Sims 3 - Factory Reset: Fix Your Game with 1/4 the Time of a Reinstall

[Angélique]

I think you can find lots of valuable information about this if you go here.

[jonas3333]

Thanks Angelique! That's a great help.  I do still want to know if it's safe to dl patterns and houses. Maybe convert or decrapify them before installing?

Also, will the factory reset clear everything from my launcher content? I want it to. I know i have the tedious task of re-installing all the dang store items, but there are patterns in my launcher set I want gone.

[Angélique]

I don't think anybody can tell you for sure if it's safe to download all sorts of CC from various websites. There's definitely a risk involved with it, and you are the only one who could decide for yourself if the value of the CC is bigger than the risk. However there is a couple of tools that you could use to determine if your CC is bad or not, they're called Delphys Dashboard and CleanInstaller. Maybe you have tried them already? I don't think they're 100% effective, though.

I now have 1.34 GB of EA made Store items, but I have never downloaded any third party CC, and I never will. That's because I don't think it's worth the risk of messing up my game, and also, I like to create my own sims and build my own houses and lots, and therefore I don't feel the need to use others.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "launcher content"? As far as I know the launcher doesn't contain anything in itself, it only shows you the contents of your Downloads folder if you click the Downloads tab, and if you click Installed it shows you what you have installed into your game, and also gives you the possibility to uninstall one or more items if you want that.

The factory reset will make a new clean and empty The sims 3 folder in your Electronic Arts folder, so those of your downloads that you want back in your game, you'll have to reinstall via the Launcher once again. The ones you don't want you could just delete and be done with. And when you install the ones you want, do it only one or two at a time, and check the game in between to see if it/they does/do any harm to it or not.

[the doobie]

This used to work for me.  Not anymore.  Now after I change the name of the folder to The Sims 3 Old in Documents and restart the game it crashes the computer again.  But I do have a new folder labeled The Sims 3.

[Rikki8528]

Is there any way to have your store stuff in both files?

[Mj_Highfield13]

I tried this today, because I've been having some very annoying game play glitches going on for the last couple weeks. It worked but I didn't realize you'd loose all your game play. So I copied my saved files into the new folder, when I opened up Sims again the family I had been playing was there but when I start the game it says. "A very serious error has occurred we recommend you restart the game" Well something on those lines, so I did but it still comes up! I have been working on this town for quite some time and I've been very happy with the outcome I'd really like not to have to restart from scratch again because of this error. Does anyone have some tips or suggestions? Or maybe I didn't do it correctly.

[IrelandRose]

First of all I am not good at this kind of thing so bare with me, so I didn't read all of your post about the reset because I was eager to get this fixed so I missed the part about the warning so I did the first part & I'm wondering if I messed it up.  Now my new sims 3 folder did have things in it.  It has collections all the way down to thumbnails with a few cache.package.  Is that suppose to be there?  I did the documents part but I'm not sure where to find the folder name with a number & user ID.  My problem is this:  I got a new update and a patch then when I went to load my game it told me that i have installed an unofficial game mod but how is that possible?  They want me to uninstall these or get updated versions of them. Which I have no idea how to update them.  I also haven't backed up any files at all & didn't know I needed to do that with each installation. When I go to the main menu nothing is there I can't log in either and no towns.  Is what you posted what I need to do?  Its been 4 days since I've played my game and I don't like it.   I'm thinking I will just uninstall all 13 EPs & stuff packs and start over, no one will tell me what to do and I'm having sims withdrawal.   My game was freezing & hesitating & running slowly so I think it will be best to redo it all before I go crazy.

[LittleMissSims]

Firstly, thank you for putting this up! I will most likely try it because my game is really laggy.
I am a little confused about this part of the instructions:

Warning: Showtime added new data to The Sims 3 folder, and doing a full "factory reset" will cause you to lose data relating to your in-game SimPort progress.

Go to Documents \ The Sims 3 \ Downloads and find the folder named with a number (your user ID). Make a backup of that folder before you do anything. If you use the Factory Reset method for different challenges, you might want to move this folder around whenever you use a different The Sims 3 folder, so you can keep your progress. (Thanks NonaMena)

What do I do with the backup folder that i have made? Do I copy that over like I do with my Downloads and Saves?
Thanks in advance,
LittleMissSims

[Morgaroni]

Hi, really stressed out right now,sorry. Anyway, I want to this this to resolve the please reinstall the base game error. Does this work without that step in the middle to open the game?
 Thanks so much,
Morgaroni

[KhaineGB]

If you're being told to reinstall the base game, then that means your Operating System doesn't have the required entries to know the game is there.

So you WILL have to reinstall it.

[Morgaroni]

That's weird because I've had the game for 3/4 years and this had never come up before...

[Tandrael]

I don't know if I should ask here or start another thread: I'll ask here first.

Somewhere at the beginning of the year I bought Dragon Valley and it was working fine, I even started an Inmortal Dynasty there and played with it for a while but didn't go too far.

Recently I bought "Generations" and "Show time", the last EP I needed: now I have ALL of the expansion packs. I read it is better to unistall everything when you get new EP so I did. Dragon Valley is not an EP so I didn't unistall it.

I've been playing Challenges, where we don't use Store bought things so when the launcher opens, at the "Installed content" tap I clicked where it says "run without custom content".

Now I wanted to start a game in Dragon Valley and when I start the game and click the "new game" plus sing, there is no Dragon Valley in the list. If I load any other town nothing of the store content appears, it's as if I had clicked the "run without custom content" but I didn't.

I made a backup file of "the Sims 3" file I had and did a FACTORY RESET, went to "the Sims Store/purchase history" to download everything again: it does download, but still doesn't appear in the game.

I followed step by step everything that Flynn Arrowstarr  said in his " How To: Re-Install Sims Store Items" thread: nothing happened, in fact following his steps now my "downloads", "uploads" and "installed content" taps are empty and when I try to download my things from the Store nothing happens.

If I copy-paste the towns from my backup "InstalledWorlds" folder, they would appear in the "downloads" tap, then I would try to download them from there: nothing happens, I ended with three Dragon valleys in the "downloads" tap but nothing in the game.

I did another factory reset; nothing happened. I copy-pasted my backup file back, change its name back to just "The Sims 3", followed the steps from Mr. Arrowstarr in that folder: nothing.

The last time something weird like this happened to me I uninstalled everything and intalled them back, but this its store content so I don't know it that would work.

CURIOUS NOTE: remember I have a started game in Dragon Valley? It loads just fine, but in the town everything is called different, for example when I hover over the theater instead of saying "theater" it says "DOT09_World/RabbitHole/LotAddress:Theater". Same happens with the Sims, all but mine, if I hover over a Sim instead of saying "Aislin" it says "Gameplay/Excel/DTO09-World/Sims:Aislin"

Please help, I don't know what else to do and I really want my dragons back!

[Harmlessoldlady]

I've been playing Challenges, where we don't use Store bought things so when the launcher opens, at the "Installed content" tap I clicked where it says "run without custom content".

Hi, Tandrael
I have never clicked "run without custom content", so I don't know if I'm going to be helpful, but from your post, it appears none of your custom content is working. My understanding (and I'm no expert) is that everything but the base game and EPs is "custom." Everything you buy in the store, all the venues are "custom content." I could be wrong.

Have you tried un-clicking that "run without" button?

I tried some challenges once and the suggestion was to create separate game folders for challenges, so your regular games with all the cool store stuff would run in a whole different game. I think the Factory Reset clean file can be copied over and renamed to do this, if I recall.

[saltpastillen]

Hi, Tandrael
I have never clicked "run without custom content", so I don't know if I'm going to be helpful, but from your post, it appears none of your custom content is working. My understanding (and I'm no expert) is that everything but the base game and EPs is "custom." Everything you buy in the store, all the venues are "custom content." I could be wrong.

Have you tried un-clicking that "run without" button?

I tried some challenges once and the suggestion was to create separate game folders for challenges, so your regular games with all the cool store stuff would run in a whole different game. I think the Factory Reset clean file can be copied over and renamed to do this, if I recall.

I think you are right, store stuff is also considered Custom Content by the game.

[MrsFlynn]

I am locking this thread. As it was originally suppose to be for information purposes only.

If you have a technical problem, please go ahead and post a new message by going to the main technical board and select New Topic.

Technical Help - Sims 3
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php/board,12.0.html

This will help us to see your questions better and get an answer quicker.

Thank you!!

The Techie Team