Forum Discussion

Seasoned Ace

4 years ago

The EA app and The Sims 3: how to report bugs (and why it's important).

TL;DR: I encourage you to report any bugs you find while using the EA app using the in-app bug report feature to ensure players playing an old game like us are properly heard and to ensure the longevity of our beloved game! :heart:

So you've likely seen by now that Origin will be replaced by the end of the year with its big brother, the EA app. The EA app is no longer in beta, which should mean everything is in working order...alas, we live in an imperfect world and we, my friends, play a very old game that likely wasn't involved much (read: at all) during beta testing. Because of this, any hiccups involving The Sims 3 and its new EA app pal will likely have gone unnoticed and will potentially plague you and other TS3 simmers as you navigate these new waters.

I'm typing this thread up for a few reasons:

1.) I saw @GoddessByline having issues with her Sims 3 game crashing on EA app, but not Origin. She went to Answers HQ for assistance and ended up rolling back to Origin for the time being. While that's all well and good, the right people at EA will not know of her issue from Answers HQ, which means this issue will likely persist in future versions of the EA app.

2.) I saw a reddit user on the Sims 3 subreddit post a conversation they had with a customer support agent. Their store content was no longer showing up in their game following the switch to the EA app. When asked, they (according to their messages) got mixed answers from support agents, with the most recent one (and the one they believed for some reason) being the one that told them Sims 3 store content wasn't compatible with the EA app. This is not true. The store content is literally advertised on The Sims 3's EA app page. Their customer support agent was wrong and, frankly, doesn't know what they're talking about. This is why it's important to report bugs. You make sure people who will understand know that such a problem exists.

3.) I switched to the EA app recently. My game ran just as it did through Origin. My game crashed a few hours into playing (as it normally would :sweat_smile: ). Because it crashed, the EA app didn't consider it to be closed (even with no processes related to it running in Task Manager), so I couldn't close the EA app. I ended up having to force close it in Task Manager. Reopened it, made sure I could still run The Sims 3 (It could), and checked for a bug report button.

After all of this, I came to the conclusion that most Simmers are likely not as used to bug reporting as I am. Luckily for all of you, I guess, I'm a giga nerd who has been apart of many closed World of Warcraft betas so I know a thing or two about reporting bugs. :wink:

When do I report a bug?

Simply put, whenever you encounter one that you don't believe is a problem on your end. And, in this case, one that you believe is linked to the new EA app.

How do I report a bug?

In the EA app, click the three lines in the upper left corner above "Home":
https://i.imgur.com/ETSkvln.png

In the drop-down menu, select Help>EA Error Reporter:
https://i.imgur.com/rC7oixV.png

The window to report the bug will open. Select the category you think fits best, concisely type all the details you believe are important (remember to always put the name of the game involved with the bug (if there is one)), check the diagnostics box, and submit. :smile:
https://i.imgur.com/2elShcE.png

Anyway, hopefully all of that makes sense because I haven't slept. And hopefully this thread isn't cringey. I don't fancy myself a techy, so I always feel like an actor who plays a doctor on TV when I talk about stuff like this, but I'm just trying to help. :confounded: Please correct me if I am a smooth brain. Thanks. :kissing_heart:

technical issues

107 Replies

HillyPlays
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@StephSteb I've been having this issue too
graceymanors
Legend
4 years ago
Once the EA app is released, I will rebuy all my games on Steam if I want to play again.
I doubt EA will work on fixing sims 3.They stopped updating that game a while back.
KevinL5275
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
I've been reading the Reddit post about this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims3/comments/y03x1c/so_i_noticed_that_store_content_doesnt_load/

It works for some people and totally doesn't work for other people. No reason why, yet. I hope they fix it for you Origin players. I was lucky to get on Steam first.
Emily4331
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@GraceyManor The game isn't what will need to be updated. The app will. Remember that this isn't about The Sims 3 by itself. Older games in general not working well with the new app (for some users) is a problem that will likely be addressed in future updates if people report it.

I meant for this thread to alleviate doom and gloom, but it's kind of sowing the seeds of it right now with these comments. For what it's worth, my game works perfectly fine through the EA app. The app not recognizing a crashed game as closed isn't a Sims 3 problem, it's just a general bug with the app. My store content is there, my expansions are recognized, etc and I hope that some people's issues won't make everyone just think to avoid it because that's less simmers using it which means less bugs related to The Sims 3's performance in the EA app being reported.
mrbradlerz
4 years ago
> @Emily4331 said:
> @GraceyManor The game isn't what will need to be updated. The app will. Remember that this isn't about The Sims 3 by itself. Older games in general not working well with the new app (for some users) is a problem that will likely be addressed in future updates if people report it.
>
> I meant for this thread to alleviate doom and gloom, but it's kind of sowing the seeds of it right now with these comments. For what it's worth, my game works perfectly fine through the EA app. The app not recognizing a crashed game as closed isn't a Sims 3 problem, it's just a general bug with the app. My store content is there, my expansions are recognized, etc and I hope that some people's issues won't make everyone just think to avoid it because that's less simmers using it which means less bugs related to The Sims 3's performance in the EA app being reported.

What are you doing differently? I even had to delete my ENTIRE Sims 3 folder and lose EVERYTHING!
Emily4331
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@brandonfave I can tell you what I did, but I can't tell you what I did "differently" as I have no idea what everyone else did. A lot of times with bugs it ends up just being "unlucky" for lack of a better term. But that's why I'm encouraging people to bug report. I didn't have their issues, but they did. EA isn't telepathic and bug reporting is the best way to, as I said, get the right people to know this issue happened to someone so they can look into it.

I have no idea what your problem was with the app, but if you had to delete your entire Sims 3 folder, I encourage you (and any simmers who haven't done so) to start backing up files that matter to you. There are plenty of online services for file backup, or you can get an external hard drive.

If you truly lost everything, I'm assuming you didn't have them backed up somewhere. When you deleted the folder (assuming you mean the Sims 3 folder in your documents), did you receive a prompt asking if you wanted to permanently delete it because it was too large to be recycled? If you didn't receive this prompt, your folder is likely not gone, but hanging out in your recycle bin. You can restore it from there. Your recycle bin can be found on your desktop. If it isn't there, you can type "recycle" in the search bar and find it there.

As it pertains to the EA app, this is how it went for me:

-Opened Origin and saw message that the EA app would be replacing Origin at the end of the year.
-Googled "EA App."
-Downloaded the EA App and ran the installer.
-The installer installed the EA App and uninstalled Origin.
-Ran EA App and signed in.
-Opened The Sims 3.
-Played game as usual.
mrbradlerz
4 years ago
> @Emily4331 said:
> @brandonfave I can tell you what I did, but I can't tell you what I did "differently" as I have no idea what everyone else did. A lot of times with bugs it ends up just being "unlucky" for lack of a better term. But that's why I'm encouraging people to bug report. I didn't have their issues, but they did. EA isn't telepathic and bug reporting is the best way to, as I said, get the right people to know this issue happened to someone so they can look into it.
>
> I have no idea what your problem was with the app, but if you had to delete your entire Sims 3 folder, I encourage you (and any simmers who haven't done so) to start backing up files that matter to you. There are plenty of online services for file backup, or you can get an external hard drive.
>
> If you truly lost everything, I'm assuming you didn't have them backed up somewhere. When you deleted the folder (assuming you mean the Sims 3 folder in your documents), did you receive a prompt asking if you wanted to permanently delete it because it was too large to be recycled? If you didn't receive this prompt, your folder is likely not gone, but hanging out in your recycle bin. You can restore it from there. Your recycle bin can be found on your desktop. If it isn't there, you can type "recycle" in the search bar and find it there.
>
> As it pertains to the EA app, this is how it went for me:
>
> -Opened Origin and saw message that the EA app would be replacing Origin at the end of the year.
> -Googled "EA App."
> -Downloaded the EA App and ran the installer.
> -The installer installed the EA App and uninstalled Origin.
> -Ran EA App and signed in.
> -Opened The Sims 3.
> -Played game as usual.

I just thought I needed a "clean start".
mrbradlerz
4 years ago
> @Emily4331 said:
> @brandonfave I can tell you what I did, but I can't tell you what I did "differently" as I have no idea what everyone else did. A lot of times with bugs it ends up just being "unlucky" for lack of a better term. But that's why I'm encouraging people to bug report. I didn't have their issues, but they did. EA isn't telepathic and bug reporting is the best way to, as I said, get the right people to know this issue happened to someone so they can look into it.
>
> I have no idea what your problem was with the app, but if you had to delete your entire Sims 3 folder, I encourage you (and any simmers who haven't done so) to start backing up files that matter to you. There are plenty of online services for file backup, or you can get an external hard drive.
>
> If you truly lost everything, I'm assuming you didn't have them backed up somewhere. When you deleted the folder (assuming you mean the Sims 3 folder in your documents), did you receive a prompt asking if you wanted to permanently delete it because it was too large to be recycled? If you didn't receive this prompt, your folder is likely not gone, but hanging out in your recycle bin. You can restore it from there. Your recycle bin can be found on your desktop. If it isn't there, you can type "recycle" in the search bar and find it there.
>
> As it pertains to the EA app, this is how it went for me:
>
> -Opened Origin and saw message that the EA app would be replacing Origin at the end of the year.
> -Googled "EA App."
> -Downloaded the EA App and ran the installer.
> -The installer installed the EA App and uninstalled Origin.
> -Ran EA App and signed in.
> -Opened The Sims 3.
> -Played game as usual.

Does EA even care about their players! A lot of big game companies these days don't seem like they do!
NikkeiSimmer
Legend
4 years ago
I've got discs for some of my expansion packs... And I'll just buy the base game on Steam and stick to 1.67...EA App can kiss my expansive heiny.
mrbradlerz
4 years ago
I've cleared out the cache and I think it works now!