I don't think it's the patch. I'm on the same patch on my laptop and the CC work just fine because they were installed in the old way and the game haven't been reinstalled. It all happened when I reinstalled the game on the other computer and I had to reinstall the CC as well. The new way doesn't work.

Are you still attempting to install with hundreds at a time or just a handful like I suggested?

If the do-over from Game Help:GCCTSU3 Start FAQ is not successful, obviously something
- has gone wrong when doing that step, or
- step not followed correctly, or
- step was skipped?

And is D:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\ the User Documents folder that Windows XP recognize or you created that folder manually? Is this the User folder recognized by the Windows System as stored in the Windows Registry, is the more important question? Because the default path is
If you don't know, answer this: when you create a game and save it, does the saved name appear in the D:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves folder?

You should maintain your CC elsewhere other than this folder as this is considered a "working" folder and not good for archiving purposes. Only the files and folders mentioned in Game Help:TS3 User Folders Explained^wiki that the game creates should be in there. Any folder (other than the \Mods\Packages, of course) that you had created manually should not be there.

I moved My Documents folder to D drive since it has more free space and yes, when I save a game the name appears in D:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves. I haven't tried to delete unnecessary folders but I will.

Uh, I thought you said you had followed and done the GCCTSU3 FAQ? One of the steps in that FAQ was to Game_Help:GCCTSU3_Redo/All^wiki and rename the user folder - the main The Sims 3 folder. If that has been done, why would the unnecessary folders still be in there?

OK, the objective here is to establish a clean slate, since obviously one or all of the folders are corrupt to be able to accept new content. So, if we keep using the same folder(s), we're going in circles and never ever solve this issue.

So, on these new clean slate, we test with a handful of files, not hundreds of files that are hard to keep track of. We just want to make sure that the clean slate is working to accept the content.
Once that is established, then we can install more stuff, in batches. Meaning, installed Sims3Packs are moved OUT of the Downloads folder and more copied in. Launcher cannot handle it when too many things are thrown at it, it gets overwhelmed and complain of being overwork. Well, technically, this depends on the RAM and what else is running on the system.

If you want to be over-paranoid, before each new batch of stuff is placed in Downloads, you may want to copy this version of "The Sims 3" folder to the Desktop or somewhere with the xx in "The Sims 3 - good batch xx" numbered.

So, lets say batch #4 cannot be loaded when you test the game,
- you delete that to the Recycle Bin,
- rename batch #3 back as "The Sims 3" and copied into Electronics folder
- half the amount of Sims3Pack files that was copied over when you installed batch #4
- install this batch #4.1
- load the game to test
- if things are OK, the load the next batch and call it #4.2
- if #4.1 is not OK, then discard that
- rename and half the amount again, so now essentially you're working with a quarter of the number you started batch #4 with
- install this as batch #4.3 or #4.1.1 whichever makes sense to you
- rinse and repeat.
This is somewhat of a modified and upside-down concept of the 50% method in Finding Problem Content.

What I do is, I have a "The Sims 3.patient0" where all my Sims3Packs content are installed with a handful or never-changing .package mods in \Mods\Packages\Base Hacks. This is the test bed to my install content and is just for installing purposes, not to play. So each time I patch, I rename the user folder with a new "The Sims 3" dummy folder and patch. When patching is complete, test with this dummy folder and play a while just to see what's new, what's changed, etc while waiting for the mods to get updated. I then delete this temporary dummy "The Sims 3" folder and rename "The Sims 3.patient0" as my new "The Sims 3" folder and test all my pristine content.
I also have "The Sims 3.play", "The Sims 3.caw", "The Sims 3.test" and a bunch of other stuff.

Everybody has different strategies, so that strategy might not suit you, but it's what works for me.

Isn't it the same when I have all sims3packs in Downloads folder and I select just a few of them and click "Open"? And I do that till I install all the CC. Or do I have to necessarily leave just a handful of files in Downloads folder and then add more? And when I redo all folders do I have to move old files there so my saved games would be there?

Launcher stalls when it has to read ALL the files in the Download folder, so why have it there if you don't need it for that particular install session. Isn't the time waiting for Launcher to be responsive to mouse-clicks accumulating and thus make everything last longer? We want to place files in Downloads, load Launcher, click to Downloads tab, select 3-5 items, install, quit. Start game, check if CC is there. BOOM! Done! Next batch...so if we do this cycle dozens of time is better than doing it all at once with hundreds of files in one go - how accurate are you at targeting and knowing which file is the culprit if you don't know what "fails" and what "succeed"? The Launcher install screens scrolls off, right? At some point, the scrollbar doesn't show the first item installed (or I'm confusing with some other game)?

Yes! A handful at a time. We can do in separate batches of category type - clothing one session, hair separately, accessories next session, buy mode stuff in another and so on. Or you can go by creator or sites, whatever you prefer and however you keep things organized. I spent one whole day just on my Store stuff alone, by monthly compilation sets. Which is why after a full weekend of painstaking reorganizing, I keep my installed Sims3Packs in ready-to-copy state in a separate "The Sims 3.patient0". So each time my testing of mods or installing new stuff or patching mess things up, I just copy and paste that, transfer my Save folder + option.ini and I'm off to the races.
And note I state - copy+paste. Then I rename that copy. Don't just simply rename it, install stuff and mess up the Launcher indexes/*.dbc/*.ebc files again and there goes all your work down the drain. Uninstalling does not remove things cleanly. It is safer for the long run to discard that DCCache contents and start over from scratch.

No! We want clean user folders. No Saves, no previously installed content. And this includes InstalledWorlds. Do Sims3Packs and .packages and .sims type at separate install+test sessions.
Only copy Saves over when you have a working The Sims 3 folder with all the content back as before, or your Saves would have some of the content replaced by default items. I have an AutoSave feature turned on in AwesomeMod, that's why just Quitting sometimes still Save and overwrite things if I hit the time threshold, so I just have to be careful in another manner.

When I install a handful of files do I have to delete them from Downloads folder after installing or just paste the new ones?

Also I don't understand what you meant by renaming and copying?


Another problem is that I don’t remember what stuff contains each Sims3Pack so I won’t know if all stuff show up in game.

Question
Answer in post#29
I would suggest, to copy the current Downloads folder where you have all the content to the Desktop. Separate them out and organize by category or site/creator/month/whatever in subfolders. Then you install them in batches by copying the Sims3Packs from each categorized subfolder into the "working folder" in turn, after deleting the previous batch (if installation and test load of the game is successful).

This is after installing the "test files", of course. The 5 or so that I asked you to choose? To install on a brand new User folder?

Right, here's a scenario.
When you simply rename "The Sims 3.batch 2" to "The Sims 3" and proceed with installing the next batch, what happens if this "The Sims 3.batch 3" contains bad CC? You uninstall the CC from Launcher, correct? Then, this CC don't appear in the Installed Tab and the Download Tab shows it as uninstalled. But Launcher does not remove the content from the dbcdb??.dbc file! I speculate this is why if one continues to play with this "corrupt" dbcdb??.dbc file in place, things started going wrong. The next time you load the game, the whole dbcdb??.dbc file might be flagged as uninstalled and that is when people think "Launcher uninstalls my CC on its own!"

So, if the "The Sims 3.batch 2" folder was copied in the first place, when you discard the "The Sims 3" (the bad batch 3) folder, you still have a separate copy of "The Sims 3.batch 2" to pick up and continue from. And you don't need to start from scratch all over again or to go back to the previous good batch.

If the "The Sims 3.batch 2" folder was renamed in the first place, there's no other "The Sims 3.batch 2" folder that exists anymore. You have to go back one level back ("The Sims 3.batch 1") and redo 2 batches.

Does that makes sense?

Perhaps then it is a good time to reorganize, especially if you don't know what the CC looks like and never used it. Go back to read the comments and see if creators have updates for their contents or if too many Simmers complain of the item not working, then time to discard that CC item as well.
Some of us copy the image as uploaded by the creator when we organize our CC in the Archives, just for this purpose.

Have you heard of CC Magic?

Let’s say I've tested all the files. What do I do when I want to get back to my old game? Do I need to install all CC in batches again? And do I need to delete them from Downloads folder after installing?


Yes, I get it now. Thanks.


Yeah, a little bit. But when I read the guide it seemed too complicated for me so I didn’t really get what to do with it.

After you've finished installing all your Sims3Pack CC, then make sure to have them organized away from "The Sims 3" folder and yes, remove them from Downloads folder. Discard any that cannot be installed or failed during testing (don't show up or have conflicts). Unless you're installing Sims3Pack CC, the Downloads folder should be blank, in my opinion.

When you've established a good folder where all content is showing up as they should, and the game is behaving as it should and no glitches whatsoever, then copy and paste one Save game. Load and test the game:
- do you get any "items have been replaced" message
- any glitches in gameplay: not able to go to work because Career outfits/hair are borked or Misc Category in CASt is stalled and hang, etc etc
Then Save As under another name, Quit the game and try to load both Save games again. Some issues need subsequent loads to show up.

If all is running OK, then make sure to save this version of "The Sims 3" folder as your "good working copy" without any Saves, just purely a CC repository - what I named as "The Sims 3.patient0" in my config. So whenever you encounter issues,
- firstly do the Game Problem FAQ to establish if CC is at fault (issue is gone after step#2) or the game data is at fault (issue exist after step#3)
- secondly, if issue is gone after step#2, copy and paste this "good working copy" to test if your Saves is at fault.

CC Magic takes a lot of getting used to. But once you learned how to use it, it is much easier to use it for Organizing CC as you can have the URL and your own notes in it.
And it is going to have conflict detection and more features as Granthes is working on the next beta version. Where he aims to include Delphy's Dashboard tool's capabilities (some, not all features right off the bat). So, start learning to use it today, and you'll be an old hand at it when cool, new features are ready.

The Sims3Pack CC that are not installed successfully are moved to a separate folder in the CC Magic folder hierarchy, so you can identify them easily, much easier than in Launcher.

Thank you very much for your detailed answers and advice! I'll try to do what you suggested.

do i have to install expansions just to make these problems work

Problems:
1. I checked the mods file and i have the "Nointro.packege & nobuildingsparkles" but it doesnt work.
2. I downloaded packages items like cars and more then paste in the packages folder but in the game it doesn't show up
3. i downloaded sliders and it doesn't work ( i have the nraas and awesome)


pls help. thanks!

Well make.sure,your custom content is installed correctly because many custom contents dont install it go.all trough the installation then fail and also make sure your game is patched to the latest update
Hope it helped
sorry for bad English
and if for package files make sure its in documents not the game installation folder and download a new mods folder