Oh no! Saved game not loading! [RESOLVED!!!]

[murfee]

Last night while saving my game before I went to bed, the screen blacked out in the middle of the save for whatever reason, then came back up and finished the save. I was too tired to keep working, so I decided to then Save and Quit and continue later. It saved and quit just fine.

So a few minutes ago I loaded up the save, and in the loading screen the green bar's all the way at the end, and yet the game's not loading. It's not saying it's Not Responding, and it's not saying the save file is corrupted or bad, and the Game Tips are still coming on one after the other. So I don't know what's wrong with my save all of a sudden. :cry:

I heard there's a way to use the backup file--how do I rename/use it?
And is there anything else I could do?

I'm panicking a bit since I'm working on a BIG lot right now and I never Exported my progress like I'd usually do. :faceslap:

If my saved game is busted I'm gonna flip my lid, no lie. :(

[nonamena]

Go to Documents \ Electronic Arts \ The Sims 3 \ Saves

Find the save you want o load and move it to the desktop (or delete it if you don't care for it). Find the folder called TheSaveYouWant.sims3.backup and remove the .backup from the name. You can now load that back up of your save game.

[murfee]

Crap--I thought I had responded to this already. :P :lol:

Alright--I renamed the backup but the problem's still happening--it loads everything up just fine, but suddenly stops at the very end of the green bar. Nothing says Bad or corrupted or anything--just a pause and endless Game Tips with no extra loading. The RAM in Task Manager is normal, so the game isn't crashed or anything--I've no idea what's going on.
This is my worst year ever--I tried to plug in my external hard drive cuz I backed up my stuff a few weeks ago, but now I'm getting the Click of Death from the External Hard Drive, so that's 300+ GB of data I had saved for 3 years, just gone.

And now my all-important lot is now inaccessible cuz something's fudged up with the save.
On top of every other issue I'm having in RL lately. :lol:

Incredible.
I'm cursed. :faceslap:

[murfee]

[UPDATE] Okay, I found some info about Meta Data here: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/176925.page and here http://terra-byte.org/content/ultimate-sims-3-save-game-recovery-guide so I'm gonna try that, since changing the backup folder didn't do anything.

The only problem I have is that in the save I was playing, all I was doing was building--none of my sims Travelled to a vacation world. So I don't know if sending a sim on a vacation then swapping the meta data out would even matter. But oh well. I'll try the vacation step, and if it doesn't work I'll skip it.

Wish me luck! I need some good news right now. :cry:

[UPDATE] Okay, I replaced the meta data and am loading the game, and it's STILL no going over that final green bar into the actual game--it's just sitting there for minutes on end AT the very end of the bar, still loading the Game Tips, and not giving me my save! >_<

This is bananas--a ANYONE else experienced something like this!? Is this a lag or something? I don't want to let it keep going and wait/waste maybe another hour, but if it's just a major lag I can wait. If it's something else, I'd want to know any other suggestions or imput.

Otherwise, I'll just have to start aaaaaaalll over again, which I really don't wanna do. *SIGH* :faceslap:

[ellacharmed]

It didn't auto-update or anything like that? New patch 1.31 just released...

It didn't crash, just stalled? You can Alt+Tab out to desktop and do stuff, just Sims 3 froze and not the whole system?
So, it is simply unresponsive on that one save game? Used ProcMon yet, to determine what file is stalling? Game Help:TS3 Load Issues#Long loading times
And, you have other Saves you've tested on, that loads fine? If so, Errortrap may help. Or do you already have this installed? This is one of the suggestions in Game_Help:Sims 3 Crashing Checklist

[murfee]

Thanks! I'm gonna look into Errortrap since that sounds nifty, but GREAT news in the meantime!

I DID IT!!!! :anime:

Okay, I kept reading and reading about Stuck loading screens, and people kept mentioning that by reinstalling the game everything went back to normal. I knew my whole game couldn't possibly be busted since I was able to start a New Game in the same world, so I could swap the meta data, so I knew it was something much smaller, since the game itself was running fine except for that one save, which clearly wasn't corrupted or even bad since the game and save folder wasn't saying so anywhere. So I figured I wouldn't uninstall the whole game, but smaller bits.

First I took out my cache files. No dice
Then I removed the whole Mods folder. No dice.
Then I went into the Launcher (urgh :P ) and clicked the Run Without Custom Content.
BAM!

My save loaded! :bunny:

This is why I HATE sims3packs. There's no way to scan them the way we scan package files with the Dashboard to find corrupt/botched sims3packs we install. And that makes me mad, cuz I KNOW the Launcher will install a bad file and you'd never know until you ran across it in-game--I've had several bad Pattern sims3packs crash my game when I went over the wall with the Hand/Sledgehammer tool.

So anyway, clearly, it was a very recent sims3pack I had installed and used on the lot I'm building that jacked up the save file somehow and prevented me from loading it. I saved the game again under a new name just in case I can't backtrack my steps and pinpoint which sims3pack needs to be removed, which I'm VERY happy about, since it was the building itself I needed preserved, not really the decor & furnishings inside, which I hadn't even finished doing yet. So I am super super super relieved that I figured out what was wrong.

PHEW! :anime:

Da^n sims3packs! :P :lol:

[ellacharmed]

Well, the Game Problem FAQ is the first step we recommend for a reason. :)

Glad you've pinpointed the cause...but if you save with no Sims3Pack content, doesn't that reset all objects to defaults? Unless this is a Build Save and not a Gameplay Save, then indeed yes, you can salvage the Lot this way.

Thanks for reverting with the solution, in any case. OK to lock? Or you need to leave it until you've done further troubleshooting?

[murfee]

Yes, it replaced everything I had with defaults so the lot's pretty empty right now, but I saved the game under a new name, so I'm holding it to the side in case I still can;t access the original problem save file.
I uninstalled a few sims3packs and put my Mods folder back but cleared the caches. I am now booting up the game. If I still can't get the original save to open, I'll try to uninstall more sims3packs, and if I can't find the exact problem installation, I'll just start again on the Defaulted lot in the new save file I made and call the case closed. ^-^

Drum roll, please!...

(Will update a final time, shortly)


-----------
FINAL UPDATE:
Alright--I could't load the original save despite uninstalling a few recent sims3packs I had installed prior to this issue. But when I played the game with NO sims3packs via the Launcher, the save loaded. So clearly I'm not finding the right sims3pack causing the problem. I'll keep trying, but whatever--at least I got the no-sims3pack version of my lot, so I'm satisfied. I'll just have to redecorate from scratch--that's fine with me, since I've still got my presets.

So, that's my input.

Beware of the Sims3packs! :blink: :rofl:

Thank you, Ellacharm3d! :up: This can be locked now. ^_^

[ellacharmed]

Happy hunting! :lol: