Hi,
This is for everyone who has experianced the "Empty Package" problem with CleanInstaller. This problem occurs when you try to clean a lot up and hit the "save as" button. You end up with a whole list of "empty package" items. I have been having this problem and after days of frustration I figured this out and I wanted to share this info with you who have been running into this problem too.

Ok this is what you do:
You go to the folders you used objects/walls/floors/etc. from. And you search for letters in the file names like this: ö ü é ï ô all these kind of letters causes empty packages in CleanInstaller and not for only the files with these letters but for everything. You have to go to the folder where the files you used are like C:\Documents and Settings\your name\My documents\EA Games\De Sims 2\Downloads\... Because in Cleaninstaller you cannot see the original filename. After you've got out all those letters and replaced them with normal letters o u e i you will experiance no empty package problem anymore. Offcourse you have to repackage your lot now with the files that have no lettermarks anymore.

Good luck!!!

Thanks for the information! I hope other people will test this out too.

Is that what caused it!?!
Who would have thought? I mean... i noticed that 'cause of some files everything was emptied but i couldn't pinpoint the files (didn't wanna-too lazy) and now it seems i, we all, have to be careful with these fonts and check the package we dl, well those of us that clean lots for upload that is



For me it's been weeks of hair loss and excessive weight gain... I hope you're right about this, i'll test it now. 10x for sharing your findings with the community, i'm sure thousands od ppl had and have this prob. Let's hope this is the solution for everyone.

It is not only the cause of empty packages, it cause also uninstallable lots, the sim2export remain in the teleport folder and the lot dont apperar in the lot bin.
If you know the creator, may be isit friendly to inform him of the problem and of the fact you must rename the package to share it ?

I have no problem with that - telling creators to stear clear of non-english fonts and letters if they post their email or if they have an inbox at forums. But i bet it would be more practical to point out this error to the CleanPackInstaller devs so they can fix the bug in the upcoming versions.

Of course lord ! but the problem exists since months ant it is not really fixed !
It is not only the non-english fonts or characters but with all characters like & or @ I have problems!

Lord_Morgan,
LOL I don't think I could have survived weeks.


Patul,
I think it is very well possible those characters are also causing problems. so to be on the save side I'd be searching those too. Another tip for you is to give those lettermarks a go in the search function of your Window version, XP has a search function and you can search for lettermarks in your downloadfolder, I know cause I did it that way to get them all out. Good luck. Glad to be of help.

the % symbol too...

Thanks for the heads up. I do have international 'spelling' content. I hope that fixes it! I'll get back to you. I've had a heck of a time packing some lots.

Part of the problem is that creators who make things and give them name and proper spelling (from their own languages) don't like to change the spellings to English standard because then the word means something entirely different. I've had problems with the Natrobo dolls ` ' diacritical marks and the spanish ~ over N's and the umlats.

OH MY GOD I COULD KISS YOU!!!!!! youve found the problem! i was putting by h◙ in my saved files, i took it out and it worked! thank you, youre a genius!

Im still having problems with this. I have gone through my files and cant find anything weird. I can get my game to boot up until it tries to load a neighborhood then it crashes. Im getting frustrated and feel like reinstalling. I really dont want to but..Unless someone else has any suggestions..

Thanks

No more "empty package" problem
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When repackaging, only empty files appear
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Thank you for the information; I've been going nuts these past few days trying to figure this out!!!

Thanks for the information, although I am not looking forward to going through all my downloads. If it fixes the issue, though, it will well be worth the time saved cleaning up my lots manually. I don't want to think about the wasted hours this past weekend trying to get a house ready for upload.

I had no idea!... wow..I've cleaned out downloads, backed up and reinstalled several times and I'll bet now that it was because of naming glitches..... time to clean files again.....

I didn't have any funny characters like that in my filenames, and I still have the problem, but so far only if I delete the sims from the lot.

Huggs and smooches for this! I made several homes and only one keeps doing this. It was driving me batty!! 1,000,000 thank yous!

I've been having this problem too, but it hasn't been because of non-English characters. I package my sim to a file, but somehow it ends up with a skeletal file. Then whether I remove that or not and re-save, I get the empty package files. It's only when I remove all the CC and leave only the sim itself that it actually works. Anyone have an idea why?

Just my opinion Endersgirl..try renaming the oddly named files and in your Downloads Folder, delete the uploading files from your Teleport Folder, THEN load ONLY the Sim. Then, enter the game and repackage the files. Then try to load the newly packaged files. I know it's a pain. I tried to find shortcuts with lots and it didn't work. I had to load the files, go into the Downloads Folder and rename the odd-character files, delete the files from the Teleport Folder that I loaded, then reload ONLY the lot (because the renamed files were already in the Downloads Folder) and the lot showed. I repacked it and checked it out. It worked.

Thank You very very very much! This advice solved my problem! There were several files with ''&'' sign in names, also one file with deutsch specific letter. Now I changed the names and my lot is packaged correctly

I am having the same issue. I think that I did change the files from the weird names. Some of them show up in Clean Installer with the odd characters but the actually files in the downloads doesn't have those characters. At least not any that are associated with the lot I am trying to repackage. Has anyone come to any other conclusions?

Edit: I packaged the same exact lot last night with the same exact items. The only difference is that due to some helpful suggestions, I am cutting down on some recolors and extras that do not need to be included. The package worked last night but for some reason is just not working tonight with the same files. I have not downloaded any new items and did in fact change characters after reading this although they were not the issue to begin with. Someone PLEASE help!

Heaven sent what i tried in the first place before i found out about the character problem is this:

First do only the lot, if that gives no problem do half the files of the package, and also the other half. When you encounter the prob split it up in halfs again and again till you find out which file(s) is/are causing it.

It is a frustrating, time consuming really hateful job but worth it if you want to figure out what is causing it, also for the future

Good luck *hugs*

I just wanted to thank the OP for this thread - solved the recent probs I've been happening with empty packages showing - was driving me nuts trying to find a solution!

Thanks!

This makes sense. Sims2Packs use UTF8 encoded XML. If the Clean Installer can't find the object name, it uses the package file name instead. However, the Clean Installer doesn't seem to be doing anything to ensure that the package file name is properly encoded.

[Update:] The newest version of the Clean Installer V1.6.1 has a fix for this problem. Look under my downloads for the latest version, since I haven't got access to the S2PCI website yet.