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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Jan 2017 at 7:50 PM
Default Saving game screen never stops "spinning"; sims3.backup folders not being created!
Hi. First of all, I posted a thread in the Sims 3 general forum a while ago about how I'm new to this game and am sharing it with my mom on her computer. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to respond to that; I've been having some problems.

Now, we're both playing TS3 and each have our own worlds. Whenever we save the game, it never creates a sims3.backup folder- just "Sunset Valley.sims3," for example. We've been using "save as," since I've heard that's the safest. This has been going on for a little while now. For a couple days, my mom's world created a backup folder, then stopped again. Neither one of us knows why this started, or why hers started and stopped again (mine never got to the point of making a backup folder).

Second, when we save the game, often it gets to the "saving" screen... and never finishes. The little circle/spiral/whatever never stops spinning, and we have to minimize the game and close it manually. We don't know why this is happening, either.

I've deleted CasPartCache.package, compositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, simCompositorCache.package, and socialCache.package. Didn't work. I removed all the CC, and it still didn't make backup folders. I regenerated the Sims 3 folder ("Step 3: Rename User Files"). Nope. Since the game isn't crashing, I didn't do the Crashing Checklist; it didn't seem like it would apply to this situation.

Here are my system specs (a potential problem: I got the message "Do you want to allow DxDiag to check if your drivers are digitally signed....", and clicked "No" without thinking, and don't know how to get it back. Again, I'm not sure if this is a problem or not.):



(The "Before Posting a Help Question" page said to use "infobutton" tags, but they didn't work when I previewed my post, so I used spoiler tags instead- hope that's okay.)

Any help would be very much appreciated from both of us! We got an expansion pack bundle for Christmas as a mutual gift, and are itching to get things fixed so we can install one!

Hey- if you said something to me in a post and I didn't write back, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel good enough to post and by the time I'm able to the thread's old enough that I feel kind of weird about bumping it just to post one or two sentences. So please don't take it personally! :)
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Instructor
#2 Old 2nd Jan 2017 at 8:10 PM
It could be a memory issue, do you notice that it doesn't save after you've been playing for a long time?
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#4 Old 4th Jan 2017 at 4:19 AM
Thank you both! It's creating backup folders now. So, during a play session, do we use "save" first and then "save as" for the rest of the session?

For whatever reason, the saves always complete now! I'm excited, but I wish I knew what caused it so we can prevent it in the future! (Neither one of us could remember if the "non-saving" happened if we had been playing for a long time or not. Sorry!)

Two more questions:
1.) Is there some way to find out if CC is bad before I install it?
2.) Would it be safe to install World Adventures yet??

Hey- if you said something to me in a post and I didn't write back, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel good enough to post and by the time I'm able to the thread's old enough that I feel kind of weird about bumping it just to post one or two sentences. So please don't take it personally! :)
Instructor
#6 Old 5th Jan 2017 at 12:22 AM
I hate the never ending saves

I'm just wondering, do you happen to have KT_StoreFix_DecrapFixes or KT_XMLs anywhere in your mods folder and use the buydebug cheat at all? For some reason, KT's fixes and the buydebug cheat do not get along when trying to save. It will cause the never ending save. If this is one of your issues, you can take out KT's fixes although, this may mess with any content that you need the fixes for.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#7 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 2:35 AM
Sorry this reply is so late, I've been having some difficulties. Also, I've got more to add to this post, but I can't finish it all right now.

Thank you both for the information! It seems to be working again! I did the 50/50 method, and it turns out the culprit was a EAxis store item. (The wall garden tools from the Brunch at the Old Mill set, if anyone's curious.)

@rena2sweet4u, are we allowed to talk about the store fixes on here? (If there's a rules thread, I can't find it!) I'm having trouble understanding what to install from there (a couple things I downloaded from there aren't showing up), but the atmosphere at MATY is like Lord of the Flies, and nobody deserves to be treated that way.

Okay, another question: At Carl's Sims 3 Guide, he recommends installing the expansion packs in order of release in hopes that it would make the game less buggy. He hasn't updated some of his pages for a long while, so I'm wondering if that's still people's recommendation?

Hey- if you said something to me in a post and I didn't write back, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel good enough to post and by the time I'm able to the thread's old enough that I feel kind of weird about bumping it just to post one or two sentences. So please don't take it personally! :)
Test Subject
#9 Old 9th Oct 2019 at 7:30 AM
Quote: Originally posted by rena2sweet4u
I hate the never ending saves

I'm just wondering, do you happen to have KT_StoreFix_DecrapFixes or KT_XMLs anywhere in your mods folder and use the buydebug cheat at all? For some reason, KT's fixes and the buydebug cheat do not get along when trying to save. It will cause the never ending save. If this is one of your issues, you can take out KT's fixes although, this may mess with any content that you need the fixes for.

Not sure if this thread will still get replies, but it's worth a try.
I've been having the never-ending save issue a lot recently. I have KT's fixes mod, and after reading this I realised that every time the never-ending save issue occurred, it was after I enabled the buy debug cheat. I don't really want to have to remove KT's fixes from my game; it will break quite a lot of CC. If I turn buy debug off before saving, will the saving work?
Mad Poster
#10 Old 9th Oct 2019 at 2:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by LilyBear94
Not sure if this thread will still get replies, but it's worth a try.
I've been having the never-ending save issue a lot recently. I have KT's fixes mod, and after reading this I realised that every time the never-ending save issue occurred, it was after I enabled the buy debug cheat. I don't really want to have to remove KT's fixes from my game; it will break quite a lot of CC. If I turn buy debug off before saving, will the saving work?

There are never any guarantees I'm afraid, but it is always considered a best practice to switch off buydebug when not actually interacting with it, so that's right as one finishes up with Build/Buy. It has been known to bork up the saving process as well as returning to Live Mode from Edit Town for many players for a very long time, not having anything to do with store fixes or mods.
Test Subject
#11 Old 26th Aug 2023 at 6:39 PM Last edited by Alhapra : 26th Aug 2023 at 7:17 PM.
Hello, late reply but I have the same problem and the same solution, lol. My suspect was the Mill Lot, I will try to check it now!

UPDATE: Yeah, it did work. I removed the Mill Lot and still kept the Mill Set. I get two different packages for this store items :')

UPDATE 2: Hmm... I'm not sure who the culprit is because I tried to put Mill Lot in the library file (+ the Mill Set) again and now it's working (hopefully it won't crash again or I'll update this again). So, what I did was... I follow this rule posted by someone else.

~~~
Hey,
Lost several games to this problem but the solution snowflake suggested worked for me. To try it, follow these steps:
-Go to your documents folder
-Select the "Electronic Arts folder
-Select the "Sims 3" folder
-Select the "Saves" folder
-Select the game file (it will most likely be listed under the town you are playing.)
-Move all the files that end in "package" (exportDB files), except TravelDB.package, to your desktop.
Then open your game and proceed as normal.
I hope this helps you!
~~~

After I tried this, my problem still existed, so I stumbled into this and removed both Mill packages (set+lot). Then I can finally save again. But then I tried to reapply them and somehow it's working... So, my assumption is the exportDB probably carries the Old Mill data. Idk... Hopefully, I won't encounter this problem again or I will remove the Old Mill packages for sure. Hope this can helped anyone who has similar problems.
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