Fixing/Recovering Saved Game - Saved Game Not in Game Launcher or Corrupted

[loveSims]

I just want to thank you Carl! You saved my simmies! I got error16 a lot since I got windows7. Got it today and forget to use save as, my sims was gone! I did WHATEVERITWAS and they are back. Thank you!

[Frey]

I just got error code 12 and my Immortal Dynasty file is now corrupted  . I had never had a corrupted file before, I guess it had to happen eventually  .

Anyways, thank you so much Carl for posting this! When I saw that .bad file I was a 100% sure my Dynasty was lost. Turned out my last save had been just a few sim-hours before, so it wasn't that bad  .

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Thank you so much for saving the Dreamers from a second corruption!

[Tilia]

Hmm, my file is probably corrupted and wasn't showing in the launch screen.  I followed these instructions closely, and renamed my backup file Riverview.Sims3, but it still does not show in the launch.  Is it possible the backup is also corrupted?  If so, am I out of luck entirely?  I really don't want to lose another story ... sigh


****SOLVED****  Riverview spontaneously uninstalled itself and needed to be reinstalled.  Weird.

[Tiberium_Glow]

Is it just me, or is Error Code 12 rampant with Seasons? If I don't save after every little thing I do(and I mean every little thing)I get this error. It's like after a certain number of minutes of not saving, I get it. I can then launch the game again and save it under another name, but I lose progress each time. It's really starting to get to me. I remember somebody suggesting it's a RAM issue...my computer is going on five years old(although the power supply is fairly new and the graphics card is a year old). I'm getting a computer upgrade next year, though I can't say that it's even my computer that's the problem. Before Seasons, I could play for hours and then exit and save and be fine. Not anymore.

[Louise56]

Take a look at this link: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Insufficient_Memory_Crashes

I hope it help.

[Tiberium_Glow]

I did the Command Prompt thing yesterday, but was too scared to play until a few hours ago. 2 hours of play and no save errors. I might be out of the woods, but I'll have to test longer to be sure. I used to get that error within an hour of playing.

[Louise56]

I did the Command Prompt thing yesterday, but was too scared to play until a few hours ago. 2 hours of play and no save errors. I might be out of the woods, but I'll have to test longer to be sure. I used to get that error within an hour of playing.

That is a great help with windows 32bit. I was also afraid to do it, but have no problems after a week of game play.

[Pam]

I did the Command Prompt thing yesterday, but was too scared to play until a few hours ago. 2 hours of play and no save errors. I might be out of the woods, but I'll have to test longer to be sure. I used to get that error within an hour of playing.

Nice to see you, Tiberium Glow. 

If you continue to have this problem, please start a new topic for it.  It's specific enough to your situation to have its own spot.

[john]

Long time lurker, rare poster here. I hope this is the correct place to post this, otherwise I apologize in advance.

After a crash, my saves got corrupted. They showed up in the main menu but could not be loaded, with a tooltip telling me something about possibly uninstalled expansion packs or similar. None of the advice from this thread helped unfortunately, but after a while I figured it out.

Comparing the folder (whatever.sims3) of the corrupted saves with some old working saves, I realized a file (Meta.data) was missing. Googling "sims 3 files in save" I found http://mattterrabyte.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/ultimate-sims-3-save-game-recovery-guide/, and more specifically this:

Inside your whatever.sims3 folder, there should be three files called 1a5tf1l3.dat, Meta.data and TravelDB.package. These are the meta data files. They contain the information the game needs to load your town and are usually the ones causing the problem. Luckily, they can be safely replaced without loosing anything. The other files are the world data for your town and each of the travel destinations you have visited (i.e. the important ones). We won’t touch these.

First, we need to create replacement files. Create a new town on The Sims 3, create a sim, and move him in. If you traveled to a holiday destination (Egypt, France or China) on your corrupted save game, travel to that same destination on this one using your temporary sim’s mobile phone. (If you don’t have enough simoleons to travel, open the cheat window (CTRL+SHIFT+C), type motherlode and press enter. §50,000 will automatically be added to your account.) Now save your game, being careful not to overwrite the old one. Exit The Sims and go to your Saves folder. Make a backup copy of your corrupted game, open the new game you just created, and copy the meta data files to your corrupted game’s folder, overwriting the existing ones. Now restart your computer. Your game should now work, with all your progress, skills, wishes, lifetime rewards, relics, visa points, etc. still intact. (Don’t worry about the name of your temporary household appearing on the select a town menu, the game automatically corrects this once you save the newly repaired game.)

Since I only had one of the files missing (Meta.data), that was the only file I (re)placed in the (copied) folder of the corrupted save. The important thing though, is that this tinkering with meta files made the save playable again.

So, if all else fails, I recommend trying to replace these meta files. As always, make sure you make backup copies of everything before you change anything.

[Wai]

John:- 

I could hug you.  We get fairly regular powercuts and I have been quite frustrated by this problem.  It does not matter if you are playing the sims or not when the cut happens.  All games saved after the recovery point become unplayable.  Very annoying, my recovery points are set weekly unless I install something new, so I have been losing up to a week of games at a time and was close to giving up on the sims since we have had brief powercuts every monday for three weeks in a row.  Its been like this play my game for a week, power cut, replay last week's game, power cut, replay.........  I was getting nowhere!

I haven't played my recovered game long enough to confirm that all is well, but all certainly appears well in my home town, so I will take my sim back to France tomorrow to check out that everything is working properly there.

I would point out to anyone else doing this type of recovery that the patched game, when it appeared in the select a game (town) window showed, for me, as a vacant lot with undefined family. 

I have saved a copy of the 3 metadata files from my tempory game to a folder on my desktop.  I expect that I will need a new set of files when I install a new EP, but, at least I will not need to create a new tempory game until then.

[john]

I haven't played my recovered game long enough to confirm that all is well, but all certainly appears well in my home town, so I will take my sim back to France tomorrow to check out that everything is working properly there.

I've only played about a (sim) week since recovering the save, but so far so good. There have been a couple of bugs, but no more than I normally get. This particular save is in the rather bug-infested Bridgeport with a bunch of bug-prone teens, so it's hard to gauge what is a normal level of buggynes, but *I think* things are working like they are supposed to. Either way, the save is loadable and playable, and that is infinitely better than unloadable and unplayable.     

[Wai]

I too, have noticed only the usual bugs, and my sim is now in France where all is well also.  This is looking great.

I have to say that I found the instructions a little confusing and had to read through several times before I felt confident about doing the recovery.   I think the problem lay in the way they are written as a narative rather than a series of simple instructions.  So, I hope that there is no objection, but, I will list the method below for anyone else who needs this type of recovery.

1.  Copy the currupted game folder to another folder as a backup. (your currupt game. sims3)

2.  Create a temporary game in your home town and save it with a unique name. (temporary game.sims3)

3.  Play the temporary game with the sole intention of having the temporary sim travel to each of the towns visited by the sims in your currupted game.  (If yoiur sim has travelled to all three towns, then you will need to have your temporary sim travel to all three towns.)  Use money cheat, if necessary to do this.  You do not need to do anything when you reach the destination, Just use the "return home" facility on your mobile phone.

4.  Save the tempory game again using the unique name chosen for the temporary game. (temporary game .sims3)

5.  Exit the Sims 3.

6.  Open the folder for saved games. (saves folder) - Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 3, Saves. (folder 1)

7.  Open the folder for the temporary game.  Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 3, Saves, temporary game.sims3 (folder 2)

You now have two open folders, one showing all your saved games (folder 1), the second showing the files within the folder for your temporary game (folder 2).

8.  Right click on the file 1a5tf1l3.dat (folder 2) and drag it to the (folder 1) currupted file, (your currupt game. sims3). 
     Select copy then overwrite.

9.  Right click on the file Meta.data (folder 2) and drag it to the (folder 1) currupted file, (your currupt game. sims3). 
     Select copy then overwrite.

10.Right click on the file TravelDB.package (folder 2) and drag it to the (folder 1) currupted file, (your currupt game. sims3). 
     Select copy then overwrite.

The recovery is now complete and the file will appear in the select a town launcher.   However, the icon will not recognisable as your lost game.  I got a vacant lot with undefined family.  This does not matter, just load the game and then save it with your chosen name and the icon will be corrected.

For those playing dynasty or legacy games, the money obtained by the money cheat in the temporary game will not be transfered to your proper game file.  The tempory file is only used to recreate the damage files in the currupted game and does not affect cash, LTW , LTH points or any other significant part of your game.

[Franco4199]

Hi, this issue sims to be endless, is EA sleeping on our money or what! I am playing on a Mac (OS X 10.7.3. Like most of you, a couple days ago my saved games (called franco) did not show up.

I was very happy to find this forum and followed the tips of finding the save folder, renaming the backup folder etc.
The save still does not appears in the game.

I reinstalled the game and copied my previous saves in the brand new save folder, still doesn't show in the game.

I thought maybe the link between the saved games and the game is broken or corrupted or riding poney in Yosemite. So what I did is to start a new game and saved it under a different name called "EAcanihavemymoneyback" with the clear intention of replacing the files in the EAcanihavemymoneyback.sims3 + backup folders with the files from the "franco.sims3"+ backup folders.
But when I came back to look for my new save, nothing. I mean really nothing, the Save folder is empty! I looked in Finder for a file called EAcanihavemymoneyback there is none. I can still find my previous saves that I kept in a folder on my desk. I created 2 games like this and reinstalled the game, I can play the last game I created, I just don't know where it saved it. My save folder remains empty, if I move the franco save files they won't appear.

Can someone help me? I was so close to get my neighbors divorced so I can move in their amazing house, don't tell me all this was for nothing, and I'm sorry I went from PC to Mac, I'll never do it again

[Wai]

I'll be honest right at the start.  I have not had your problem, but, I have had something similar. 

I would, if I were you, try a factory reset to completely clean my game.  (See Factory Reset in the stickies above.)  Don't forget to put your games, the ones you can find, in a backup folder on your desktop.  After the reset, your game will appear as if no games have been played. 

Exit and then move your saved games back into the empty games folder in your The Sims 3 data folder.  Launch the game and see if all your games are now showing.  If they are not, follow the instructions in my previous post (immediately above) to replace the meta files for each of the games which are not appearing in the load town screen.   

I hope this helps, or, if not, I hope someone else here can come up with another solution.  Good luck.