Fixing/Recovering Saved Game - Saved Game Not in Game Launcher or Corrupted

[Saltypaws]

The file is still in the folder, one was the corrupt one, but I remember you or Carl saying that there is an X before the most recent save, I didn't see one in there but the game is still there, like I said I tried everything to get it back, so I am assuming it is just pointless right now.  I love all of the info this site gives and appreciate all of the support, right now I am so bummed about this whole thing and I do save frequently, I learned the hard way on that one.

[Saltypaws]

I did get my game back, thanks to the advice in the forum, but, I do however have another question........the formula for getting your game back worked, ie....WHATEVERITWAS.sims3, but, if you happen to lose another game, you cannot name it the same, nor can you add anything to that extension........so then what do you do?  Hopefully will not lose anymore, will take the advice and tone down some graphics and limit my gameplay to a couple of hours at a time, I am guilty of playing for hours, leaving it on pause or whatever, so will try and do things different, do not want to lose another game.  By the way, that also worked for my sister, bshag, which lost a game a few months ago, so she was happy to get it back.  Thanks guys for posting such wonderful information and hopefully we can keep playing his game for a long time.

[Pam]

Saltypaws -

I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly.  But, something I do sometimes is I do a "Save As" of my game and just add the number 2 to the name of the game file.  Like, I'll have "Argos Family" and "Argos Family 2" as two separate game files.  You could alternate between saving your game under each name and then you'll always have two of that game available to recover, if needed.  It wouldn't necessarily be completely up to date, but it would be considerably better than losing the entire game.

[Saltypaws]

Duh, thanks, I should have known that one, I think I had a senior moment there.....I know so many have lost games on here, it makes one wonder what the future expansions are going to have in them and what impact it will have on our games already on there, hopefully they will not cause any problems.  It is great to be able to come here and get answers and if someone doesn't know something, they will find out for you.  Again, thanks.

[bshag]

Hi all...just wanted to chime in here and say a big thanks.  I have not been able to play Bella since the end of September and when the game came back, all was intact.  After Salty interpreted instructions, as in "see that box there?  click it!"   I am a real noob when it comes to following computer instructions. 

I wil try to save each game with a "save as" cause I just don't want to lose any more games.   Good advice, thanks Pam.

[certain]

In my Saves folder I have three objects: two folders, one named xxx.sims3 and the other xxx.sims3.backup...the other file is called xxx.sims3.legacy...So that's obviously not normal for those two to be folders and not regular files. 

In those two folders are five files:

1a5tf1l3.dat
Sunset Valley_0x0859dp3c.nhd
TravelDB.package
Meta.data
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3cExportDB.package

So what do I do?  I desperately need to recover my neighborhood for I have readers who depend on updated chapters.

There's also a folder in the Sims3 folder called CurrentGame.sims3.  Do I need to copy and paste something in there because it's absolutely empty?

I appreciate any replies.

[Pam]

Hi Certain and welcome to our Forum.

I don't know why you would have a file named .legacy, but to recover your corrupted game with the previous save, you just need to follow the instructions in the first post on this thread.  What you are calling a "folder" is actually the file you need to back up and change the name.

[PJSim]

What you are calling a "folder" is actually the file you need to back up and change the name.

No, it is actually a folder now. The game saves things differently than when Carl wrote this, it changed with WA I think. It saves folders instead of single files.

So what do I do?

Rename the folder xxx.sims3.backup to xxx.sims3 the way Carl describes and it should work. The instructions are still good, just replace the word "file" with "folder" basically.

I have no idea how there could be a folder called .legacy. Are you sure you didn't name it that yourself?

There's also a folder in the Sims3 folder called CurrentGame.sims3.  Do I need to copy and paste something in there because it's absolutely empty?

No, I think you should just ignore that one. I think the game just uses that for temporary storage while you're playing.

[Pam]

Thanks for the info, PJ.  I'll update Carl's post.

[Swede1992]

It changed from one file to a folder with WA since it needed one save file for each destination linked to your game and it stored it conveniently in a folder afterwards. Effectively, the folder functions just as the former file did, just ignore the stuff in the folder; if you tamper with those, you can break your game.