Store worlds from here don't appear in the launcher.

Hi all,

I've been busy trying quite a few things to get my worlds back and nothing works.  I tried to download Riverview and Aurora Skies from this site and they show as downloading and installing fine but don't show up in the drop down menu when I start a new game.  Any ideas or reasons why?  Thanks for any help at all

Do you see other worlds or just none at all ?
If none, reinstall Into the Future.

Well to make a long story short my other worlds that came with the game and/or ep's are there but worlds like Riverview, Aurora Skies and Midnight Hollow are not even though they were awhile back. Riverview was free of course and I had saved games with this world that are not playable now.  Midnight Hollow and Aurora Skies were gifted to me.   They seem to have mysteriously disappeared from the drop down menu.  So I tried to at least get back Riverview and Aurora Skies by downloading from here.  Still nothing.  So all I have in my drop down menu are Apaloosa Plains, Birdgeport, Moonlight Falls, Starlight Shores, Sunset Valley and Twinbrook in that order.

Hi there,

Can you tell us what your current game version is exactly? (It shows your version in the lower-left corner of the Game Launcher screen, and starts with 1.xx)

Hi, 
Its 1.67 and actually to be honest I'm afraid to update to 1.69 because I have purchased expansion packs and pirated expansions mixed together.  The Sims 3 base game was purchased from amazon 3 yrs ago, nothing from origin though.

Hi Edin, Unbelievably, I just tried what you said - I moved the sims 3 folder to desktop started over fresh, downloaded Riverview and it still did not show as installed in the drop down menu.  I even went to my download dashboard and checked that and the world showed as installed.  Something must be wrong either with Riverview or the sims 3 store I'm totally stumped.  What do  you think?? Should I try with Aurora Skies now, that was gifted to me.

Well, try Aurora Skies and check back. This is really weird issue.

ok, so do the same thing, move the sims 3 folder to desktop and then trying installing the decrapified ones? i will try that right now, i have a link to the worlds from tarac. Thanks

ok i just tried Riverview after moving the sims 3 folder to desktop and nothing.  Its not in drop down menu.  I have yet to try the other decrapified worlds though, not sure if its just a Riverview issue or what

Darstan64 wrote:ok i just tried Riverview after moving the sims 3 folder to desktop and nothing.  Its not in drop down menu.  I have yet to try the other decrapified worlds though, not sure if its just a Riverview issue or what

You see...all these problems with the neighborhood installations are all too common unfortunately. I was now thinking of this: why not rename the folder "The Sims 3" under Documents\Electronic Arts. Then start the game, and exit again.

Now I was thinking of installing the worlds as usual, on my own system (I can't recall ever having any problems on that end). Upon the successful installation, there will be a bunch of files in the DCCache subfolder. And a few in the Installed Worlds too. 

Now, what if I upload those two folders (or at least the files in them) and people put the stuff onto their own systems ? Meaning, people should have the worlds, without going through the actual launcher installation. In my mind that should work theoretically, though I have to admit I myself never tried that in practice.  I may be totally wrong here, so feel free to correct me (anybody) if that is the case. Unfortunately though, I won't have much time in the coming days. Maybe I can manage to do something on the weekend.

I might take all of that into account, when compiling "my" own store compilation of TS3, that will - hopefully in the near future - also be provided in a torrent-format, on G4TW here. But we'll see. Originally I was planning to leave the worlds as .sims3packs, but due to all these issues I might reconsider.

That makes a lot of sense and sounds great.  I wish the worlds would be in package files and not sims 3 packs.  I can't put sims 3 packs on my computer at all, they just don't work.  All my mods and cc are in package files and they are perfect.  I mean I have downloaded worlds from the sims 3 store in the past with no problem.  I had Riverview, I had Aurora Skies Gold, I had Midnight Hollow, now they are gone.  I have no idea how they mysteriously disappeared from the main menu.  So sims 3 packs worked in the past for me and now don't.  How is that possible?  What could have happened from then till now?  The only thing I can think of is that the sims 3 launcher is seriously jacked up.  I thank you all for your help and will keep checking back here to see if someone comes up with something, anything lol.  Btw I did try 2 more decrapified worlds just to see if it would work (Aurora Skies and FinCastle) and nothing.  Thanks again and I'll keep checking and keep you posted if anything changes on my end.

Darstan64 wrote:That makes a lot of sense and sounds great.  I wish the worlds would be in package files and not sims 3 packs.  I can't put sims 3 packs on my computer at all, they just don't work.  All my mods and cc are in package files and they are perfect.  I mean I have downloaded worlds from the sims 3 store in the past with no problem.  I had Riverview, I had Aurora Skies Gold, I had Midnight Hollow, now they are gone.  I have no idea how they mysteriously disappeared from the main menu.  So sims 3 packs worked in the past for me and now don't.  How is that possible?  What could have happened from then till now?  The only thing I can think of is that the sims 3 launcher is seriously jacked up.  I thank you all for your help and will keep checking back here to see if someone comes up with something, anything lol.  Btw I did try 2 more decrapified worlds just to see if it would work (Aurora Skies and FinCastle) and nothing.  Thanks again and I'll keep checking and keep you posted if anything changes on my end.

I squeeted in the time, and came up with this:
http://goo.gl/8Zo5mG

Extract with WinRAR, and put the two folders into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3. Choose "merge folders" when prompted. A word of warning for now: 




I suggest you rename these files highlighted in my screenshot, once you "imported" my download above. These are the ones from the DCCache folder. Thing is, if you already installed .sims3pack files before, there will already be files with these specific names. And if you simply import my stuff and just replace the existing files it's going to mess with your existing/already installed .sims3pack files. I personally don't think renaming those files hurts, but make sure not to tamper with the actual .dbc file ending. And preferably, do rename those files BEFORE you import them into your Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder.

The Installed Worlds-subfolder can be imported right away, and in its entirety.

Feel free to post back about your progress here. Good luck for now.



P.S. The other two files from the screenshot (missingdeps.idx & dcc.ent) shouldn't be necessary to import.

Thank you so much for going through all that, as soon as I have some time after work I will try that and post back.

Hi, I set up the megasync but not sure what 2 folders i'm putting into the sims 3 folder. How exactly do i import what you sent me to my sims 3 folder.  I know how to rename the .dbc folder already.  Thank you.

Another question and I know you're busy and this is no rush but aren't .dbc files custom content and .ebc files EA's store content and worlds.  I have a lot of cc and mods.  I don't want to mess any of that up and I just want to make sure I do everything correctly and in the right order.  Thank you again!

To take back everything to old state if you mess up, backup, right click on The Sims 3 Documents folder located at Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3. To backup, right click on The Sims 3 folder and select Copy, then go to Desktop and select Paste. Now you can safely do as the_gh0stm4n instructed.

Darstan64 wrote:Another question and I know you're busy and this is no rush but aren't .dbc files custom content and .ebc files EA's store content and worlds.

Not this time around, at least.

About the 'instructions', just rename the 3 files I highlighted in my screenshot before. After renaming them, you simply copy/paste them into your own folder. Namely: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCCache.

The files inside my Installed Worlds-folder need to be processed similarly. You copy & paste them into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Installed Worlds. When prompted, please choose to replace the files in the destination.

Then test your game. I'm really curious if this works. One possible problem that can arise is if people have already installed some of the worlds, and then apply this "package" of mine. But I doubt it will really mess up anything.

I'm sorry to say it didn't work.  I did exactly as you said.  Is there any other place the worlds would be hiding besides the main menu?  Also in my installed worlds folder before I put your files in I only had one world in there, aurora skies.  Not sure if that means anything.  I want to thank you so much for all your time and help.  If there's anything else you need to know or anything else at all that you can think of please let me know and again I thank you! And thank you also Simmer Tony I did back up my whole game to my desktop.  Thanks for your advice

Darstan64 wrote:I'm sorry to say it didn't work.  I did exactly as you said.  Is there any other place the worlds would be hiding besides the main menu?  Also in my installed worlds folder before I put your files in I only had one world in there, aurora skies.  Not sure if that means anything.  I want to thank you so much for all your time and help.  If there's anything else you need to know or anything else at all that you can think of please let me know and again I thank you! And thank you also Simmer Tony I did back up my whole game to my desktop.  Thanks for your advice

You are right. The way I described it above doesn't work. I briefly tested the game again, and to my surprise renaming those files in the DCCache was a mistake. Because once you rename those files, the game won't recognize them anymore. You really have to leave the filenames as dcdb0.dbc, dcdb1.dbc, dcdb2.dbc, and so forth. Which was something I did not know.

Now...you can rename those 3 files from the DCCache as they were before (see my screenshot above for the exact filernames). The problem with that is now...if you already installed .sims3pack files in the past before, there will already be files with these names. Now you could look at your own DCCache-folder and look at the numbers of each file. Look at the last item, what is the number of it, in the filename ? It may be worth a try to add my files, but modify their filenames so that they fit into your own DCCache folder.

Example: if the "last number" of your DCCache-items is a file named dcdb6.dbc, then you could maybe try to name the dcdb0-one from my files, into dcdb7.dbc. It sounds difficult, but maybe you get the idea. I personally think this is a very long shot though.

It is an interesting experience though, that will have some influence on "my" own store torrent. As for your case, if you want to go through the hassle, you can add the files from the download above (with their original filenames), and then re-install any other .sims3pack files afresh, and on top of them. That is a lot of hassle indeed, but as of now, I can't think of anything else.

It may not concern you, but a long time ago I wrote this here:
https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t16882-the-sims-3-launcher-problems-notice

Maybe you can try running your launcher as Administrator, and re-install your .sims3pack worlds 'normally'.

Hi and thank you I tried to rename the file again the way you said but nothing works.  It was interesting to try though but I googled how to run the game as administrator and I couldn't really find anything for mac.   Since  I have my game backed up completely to the desktop what about if I try to run a "vanilla" game, is that what it's called with no mods, cc or saved games and start a new save and actually update to 1.69 when they ask me and then trying to install the worlds that way.  I really only wanted Riverview and Aurora Skies.  I had Midnight Hollow but it was so damn dark that I never really played in that world.  Should I try that?

Darstan64 wrote:It was interesting to try though but I googled how to run the game as administrator and I couldn't really find anything for mac.

//MOVED


I moved your post to the "Mac Support" section.   Sorry to hear it's still not working for you. It might as well be a Mac-related issue, but at that point I can't really help any further, because I have no (meaningful) Mac knowledge...

Thank you so much!  You were a great help and I happen to enjoy trying different things just to see whats going on.  I appreciate the time you put into it.  Theres so many different things it can be, it might be because I never updated to 1.69, it might be mixing legit and cracked expansions, I might have a corrupt ccmerged file or a corrupt file somewhere thats not making the game not recognize the store worlds as installed. At least I have a smooth running game, my mods and cc are all good as long as I use package files.  Whatever saved games I did have in Riverview or Aurora Skies weren't that important anyway, its just the content I wanted that came with it, like the baby walker and swing which I don't have anymore but maybe they have some ideas for me in the mac support section.  Once again I thank you!  You all are a great team here!

Darstan64 wrote:(...) it might be because I never updated to 1.69.

Most of us are still on patch level 1.67, and are using the worlds just fine. If you have access to a capable Windows-computer, you could try re-installing TS3 on it. Or try installing a Windows-partition on your Mac computer.