Game Help:Finding Problem Custom Content

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Finding Problem Custom Content

You’re playing the game, or running bodyshop, and something strange is happening. Maybe it’s crashing, or perhaps it’s not working quite as it should. You’ve read the FAQ and you’ve removed your downloads or saved sims folder, and you know the problem is in there. But the trouble is, you have thousands of files in there, how can you find out which one is the problem?

If you have put everything you’ve downloaded into your Downloads folder without categorizing them into subfolders, it can be tricky to figure out which file is causing the problem when your game is acting strangely. There are many tools you can use for scanning your files, such as SimPE or The Clean Installer, but this method will show you a way of finding a problem file quite quickly without using any of these. It is also great for Mac users.

Are you sure it's custom content?

This FAQ is meant to be read as part of a step of the Game Problem FAQ. If you have not arrived here as part of it, or if you are not 100% sure it's a downloaded file that is causing the problem, please go and read that FAQ first, and it will lead you back here if you need to do this. You need to have properly tested that it is indeed your Downloads or SavedSims folders causing a problem before you do this.

Warning!

Do not remove custom careers while sims in those jobs are away at work. Do not remove custom majors while sims in those majors are away at class. Make sure everyone's home first before doing so. Removing some hacks when in use can cause problems with gameplay too.

It is advisable to back up your game files before you begin doing this. There is a full guide on backing up your game at: Back Ups.

Important Note About Saving

Once you have removed your custom content, everything that was using custom content will look wrong - any sims with custom skins or hair will have default skins and hair. Any objects in your sims' homes will disappear or revert to defaults - so where you might have had some plastic plants, you might suddenly have a cluster of statues, etc. Walls and floors using custom wallpapers and floor coverings will go bare, and any areas of ground that were using custom ground covers will flash blue. If you save your game with your custom content removed, anything that has reverted will then stay that way.

That's why you backed up your stuff before you start - if you do have to save while testing for whatever reason, then you can restore your Neighborhoods folder and your sims and houses will be fine.

Remove Recently Added Files

Use your common sense. If you have recently added files and began getting problems right after that, the problem is most likely to be with those new files. You can identify those most recently added files and try removing them first.

Sort By Date

If all of your files are just in Downloads, not in subfolders, the easiest method is to sort your Downloads folder by date.

Open your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads folder and sort by date as shown in the picture below.

SortByDate.png

Search By Date

If you keep multiple subfolders and you're not sure which ones have your newest files, search your Downloads folder for the most recently added files. You can narrow things down if you know the approximate dates you might have installed something.

SearchByDate.jpg

Delphy's Download Organiser also includes functionality to sort by date of install, and has a lot of other nifty features you might want. It'd be a useful tool to grab at this point.

Remove Most Likely Culprits

Certain items are more likely to cause problems than others. Often, the following sorts of files can cause problems in peoples' games:

  • Careers
  • University Majors
  • Hacks
  • Hacked Objects

If you are having issues with downloads, try sorting out your files of these type first to see if they are the problem. Don't know where all of the files of those types are? Try Delphy's Download Organiser to sort those out.

Simsample's Amazing Patented 50% Method

If you have removed your most recent files and the most likely culprits listed above and you're still having trouble, then it's time to sort through using the 50% method. Though it may be a bit tedious, this is the best and most effective method for finding problem files and removing them while keeping the rest of your custom content.

Create Temporary Folders

Go to your computer's Desktop. Right-click and select "New Folder" (On a Mac, control click and choose New folder) - when the new folder appears, name it A.

50p01.png


Do the same, making a second new folder, and call it B.

50p02.png


You should now have two new folders on your desktop, A and B. These two folders will be used for sorting your downloads - they're just temporary, so we can keep things organized.

Get First Half

Now it's time to begin sorting. To do this, we're going to grab a chunk of downloads and move them out.

Open your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads folder (on a Mac it's Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads).

If you want to see how many files you have in the folder, click on the Edit menu and then Select All. Then right-click on any file and choose Properties. At the top of the window that pops up, it will tell you how many files you have selected.

Now select about half of the files in the folder. You don't have to get too accurate - just about half. Click on the first file in the folder to select it. Then drag your scroll bar about halfway down and shift-click on a file. On a Mac, you can do this by clicking on a white space and dragging - everything you drag the box over gets selected. If you want to select more or less, you can shift-click on a different file. Mac users hold down the Apple Key and drag over more or less.

With the files still selected, click on the Edit menu and choose Cut. The selected files will go greyish, indicating they have been cut.

50p04.png

Go to your computer's Desktop and right click on the A folder and choose Paste. Mac users, you just need to drag your selection to the A folder that’s on your Desktop. This may take several minutes depending on how many files you're moving and the speed of your hard drive as the computer has to handle all of that information in one chunk.

When it’s done, you should be able to open up the A folder and see that half of your Downloads are in there.

Now what we need to do is test the game, as we want to see which half of the files contains your problem.

Test

Now run The Sims 2 (or Body Shop, if it was what was giving you trouble) and test to see if your original problem is still happening. Recreate the problem as close as you can and see if it occurs again. When you've determined whether the problem is persisting, exit out of the game.

No Problem

If it worked without those downloads, then you know the problem is in the files you moved to the A folder.

Problem Persists

If the problem was still there, then you know the problem file is still in Downloads.

So, open your Downloads folder and select all the files. Cut and paste them into the B folder on your Desktop (again Mac users will just select and drag).

Then open up the A folder and select all of the files. Cut and paste them back into the Downloads folder, as you know those files are okay.

Get Second Half

So now, we have all of the good files back in Downloads, and we need to split the rest of the files in half and repeat the process.

Open your A or B folder, the one with the ‘bad’ half of the files in it. Select around half of the files that are in it, as you did before.

Cut and paste (or Mac select and drag) these files to the OTHER folder on your Desktop - the empty one. So now you should have the A and B folders on your Desktop with around a quarter of your total downloaded files in each of them.

50p06.png

Put Back Stuffs

BALLS!

  • 1: Divide the contents of the Downloads folder in half. Put half in folder A and half in folder B.
  • 2: Remove folder B and test folder A.
    • Problem persists with folder A in place: Problem is in folder A. Go to 4.
    • Problem disappears with only folder A in place: Test folder B. Go to 3.
  • 3: Remove folder A and test folder B.
    • Problem persists with only folder B in place: Problem is in folder B. Go to 4.
    • Problem disappears with only folder B in place: Conflict between A and B. Go to 6.
  • 4: Put back whichever of A and B is "good". Put back half of the files from the "bad" folder. Test.
    • Problem persists with good files and first half in place: Problem is in first half of bad files. Go to 5
    • Problem disappears with good files and first half in place: Problem is in second half of bad files. Go to 5.
  • 5: Leave in working files. Divide "bad" files into half and put in half with a new folder name. Test.
    • Problem persists with good files and first half of bad in place: Problem is in first half of bad files. Move out half and repeat 5.
    • Problem disappears with good files and first half of bad in place: Problem is in second half of bad files. Leave in the good half and repeat 5.
  • 6: There is a conflict between something in folder A and something in folder B. You will first have to find the conflicting item in folder B. Put in A and half of B. Test.
    • Problem persists with A in and half of B: Problem is in the first half of B. Go to 5.
    • Problem disappears with B in and half of B: Problem is in the second half of B. Go to 5.
      • Once you have identified a problem file in B, then you will leave it in and test all of A against it.

BALLS!

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