Sims 3 - A serious error occurred when loading saves

I'm having the same thing since I upgraded my computer and OS to Win 11. I can't play at all. The same thing is happening to SimCity

Ahhh really are you. How frustrating! As far as I'm aware my laptop hasn't updated and it was running fine on Win 11 before. I did have a issue with a windows update maybe 3/4 months ago and game wouldn't load, but after uninstalling that update it was fine. But never come across this issue before! 

Just odd how it was about 2 days apart from playing fine then not

louise199360​  Please use this guide to change the Personal value within the registry:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720

You can change the value back to the default listed in the guide, then restart your computer again and see whether Sims 3 works.

DarkenedSentura​  Are you getting the "serious error" message, or something else?  If you do see the "serious error," please follow the instructions in the first post of this master thread:

[Current Issue] Sims 3 "serious error" when loading save | EA Forums - 8322938

Thanks will give a try, stupid question has having to do it manually where it says step 3.  In Registry Editor, browse to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders where abouts do I then to to paste %USERPROFILE%\Documents and do I have to change the user profile to my user name or just leave it and copy and paste exactly what it on the link. Thanks

Ignore my first reply, I've changed the documents back to default and also pictures. Still getting the same error. Am I supposed to do desktop too as that is saying onedrive but as far as I'm aware I didn't think sims was using anything on the desktop ? 

louise199360​  The location of the Desktop folder shouldn't matter.  Please confirm that Sims 3 is actually using the correct location now though:

C:\Users\your username\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3

Open this exact location (if the Sims 3 folder is even there) and check the time stamp on DeviceConfig.  It should exactly match the last time you launched the game.  If it doesn't, this Sims 3 folder isn't in use.  And if you're not sure when you last launched the game, you can load it again, just to the Main Menu is enough, to refresh whichever file is being used.

Hello, Thank you, Yes sims 3 is in that location. And time on the DeviceConfig is 30/4/25 as oddly it did start working after I tried the renaming sims 3 folder to 'sims 3 old' loaded the game up, loaded base world worked ok. So I then put mods, saved sims, and a few other folders back in, loaded again also fine. The lastly put in the saves, world cache, installed worlds folders. And magically it worked and managed to open a old save...ok it was a bit slow but it works! Only thing I came across was this error attached when pressing save but doing a save as (as far as I'm aware, has worked) though upon looking in my saves folder the save that game up with this new error as .bad after the file. 

Fixed in a fashion! Any advice on this new error ? or what you do with the .bad file ? 

Also side question, do I have to reinstall my sims3packs in my downloads folder/launcher seeing as I've removed the old file and copied across into the new one as I think some cc is missing so assume I do ? 

Many thanks 

louise199360​  The .bad files are unusable, so yes, delete them.  The Error 16 is most commonly related to OneDrive too these days, but it's technically a more generic can't write a save error.  Historically, it's been due to the save itself being larger than 4 GB or the save name being unacceptable.  Did "save as" produce a usable save, or only one ending in .bad?  If you can reload the save, you can ignore this problem until and unless it happens again.

Content installed through the launcher is bundled into large files in DCCache.  The files that end in .ebc are Store content; the .dbc files are third-party custom content.  If you transfer these over, that content should work again.  You'll also want to transfer the Library folder, which contains saved households and lots, both those you've created and those you've installed.

The ccmerged.package file in DCBackup is necessary to make premium Store content work, "premium" being a designation that basically says "this item comes with new interactions that don't otherwise exist in the game.  The basketball hoop is a premium item; a chess table is not since the game itself contains them too.  Point is, if you have any premium Store items, copy over this file too.  Everything else in DCBackup can be discarded.

Or you could reinstall everything fresh, if you prefer.  Anything you've downloaded will be in the Downloads folder, and you can move over these files to make the downloads appear in the launcher.

Thanks, I will delate the .bad save. It was the old save which was the bad file, I did test the new save and it had saved but just had some buildings cc missing then loaded the older save and its all there. I'm going to try opening a different save and saving that and see if I have the same issue or if its just this one :)

Great thanks I did transfer the library folder but not the other files so will do that too.

At least the main issue is solved! 

Another side question as since I've fiddled around with getting my game working again I've noticed 3 folders are black any ideas? It's not the end of the world, I'm just curious! 

Thanks 

louise199360​  I hadn't seen that problem before, so I had to look it up.  Try this:

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/clear-and-reset-thumbnail-cache-in-windows-11.2051/