Forum Discussion
@SarahBruner If you've only saved once, then yes, you can recover the previous save. Inside Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves, you'll see a folder for your current save and another with the same name and a .backup extension, e.g. SunsetValley.sims3 and SunsetValley.sims3.backup. Rename the latter and delete the .backup extension (e.g. SunsetValley1.sims3), and you'll be able to load it from the Main Menu.
In general, it's always a good idea to use "save as" periodically to rename the save rather than relying on "save." This creates a new save file rather than overwriting the older save. I use "save as" every couple of sim-days at the very least and delete older versions of the save when I know I won't need them. If I do need to revert to a previous save, I have a large selection.