Save files corrupted Sims 3
I have a very nasty problem with my Sims 3 game. When I tried to save my game I got error 12, which means the file i'm trying to save on is corrupted. I've had this problem before and could always fi...
Forum Discussion
@dmacay95 Okay, it's best to start with a clean game folder. Move your existing TS3 folder out of Documents and onto your desktop. Launch the game, go to the Main Menu, set your options the way you want, and quit. Don't move any of your content over yet (you can do that later). You may get "objects missing" messages, but that's fine, you don't need to save your progress; this is just for testing.
Next, launch the game again, and start a new save in the world of your corrupted saves, which I'm guessing is Sunset Valley. You don't have to spend much time there, just pick a random family, play for a few minutes, save, quit (without saving, as a separate step), and then go into Saves inside the new game folder. You'll see a folder labeled with your new save name, with a few different files inside. Delete everything in that folder except for SunsetValley.nhd.
Now go into your old game folder, the one you moved to the desktop. Inside whichever save you want to try to rescue, copy all the files except for the .nhd, and paste them into the folder for the new save you created, where you just deleted most of the files. So what you've done is generate a clean .nhd file and combined that with the other files from your corrupt save.
If you have multiple .nhd files, as you would if your sims had gone on vacation, leave them for now. It probably wouldn't matter if they were in there, since only one .nhd file is loaded at a time, but since this is for testing anyway, there's no reason to add them in yet. The exception would be if your sims are currently on vacation, in which case definitely move the file for that world as well.
Before you launch the game and try to load the save, delete the five cache files in your game folder in Documents. They should be deleted regularly anyway, even in the absence of game issues. While you're troubleshooting, delete them every time you quit the game. For reference, they are:
- CASPartCache.package
- compositorCache.package
- scriptCache.package
- simCompositorCache.package
- socialCache.package
If your save loads, great, you can quit without saving and transfer your store stuff, custom content, mods, etc. into the new game folder. Do it in batches, testing each time to make sure the save still works. Here's a list of all the files in your game folder, with explanations of what you might want to keep:
https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html
If your save doesn't load, you can repeat the process with your other bad saves. It's best to start with a clean game folder and a new .nhd file each time, just to be absolutely sure there's no cross-contamination.
Thank you very much for sharing this method. I tried this with two of my corrupted save folders. Both of the new saves load up, and I get back to the family I quickly created for testing. However, when I go to edit the neighborhood I see none of my families or lots, only the default ones. Do I have to move other files back into the Sims 3 folder to get my content back? Or have I just lost all my sims and lots now?
@dmacay95 Okay, so it probably is the .nhd file that's corrupted. (Sometimes it's a different one, and the only way to find out is to test.) You can try the reverse though—clean game folder, start a save in the same world, delete the new .nhd file, drop your old one in—to see if it helps. If it does, save the game and make a backup. It may be that your save will fail to load again soon, and in that case your options are to either pack up your families and drop them in a new save, or use mods to try to fix the world. Both are more likely to work in this backup save than in the one you keep playing forward.
Besides, keeping backup saves is a good idea in general;—you never know when something will break. I use "save as" to rename my saves at least once a sim-day; this creates a new save file rather than overwriting the old one. I keep the last 4-6 copies and delete the older ones when I'm sure I don't need them.
I repeated the process and, as you said, moved in the .nhd file from the corrupted saves. I've tried it with two of them and sadly they both didn't load up. I'm trying to understand. I mean was it even possible to have all my stuff back with a newly created .nhd file?
@dmacay95 The original technique was for recovering the sims that were active the last time you saved the game. I didn't realize there were other sims in the town that you also wanted back. The data for each save is spread out among several different files, and any one of them could potentially be the issue. So, if you want to experiment, you could use the same approach as before to replace one of those files at a time, testing to see if you get a usable game that includes all the sims you care about. Unfortunately though, it's possible that the data you want is already too corrupted to recover.
I'm sorry that there isn't a more useful way to approach this. The unfortunate fact is that saves get corrupted, and sometimes they're too far gone to repair. In the future, aside from keeping backup saves, you might want to look into adding mods to clean up your game. There are a few that don't change gameplay at all, they just remove bad data and reset stuck situations when necessary. It's the only way many of us have been able to maintain games over a number of generations without having to periodically transfer our sims to a clean save.
Thank you so much you have no idea how many hours I’ve been trying to fix my game that I spent hours literally hours on I was about to cry and I saw your conversation and it helped me a ton I got my stuff back and I am so glad I literally was about to cry I am in debt to you
