Technical Issue: The Sims 3 Settings Menu Crash

xooIzzy​  To be clear (and in case anyone else reads this later), you've confirmed that your Sims 3 user folder, the one in Documents, is NOT in fact in Users > your username > OneDrive > Documents, right?  And the game crashes if you change a setting within Options, even something not related to graphics, for example you mentioned lifespan and weather.

Does AMD Adrenalin (the graphics control software) currently have a setting to "optimize" your in-game settings?  Nvidia's GeForce Experience does, but I don't have an AMD GPU myself so I can't check Adrenalin for anything similar.  If it does, and you're using it, please disable that feature for now.  GFE's setting used to cause a lot of problems for Sims 3, though not so much now.

Otherwise, if you use a third-party antivirus, check its recent actions for anything involving Sims 3 or the EA App.  It's possible your AV is blocking the game's attempt to edit Options.ini.  Windows Defender is usually better about this, but you can check Controlled Folder Access as well if it's enabled.

It would also be interesting to know what happens when you edit Options.ini yourself.  Search the file for aginginterval , which I believe is the Lifespan setting in the options.  The default is 2, which would be Normal, as opposed to 1-3-4 for Short-Long-Epic.  You can change individual age stage lengths for humans or pets with the various agingstagelength entries.  And you can really edit anything you want in there, although some values wouldn't be valid, so keep the changes small at first.

On a different note, have you taken steps to limit your in-game framerates?  Sims 3 doesn't have a working fps limiter, and your GPU is fast enough to run wild with this game.  I don't think a lack of an fps limit would cause this issue, but this should be addressed regardless for the long-term health of your card.

Yes, it is not in OneDrive.

Currently, I do not have any AMD settings enabled to optimize my in-game settings.

My third-party antivirus has no actions involving TS3 or EA App.

I can edit the Options.ini, but I’ve noticed that the changes don’t seem to apply. For example, I edited the agingInterval, but when I open a save file, the aging isn’t changed. Is it possible that my Options.ini could be corrupt?

Lastly, I have my frames capped at 75 FPS using AMD Adrenalin Software.

xooIzzy​  Do the edits stick in the Options file?  If you can't change anything age-related, try setting fullscreen to 1 or 0, since it'll be obvious whether your game has switched from fullscreen to windowed mode or vice versa, and 0 and 1 are the only valid options.

So, I was able to change to Fullscreen through the Options.ini file.

However, I got a pop-up asking if I wanted to enable edge scrolling since I usually have it disabled. I declined it, and the game crashed immediately afterward.

I also noticed that I can adjust my in-game settings from the main menu without any crashes, which is so weird! I just prefer to not edit the settings via main menu because there's limitations (ex: lifespan is greyed out).

I’m very convinced that my in-game settings or Options.ini file is corrupted. 😭

xooIzzy​  It sounds like your Options.ini file might have reset completely when you edited it, since the Edge Scrolling pop-up should only show up with a new file.  That could be because it's corrupt or because of something else entirely.

Please delete your Options.ini file, launch the game to create a new one, change from fullscreen to windowed (and pick a different resolution if you want) at the Main Menu, quit to desktop, and load the game again to see whether the changes stuck.

It's normal to have some issues, although not necessarily crashes, if you change certain graphics settings within a save.  It's not normal to have issues if you change non-graphics-related settings, or even the resolution or fullscreen/windowed.

You've capped your framerates, but have you confirmed that the fps limit is being honored?  I meant to ask before but forgot to add that.  Use the cheat fps on to bring up an fps counter in the upper-right corner of the screen.

I made a new Options.ini file, and everything is running well in my save-files, including a fresh save I just created to test the game. However, in one of my save-files, I still can’t open the settings without the game crashing.

So, I think this whole time I may have had a corrupt save-file/household? (Like, a household with corrupt in-game settings)

And yes, I used that cheat code to confirm that my game is capped at 75 FPS.

xooIzzy​  It's very strange that the one save would be corrupt to the point that you couldn't change Options.ini.  I don't think I've seen that before.  If you want to test the household, you can save it to the in-game bin and place it in a new save.  And if you'd like to try to preserve the save, I have some suggestions for that too; let me know whether you're willing to use mods.

It’s strange! Do you think having different in-game settings for different save files is bad? I have multiple households with different lifespans and seasonal/environmental option lengths.

Also, I moved the household into a new save and I can finally open my settings with no issues! Something was definitely corrupt within that specific save, just not sure what it was. 

This makes a lot of sense, so I’ll definitely take your advice about the Options.ini file going forward. Thank you so much for your help!