I got Sims 3 back in September, and I've been slowly accumulating cc since.
For the last week or two, I have been unable to start a new game. It lets me select the town and house, but it crashes when it loads. This happens when selecting a premade family or moving a new one in. I can create sims and edit the town, but I can't play with them.
I don't have very many saved games (maybe 8 to 10). I have Late Night, World Adventures, Generations, Seasons, and Supernatural, as well as High End Loft. I've had all of them for over two months.
I can play my saved games, but I can't move new sims in, and sims aren't generating in either. I can move my sims within a town or to a new one.
I've unistalled and reinstalled in.
I've gone through my saves file and my cc and mods.
I've deleted caches and cleared my DCBackup (minus ccmerged).
All my cc and mods still work.

Any advice?

What happens if you just pull your mods folder? If it can start a game properly without it, you have a busted mod or cc (mod is more likely).

Which mods do you have? They might be the issue.

I have suffered a lot of heartache trying to get my game clean, and crash free. Here are my recommendations, which are not commonly noted on other websites:

1. Create a new sims game - If you do not have certain folders backed up, like your mods, saved sims, installed worlds, custom music, library or downloads folder, REMOVE THESE TO YOUR DESKTOP OR EXTERNAL DRIVE. Once you have removed folders, rename your sims game with the extension .old. It will look like this: This PC>Documents>Electronic Arts> The Sims 3.old. You do not need to un-install and re-install your game constantly. This will work everytime, and re-generate your game sub-folders (except for library, which will re-generate once you start installing lots). (Even if you don't use any of these folders again, I just feel better knowing I didn't delete anything I could want and use later).

2. Start your game. It does not matter if you checked off all of your ep's and sp's in the launcher.

3. After you start and exit, delete your old sims 3 game. If you have not removed your folders that you may want to keep in step 1, they will be deleted permanently.

4. Some sims3packs, even though they are not corrupt, are not liked by the launcher. I have had this happen with Pilar's dj single bed and a few of luna's files, and a sims3cri pattern file. I simply delete them.

5. I have had success with Union Cove world (offered by Carl's Sims), Legacy Island III (exchange) and Awesims' worlds since the patches. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1gxjkm4o...Qre8CVIvya?dl=0 this is my folder with Sarah's wonderful creations.

6. Clean your Sims. Go through each Sims3pack using Sims3pack cleaner (http://modthesims.info/d/390235) and get rid of any "naked everyday" or anything you don't need. I generally re-dress my sims using content I know is clean - If your saved sims are, like, 30MB each, and you did not create them that way with clean content, you will be greatly annoyed if you do not clean them now. I have had shoes (that are not listed on Crinrict's blog) make my game weird that did not show as corrupt in the sims 3 pack cleaner.

7. Instead of the 50/50 method for finding corrupt content, you can do this: With the Sims3pack multi installer (http://modthesims.info/d/364038), every one of your SINGLE-ITEM sims3packs can be extracted to package files. Make sure you check the box to "Rename Files on Save" so you get a proper name and not the alpha/numerical file so you can easily delete the crap sims3pack files or separate them from the rest to clean them yourself. Then run your extracted package files through Delphy's Dashboard (http://www.modthesims.info/d/387006) to note conflicts/corrupt files. Get rid of conflicts as well as corrupt files. Then, put your sims 3 packs and package files together, alphabetically, and delete the sims3packs that no longer have corresponding package files (because they were corrupt or conflicted). Then, remove your package files and install the sims3packs like normal. It really is quicker than the 50/50 method, and the launcher WILL work.

8. For sims 3 packs with multiple package files, like lots or sims, you can go through them individually with the sims3pack cleaner, and you may want to have Crinrict's blog open to note sneaky files that may be in your lots or sims.

9. For any files that you downloaded as package files only, like build, CAS or buy items, merge them with S3PE (http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUp...e/uploads/189/). Your mods folder will be happy. Then use Compressorizer (http://sims.jfade.com/index.php?category=10&subcat=5) to squeeze those puppies down.

10. When you are ready to install your sims3packs, LEAVE YOUR MODS FOLDER ON YOUR DESKTOP until AFTER you have installed all of your sims3packs. This is a new quirk I have seen after the latest updates - your game will crash if you do not do this. Checkmark all the ep's and sp's you have in the launcher, then install your sims3packs. Add your mods folder and start your game.

11. Once you have a clean game that works, backup your: Installed worlds, mods folder, clean sims3pack files, saved sims, saves, library, and custom music folder to an external drive (they really aren't that expensive) and/or a different drive on your computer. I label the folder Sims3>Current Sims Game on my PC and update it regularly. I also delete the old saves and cache files every time I start a game.


After spending countless hours (!) (crazy, IKR?), my game works incredibly well, and loads really quickly ( I have 1 GB of mods in my mods folders, and about 12G in my downloads), even with all the updates/patches. I use NRAAS which helps with lags, story progression, etc, and any hiccups are so minor, I don't really notice. I hope this helps you, and you are welcome to PM me with any questions.

I agree with cleaning sims3pack steps and other steps as well, it does help gameplay performs better, but why do you have to checked off and on with the EPs and SPs in the launcher? I don't have the option to checked off or on for my EPs and/or SPs whenever I use the launcher to launch the game, are you game is 1.69 patched? If so then there are so many differences between TS3 1.67, TS3 1.67 patched to 1.69 and TS3 1.69 (when buying/installing TS3 BG online via Origin)

my game is fully patched. At first, there was some issue of lag around the time of the CAW debacle, but everything has been fixed now.

With the game fully patched, the launcher will not start up (they are still installed, though) your ep's and sp's unless you check them off and ask the game to run them, when you load a brand new sparkly game. Once you do that, the ep's and sp's will show up - unless you re-install your game again.