure out the issue, do not stress. It is perfectly fine. I absolutely appreciate your time and effort.
@Kamara6612 Try playing in a new user account on your Mac. Make sure it's an admin account; use only letters and numbers, no special characters or accents, in the username. And don't import any settings or any files from your existing account, or sign into iCloud Drive, or really anything you do in your current one.
If that doesn't help, do you have a cleaner app or similar installed on your Mac? If so, please disable or uninstall it—these apps do more harm than good and can even remove critical system files. If you have an antivirus installed, please try disabling it at least long enough to test. Some programs block applications from writing to Documents, which would prevent Sims 3 from working.
@puzzlezaddict I have read through everything on this thread and nothing at all is working for me. Can you explain what you mean by changing the resolution for full screen and windowed screen? I want to make sure I am going about this the right way. Thanks!
@sydneywhite1315 The options file won't accept most resolution values and will simply reset to the default or the last supported resolution. So instead, try changing the settings from the game options. Cmd-return should switch between fullscreen and windowed modes, but for a few people, that doesn't work; you can try cmd-crtl-F instead, which is the OS's command for the same.
When playing in fullscreen, you should always choose a resolution that matches the aspect ratio of your monitor, although it doesn't matter in windowed mode. For example, my laptop has a 2880x1800 resolution, so I'd choose that or a lower resolution that still has a 16:10 aspect ratio.
Hi, my gam will let me play with a family for a couple minutes then kicks me out. I also have every Sims 3 expansion pack installed and it won't connect them to my Sims 3 game on my mac? It says I have them "unlocked" but won't let me play with them
@peytonnelson Are you playing the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Sims 3? Are any of your packs installed, or do you only have the base game?
And let me know whether you've installed any mods or custom content. It's fine if you have; I just need to take the content into account.
Please also list the full specs of your Mac: everything under About This Mac except for the serial number.
64 bit, I have one mod and it’s the pregnancy controller one, and my specs are Processor 1.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, Memory 8GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3, Graphics Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 1536 MB, macOS Big Sur Version 11.7
And yes I have all the explanation packs downloaded, and I contacted EA support and they said uninstall and reinstall
@peytonnelson Alright, so when you say you can't play with your packs, are you saying they're not loading in-game? The easiest way to tell is to see how many worlds you have available when you choose to start a new save. Load the game to the Main Menu and click the New Game button, then let me know how many worlds show up there. You don't actually need to start a new save.
Please also let me know what world you're currently playing in.
Sunset valley is the only one. And when i say i can’t play with my packs it says i have them “Unlocked” but you know when you go to the sims 3 launcher and it usually lets you select what expansions to play with, I don’t have that option it says I only have base game
