Apartment life mailbox issues, unwanted custom content - help!

[fataldream]

Hello there simmers!

I am encounting problems with apartment life, and know this is a common problem with CC.

The mailbox is a residential one, and I cant have roomates etc. I have done a lot of searching for the issue and think (hope) ive figured it out a bit, but this is where I need your help.

In my buy catolog, under misilanious, I have different mailbox colours to choose from. From what I've read, this can corrupt apartment life, and I've searched my downloads folder for it but cant find it anywhere. In the buy catologe its just listed as 'mailbox'. Any idea to what it could be??????

I have tried to download clean installer and CC manager but neither I can get to work. My CC has never been organised and so I'm stuck, completely. :(

[Ghost sdoj]

What happens when you try to use Clean Installer? And how are you trying to use it?

[Mootilda]

Try this:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Game_Problem

[fataldream]

Okay, I downloaded the clean installer, and put it into my downloads. I unzipped the file. To find the problem content, do I go to each folder or item and press 'open with...'? My god, I ammaking this too hard for myself lol. Is there a quick way? I just want to know what those mailboxes in my game are called

[Ghost sdoj]

Yes, you are making it -far- too hard on yourself. :)

(Clean Installer doesn't need to be in Downloads, by the way. It's a standalone program.)

First, I would go to a random Sims2pack, right click it, set it to open with Clean Installer, then mark the box to do this for all files of this type. It's much better than opening them with the launcher.

Now that we have that out of the way, open Clean Installer. Tell it to scan your Downloads. If you have a lot of them, wait. It will take time to go through them all. If you have folders in your Downloads, have it scan recursively. This means it scans inside the folders as well as outside them. (If you know where the mailboxes might be, you can just scan that folder. At some point you might want to to a complete scan of the Downloads anyway, because you might be amazed at the number of empty packages and duplicate files it finds.) It will mark anything that modifies game behavior in red. If you knew about it, you can leave it alone. If it has a name that looks like alphabet soup; it came with a lot or a sim and you don't want it. If it is in pink it is either a duplicate or an empty package. You can generally get rid of those as well.

Now read the list that it generates. Somewhere in that list should be a set of packages that have a name that suggests that it is a mailbox recolor. If there isn't, check for any files that it couldn't identify. (They will have alphabet soup names, but will not be marked in red.) Check for any of them that say that they are object recolors. The mailbox recolors are probably in that set. Move the recolors (or potential recolors) to another folder which you can remove when you finish. (Clean Installer will do that for you, if the folder isn't too deep, or if you want to browse to a different directory to move it to.) You can also delete from inside Clean Installer, but I prefer to move them out in case I end up deleting the wrong thing.

If you had more unidentified recolors, you might need to go through a few at a time to find out what the others were. Of course, if you don't notice a missing recolor for an object it probably wasn't important anyway. Still, it's nice to know that if you discover something gone, it's in the folder of the unidentified objects that you took out.

[fataldream]

I dont know what to say, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your reply! I did everything you said (learnt new things along the way) and OMG, it flippin worked! I have a rent box, and I can get a room mate. Happy, so very happy. Thank you all who replied :beer:



Yes, you are making it -far- too hard on yourself. :)

(Clean Installer doesn't need to be in Downloads, by the way. It's a standalone program.)

First, I would go to a random Sims2pack, right click it, set it to open with Clean Installer, then mark the box to do this for all files of this type. It's much better than opening them with the launcher.

Now that we have that out of the way, open Clean Installer. Tell it to scan your Downloads. If you have a lot of them, wait. It will take time to go through them all. If you have folders in your Downloads, have it scan recursively. This means it scans inside the folders as well as outside them. (If you know where the mailboxes might be, you can just scan that folder. At some point you might want to to a complete scan of the Downloads anyway, because you might be amazed at the number of empty packages and duplicate files it finds.) It will mark anything that modifies game behavior in red. If you knew about it, you can leave it alone. If it has a name that looks like alphabet soup; it came with a lot or a sim and you don't want it. If it is in pink it is either a duplicate or an empty package. You can generally get rid of those as well.

Now read the list that it generates. Somewhere in that list should be a set of packages that have a name that suggests that it is a mailbox recolor. If there isn't, check for any files that it couldn't identify. (They will have alphabet soup names, but will not be marked in red.) Check for any of them that say that they are object recolors. The mailbox recolors are probably in that set. Move the recolors (or potential recolors) to another folder which you can remove when you finish. (Clean Installer will do that for you, if the folder isn't too deep, or if you want to browse to a different directory to move it to.) You can also delete from inside Clean Installer, but I prefer to move them out in case I end up deleting the wrong thing.

If you had more unidentified recolors, you might need to go through a few at a time to find out what the others were. Of course, if you don't notice a missing recolor for an object it probably wasn't important anyway. Still, it's nice to know that if you discover something gone, it's in the folder of the unidentified objects that you took out.

[joandsarah77]

I've had mail box recolours for ever and apartments and never had a problem with them. Are you sure it was just recolours? Glad you got CI to work, you should use it to check any lot you install to make sure you know exactly what cc you are putting into your game and where.

[fataldream]

Okay, its back. And im friggin so annoyed and gutted. It's the same as before, and I cant figure out what it is this time. I downloaded some more CC, used clean installer but nothing unusual is showing up. Now im completely miffed. :blink:

[joandsarah77]

If you find your apartment mail box keeps returning to residential that is I think a glitch and nothing to do with cc. You can check by pulling all your cc and playing the apartment- does the apartment mail box stay or does it sometimes revert to residential?
Is your game patched? I haven't had this problem myself so I don't know if there is a hack to fix this.

[Ghost sdoj]

After you removed the mailboxes, did you clear the caches?

And I agree with joandsarah77. Now it's time to start going through the whole game problem FAQ to see what is going on. http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Game_Problem

[fataldream]

I'm going to go through the whole game help when I have a spare hour. Whats catches, by the way? :)

[Darby]

Cache files are certain temporary files that need to be deleted now and then. The FAQ will explain further.