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lieslms22's avatar
5 years ago

The Sims 3 base game taking up 160 GB of storage

This is my first post! I have been struggling with my Sims 3 base game taking up too much storage on my hard drive ever since the 64-bit update was released. I am really confused on how that update was supposed to work, but I get how its intention was to make running the sims 3 easier for Mac users. In my origin now I have two separate apps for the sims 3, one with a 64-bit tag and one without. The one without the 64-bit tag runs perfectly fine (like it used to) but the one with it says finalizing and keeps updating my packs and taking up a bunch of storage. I am SO confused as to what is happening to my computer but now the sims 3 takes up 160 GB on my hard drive, and I have two different sims 3 games in my origin menu. In my finder I checked the amount of storage taken up by the expansion packs, and they are all in the "bytes" range, but the sims 3 base game says 159.35 GB. Also, I tried to uninstall the sims 3 through the uninstaller, but when it says "select application to uninstall" nothing shows up. I have never posted on this board so I don't know if anyone can see this but if anybody could help me I'd greatly appreciate it! I want to play the sims 3 without it taking up such an absurd amount of space! It's a great game!

4 Replies

  • @lieslms22  I have a guess about why the 32-bit base game is taking up so much storage, but the easiest approach would be to uninstall it entirely and not worry about the extra folders.  On the other hand, it's better to make sure you can run the 64-bit version first.  So please post the full specs of your Mac, including operating system, as described here:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/32-bit-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4756624#M2878

    By the way, my guess is that you applied a workaround that involved copying folders around to make certain packs work, and now you have a number of extraneous folders that can be deleted.  But which ones are extraneous depends on the packs you have installed, so please list those packs.

  • lieslms22's avatar
    lieslms22
    5 years ago

    Thanks for responding! I uninstalled the 32-bit game and it helped immensely. My only issue now is the 64-bit is working terribly compared to the 32-bit. It crashes, takes a while to load, and I can't play it for more than 1 minute before it stops to load and I have to quit. I lowered all display settings, but this didn't seem to help. I have all expansion except for into the future, and as for stuff packs I only have high-end loft stuff. I attached the full specs of my Mac.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    @lieslms22  What world are you playing in though?  Some of them, particularly Isla Paradiso, run poorly on any system, so the first thing to do would be to start a save in Sunset Valley, Twinbrook, or Riverview to see how it runs.  Don't add any pets to the new household; just create a sim or two or load an existing household.

    If the game still crashes, move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, open the launcher to spawn a clean folder, and try another new save.  The point of this is to eliminate user data as a potential source of the problem.

    A few other players with similar hardware to yours have reported that lowering the lighting and tree detail settings to the minimum has helped prevent crashing.  Additionally (and unfortunately), many players with Intel graphics chips find they can't play for any length of time with pets in the house, or perhaps even with Pets enabled, although this is not universal.  But try the other steps first, since they're less drastic, and then lower the graphics options if the new save is still crashing.

  • lieslms22's avatar
    lieslms22
    5 years ago
    @puzzlezaddict I'm playing in sunset valley. I'll lower some more graphics and create a new save to see if that helps and let you know.

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