Thanks! I'm having trouble right now because I finally finished re-downloading sims3pack files, but it messed up all my package files. None of my package files are showing up and I'm getting waaaay more stressed than I should be 
I'm going to try to see if there's any corrupt sims3pack files maybe
Hi there, sorry I'm late to the game.
Ok, so have you resolved the first issue of not being able to find your save? If not:
1. Go into Documents>Electronic Arts and find "The Sims 3" folder. Right-Click and rename it to something else completely, not resembling anything of the former like: "thesimsbusted". Now, right-click and "cut" (DON'T COPY) that folder, and paste it to your desktop. The Electronic Arts Folder should be empty (unless you have Create-a-world or other EA products that might be found under there). It is important to "Cut and Paste" rather than "Copy and Paste" because we need to remove the folder completely.
2. Try to launch the game. Removing the first Sims 3 folder from it's original location should force the game to create a new one, otherwise you could have a corrupt download and I would have to recommend a reinstall. Now move over to the "thesimsbusted" folder, or whatever you renamed it to on your desktop, and copy your saves from there to the new EA folder if it created one, if it still doesn't show up in game, then your save could have been corrupted.
As for CC, I must advise you to
avoid the Sims3Pack version of custom content. There are many, many game-breaking things that can happen when mods are installed that way, so I must highly advise that you only use ".package" files. The .sims3pack files are installed in a way that makes them very unstable, and likely to cause problems. If you *must* use .sims3packs then *only* use those kinds. I don't recommend mixing them, but I especially prefer the .package ones as you have more control over what is going in and out of your game.
Also, where are you getting your CC from? It is important that you get your CC from trusted sources like ModtheSims, and not through downloading Sims off the exchange.
CC and mods are very useful things, however they need to be taken care of and you need to ensure that your mods folder is clean and organized. If you do use .sims3packs, make sure you can find ALL of them in the launcher at all times, in case you need to clean them out.
The reason .sims3packs are more dangerous to the game is because they are forced to be installed the same way as the game would install other
EA made things. If the coding varies from what EA wrote in the game it can cause the game to create errorlogs (at the very least) or go into a meltdown (lagging and crashing often) from it. Package files are as safe as you can say "safe" is with mods. I mean, there's always a risk with mods - always. Package files are placed in the folder in a way that allows them to be read by the game and placed into the game
only after it has read through the things it has installed via the launcher. If something in the launcher gets stuck or corrupted (like a .sims3pack) it could simply never get around to loading up or looking for other mods because it's too busy trying to compensate for the issues the corrupted file is causing.
Anyways, sorry, I tend to end up in a tangent whenever I start talking about mods and cc. I'm an avid mod user, and have a select set of mods I use and keep updated, clean and organized. Mods seem harmless at first, but they can be a real problem with games at times. An out-of-date, corrupted, or conflicting CC could cause any number of problems, including corruption and lag.
Please let me know what happens when you try to reset your Sims 3 folder (if you attempt that again) and let me know if anything has improved.
