Sims 3 Tech Support: How To Back Up Sims 3 Files

Back when I was playing The Sims (the first one), it never occurred to me to see if there was a way to back up my files. If I encountered a major problem with the game, I had to try and work around it as best I could. If I couldn't work around it, then I had to completely uninstall and reinstall the game.

The third time I did this was the last time I played The Sims. Every time you uninstall the game, you lose all of your gameplay history. I had a Sim (Bob Newbie) who was over 100 days old, which was a lot back then. And when I reinstalled the game, he was right back to being 1 day old! I couldn't take it, and I quit playing.

Don't let this happen to you!

You do not have to uninstall the entire game if you have a problem. Instead, you can create backups. These are a sort of snapshot of your game on that day. Then if you have a problem, you can restore from that backup, and basically travel back in time to that day. Losing a month or two of gameplay is a lot better than losing all of it, right?!

I'm sorry these are Windows-only instructions. I don't have a Mac, so I don't know the exact steps! But the overall concept is the same.

How To Back Up Your Files

1.   Create a folder to store your backups: Right-click on your desktop and choose New -> Folder. Name this folder "Sims 3 Backups".

2.   Go to your game files: Click the Start (bottom left) button, then click Documents. Double-click to open the "Electronic Arts" folder.

3.   Right-click on the folder name "The Sims 3" and choose "Copy."

4.   Go to your Desktop. Double-click to open your "Sims 3 Backups" folder. Right-click in the middle and choose "Paste."

It will take a little while for all that gameplay stuff to be copied over! Even on a fast computer, this can take several minutes.

How To Restore From Backup

1.   Go to your Desktop. Double-click to open your "Sims 3 Backups" folder. Right-click on the "The Sims 3" folder and choose "Rename." Rename this folder to "Sims 3 - Old."

2.   Go through the steps above to back up your files. This way if something goes wrong, you can always put back the broken files!

3.   Double-click to open your "Sims 3 - Old" folder. Hit Ctrl-A to select all, then Ctrl-C to copy all.

4.   Go to your game files: Click the Start (bottom left) button, then click Documents. Double-click to open the "Electronic Arts" folder, then double-click to open the "The Sims 3" folder.

5.   Hit Ctrl-V to paste in your old files. When it asks you if you want to overwrite files, tick the box for "Do this for all current items" and click Yes. (On Vista, tick the box that says "Do this for the next N conflicts" and click the first option, "Copy and Replace.")

It will take a few minutes to copy everything back. Once you have copied your old files into your Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder, you will have "reset the clock back" to the time you took your backup.

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backups to earlier patches

I can't thank you enough for this information. I was at my witts end with the last EA patch, nothing worked right and I had just gotten my game to work exceptably well after the previous patch.

So meny kudos to you all on this site! And my most hartfelt thanks.

Backing up SIms 3 game data

Totally appreciate this tip. Purchased new computer, and would hate to have to start over my gameplay. Been playing Sims 3 on old computer since it debuted. Sure hope this works, because backing up Sims 2 was easy but I could never get it restored so I quit playing. Bummber, too, because I had all the add-on packages & ALL the teens went to & graduated from college & were successful!

Thanks again!

Thank you!!!

I am re-installing Sims on my comp. This was SO easy, thank you!

Question

so how do i open my saved sims (i have a 5-star celebrity). My store content does work so i have to uninstall the game again, the unitstall that erases EVERYTHING. It doesnt matter if i dont have friends, or my career (i have cheats to do that). I wanted to back up my characters. I could do it on the exchange too, but the town wont be the same considering i have late night. Matthew Hamming has to move out and blah, blah, blah, blah... the point is i want to open my saved sims. And use backups to reload my friends, celebrity levels, and my job and house. Basically i wat to open the save i last put on.... Thanks if you can answer me. (Or maybe my uncle just can help me, Computer Wiz)

Depends on how you have saved them!

As a general rule, the easiest way to save/restore your Sims is to use the Family Bin. Go to Edit Town, click on your Sim's household, and then click... I think it's "save a copy"?

Then when you restore your game from backup, you can go to Edit Town, click the family, and click to place them in your town. (This is also the best way to move your Sim to a new town - when you save a copy of your Sim, it's available in the Edit Town of any other town/world.)

But it sounds like in your case, you have to completely uninstall your game and start fresh, and you JUST need to back up your Sim so that you can drop them into your new game. In that case, you are right - doing this through the Exchange is the way to go.

It's okay if you don't have the same expansion packs when you download your Sim again. The only thing that will happen is some of their stuff might get replaced with a random default item. Your Sim themselves will still be the same, that's the important thing!

Sims 3 Launcher error

Will this backup & reinstallation work if my launcher isn't working? everytime i click on the sims 3 launcher it says it has stopped working.

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