Revision as of 15:43, 28 February 2010

Before You Begin

• It is highly recommended that you read over, or at least skim, over these steps before you continue on to anything else. These simple things have been known to fix many of issue reports from game players having trouble getting patches to work. These steps include...

• Backup your user files - This is especially important for saved files and store content that you do not want to redownload.
  • Go to you user profile path in "Documents\Electronic Arts\", right-click "The Sims 3" folder and select "Copy".
  • Go to your desktop and Right Click and choose "Paste" - This will move your folder to your desktop.
  • If your harddisk do not have sufficient space, paste it into a secondary drive, if you have one. If you don't, the important folders to backup are:
    • Downloads - the Sims3Pack files you downloaded from the store, these files would need to be reinstalled via Launcher
    • Exports - the Lots you have "shared"
    • Library - the Lot Bin in the Edit Town screen
    • SavedSims - your Sims
    • Saves - your saved towns and games
    • Recorded Videos & Screenshots - if you have any of these for storytelling

• Removing your "Mods" folder - Some people who experience issues when they still have their "Mods" folder in the game data
  • To remove your folder go to "Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\" - Take note that this folder is in the "Program Files" folder, NOT "My Documents" like TS2
  • Right click on the folder labeled "Mods" and select "Cut"
  • Go to your desktop and Right Click and choose "Paste" - This will move your folder to your desktop. Doing so may take a few seconds.

• Remove any custom camera hacks - If you have any custom camera hacks downloaded, you need to restore the originals (you did back them up, right?)
  • If you did back them up like you were supposed to, put the original files back into your "Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\NonPackaged\Ini" folder. This should replace your camera hacks.

• OSX Users - You should back up their entire game (not only the user files – everything) before upgrading to 1.3 or 1.4. Version 1.3 introduces changes to the graphics that apparently don't work for everyone, and a full backup is the only way to roll back to 1.2.7 seeing as the 1.2.7 patches for OS X aren't available anymore.