Unknown items showing up in my DC backup file

[Joria]

I'm one of those people who regularly goes into their files and cleans things up. Every night I check my saves, and all files that can safely be removed.  Since I had not downloaded anything for a few days I still checked my DCBackup file and there were several files in there, besides the ccmerged file, (NEVER delete this one!), that made no sense.  I deleted them and played my game.  Afterwards I came back into my files and once again checked DCBackup and those files were back!  Hmmm.  My game had been getting slower and slower.  Hmmmm.  Next day, after deleting them once again, I played and checked after and voila, there they were again.

Has anyone had this situation occur?  I have not noticed any strange items showing up but could previous downloads have something hidden in them?  How do I get rid of these files permanently or are they something EA is putting back in the way they do copies of other files they want in?

I also ran virus and malware checks and my pc is supposedly clean.

[Seabody]

What are they called?

[Joria]

Here is the exact file rewritten by me:

Oxf954019ad5ecd2b141Oa5e8597f6982d.package

This is one of five of them that show up.  They all have a .package ending so I'm assuming it is an item or something.

Thanks, Seabody.

[Ricalynn]

I get those type of package files every time I load up my game too.  I've always assumed that they were just a part of playing Sims and delete them regularly when I clean out my cache files

[MrsFlynn]

As far as I can tell Ricalynn is right, they are related to the game in someway. I'm thinking backup package files after they get installed or something like that. I do know that some of them are in relation to installed store content. I clean them out every now and again when I clean out my Cache files and whatnot too.

MrsFlynn

[Ausette]

I think they appear when you load something into your game from the launcher. You definitely get them when you install downloaded content, but I think I've noticed files popping up from Simports and gifting as well.

[Seabody]

I see this file in my DCBackup as well. (to be precise, the ones I have is called "0xf954019ad5ecd2bf410a5e8597f6982d.package")

I opened it up. Mine consists of an XML (tuning, contains stuff like "It takes 240 minutes to upgrade a stove") and an STBL (contains the names of game phrases, such as "The Jockey" or "Thank you for putting out that fire!"). The STBL references what appears to be a challenge, called Salt Water Fish Monger, which is time sensitive, and is "Silver". I assume it's an achievement.

The XML does not contain any tuning, rather it is a "manifest" which has a buch of ID Keys (which aren't useful to players without s3pe, since they are ID Keys for XML files inside packages).

If I had to take a guess, I'd assume it's the package file for an achievement.

[Joria]

Thank you Seabody and all.  No worries now.  I'll just delete them on occasion, (they come right back), and not worry over them.  Phew!  Didn't want to be putting stuff on people's game if I uploaded stuff.